Thursday, April 2, 2009

Learning The Ropes
















The OVK Co-Op




Steynsburg from the R56





The Main Street

The first few days were dull and involved getting used to the many trivial things that go with farming; the most difficult was trying to learn the names of the farm camps, and trying to remember which key went with which gate lock. Most of the camps are accessed from a public road, so all the access gates are locked to minimize theft of livestock. We spent some time learning our way around town; not so difficult as it is really small. Still we had to find places such as the Co-op (OVK is the only one represented in Steynsburg). They carry an amazing amount of stock, and employ really nice and helpful staff; the small supermarket; the Post Office, the Pharmacy etc.


Getting used to the idiosyncracies of farm life was not a problem for brother R as he had done it for most of his adult life. For me it was different. The sameness of the daily routine and the long-term nature of the operations were the most difficult for me to deal with. We had the usual problems; windmills needing repairs, fences that required fixing, and sheep that required doctoring. All in all it was not unpleasant, and quite edifying. Time went quickly, and it was soon time to return to Johannesburg so that brother R could return to Zimbabwe and get on with the long drawn out process of emigrating.


He left for Zim from Johannesburg, on 21 March 2004 and I collected the cat and returned to the farm the same afternoon.