Maria

I woke up around 5am when Prupps turned on the light, and a while later when she slammed the door. So two hours later I decided it was time to get up :) Then I ate breakfast, made lunch for tomorrow, washed my backpack that was the victim of a lunchbox accident yesterday, watched a movie and two episodes of a tv show, and dragged my sorry ass out the door to come here to get some internet-stuff done.

Kate and I went on a short drive up river the other day. We stopped somewhere in the national park and watched the sunset before we headed back. So peaceful!

Kate had a laugh at me when she hit a reeeeeally deep puddle that drenched the car in brown water.
Chocolate milk, chocolate milk, chocolate milk. It's just chocolate milk...
But it was so worth it!

 

A tiny town with 2000 people, two supermarkets, no buses, one pub, a couple of restaurants, a lot of hotels and a huge national park. This is a place where news travels faster than the wind, where everyone gossip (and talk behind other peoples backs) about everyone at all times (the males are even worse than the females!), and where guys –especially surfer boys- walks around without underwear!! What other place would gossip last for a week about two girls that kissed at the local pub, about a break-up, about that two people that hang out must have something going on and 14 year old girls that buys a double bed??

 

But I really like it!!!!

There’s a reason to why so many people take their time and effort to come here. It’s a beautiful town just by the sea, surrounded by an enormous national park and the local people are fun and friendly and helpful in a way you would never ever see in a city. Right now it’s “winter” which means that you preferably waits until 10 am before you walk around outside in shorts (in other words.. it’s like Swedish summer weather).

And don’t forget the food….

Picking your own eggs straight from the chook patch, cutting down your own fruit and vegetables –oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapes, avocado etc- from the trees, preparing fresh fish that’s been caught a couple of hours earlier, joining in the killing and butchering of a sheep or pig….. that’s so far from what I’m used to! And I absolutely love it!!

No E-numbers, no preservatives, no flavour enhancers. YUM!

 

So, what do we do at a chicken farm??

Farmday:

We get up at 6 am, get picked up at 6.30 am and taken out to the farm that’s located 30 km away. Picking eggs, washing eggs, sorting out bad or cracked eggs, making sure that the chooks are healthy, checking the food and water, cleaning the sheds are the usual chores. But also things like help building fences, shovelling cook food from the ground in the pouring rain, hunting cats and pigs, and weighing chooks are part of the job. It’s physically demanding and dirty, but a job I actually enjoy getting up in the morning to do.

Townshed+farm:

We get up at 5.15 am and get picked up at 5.45 am. That shed is in town, not out at the farm, and totally free from animals. Candling (standing at a conveyor belt and doing the final sorting of bad/cracked/dirty eggs (you see about 50’000 eggs a day), sorting eggs by weight and packing eggs for delivery. When all the eggs are done, two people goes out to the farm to candle all the eggs in a huge new shed ~25000 eggs. Then some maintenance and cleaning in that shed before we goes back to town with that days load of eggs that’s gonna get packed the next day.

 

Have a lovely day! <3

Jukebox night Saturday with Andri, Kate and Sam. A fun and a tad crazy night (that seems to be the case a lot lately?!?).

And like a lot of crazy days... Some of us didn’t feel tooooo good the day after. Ey, Ralphie? Haha! But those two who felt quite alright had a Bones-marathon and sugar rush 2.0! Kladdkaka (kind of like chocolate lava cake), ice cream, popcorn, M&M, nachos, dip and soda drinks. The-entire-day!!!!

Yuuum!

 

BUT...

...the day after –yesterday- I woke up with a headache that I swear tried to kill me!!!!! Sugar hangover like Ive never felt before!!!!!! I lived of painkillers the whole day, and it was first this morning that I could breathe without a head that threatened to explode…

 

Lesson learned? Yes.

Will I do it again? Yes.