Farewell and Reflection; OverThere Farm

Friday was our last day at OverThere Farm. Our first volunteering farm and first month of this adventure, it's been an experience we won't forget quickly. Here follows some of the things we hadn't mentioned in previous posts.

Our accommodation had a lot of space and we appreciated that, despite the rats that had parties on the ceiling. Thankfully one of their cats (Smuglin) decided she likes us a lot and often hunted in the room. She also liked snoozing on our bed when we weren't there...

Our rat hunter.

Happenings

While at OverThere Farm, we had quite a lot of happenings going on, from visiting 'tannie' Pam's lovely tea garden to separating cream. Here are a few.

We went to art class once or twice with Mirte and Femke at Pam's, as well as visiting her tea garden as a family. Every time we went it rained though, so we sat on the veranda, not in the beautiful, flowering garden.

Dear old tannie Pam and her dog, Puff.

Now where did all the cookies go....

Projects

Usually after milking and teatime every morning, the project of the day is tackled. Here are a few projects we've done in our time here....

New Life

On OverThere Farm, there are quite a lot of animals who are looked after daily and provide food as well as amusement. Since our arrival, there's been a few new faces and we've experienced the wonder of seeing new life.

Solitaire gave birth to a calf, Uno, who at first got kicked when he tried to drink. But after getting the baby to a dry warm place and giving the mother time, she calmed down. Jerry milked the new mom and we bottle-fed Uno. After some time together, he managed to drink and is well and energetic now. 

Newborn calf.

Daily Chores

On a farm, there are certain things that have to be done every day. Most of us has one of these chores, in the morning and the afternoon.
Every morning the cows has to be fetched from the fields and milked. In the afternoons, the calves and cows are separated so that there is more milk the next day.

Herding.

OverThere Farm

Our host farm for October has been one really interesting experience so far.
OverThere Farm (as it is called) is a post-organic, self-sufficient farm, which means that most of what they eat is grown (or slaughtered...) here. We have been welcomed by the Graaf family; Jerry, Marcella, Mirte (15 yrs) and Femke (10 yrs) who are also homeschooled. Mirte also maintains a blog on their own farm's activities, have a look here: http://growingupafarmergirl.wordpress.com/.

We shared our first week with another volunteer from Germany, Marina Liebhart. We've been settling into the daily farm life routine, and have been busy with lots of chores and projects (which I will post about in the near future).

A view of the fields and house.

Plowing in preparation for potato planting.

The massive vegetable garden.

The path leading to the volunteers' sleeping quarters.