It's been a good week

So it's been a week since I last posted because I don't have wifi at the farm I'm staying on. I could not be happier though. Marg and Rob are the nicest people. They don't let me go to work without a good breakfast and a cup of tea. Work on the farm has been really interesting. My first day out Rob took me on his ATV up to the pastures and shifted the sheep from from one lot to another. I thought it was incredible how man figured out how to work with dogs to herd the sheep and cattle. He uses a whistle to signal the dogs and tell them what to do.
Besides sheep and cattle they have chooks, ducks, 2 piglets, a dog " Zugar" pronounced "zooga," and two cats.
The other day rob had me help him tag his cattle. It was not a fun thing to watch. Basically he punches a hole in the cow's ears and tags them with numbers. In order to do this you have to herd the cattle into a long narrow corridor so they are squeezed in single file. Then one by one we tagged them. I'm pretty sure the cows where scared because they where all pissing and shitting. One cow tripped up and got lodged sideways in the corridor and couldn't get up. That was sad to see because Rob had to make all the cattle walk over him.
A couple day before we drenched lambs and cleaned up the U's rears.
There is another workawayer working at the farm as well. Her name is Clair and told me that a week before I arrived Rob took her up to tail the lambs. First of all I never knew sheep had tails. They look so weird with tail. Tailing means taking a hot iron and burning off the lambs tail. "Lovely"
Any way life on the farm is swell. I am having a very good time.
This Friday I am going to stay on a different farm in Hawks Bay which is supposed to be very beautiful. This is an organic farm and most of the work will be apple thinning, but the owners Clare and Erin are interested in maybe having me build them an earth oven with the other volunteers. That's exciting. I really enjoy see other people interested in this stuff.
They will host me for at least two weeks and maybe through Christmas.
This is how I plan to work my way down the east coast of both the north and south island and then back up on the west coasts.
Everything here is going great. I met some awesome people in the hostel I stayed at in Auckland and I hope I can maintain those friendships through Facebook. There are tons of Germans here. Most of the people I met are German and they all wanted to marry me to get my name "Zonnenschein."
I'm not sure if this next farm has wifi so I don't know when I'll be able topmost again. Sorry for the long wait.
Health and wealth to everyone
Yuval


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