Australia: Days 40 and 41 - Farmer Fieldtrip

I apologize in advance for the length and randomness of this entry....

Saturday I woke up, scrambled around to shower and get ready and headed to meet the bus for my Philosophy farmer fieldtrip for my Education in Natural Landscapes class. After getting a sleeping bag and a good raincoat on loan from the outdoors program the class and I loaded the mini-bus and headed for Geelong. It took about an hour and we didn't really do much in the town besides drive past the harbor and pick up our tour guide Sue. Sue is a co-owner of a sheep farm but also works with education on some level. After some brief introductions and some background info on Geelong (big wool town when the industry was big, used to be the main port etc etc) we headed out into the country. Our first stop was a sheep farm that was trying some new conservation practices to make the farm more sustainable. We learned about shelter belts and riparian zones and also looked at some saw timber planted for extra income. We got to see a baby lamb whose mother had died and then took a walk around the property after enjoying some morning tea and cookies. There were new birds everywhere but I figured it was incredibly inappropriate to leave the group and go bird watching - though I considered it. About lunch time we loaded back on the bus and headed just down the road to a small winery, Blake's Winery. It was a Mom and Pop set up and on top of the winery the couple tried to have a sustainable farm by growing their own chickens, fruit, and veggies. The wife also raised Angora goats for wool. It was pretty neat - we enjoyed a nice lunch with excellent cake and sampled the wine. We then took a tour of the property in the rain before loading back on the bus. We had bit farther to go so I crammed in a powernap before reaching the Free-range Pig Farm that was our next stop. I got to hold a piglet, and it was soooo cute. We learned all about the hardships of an outdoor piggery and why it is so much better for the pigs. This particular piggery rotates the animals with crops around a huge farm to increase the income - seems like a good idea to me! Our final stop for the night was another sheep farm, it also serves as an education site for learning about conserving the land. A local PTA made us dinner as part of a fundraiser and we all enjoyed some wine and time by the fire before bed. I could hear frogs chirping and wanted so badly to venture but not ONE person brought a flashlight - boooo. We spent the night in the old shearer's quarters on very cold bunks. I woke up early in attempts to spot a lingering marsupial and maybe a bird or too but was afraid to wander too far on a strange farm. After a group breakfast we had a discussion for class about "being" a farmer before getting a tour of the shearing shed. We then loaded the bus and proceeded to another sheep farm specializing in dyed wools and craft stuff. We got to feed the sheep, watch a partial shearing, and had excellent scones and lunch. I bought some all natural gray yarn to make a nice scarf with. After a big thank you and goodbye we headed off to our last stop, an Ostrich Farm. I was sad we didn't get to try any meat or eggs but we got to see the birds and looked at a lot of eggs and leather. It was a pretty short stop and soon we were on our way back to Melbourne. I was so tired when I got back but I found out that the Theatre Sports team had their competition so of course I had to go support them for a little bit! I finally gave up at about 9:15 and came home to do some homework, but we actually won the competition - Go Whitley!!!