My Simple Farm Life

Junie Bitbit
Jan 20, 2016
4 min read

Before James left for NZ to work as a Dairy Farmer, we made plans of moving and living with him once he settled and find a place for us, so I quit my well compensated job as Marketing Operations Specialist in one of the pretigious manufaturing company in the Philippines while Nikki finished her 2nd grade in school. So all our plans came into reality, we arrived in New Zealand in its best spring weather with average temperatures of between 17 and 21°C, the weather is characteristically mild – not too hot or too cold. I was amazed by the charm of the winsomeness mountains, and the sound of the talking trees is like music to my ears, I can still smell the freshness of the flowers along the road and the wilderness of the animals everywhere. I would have not imagine that there's a place such as beautiful as this in the planet earth and I am so lucky to have experience it and live in it. Oh wait, let me just share some snippet of New Zealand's History, New Zealand is divided into two major island North and South, we live in Hawkes Bay region on the east coast of the North Island. Oh and did you know that Hawkes Bay has a hill with the longest place name in New Zealand, and the longest in the world according to the 2009 Guinness Book of Records: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu... whoooo!!! that's an exhausting name i've ever pronounce in my entire life... is there a shorter version of it? Nway, when we got home, I was stunned with the view from our house, yes, this is a farm, i know that... duh? but I've never seen a farm such as beautiful as this, I mean, I can only see this in the movies, paintings, leaflets and in google but not in front of our house. I mean, it's really a jaw-dropping view, this farm is sooooo humongous, it'll probably take 1 day for you to rove around, seriously!!! So, let's go back to the view; the place that we are staying is a 2 bed room farm house with glass window and door so you can see the beauty of the outside. The farm house is surrounded with chocolate hills, green grass and array of tropical trees, and all sort of farm animals like cows, sheep, horses, bunnies and birds. Where in the world can you finds all these in one place and its fascinating!!! I love everything in this place, honestly I am not a nature lover kinda' girl, I am actually the opposite, I used to live in a place where its crowded, where there's traffic everywhere, and all establishments are accessible within your reach. My life back then was easy but stressful and now it's actually the opposite. Buying food and stuff are not that easy, we have to drive down town to buy our weekly groceries and mind you, I have to list all our essentials because if you forget something you have to drive again and it'll be costly in terms of petrol just for an onion or soysauce.

So, let me tell you about a day in the life of a typical New Zealand dairy farmer, how James starts and ends his day:

3:00 am (Cows In) -- If it is his turn to get the cows in, he get up at 3 in the morning and grab a quick cup of coffee and jump on the motorbike to bring in the cows for milking.

4 am (Inside the milking shed) --The cows get to the milking shed and the rest of the team joins him to start milking. The cows' health and wellbeing are monitored while there are heading through the cowshed. Lame or sick looking cows are seperated for further examination.

7 am (Hosing down) - With milking over, it's time to shut the cows back in the paddock, hose down and clean the milking shed, just in time to join us for breakfast. (meaning I should be done cooking and preaparing breakfast by this time).

8 am - Family breakfast

9 am ( Jobs to do) - There are chores to be done around the farm. These may be inside jobs such as feeding out, setting up grazing for the herd, fencing or machinery upkeep or spraying for weeds in paddocks the cows have finished grazing.

12 pm - Lunch

1 pm (Outdoor tasks) - More chores, there is plenty of field work that needs to be done in between milking times. Jobs to be done take a broad range of skills from working with machinery, growing and harvesting paddocks and caring for animals.

2 pm (Take the cows to milking) -- Someone gets the cows in for milking again.

3 pm (Inside the milking shed) -- The rest of the team joins in for afternoon milking. It usually takes seven to 10 minutes to milk each cow. The shed must be hosed and cleaned down again, while the cows are walking back to the paddock.

6 pm (Finish) -- The day finishes, however at certain times of the year, like calving time, a few jobs remain to be done. Farmers may observe calving cows and assist them as needed. Cows can give birth any time, so during some nights sleep can be interupted.

So that's how James spend his day in the farm. Right now, I am a full time house wife/mom, doing all the house chores like preparing food, cooking, baking, cleaning, sewing, laundry and washing the dishes, oh you name it and I'm all for it! To be honest, I am not all of this, back home, I am a Queen, I don't cook, I don't do laundry and I don't even know how to sew, I'm just like a normal working mom, but when I got here, I learned all these things on my own, which is great, my family back home were proud of me doing all sorts of things. That's what I call self-determination and separation which I learned in the latter part of my life which I don't mind, it's better late than never. So there you go guys, hope I don't bore you with our daily routine and our simple life in the farm.