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Kerry

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    • Simon and BlakeAround the World
      Day 202

      Day 6 - Shamrockvale

      October 21, 2017 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

      It's the weekend so we had a bit of a lie in this morning. Even though it's the weekend, our boys still need us so we headed down to feed them. Marius kindly sorted the chooks out for us. Tyson is getting really big and is always eagerly waiting for his breakfast. Nugget however isn't doing too good. He was really week on his legs and we could barely get half a litre of milk down him (he's meant to drink 2). Chris is going to give him some medicine so hopefully that perks him up, poor little guy.

      The weather was pretty rubbish with rain forecast all day so we took advantage and had a lazy day. Simon is starting to feel sick now too so we just watched some TV and read our books (Simon has now finished Harry Potter). In the afternoon we popped into Beaudesert to get our groceries for the week and then resumed our chilling position on the sofa.

      Marius kindly surprised us with a Romanian dinner of pork and polenta topped with cheese and sour cream, followed by a meringue and custard style dessert. In return I introduced Marius to English tea.      Read more

    • Simon and BlakeAround the World
      Day 201

      Day 5 - Shamrockvale

      October 20, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      It's Friday yay! The first time we have had the Friday feeling in a while. Farm life has completely taken it out of me and I am now sick - boo! After a solid 10 hours sleep last night though I am feeling slightly better.

      Looking after calves is like having children, when they don't eat you worry about them all day. Nugget didn't eat much last night and wouldn't really eat anything this morning. He also sounds a bit like he has a cold. Poor little sausage! After attempting to feed Nugget and Tyson finishing off his and Nuggets breakfast, Simon and I headed over to the silos were Chris was filling us up a trailer full of grain for the cows. After helping Nick yesterday morning, I was now fully qualified to be let loose on my own with Simon as my official gate opener. We did miss one lot of troughs and have to go back for them but other than that I managed to remember the route through the various fields so no one went hungry.

      After smoko, Simon got to drive a tractor around with Nick delivering hay bales to all the fields, whilst I was up at the yard with Chris helping with the sick cows again. In the afternoon, I was back in with Marius helping make the frames for the beehives and Simon was let loose with the petrol strimmer strapped too him to tidy up the previous days mowing.

      Today is Sonja's last day on the farm so we invited Marius round for dinner and cooked up a curry. Marius also introduced us to bee pollen and has given us a bag to put on our porridge in the mornings that he collected from the hives. Apparently it is incredibly good for you and has more protein than steak. It's collected by a special device that knocks the pollen off the bees legs when they enter the hive and then freeze dried.      Read more

    • Simon and BlakeAround the World
      Day 200

      Day 4 - Shamrockvale

      October 19, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      Today I got to go help Chris up at the yard taking temperatures and doing meds for the first time whilst Simon got let loose on a ride on mower. Before I helped up at the yard though I helped Nick feed some of the cows. We continued with the cows and mowing after lunch as well. My afternoon helping with the meds was a little more eventful though. Sadly a cow came in with a dead calf inside her which Chris and Nick had to pull out. The poor cow looked so sad and in so much pain she didn't even put up a fight. Chris warned me it would be gruesome and gave me the opportunity to leave if I wanted to. Farming isn't all sunshine and rainbows though so I decided to stay. It was hard to watch and the smell was horrendous. Chris certainly has a strong stomach. Poor mummy cow.Read more

    • Simon and BlakeAround the World
      Day 199

      Day 3 - Shamrockvale

      October 18, 2017 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 22 °C

      So day two of work and morning wake up was still a struggle. I even moved back to coffee this morning for a little extra boost.

      I was asked to head straight up to the cattle yard this morning to help with the sick cows again whilst the girls tended to the chooks / calves and helped Marius on bee duty again. Up at the cattle yard we had to herd the cows into the smaller pens. We then had to separate roughly 8 into a small holding pen before the 'crusher'. The crusher allows for one cow at a time to be examined and given some meds without the worry of us getting kicked or run over. We first took their temperatures with the worlds smallest thermometer up the back end. Luckily I was tasked with writing down the results as I didn't fancy fishing the thermometer out if I'd some how let it go or getting knuckles deep in cow poo! That took us up to morning break around 9am.

      After a nice cuppa we then helped Marius with honey extraction. Sonja and Marius had collected full frames from the hives that morning so me and Blake had to somehow get the honey out. First we had a tool to remove the top layer of beeswax to release the honey. This was an Afro comb type device which you slid under and lifted it off with. Next we put them into a centrifuge which spins around spraying the honey to the edges of the drum. This sinks to the bottom and is collected in a bucket. All very simple but we had a LOT of frames to extract. We also had a slight mishap with the first bucket as when I lifted it to put it in the big tank the handle snapped and the bucket landed upside down. OOPS! The job saw us up to lunch and then again after until the day was finished. Our favourite part of the job was chewing on some of the beeswax. All of the honey melts in your mouth and then you spit out the wax. Apparently it's very good for you!

      In the evening I made a nice chilli and we watched Adam Sandlers 'Don't mess with the Zohan' which is a ridiculous yet hilarious movie!      Read more

    • Simon and BlakeAround the World
      Day 198

      Day 2 - Shamrockvale

      October 17, 2017 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

      Today was our first day of work in over 6 months and with the alarm going off at 6am it was a bit of a shock to the system. After a cup of tea and some porridge we headed out for our first job of the day, letting out the chooks and giving them some fresh water and some feed. We then headed over to feed Nugget and Tyson, the orphaned calves as we are now their new mums for the next 2 weeks. They are very cute so I'm pretty sure this is going to end up being my favourite part of the day. They didn't have much else for us to do before smoko so we were tasked with cleaning out one of the vans and the wwoofers car.

      After smoko, our morning break, the 3 of us headed up to the yard to help Nick move some young cows which had now been separated from their mummy's. The girls needed to go into one field and the boys into another so we took them down separately. Sonja and I were in what they call the Mule which is basically a quad bike pick up and goes really slowly and Simon was in Chris's ute. Simon was in charge of blocking off roads so they didn't go the wrong way and Sonja and I were there to round them up and keep them moving. We had to do it really slowly though as you don't want them to start running. It took a while to get them across into their new paddocks but for first timers I think we did pretty well.

      After lunch Simon went back up to the yard to help Nick with the cattle. Quite a few of them are sick at the moment so they have to regularly take their temperatures and give them medicine if they need it. I stayed down on the homestead to help Marios, the beekeeper, make some new beehives.

      We get to finish work at 3pm however Tyson and Nugget need feeding again around 5pm so we have to do that. Our final job of the day is tucking in the chooks however we have to wait until it gets dark to give them all time to come home after their day roaming the farm.

      The farm is not to far from my Auntie Tricia and Shane's house, so they came to pick us up and take us out for a yummy fish and chips dinner in Beaudesert which was lovely.      Read more

    • Johannes BüchlAuszeit bei den Aussies
      Day 36

      Plötzlich war da eine Schlange...

      October 6, 2016 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

      Und damit hätte ich diesen Australien-Klassiker dann auch zum ersten Mal erlebt: beim Heimfahren vom Feld in Richtung Haupthaus ringelt plötzlich eine Schlange quer über den Weg.

      Genauer gesagt war es eine gepunktete Bronzenatter, hier besser bekannt als Green Tree Snake. Grün ist sie oben, der Bauch eher gelb, ich fand sie echt sehr schön (wobei mir überhaupt das Konzept Schlange gefällt, zum Beispiel diese clevere Art der Fortbewegung). Und vor allem ist sie ein echtes Einsteiger-Exemplar, da kein bisschen giftig :) Wenn ihr mehr wissen wollt: http://www.lexikon-schlangen.de/schlangenarten/…Read more

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    • Johannes BüchlAuszeit bei den Aussies
      Day 34

      Zum 1-monatigen: typische Aussie-Arbeit

      October 4, 2016 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

      Genau einen Monat ist es jetzt her, dass ich meinen Fuß auf australischen Boden gesetzt haben und kurz darauf dann auch die Zollschranke passieren durfte (trotz verboten vieler Arzneimittel und, oh Wunder, natürlich nicht klinisch reinen Schuhen, höhö). Als hätten sie das hier auf der Farm gewusst, durfte ich nun heute eine extrem typische und zugleich echt schöne Aufgabe erledigen: Kühe treiben!

      Ungefähr 300 der etwa 1.000 Milchviecher hier mussten dafür zunächst von ihren Kälbern getrennt und dann in Fünfergrüppchen durch einen engen Gang geleitet werdenn. Dort gab es einen Aufstrich, der gegen Zecken schützen soll.

      Nun weiß ich immerhin, dass Kühe nicht lila sind, aber sonst war mir vieles unklar, zum Beispiel über den Charakter. "Werden die mich umrennen?", war meine erste Frage an Oli, den hauptberuflichen Cowboy hier (mit dem weißen Hut). Nein, hieß die Antwort, zumindest nicht absichtlich. Lektion gelernt: Sie sind friedfertig und gleichzeitig furchtsam. Letzteres wiederum hat mich dann schon erstaunt. 600 Kilo Leben auf vier Beinen rennt auf mich zu und zieht den großen Kopf ein, weil ich mit einem Plastikstab ein bisschen rumfuchtele.

      Passieren kann natürlich trotzdem immer was. Dank der Tipps von Oli und Chris, wo ich wann zu stehen habe, ging alles glatt Trotzdem war ich nach drei Stunden Kuhlotse einfach richtig müde...
       
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    • Simon and BlakeAround the World
      Day 197

      Shamrockvale

      October 16, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

      The farm where we will be working for the next 2 weeks, situated in the Kerry Valley, is called Shamrockvale. At around 4,000 acres it's pretty huge, the majority of which is dedicated to cattle, in particular wagyu cows. They also grow a range of crops, have an organic beehive business as well as some chickens (or chooks as the Ozzies call them), ducks and peacocks.

      The farm is around a 2 hour bus journey (on 2 buses) south of Brisbane. The bus dropped us off in a town called Beaudesert where Chris, the Farm Manager picked us up and took us to the farm. On the farm we are known as wwoofers which stands for willing workers on organic farms. This farm has separate accommodation for wwoofers which is really nice. Its fairly new by the looks of things with a nice kitchen, table and huge sofa. Separate from this there are 4 bedrooms. There is only one other wwoofer working on the farm at the moment called Sony a so we have managed to get a huge room to ourselves with a double bed! There are also 2 separate toilets and showers which are also pretty nice. I think we are going to like it here.

      Once we had settled in, Chris went over some paperwork with us and then gave us a quick tour. Chris had arranged for Sonja to take us to the supermarket after she finished work so in the meantime we could just chill. On this farm they don't provide us with food and instead give us supermarket gift cards. For our first week we get $100 each for food and then onwards we get $77 each. That is considerably more than we have been spending so it was a very exciting food shop. We also have an oven which you never get in a hostel so for dinner we had smoked cod in a garlic and herb butter, sweet potato wedges and vegetables, delicious. There are a few books here that you can read, the majority of which are in German except for the first Harry Potter book. Simon has suddenly discovered a love for books and by the end of the evening was a third of the way through. This is quite a big deal for him and will be the first fiction book that he will have ever finished. Our working hours are Monday to Friday, 7am - 3pm with an hour for lunch and smoko (what they call the morning tea break) around 9:30am, so once Simon managed to peal himself away from Harry we tucked in early.      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Kerry

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