#19 - Two farmers in New-Zealand
Our first two weeks in New Zealand were just like we had dreamed: we remained sedentary and lived to the rhythm of the farm of Ian and Marcia, sharing the daily life of a typical New Zealand family. Friday we left the farm, however, to join a new one: we now live with Liz and Simon on a dairy farm with more than 250 cows. New adventures ahead, but we owe you some details about our original experience with Ian and Marcia.
Tristan with his new best friends
Working in contact with someone like Ian taught us a lot, and not just what we expected. Ian is a person one would expect to find in a 19th century novel rather than in real life. More than 60 years old, he continues to put an impressive energy in his daily tasks, and even with our four young arms we would struggle to work as hard as he does. Ian says what he thinks. Tact and nuance are not part of his way of life, and that's what makes him so incredible to work with. Far from hiding behind a mask, he is the most genuine person we have ever met, and his company is therefore both exciting and demanding.
The patics and the farm down in the valley
After leaving school very young, he immediately dedicated himself to the one activity that has always interested him: to use his hands to build. Having learned to build huts, he quickly decided to know enough to tackle houses. Today he owns five houses he has built. He rents four of them and lives in the last. Yet it impossible for him to live as a rich landlord and change habits. An unnecessary expense is superfluous even when the money is not a problem, and he never spends a dime for something he is able to do himself. "I do not trust these people we pay to come and repair our instruments, he told us while repairing his own digger," I prefer to do it myself. " This might be a useful example for us who often see the disproportionate place of consumption in our way of life ("It's broken? Buy a new one"), to see the life style of Ian. Needs he had before did not change in his eyes, and it is not because he can buy more he consumes more. True to himself, he lives in some ways below his means, which reinforces the admiration we have for him.
We have never learned so much about working with our hands. And it was one of our goals when we initiated this adventure: leave the office life, comfortable but routinely for an outdoor life, tougher, more energetic and more concrete. Ian - contrary to what one could know by working in large companies - does not pass his week waiting for the weekend or the next holiday. He loves what he does on a daily basis and thus does not feel the need to stop his activity on Saturday and Sunday. So logically, as the vast majority of farmers, we worked seven days a week here. Well, except when it rained really too much and were almost swimming in our boots. We were then forced to slow down, much to the dismay of Ian - "Shit, shit, shit, fucking weather! Shit, shit, shit, We've got some work to do! Shit, shit, shit. "(Sic). Obliged to take the weather into account, we liked to live in harmony with nature. Even if it was hard every morning to start working at dawn in the cold winter of New Zealand, the sunlight rays of 10 a.m. have never been so nice !
Maneuvering for the first time an excavator, we moved huge trunks of trees that have fallen down because of winter storms, debited them with the chainsaw and ultimately split them with an ax to have firewood. A screwdriver in one hand, a hammer in the other, we continued to repair kilometers of fences separating the patics in which the animals grazed. Perched on ladders, we repainted the barn where hay is stored. And last but not least, we have completely dismantled and rebuilt the deck of the house.
Before ...
... After !
And you, would you be able to build a deck?
New skill: digger driving license!
As we already mentioned, these tasks are not those we thought of when we imagine the life of a farmer. Contrary to what we imagine as city dwellers, farmers do not spend most of their time in contact with their animals. Here, we were happy to eat meat from our farm every day, but surprised by what really is the daily life in many small farms.
Ian and Marcia have cows and sheep, as we told you in the previous article. Yet in two weeks on their land, we did not work directly with them. While Kim and Daryll, with whom we lived in Oregon, knew each of their animals by its own name, Marcia and Ian hardly knew the number of animals they owned.
Then what are these farmers doing if they do not to take care of their flock? The daily goal is simple: maintain the fields on which their livestock graze. Apart from this, they move the animals from one field to the other and wait until they grow to be slaughtered and eaten – somewhat similar to modern cowboys riding Japanese ATVs instead of horses.
A local practice surprised us here: the high demand from New Zealand families for "home-killed" meat. More and more people prefer to bypass traditional distribution channels and buy meat directly from the farmer. A large family would for instance buy half a cow, freeze it, and have enough meat for one year. Shortly before we arrived, a professional came on the farm to slaughter and process some cows. Those who buy this "home-killed" meat seek both to know what they eat, and often specify that a beast slaughtered without being under stress gives better meat. In talking with the different farmers that we have met and who explained to us that the meat that is found in fast foods comes from old dairy cows slaughtered because they were not enough productive anymore, we better understand the craze for quality meat!
Despite this description of the strong character of Ian, do not imagine that life was austere in contact with our guests in the past two weeks. Instead, they have tried to make us share their leisure as much as possible, and allowed us to meet a very different range of Kiwis introducing us to friends and family.
Hard not to mention, first, an impressive phenomenon: the place of sport in the local culture. Almost all the people we meet start the conversation with the basics: "Like rugby?" This sport is still largely prevalent in New Zealand, but, as we told you, our Kiwi family focuses all its attention on another form of rugby which attracts more and more fans: Rugby League (or Rugby 13). Going to the stadium to see the Auckland team win 24-20 was a great opportunity to witness the passion with which locals support their team against the Australians rivals.
But the real passion of Ian is not sports, but fishing. Due to uncertain weather conditions, we were not able to spend two days at sea on his boat as originally planned. But Ian took us fishing for bait that will serve him in his next session. In a beautiful setting, we have therefore helped to deploy his net to catch fifty fishes each time. Efficient as always, we only spent thirty minutes on the beach and ended with over a hundred small mullets. For an unknown reason - some say because of a hole in the ozone layer - light in New Zealand is particularly beautiful, and net fishing on the beach as the sun came out of the clouds was really amazing!
Jules and Ian fishing for mullets
Last weekend, we met the son of Marcia and her fiancée Morgan, who came for a "brunch" at the farm. Intrigued by our stories, Morgan offered us to take us to spend the weekend in the small holiday house of her parents (called "bach" by the locals) near the northern tip of the island. Happy to discover how young Kiwis live like, we of course accepted, going where the life was taking us.
And we were right! The landscape that we discovered was worth a little drive. New Zealand has the advantage of allowing anyone to get to the beach in less than 45 minutes from any point in the country, and the one we discovered is one of the most beautiful of the country.
Almost warm enough for a dive
As we told to you earlier in this article, a new adventure has begun for us. We arrived two days ago in the farm of Liz and Simon, both thirty years old, where they raise 250 dairy cows. And the program is clear: we have a week to learn everything as they leave for two days next weekend and they want us to take care of the cows in their absence. A great challenge that we are happy to face! But that’s another story...
Talk to you next Sunday