My application for a scholarship to the Edmund Sanderson Jeff Farm Trust and my references must have been okay, because I've got an interview! It will be at 10am on Thursday, November 4th, at Taratahi. The Salvation Army operate the Trust, so I'll be interviewed for about 20 minutes by two Salvation Army representatives from Wellington and one person from Taratahi. I'll keep posting...
29 October, 2004
21 October, 2004
!!! I had my first flying lesson yesterday !!!
Mum and Dad gave me a birthday gift of $50 for an introductory flying lesson (which left me speechless). I was able to put it into action yesterday! I got to do much more than I expected, including the take-off, which freaked me out a bit - not the take-off, but steering it with my feet (pedal control of front wheel and rudder)! We were in the air for about 30 minutes, during which I was experimenting with the controls and trying to realize that I was actually flying a plane!
The flight was mid-afternoon, but I still hadn't come down to earth when I went to bed. =c)
Unfortunately, I have to save for going to Taratahi next year, so I don't think I'll be continuing the lessons until after then. I feel incredibly blessed. I am doing so many things this year some of which I hadn't even dreamed of a year ago, let alone thought I might actually accomplish!
I'd better come down out of the clouds before long, 'cause tomorrow's pickup for work is at 5:15am. What a life I lead...and love it!
The flight was mid-afternoon, but I still hadn't come down to earth when I went to bed. =c)
Unfortunately, I have to save for going to Taratahi next year, so I don't think I'll be continuing the lessons until after then. I feel incredibly blessed. I am doing so many things this year some of which I hadn't even dreamed of a year ago, let alone thought I might actually accomplish!
I'd better come down out of the clouds before long, 'cause tomorrow's pickup for work is at 5:15am. What a life I lead...and love it!
15 October, 2004
I've been shearing - that is, wool handling - today and yesterday. I arose at 5:30 this morning to be ready for the pickup just after 6:00. I took breakfast and lunch with me, plus smoko snacks, all made the evening before. Today the farmer 'shouted' us fish and chips for lunch, so I didn't need it all.
This was my second day, and I'm getting the hang of it now. I now know what a 'frib' is. It is shorn with the 'belly', and is the part that covers the ribs. The frib is separated from the belly and put in a fadge separate from everything else. It's very easy to see which part is the frib, 'cause it has no nice wool at all. It's all thin, dirty, and stringy. Rather like 2- or 3-inch lengths of a dirty, brown yarn compared to a new sheepskin. Not that the belly all looks like a new sheepskin, either! But the inside couple of inches would if you cut away the rest.
If I didn't have M'tech's SPORT, my thighs would be screaming. I do a lot of crouching, particularly when picking up fleeces from the floor. I was told today that I'm doing very well at picking up fleeces for someone who is only on her second day. That is, the lead shearer told me that one of the girls was astonished that I was only on my second day, because I was picking up the fleeces so well. That made me feel good. :c)
I particularly enjoy picking up bits of information that will be helpful down the track once I'm a shepherd, etc. I'm trying to find out the shearers' perspective of things, so that one day maybe my woolshed will be one that all the shearers remember as one in which they love to work, and my sheep ones they love to shear, and me a farmer with whom it is a pleasure to deal.
This was my second day, and I'm getting the hang of it now. I now know what a 'frib' is. It is shorn with the 'belly', and is the part that covers the ribs. The frib is separated from the belly and put in a fadge separate from everything else. It's very easy to see which part is the frib, 'cause it has no nice wool at all. It's all thin, dirty, and stringy. Rather like 2- or 3-inch lengths of a dirty, brown yarn compared to a new sheepskin. Not that the belly all looks like a new sheepskin, either! But the inside couple of inches would if you cut away the rest.
If I didn't have M'tech's SPORT, my thighs would be screaming. I do a lot of crouching, particularly when picking up fleeces from the floor. I was told today that I'm doing very well at picking up fleeces for someone who is only on her second day. That is, the lead shearer told me that one of the girls was astonished that I was only on my second day, because I was picking up the fleeces so well. That made me feel good. :c)
I particularly enjoy picking up bits of information that will be helpful down the track once I'm a shepherd, etc. I'm trying to find out the shearers' perspective of things, so that one day maybe my woolshed will be one that all the shearers remember as one in which they love to work, and my sheep ones they love to shear, and me a farmer with whom it is a pleasure to deal.
12 October, 2004
Something new
I started learning something new today. I'm about to become a wool handler with a shearing gang, and this morning we had some training. The six or seven other girls have already been out with the gang working - mostly pre-lambing, which I gather has shorter wool - so I was the only one completely new to it. Not only that, but I am at least six years older than all of them, and I'm pretty sure that one or two are only sixteen. Makes me feel old. A foretaste of next year, no doubt.
It will probably take me a full day's work to get my head around the shearing lingo. 'Frib' has me the most puzzled at present. As far as I can make out, it's the dirty bits around the edges that get put by themselves. And the act of removing them from the fleece after it has been laid out on the table is called 'skirting'.
Today's training was actually to prepare the girls for a wool handlers' competition in Gisborne this coming weekend, but it went a long way towards showing me what was what as well. Hopefully I'll be able to see the real thing in action tomorrow before pitching headlong into paid work.
I was quite nervous about it before today, but now I think I'll cope just fine. It certainly looks a lot more interesting than kiwifruit!
It will probably take me a full day's work to get my head around the shearing lingo. 'Frib' has me the most puzzled at present. As far as I can make out, it's the dirty bits around the edges that get put by themselves. And the act of removing them from the fleece after it has been laid out on the table is called 'skirting'.
Today's training was actually to prepare the girls for a wool handlers' competition in Gisborne this coming weekend, but it went a long way towards showing me what was what as well. Hopefully I'll be able to see the real thing in action tomorrow before pitching headlong into paid work.
I was quite nervous about it before today, but now I think I'll cope just fine. It certainly looks a lot more interesting than kiwifruit!
06 October, 2004
Best news of the month
Early in September I received notification that I had been accepted for the one-year Sheep and Beef Agricultural Course at Taratahi Ag. Training Centre down near Masterton! But that's not all. I have been depending on God's leading all the way, and the only way for me to do this course is for God to supply the money. He has certainly been confirming the decisions I have made - and been giving me lessons in faith. There is no way I could raise the funds in four months. God knows I do not want to go into the year of study without knowing that all the fees are taken care of, as well as my personal needs. After receiving the notification of acceptance (which I fully expected unless my Lord really didn't want me going there), I applied to a local Trust for a grant. I am also expecting forms to come from Taratahi this month so that I can apply for two others. Well, on Sunday evening when I arrived home from Wellington, I had a small pile of mail on my desk. One was from the lawyers who run the trust. I tore it open and opened the letter with bated breath. Then let loose a yell of amazement and joy. The trust would pay the tuition fee! That's nearly $3,000 accounted for!!! GOD IS SO GOOD!!! I was mostly confident all along, but now I know without a shadow of a doubt that He will also provide the rest, whether through my work efforts or through other means is His problem. Praise the Lord!! (It took me nearly an hour to settle down again after that letter, I was so excited!)
Docking
Oh, I'm still stiff! I spent 5 hours docking lambs on Monday, and the unaccustomed movements have announced the presence of muscles that I generally take for granted. Some of the lambs were small enough for me to lift with one arm, but others I would grab at with both hands, then decide to leave for the other guy. We had to swing each lamb up onto its back on the bench along the side of the pen and hold them there like a great baby. The trick was to hold tight to the upper part of the back legs which generally kept them from struggling while the blue injection-type stuff was scratched on, then the ring was slipped over the tail (and another elsewhere if it was a male), then an ear was clipped: right ear for the males, left ear for the females - unless they were Suffolk breed, in which case they were designated for meat not breeding and earmarked on the right ear. Only once did a lamb have the wrong ear clipped, so it ended up with an earmark on both ears. Somebody was distracted... After the earmark, the lamb was dropped nilly-willy outside the pen so it could run away to find its mother, generally complaining at the top of its voice. Meantime, the pen was being filled up with lambs, and I had to bend and grab another to swing up onto the narrow bench. Sometimes the pen became too full and I had trouble turning around, especially with a lamb or two standing on my foot!
Some of the lambs were sooo cute. They would lie and look up at me like a baby, with a half-worried, half-trusting expression. Made me want to croon. I think I refrained... :c)
Anyway, I enjoyed the whole morning. If I am required again, I shall try to remember my camera so that I can post a photo of myself working at this charming occupation.
Some of the lambs were sooo cute. They would lie and look up at me like a baby, with a half-worried, half-trusting expression. Made me want to croon. I think I refrained... :c)
Anyway, I enjoyed the whole morning. If I am required again, I shall try to remember my camera so that I can post a photo of myself working at this charming occupation.
September activities
Sometime during September I put an ad. in the local paper under "Work Wanted" - Girl Friday sort of stuff. It was worth it. I got two jobs. The first was a gardening job, which gave me ten hours' work and the beginnings of a spring tan - and made me stiff for a couple of days. The other is a house clean-up/decorate job. That one will continue in short bursts till the end of the year; that is, until the job is done. Have you ever heard of a situation like this?: A young dairy cocky about Gareth's (my eldest brother) age is a solo dad with three kids aged about 3, 4, and 7. He knows about vacuuming and keeping things reasonably tidy and doing the dishes, but little else when it comes to house-keeping. His friends have told him that his house needs a woman's touch. He saw my ad. in the paper and eventually rang to see if I would come and clean it up for him. He had never heard of 'spring-cleaning', ("You mean, more than vacuuming?" was his query) but his house surely needs it! Anyway, I shall be doing a bit of redecorating in my spare time, and will be quite well paid for it. The poor guy was pathetically pleased at the ideas for improvement that I suggested, and has practically given me a free hand. I'll be keeping to as low a budget as I can, but he's not worried about that, saying that the improvement will be priceless to him. So, my "woman's touch" will brought into play every so often over the next few months.
During September I also answered an ad. for babysitting over the school holidays. I got the job without any trouble. At that stage it was the only work I had, so the low pay seemed better than what I was then living on, which was nothing. It was a live-in job in Pahiatua, half an hour south of D'virke. Two children, a girl (9) and a boy (5). A few days before that job started, I got a call from Aunty Gillian in Churton Park, Wellington, asking if I could stay with Grandad for a week so that she and Uncle Ewen could have a desperately needed holiday. That sort of care is paid, and since I don't get to see much of Grandad, I jumped at the chance. I rang the woman for whom I was going to be babysitting and asked if she could find someone else for the second week as there was a family emergency for which I was needed, which was the exact truth - there was nobody else available, and my aunt and uncle badly needed that holiday. To my surprise (I can only see it as God's doing), the children's mother said yes instantly and wasn't at all stressed about it. So, I ended up spending Monday evening to Saturday morning of the first week of the holidays full-time babysitting and cooking for the two children, who gave me very little trouble. I learned a few useful tricks that week. I spent Saturday night at home, then left by bus on Sunday afternoon for Wellington to spend an even easier week with Grandad. It was a great week for all concerned. The holidayers had a wonderful few days away, Grandad loved seeing so much of me, and I enjoyed seeing so much of him and also finished a very difficult photomosaic tiger jigsaw puzzle and read 5 Biggles books. Oh, and continued an old tradition while staying with Grandad - watched his copy of "The Sound of Music"! We used to watch it every New Year while staying at his place. That was back when he lived on his own. I came home by bus on Sunday afternoon, rang a farmer about a job he had for me, and got up early the next morning (in spite of the Daylight Saving time-change making it difficult) to go out docking. Anyway, I spent 5 hours yesterday morning doing that, then came home and finally checked my email after two weeks away to discover quite a few birthday messages that had been sitting waiting for me for most of those two weeks. :c)
During September I also answered an ad. for babysitting over the school holidays. I got the job without any trouble. At that stage it was the only work I had, so the low pay seemed better than what I was then living on, which was nothing. It was a live-in job in Pahiatua, half an hour south of D'virke. Two children, a girl (9) and a boy (5). A few days before that job started, I got a call from Aunty Gillian in Churton Park, Wellington, asking if I could stay with Grandad for a week so that she and Uncle Ewen could have a desperately needed holiday. That sort of care is paid, and since I don't get to see much of Grandad, I jumped at the chance. I rang the woman for whom I was going to be babysitting and asked if she could find someone else for the second week as there was a family emergency for which I was needed, which was the exact truth - there was nobody else available, and my aunt and uncle badly needed that holiday. To my surprise (I can only see it as God's doing), the children's mother said yes instantly and wasn't at all stressed about it. So, I ended up spending Monday evening to Saturday morning of the first week of the holidays full-time babysitting and cooking for the two children, who gave me very little trouble. I learned a few useful tricks that week. I spent Saturday night at home, then left by bus on Sunday afternoon for Wellington to spend an even easier week with Grandad. It was a great week for all concerned. The holidayers had a wonderful few days away, Grandad loved seeing so much of me, and I enjoyed seeing so much of him and also finished a very difficult photomosaic tiger jigsaw puzzle and read 5 Biggles books. Oh, and continued an old tradition while staying with Grandad - watched his copy of "The Sound of Music"! We used to watch it every New Year while staying at his place. That was back when he lived on his own. I came home by bus on Sunday afternoon, rang a farmer about a job he had for me, and got up early the next morning (in spite of the Daylight Saving time-change making it difficult) to go out docking. Anyway, I spent 5 hours yesterday morning doing that, then came home and finally checked my email after two weeks away to discover quite a few birthday messages that had been sitting waiting for me for most of those two weeks. :c)
Little sister's wedding
Can you believe I went to my sister's wedding without taking my camera? Narelle, who is never seen at such events without a camera, was also without one! I shall have to wait until the official wedding photos are printed before I can post any of myself with the bride and groom. Anyway, it was a wonderful wedding, and I've been sent a few photos by someone who did remember their camera.
Proud Aunty
Me and my nephew, Timothy, in April 2004. He was 10 months old, and had only been in the country for about a week. (He was born in Ukraine.)
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