November 10

10 November

0 Miles

W.P.'s Farm (Herzog)

Steph:

Today was lovely. WP and Johan invited us to stay the day and learn about the farm. We got spoiled with an amazing breakfast and coffee. It's awesome. The more we talk to these guys, the more we have to talk about. It's so nice. I feel like we've known them for way longer than just less than a day. After breakfast, they took us for a tour of the "feld" (field). It's a cattle farm about 12,000 hectares and abslutely beautiful. They have certain blocks fenced off and rotate the herds around throughout the year. There are also wild Kudu roaming around as well as WP's horses. He lets his arabians roam around with the cows for most of the year. Before being beautiful show champions and breeding machines, he wants them to be happy, free horses. You can tell that WP has his heart and soul invested in these animals and genuinely cares about their well being, rather than just about the money they make him. He says that whenever the calves get big enough and are shipped off to meet their fate, it makes him sick. I can definitely see that. Johan has also become very involved in farming and says he enjoys learning about it. He seems to really revel in the tranquility and simplicity that comes with it. He still does some freelance architecture when he wants to and has also begun investing in cattle and horses. It was very interesting learning about the whole operation.

The land here is as dry as Arizona in the summer, so fires are something that farmers have to deal with a lot this time of year. The rain isn't quite here yet but the storms bring just enough power for lightening. Dry brush and lightening are never good together. There is no fire department here so the farmers band together to fight them and save the land. It's a very tight knit community, which I find very nice.

We ended the night at Fanny and Henriette's farm house "next door". They invited us to dinner along with their children, Luann, WP and Nadine. Their farm is a dairy farm and their facitlities were very impressive. We got to try fresh milk and everything. Delicious. Henriette, Nadine and I got along really well and I enjoyed observing their easy relationship. It made me miss my mami even more.

Off in the distance the men spotted some smoke. WP called the farmer whose land it was coming from to make sure they knew about it. Johann told us that if we were called to help then we'd have to spend another night with them. Eventually the fires were put out by the other farmers and we went home to bed.

Our hosts, Johan and W.P. with their dog Gem