Day 3 - Shamrockvale

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