Part 2

OK! I'm re-energized and ready to go. I'm just going to jump in where I left off...
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Next, we went to feed Lightning, a two week old calf. She was abandoned by her mom, so Liz brought her up to a pen by the house, and she gets a (big) bottle of formula 3 times a day. Kristina and Marti fed her the first time. She's a spunky calf who's really friendly-- very puppy like-- but hopefully she'll calm down a bit so she can stay around as a breeding cow....otherwise it's off to the butcher...

4-wheeling came next. I was the last to get on and learn, because they make me a little (a lot) nervous. But I learned. They use them on the farm to herd the cattle and sheep, and they're really useful for that, so it was part of the whole experience. Benet and Marti herded first while Kristina and I went in the white "ute" (pick-up truck) with Liz and Henry-- Fraser was on the 4-wheeler with his dad. Which made me trust the 4-wheelers more, because if Grant was willing to have his first-born child on one... First, we moved the mom/young calf group-- there are about 20 of them. Dairy Park works on a pasture-rotation system: first the moms/calves get the pasture, then the rest of the cows and the lambs who're being fattened, and then the rest of the sheep a few days after that. This gives the pasture a chance to regrow naturally (no fertilizers needed), which is much more environmentally friendly. There are 55 pastures in all, so they get about 50 days rest before the animals come back through.

Anyways, after moving the momma cows, we moved the sheep. While the truck was by a tree, Kristina and I noticed a calf tucked up against its roots. We pointed it out to Liz, who hopped out to grab it, but it bolted down the hill, so then Grant and Marti got in on the action and we cornered it. Grant pulled it onto the 4-wheeler with him-- it was pretty unhappy about that!-- and we drove it over to where the main cow herd was grazing. What probably happened, Grant explained, is that when the cow had her calf, she left it at that tree to go graze and come back for later (as they sometimes do), but then Grant probably came in and moved the cows before she got the chance to pick up the calf. This would mean the baby was alone for 2 or 3 days, just a handful of hours after it was born (they pull the newborn calves and their moms out every day). When the little calf got to the cows (she's a she, by the way, so if I start saying she, that's who I mean), we turned off all the engines while she bellowed to get her mom's attention...but no mom arrived. Grant said we should leave her for the afternoon, then go back and check later. At that point we went in for morning tea. Life on a farm, it turns out, has a lot to do with eating.

After the "smoke-o" (an old name for the morning break), Kristina took her turn on the 4-wheeler, and then... I did. I didn't really like it, but herding the cows in and of itself was fun, so it worked out.

I can't remember if we fed Lightning or had lunch first, but either way, we all got food. Benet and I fed her this time--which was one of my very favorite things about the farm, along with Henry and Fraser. Lunch time feeding means a harnessed walking lesson from Liz in the hopes she'll settle a bit-- Liz said she's gotten a lot better at walking on lead in the past week, but she still looked pretty stubborn to me!

Grant took Marti, Benet, Kristina, and I for a drive around the high paddocks on the farm in the afternoon, since we'd moved all the animals in the morning. There were some great views, but I had to close my eyes on the drive down-- we were at more than a 45* angle in the truck! Eyes closed wasn't helping, though, because I just kept imagining rolling to my death.... so I tried to just focus on taking some good pictures.

On the way back to the house, we checked on the little calf. Her mom still hadn't come for her-- Grant pinched her ears to make her bellow some more, but it didn't help. So he picked her up, tied her legs, and put her in the back of the truck! When we got back, I went with him to give her her first bottle-- a yellow vitamin drink instead of milk to help fight her dehydration. She drank it all, which was good!

At that point, the others went with Grant to see the sunset, but I stayed with Liz and the boys to go down to the veggie patch, prepare the little cabin in the back for overnight guests (they run a little farm stay bed and breakfast), feed the chickens and collect the eggs! Totally worth it. They came back raving about the sunset, but I've seen sunsets before!

At 7:30 that night we shut off all the lights in the house for "earth hour," a Sydney based environmental protest meant to raise awareness about global warming and reducing carbon emissions. Being out on the farm, I got a sense of the damage global warming is already doing: they've been facing drought for the past seven years, and this year is the worst yet. We ate dinner by candlelight, which confused Henry a bit... he kept asking if the lights were broken.

While the boys got ready for bed, the 4 of us went out to do some star-gazing. It was so clear out there, but the moon was also nearly full, so we couldn't see as many stars as we could have-- but it was still way more than we can see in Sydney! We saw upside-down Orion, which still confuses me, the southern cross, and Scorpio. It was chilly, though, so we didn't last too long. I was also antsy because I knew Liz would be feeding Lightning soon... we made it up there right as she was fixing the bottle, so I went with her and fed Lightning again. We talked about the calf a little bit, and Liz said she thought she'd name it becky!

Afterwards, we all piled in the truck again to go Kangaroo spotting. We saw a few, and also a fox (introduced by settlers for hunting) and a hare (also introduced for hunting). We were wiped out when we got back-- farming takes a lot out of you! So, we all went to bed, ready for another full morning ahead.

We woke up at 7:30 again and had "brekkie" at 8. I let the others feed the calves because I'd done it so many times, and anyways, while they tried to get becky to take her bottle of milk (she only drank half, and looked pretty shabby when we first got there-- I was worried she'd died, but she lifted her head when we got to the fence), Lightning sucked on my finger, which was equally amusing. She has so much personality for a cow! Who knew. Anyways, Liz and Grant said becky probably got cold overnight, so they moved her to the garden to get some sun.

When we went to move the cattle and sheep, I rode on the back of Marti's 4-wheeler, which was way more fun than driving it myself! We saw two newborn calves-- one a few hours old and on just about 30 minutes old.... it was still covered in yellow goo, which was a little ick, but once you got passed that it was pretty cute! :) It was having a hard time keeping up with it's mom, who was trying to keep up with the herd going into the next pasture. Eventually, we headed her off, so she went back and stayed with the baby.

After a bit more herding, it was time to head back to the house. Benet was covered in cow poo (Kristina wasn't as good a driver as Marti), so he cleaned off, and I went down to the garden with Liz to check on becky-- she was still alive, but wouldn't stand up or drink any more of her bottle. We rubbed her a bit and turned her over onto her other side. Liz said there was still a chance she'd make it, but it didn't look good to me. She was a sweet heart, that's for sure!

At 11 it was time for last minute pictures and saying goodbye! Liz drove us to Bathurst where we got on the bus. We got back to UniLodge, where we live, at about 4:30 pm. It was a fantastic and unforgettable weekend.

Now, it's just a normal week. I leave Saturday for "Spring" Break (it's autumn here-- they don't even call it fall, because nothing falls). The one different thing about this week is that it's Passover-- I bought supplies at the grocery store yesterday: gefilte fish, imported from Brooklyn, NY, and Matzah, imported from Newark, NJ. There are just over 100,000 Jews in all of Australia, out of a total population of 20,000,000! No wonder I had to go to 2 grocery stores-- Oy Vey!