Mostly Mustering

This week is shaping up to be a lot of "mustering". The gathering or rounding up of stock. We've done two days so far with at least another day tomorrow. 3-4 of us head out and climb up the mountain and bring the sheep down to the valley floor. No 4-wheelers or horses. All on foot. Which I quite enjoy. Tomorrow we are going to bring a bunch of cattle down as well. Will bring them back to headquarters to drench and vaccinate. From the area where we were today back to Headquarters is about 6 miles. In the first and fourth photo you can see Mt.Sugarloaf very prominently. It's the big hill that sits out by itself. Remember that Station headquarters is right at the base of it. The picture of all the sheep with their heads down in a line are eating barley that I fed out to them. The last photo is of Sam. A young guy who comes up to help out here from time to time. He has 4 dogs. Today Angel had her 3, Sam 4, and Anne 1 for a total of 8. Neat to have so many around and it is really cool watching them work. Mustering would be impossible without them.

Heli-Biking

Today I got to go for a pretty cool ride. I flew with Phillip over the mountain to Glenfalloch Station where he picks up the Heli-skiers. And we put the mountain bike in the backseat and I rode it back. He did a really good job before we took off and during the flight of explaining to me how the helicopter works. It really isn't all that hard to fly one. We landed on a mountain top just above the station for a couple of minutes and he pointed out the general boundaries of the Station, and all the names of the surrounding mountains. And my ride back was just as great. 25 kilometers=15miles. And it had equal parts up and down. Took around 3.5 hours with a half hour lunch stop. And the weather was great. Full sun, a bit of a breeze, high 50's maybe even 60 degrees. If this is winter I'll take it!! It really has been nice all week. Low to Mid 50's all last week. Not sure what the upcoming week is going to bring as far as the weather and work.

A Heap of Sheep!!

Well I've survived my introduction into becoming a sheep farmer. Have done quite well actually. We did a lot of "drenching" this week (orally worming) You get them in the "yards" (corrals) pack them in the "race"(alley) then walk through them with a backpack on full of liquid drench and give them each a mouthful. Two of us did 1540 in about 5 hours yesterday. For the week we have done around 4500. So suffice to say I know which end is which on a sheep already!!! Just two people do the drenching at a time.
There are two other employees here. 20 year old Angel who has been here at Lake Heron for a year. And 23 year old Emma has been here about 6 weeks. Both from the North Island. That's Angel in the second photo with the mob of sheep. She has 3 dogs and it is really neat to watch her with them and 1000+ sheep at a time. She has around 600 in front of her in that photo. Both girls are truly dedicated to shepherding. In the second to last photo there is roughly 1200 in the photo. We had 1540 in the mob that day. The last photo is the family's house where I'm staying at the moment.

Headed for the High Country!

I'm about to make a BIG move here. Not in terms of distance, but geographically speaking. Monday morning I'm headed up to work at Lake Heron Station. About an hours drive from the farm here outside Methven. I've been hoping to get onto a high country station ever since arriving here and the time has finally come. It will be bittersweet as I've come to love the farm life here on the plains of
Mid-Canterbury. But those of you who know me best know that I'm most at home right smack in the middle of the mountains. And Monday that's where I'm headed! Working for the Todhunter family at their beautiful piece of New Zealand! Lake Heron is a 48,000 acre station running approximately 10,000 merino sheep for wool production plus around 450 angus cows as well. They also have a small guest operation hosting visitors from around the world. While Anne guides the guests on 3-5 day alpine hikes, husband Phillip is the chief pilot for Methven Heli-ski, a top notch helicopter skiing operation shuttling skiers to some pristine snow. With 3 school aged children they certainly have their hands full! Which is where I come in. They currently have 2 other employees as well. Looking forward to becoming part of another wonderful Kiwi family.
If you look just to the right of center in the panoramic photo you see a prominent dark hill. Station headquarters is just behind that hill. If you look closely at the 3rd photo you can see a few buildings right in the patch of trees. The place is quite remote with town at just over a hour away, and zero cell reception. But not to worry they have Internet so the posts should continue. For those interested, google Lake Heron Station. They have a very nice website.

Ski with Me

I had a really great week skiing last week. We ended up skiing at 3 different mountains. 2 days at Lake Oahu, and one each at Cardrona, and Treble Cone. 4 straight days. My legs were feeling it I can tell you that. We managed to score perfect weather which was fantastic. The snow was great and it was a great trip. Isn't that a great photo of Brent and Ella? I spent 4 days just trying to keep up with her. Having skied since she was like 5, and now at 14 let's just say she knows her way down a mountain. I was really impressed! Talked to quite a few people on the lifts and as soon as speaking they know I'm from the US! Not sure how they can tell right? But they all say that they want to come to the US so they can ski through the trees. Sounds weird, but here there are no trees on any of the ski mountains. So the idea of skiing through trees is a real novelty to Kiwis. The Cardrona Hotel is a really neat hotel/pub we stopped at for hot drinks. It dates back to the 1860's I think. Its been made famous here in NZ thanks to Speights, the most popular beer here on the South Island. It's photo is featured on a lot of their advertisements. A very neat place with lots of character. I'm not sure what Brent and Andy are pointing at in the last photo except maybe the beautiful scenery. No shortage of that!

Oahu I Love to Ski in July!

OH-HOW. That's how you pronounce the name of the ski field I skied at today. I'm in Twizel with Brent, his daughter Ella and Andy (Brent's friend). We had a awesome day skiing today. The weather was perfect, the slopes uncrowded, and the views stunning!! At this point I've totally lost track of what month it is as it seems so foreign to think that I'm snow-skiing at this point. It's weird to think its mid- July. The place we skied today is much smaller than Mt.Hutt where I went last week. Only one lift here. But it was equally as good. It had a lot more personal touch. There were less than 100 people skiing, so it felt like you had the whole mountain to yourself. Very nice! We're headed off tomorrow down south to ski at two other hills near Wanaka. If all goes to plan we'll ski 3 mountains on this trip!!

A Bit of Competition

Took in a little competition this weekend. Friday night was Rugby in Christchurch. The Crusaders vs. Chiefs. We root for the Crusaders. The chiefs are from the N. Island. I've finally got figured out the basic rules. Which makes it way more fun to watch a game. Thankfully we whipped the Chiefs and it was a very good game. It's more intense than Football by a long shot. Makes the NFL guys look like wimps. And on Saturday night there was a Speed Sheep Shearing contest inside the local pub. There were about 10 people competing and they each sheared 5 sheep. And the fastest shear one in under 20 seconds. Most 25-30 seconds. And the pub was absolutely Packed!! Shoulder to Shoulder. It was a good introduction for me as I helped a local farmer here shear today. I never sheared any myself but worked as a shedhand keeping the fleeces away from the shearers and pressing wool. There were 3 guys shearing and in about 5 hours they sheared 650 sheep. Really good to get to help out as wool and lamb meat are two of the major factors in the NZ economy. A big part of farming life here.

First on the Fourth

Another first for me today. Snow skiing. On the Fourth of July. I thought it a fitting way for me to celebrate here in the middle of a NZ winter. It was a really beautiful day. Two days ago it got to 70 degrees here. Almost summer like. It hovered around 32 on the mountain today. Mt. Hutt is the mountain I was at. Right outside Methven and only a 20 minute drive from here on the farm. So nice and close. The mountain has 900 skiable acres, 3 chairlifts, with a vertical drop of 2000 feet.
Made 17 runs down. Needless to say my legs were burning and I'm sure tomorrow I'll really feel the effects. The view out onto the Canterbury Plains is just stunning. You can see approximately 50 miles in any direction and all the way to the ocean. Truly amazing views. It was well worth the price of admission for the scenery, let alone the skiing. And to top off the day a gorgeous sunset! Happy Fourth of July everybody!!!