Frontier Farms

This past weekend, the students, Jim and I went to the Winterberg Mountain range area (near Adelaide, South Africa) to stay at the homes of two Afrikaans farm families.  The first farm, owned by Marnaus and Winnie Langdraii, was the "smaller" farm, with about 2600 acres.  They primarily raise sheep and beef cattle, but also had turkeys and ducks, spring bok and elands, horses, cows, and chickens. The list goes on.  Some of the students couldn't believe it when Marnaus brought into the house two quite new bottle fed lambs to hold and play with.  

Riding in the bakkie

Isaak holds his upside down..

After relaxing a bit, they toted us all out on the backs of trailers and pick-ups (remember what they are called here? -- bakkies) to a beautiful swimming hole, complete with waterfall.  Most of us quickly waded in..

After we were all clean, Marnaus had a plan to get us dirty again.  First, the students had to catch some lambs whose tails had not yet been cut off.  Off they chased, and several brought them back -

sometimes holding them quite awkwardly.  Ryan Fuchs, future pediatric doctor, got right in there to band their tails and their small testes.

..while Melissa - what can I say?

Then, off to the milking barn we went.  Marnaus milks about 40 head.  The students each took their turn at milking a cow, and then drinking warm milk streamed directly from the udder.  I don't have shots of the faces, but you should have seen some of them.  Marnaus would squirt milk into the students' mouths with precision for a while, and then end with a circular flourish!  Winnie and Marnaus made us feel "at home" - and we all settled in for some music and laughter.

Eleven of our young women stayed with them, the rest of us went off to the farm of Aurelia and Francois Dannegeur.  Francois and Aurelia own 6000 acres.  Now, I should mention that many of these acres are vertical - as the lands roam up and down the mountain sides.  Absolutely stunning views!

On Saturday, all climbed up one of the mountains.  I followed a goat track (while the students climbed straight up.)   After awhile, I was considered "lost," but of course I knew where I was the whole time!

Here's where my sheep path petered out,
and I had to double back.

Cutting off a year's worth of growth

Then Francois showed us all sheep shearing - which I was surprised that they do with hand scissors.  (A shearer is paid about five Rand per sheep.)  Francois raises sheep with Merino wool, which makes wonderful sweaters and - as it turns out - beards!

Liz and Michelle

After sheep shearing, all but one of us tried our hands at rifle target practice.  The "bull-eye" paper target was placed about 40 yards out.  Jim went first, and had the best shot for awhile, before Patrick DeSutter took the lead.  But, in the end, the best shot came from none other than Molly Jackson!

"Cooling their heals" before supper

We ended our Saturday with a huge meal that had been prepared by Aurelia (after high tea with three kinds of cake at about 3:00).  The students played tennis and cooled off in the swimming pool.

After supper, Francois showed us his trophy room, where there were heads from forty different animals - including a giraffe, a zebra, wildebeest, impalas, and dikirs - as well as a couple of full animal bodies.   Matt Dummer asked me if I had ever read the story about the hunter who brought a group of people to his island because he had hunted every other kind of animal.  Eerie!
But we were treated with nothing but kindness.

One of the viewpoints

Francois and Aurelia

On Sunday, we finished our beautiful weekend with a hike again on Marnaus' land.  We came to a section where we needed to swim into a narrow canyon with walls about 40 feet high to an island.  Once you reach the island, another small pool in the canyon awaits.   When you swim across that, you come to a waterfall.  Several of us jumped into the pool under the waterfall, thinking, "This is better than Disneyland!"

All of us were sad to say good-bye to the Winterberg Mountains - and our host families.  At one point I said to Marnaus, "You know.  We are going to go home thinking that these farms are typical South African farms."  (I was thinking that these would be more high end than most.)  He said, "They are."  I wonder....