onto conservation

bee hive stand dug into the clay

view from the koppie

hiding from the cold

donkey looking awesome

after a long days work

chasing the cattle into the kraal

donkey rides

bee hive stand

Skipped past the hospitality thing and onto to conservation. On my first course of the conservation side of things the course that I am partaking in is resource guardianship. This last week of conservation has been nothing but the most fun in the world. It has convinced me that this is what I would like to do forever. This is not fun and games and when it is time to work then we work our bums off. On the first day of RG we sat in class and learnt the importance of fires and mapping. We learnt how to read a map and the importance of keys, magnetic north and true north. In the fires we learnt what we will be doing for the nine weeks of being there every single day. Every morning when we get to the class room we have to go and look at the fire fighting vehicles. We have to look if the vehicles are filled with petrol, that they will start, and that the water for fighting the fires will start. We then went out on to the farm and got to know the farm and the roads and where all the important thing on the farm is like our spring.

On the Tuesday we went to the cattle kraal to go dip the cattle and see if they are sick or in bad condition. My job along with two other guys is that we had to chase the cattle in to the dip allocator so that they could be sprayed by the girls. The first time the cows turn at you and test how brave you are is a very scary task but after that they don’t bother you. The scariest incident was when I hit a cow on the ass to get it to move and I didn’t know the cow was partially blind. The cow obviously got a fright and turned around and swung its horns/head at me which gave me a huge fright.

On the Monday we went out with the second years to go dig holes and plant poles to but bee hives on. This is one of the projects given to them and myself and another first year went out to go help out. The first on was a little difficult because we didn’t have the right equipment we only had spades and we needed a pick. We dug a hole around half a meter deep and then planted the pole and covered it up again. The second pole we planted was much more challenging because we needed to dig in to clay which at times felt pointless but with lots of frustration and anger we managed to dig it deep enough and put it behind us. After this we went to the sondela service gate to fix our fence that the fire vehicles drove over. We repaired the fence and “designed” a gate so that they can drive over the fence and it won’t break. This was a nice skill to learn for living on a farm you are forever fixing fences that animals or people break.

On the first weekend of working the first thing that we had to do was learn how to kit up and strap the donkeys so that we can take the kids on the donkey cart for a ride. Strapping the donkeys was really easy and had no problems. My first incident was when a little boy got on to the cart with me and the donkey started running and kicking and then just fell over. The boy started crying but we sorted it out quickly and tightened the straps and was sorted it out. Then after we finished that we went back to the stables and unstrapped the donkeys. As we un-strapped the donkey a stupid warthog run under our donkey and it got a really big fright. The donkey then turned 180 degrees and took a kick at my friend. It was quiet a big shock but after we really had a good laugh because nobody was injured. After all this action the boys were given the task of moving the telephone poles which looked a lot lighted then they really were. We managed to pick up the poles and put them on our shoulders and then took a few steps forward and everybody was laughing so hard that I couldn’t carry it anymore and dropped it. In doing this it scrapped my one friends arm and landed on the other guy’s toe which ended up in us on the floor laughing so hard watching this Afrikaans guy hop up and down screaming and laughing at what had just happened. That afternoon I went on a game drive with my roommate and he just was showing me how to give a game drive and the correct procedure to follow. I just went with as an apprentice so to say so that in the future I can do it myself.

On the Thursday was our big day of adventure. We were all told that we were going out to go do chemical game capture. We first went into the 400 hector and learnt how to track the animals with the animal tracking equipment. We used the Arial and the signal beeper so that the closer you get to the animal the louder the beep and stronger the signal is. After the class we went and tracked the sable males in the bush, the students did it by themselves and managed to find the sable within walking distance. After this we went to the main gate to go and meet the men who were going to dart the animals for us. They went through with us how its going to work and what to do when we find the animal. When you find the animal you first put the animal on its stomach and tuck its legs under its stomach to open the lungs. You then pull out its tongue to open the air waves and so that it doesn’t swallow its tongue. You then lift up the head so that the animal can’t through up the contents in its stomach. It is important to not remove the dart if you are not qualified to do so for you could really get sick or drowsy. We then went out in the bakkie and found our first impala. We managed to shot the buck and it ran off. We tracked it for about an hour and then found the dart but the impala was missing. For our second attempt we shot the impala and then it dropped in 5-8 minutes and then we ran to it and found it, carried it to the bakkie and transported it back to the trailer and gave it the different minerals/vitamins into the impala’s blood system. We then went out to go and get the next impala. We managed to shoot it and luckily it dropped right next to the road. We then ran towards it but then it decided that it wasn’t ready to be taken yet so it jumped up kicking. We then ran at it to take it down from the front. It managed to dodge my college and headed straight for me. I ducked out the way thinking I’m not willing to get kicked but then we brought it down to the ground and got it back to the trailer safe following the procedures which was given to us. That day we caught 7 female impala’s and had a lot of fun.

On the Friday I witnessed a little miracle right in front of us in our very own farm yard. We walked past and saw that the sheep was giving birth. A lady and the staff were helping the sheep give birth. Unfortunately the lamb was suffocating and actually stopped breathing. One of the men then put his hands straight into the sheep’s vagina and pulled the lamb out and then held it by its hind legs and shock it around a little and then lay it down and pulled its tongue and just like clockwork it started breathing again.  This was really a weird experience especially to watch but in the end it really turned out well and everything was happy and good again.