2005 midyear update

In the five months that I've completed, I have gained in knowledge, skill, and strength...and learned to tolerate a lot of nonsense from other students. I have physical proof of the increased strength. I still get people telling me I've lost weight, yet I've gained nearly 1½ stone (10kg)! It's all muscle, and I amazed myself on Monday evening by doing 10 press-ups! (from the knees) Just to make sure it wasn't a one-off thing, I did 12 the next morning, but this time I wasn't warmed up, so 11 & 12 caused a bit of a strain. Considering that I could barely do 2 at the beginning of the year, I'm feeling very pleased with myself.

Between January 24 and June 24 (including 2 weeks' holiday in April):
2 weeks on Tech 1; Skills Tests: 1 = 78, 2 = 57
2 wks on T2; Skills Tests: 1 = 66, 2 = 59
1 wk on T3 (2nd wk sick - glandular fever); Skills Tests: 1 = 62, 2 = 75
2 wks on Ag; Skills Tests: 1 = 67, 2 = 76
1 wk on work experience (large farm just south of Mt. Bruce)
1 wk shearing course
4 wks at Glenburn Station; Skills Test: 1 = 67, 2 = 58
6 wks on Lectures; Skills Tests: 1 = 65, 2 = 76;
Skills Test 1: 405/600. Skills Test 2: 401/600. Mid-year exam: 73% (Pass is 40%, highest achieved was 84%, I think.)

My favourite section is still Ag. I've driven tractors (with silage wagon/hay mower), a digger, quads (including backing through a slalom with a trailer), and a bike. Using the digger was part of a drain-laying operation. I've learned to use a gas cutter and a welder, using the skills to retread one of a pair of ramps for Archie (the groundsman). I have also learned to use several electric workshop tools.

I completed my weeds and grasses collection, handing it in 2 weeks before the due date. We had to collect, press, and mount 40 different plants: 3 clovers, 7 crops, 10 grasses, and 20 weeds. I won't find out what mark it got until this coming term, but Martin, my lectures tutor, reckoned it was at least a 70+. I'm hoping it's an 80+! Last year's highest weeds and grasses mark was 92, I think, and getting into the 80s - in anything - is considered very good.

The second morning of the shearing course I was taken off the shearing and was rousie for two or three students for the rest of the week (I discovered that it's easier to rousie for two or three good shearers than for the same number of learners), plus learning to press bales. Short hamstrings and several years fighting glandular fever don't make a good shearer, though I did manage to shear two sheep all by myself - but I kept getting stuck! I would get my legs into a position, and then not be able to shift them. And then I would start shaking all over, which made operating the handpiece a bit difficult. I didn't mind after the first disappointment - I'm a shepherd not a shearer. In fact, I was far more upset about the cuts on the sheep (I only knicked one once, but the others were teasing one boy about his love of blood) than about the blade cut on my own finger, which stung like mad at first (yes, I did it to myself). And when one of the boys was getting a little rough with a sheep and swearing at it, I wanted to yell at him or thump him or something - and soothe the sheep!

My mid-year report really couldn't be better. The tutors' comments are all glowing, and though the hostel manager reckons I should get a car, and I agree it would be nice and convenient, there's a slight deterrent - I can't afford a car and... wait, wait, wait! This needs to be announced properly! Here we go:

I have bought a dog!
Yes, I now own a 2-year-old short-haired border collie bitch. She is a partly-trained heading dog. That is, she already works well, but I can add some extra commands if I so desire. I will be registering her in the Carterton district when I return to Taratahi, and after checking with the Taratahi farm manager that everything is in order and we've signed the contract, I will return to Dannevirke in the weekend to fetch Bess. (She was already named - I wouldn't have given her such a common farmdog name.) She will live in a kennel at Taratahi. A small weekly fee covers her food and worm tablets, which of course adds up over 20 weeks, but the big cost was in buying the dog. It is a big responsibility, but it will be such fun! And when I get sick of everybody else, I'll be able to spend time with a friend and work mate that doesn't say anything verbal at all. When we come home for the September/October holidays, I'll have to find a kennel for her. (And if I'm to come home any weekends, I'll have to get someone at Taratahi to feed and exercise her...

The two things that helped me decide to get a dog were: learning to use a dog is one of the units for sheep students but I was reluctant to use the students' dog at Glenburn (it is tough on dog and student when the dog is used by lots of different people); I'm going to need at least one dog anyway when I get a job and I'd rather know the dog and have something of the knack of using it before then! There are opportunities for practice and instruction at Taratahi and Glenburn. I just hope Bess doesn't pick up any bad habits such as kennel barking from other dogs, particularly at Glenburn.

So, a car is out of the question as far as I can see. But that's fine with me. I've managed so far without, and there's only another 5 months to go!