Well, the second part of the South West tour finally got underway on the 23rd January. The host I should have gone to on 10th January, having not heard from me for so long, booked another WWOOFer (who, incidentally, never turned up!) so I stayed at Mum's for longer, which was just as well as my car's brake shoes decided to become unbonded and rattle around inside the wheel, which is potentially very dangerous and leads to a lack of brakes, so I was glad that I was only driving in Cheltenham when it happened and not belting down the M5!
I am currently on what I call a 'proper' farm in South Devon at the moment, where they have approximately 170 head of beef cattle of all ages. The day after I arrived they had a TB test for the whole herd which involved running different groups of cattle from shed to yard and back again, and took most of the day. There was then the follow up on Thursday when they also had a couple of bull calves castrated and all of the suckler cows checked for pregnancy. Again, this was a very long job and took place in a bitingly cold north-easterly wind - even with my super mohair socks on my feet went completely numb and one of my fingers went dead with cold!
My daily routine consists of: up at 7.30 for a cup of tea and then out to feed the calves with their milk powder and pellets; in for breakfast at about 9.00; out again to bed up the pens with straw; in for coffee; any other chores that need doing (moving cattle down the road to another set of buildings, bagging up pellets and corn from the bulk storage bins,etc); lunch and a bit of a break for an hour; outside again for more 'stuff'; cup of tea; and then finally, out at about 4.30 to feed the calves again. It's quite physical work involving a lot of lifting and upper body work and for the first couple of days my muscles were screaming for mercy by the end of the day, but I'm gradually getting used to it.
I am currently on what I call a 'proper' farm in South Devon at the moment, where they have approximately 170 head of beef cattle of all ages. The day after I arrived they had a TB test for the whole herd which involved running different groups of cattle from shed to yard and back again, and took most of the day. There was then the follow up on Thursday when they also had a couple of bull calves castrated and all of the suckler cows checked for pregnancy. Again, this was a very long job and took place in a bitingly cold north-easterly wind - even with my super mohair socks on my feet went completely numb and one of my fingers went dead with cold!
My daily routine consists of: up at 7.30 for a cup of tea and then out to feed the calves with their milk powder and pellets; in for breakfast at about 9.00; out again to bed up the pens with straw; in for coffee; any other chores that need doing (moving cattle down the road to another set of buildings, bagging up pellets and corn from the bulk storage bins,etc); lunch and a bit of a break for an hour; outside again for more 'stuff'; cup of tea; and then finally, out at about 4.30 to feed the calves again. It's quite physical work involving a lot of lifting and upper body work and for the first couple of days my muscles were screaming for mercy by the end of the day, but I'm gradually getting used to it.
The food here is good and plentiful and arrives regularly so I don't think I'll be wasting away anytime soon! There is another WWOOFer here at the moment, Cathy from Florida. She's a really good laugh and we took our day off together yesterday and had a drive round the area. We went to Dartmouth, which is really pretty but it was so cold that we didn't walk about too long - we even had a flurry of snow while we were there. We decided that sight seeing from the car was the order of the day, so just meandered along the coast a bit. We went to Slapton Sands and Start Bay where we had a very nice lunch at the Start Bay Inn; I had a smoked fish platter and Cathy had scampi and chips. They also served Addlestone's cider on draught so I had to have a half, didn't I? I also took Cathy to Bigbury Bay to show her the strange 'tractor' that takes people across to Burgh Island at high tide. Luckily it was running even though the tide was only just on the turn, so we were able to see it in action.
I'm here for another week and then I'm off further along the coast to Saltash in Cornwall, so watch this space!
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