Crying over spilt lambs and the case of the stuck camper van…

Sorry for my weeklong absence…I was without internet…but boy do I have stories!

Nothing went as planned Thursday morning. The lamb buyer called Wednesday afternoon to confirm that the trucker would arrive at 7AM. I told him no problem, I’ll be ready. Then he called again that night to say it would be 9AM, not 7AM as planned, which was fine. I had them all ready to go.

I got up at 6AM Thursday morning, had breakfast, got dressed and walked up to the pens at 8:15 just to be sure all was good to go. As I walked up I saw the trucker pushing the last group of lambs into the truck! He had arrived early and started without me! I went to him and said “Hello….I thought you guys were going to arrive at 9:00?” No response…he looked at me but ignored me. He closed up the truck and I handed him the appropriate paperwork. He said, “He is short by two. They jumped out and ran off.”

And that was it. He took the paperwork and drove off. My stomach started to knot up and a feeling of dread filled me. Was Eckhard going to tar and feather me? All I wanted was to get this task right and somehow a mistake happened. Ugh. Then the tears started…I think I hit a wall. A meltdown had to happen at some point. ☺ On top of this, I needed to walk into town (1 hour) in the freezing rain to pick up the truck and go grocery shopping. All I wanted was to crawl under a rock. (A heated one with a Jacuzzi tub, a six-pack of Newcastle, and a full plate of double chocolate brownies, right out of the oven.) hahaha ☺ But the walk into town invigorated me and broke through my mood. The rain even let up for a large portion of it.

Friday morning (the 13th) I was up on one of the paddocks behind the house clearing gorse. The rain finally let up and the sun had started to burn through the clouds. There is only one road up to the house so I was puzzled when the dogs started barking and I heard an engine gunning up the drive. From the hilltop, I watched as a white camper van appeared and snaked along the narrow road. Eckhard hadn’t mentioned that anyone was coming….at that point the camper van hit a steep incline and skidded slightly. I could tell that this scared the occupants because shortly after, the van stopped and two people hopped out. I was shocked when the van then attempted to turn around by backing into a hillside (this is a one car road along a cliff). For a moment I thought they were going to plunge forward into the ravine, but instead they managed to spin the back end into a mud pit on the hill and got stuck. No car would have been able to pass because the camper was stuck diagonally across the road.

Initially this made me nervous. I was up here all alone and for all I knew, this was some ploy to lure me down there, where they would tie me up and throw me into the back of the camper. But concern overcame my paranoia and I walked down there with my walking stick and Watch. Upon arriving at the scene, instead of the hairy, burly, escape convicts I was imagining, I found a family of three. A Japanese man, an aussie or kiwi(?) woman who was clearly flustered, and their quiet son. They were happy to see me and explained that they were just driving up for the scenery and the wife began to have a panic attack because of the decreasing size and grade of the road. I told them I’d do my best to help push them out…otherwise we’d need more people. The wife, son and I were behind pushing with everything we had, while the husband was behind the wheel. We attempted several times, and came close, but it wasn’t enough. We needed one more person. I decided to call Eckhard’s neighbor. I called the number (using the cell Eckhard let me borrow) but the number I had was incorrect. That meant I had to walk down to his house. I told the family I could get help but it would be 20 minutes or so for me to walk down there.

Once there (legs aching, huffing, puffing and sweaty from running downhill), I yelled down to Chris, who was outside chopping wood. He was kind enough to drive back up with Watch and I. With one more person we were able to successfully push the camper out of the mud. The wife refused to get back in. She said she’d wait for him to turn around at the house and come back down. Chris and I followed him up, where he had plenty of room to turn around. I hopped out of Chris’ car, thanking him for his help. The husband stopped before going down the driveway and said “You have no idea how thankful I am for your help. Thank you so much.” I told him it was really no problem. I was just happy to see them wind their way back down safely. By then, it was already 3:00 and the days plans were jumbled….but the sun was out and it recharged me.

This comes at a funny time…I just finished reading a book called The Kindness of Strangers (Edited by Don George). It’s a collection of travel stories by people who were in need of some sort of help while traveling, and the kindness of complete strangers who assisted them, some who didn’t even speak the same language. I recommend it… I just finished reading Cloud Farm by Jane Chetwynd. It’s about a woman from Christchurch who decides to quit her job and buy an old farm in Akaroa. It’s a simple book but really cute. Now I’ve started In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin.

I’ve been alone for four days now and it’s strange what happens to you, and what it makes you think about. Back in New Hampshire, there would be days where I’d dream of times like this…being away from everyone, the stress of work etc… but I’ve found that it’s the extremes that are difficult. It’s lonely up here. After chores and meals, I do some reading but I’m finding that I miss people. I’m really looking forward to Eckhard coming home. I’ve found myself talking to the animals more than usual. :) The internet has been down since the day he left so it’s even more isolating…but maybe it’s good to have a computer “cleansing” every once in a while. I’ve also realized something about TV. As interesting as I find it to watch foreign television (accents, different products, advertising, local news…) it’s all the same when you come down to it, and it makes me feel like I’m home… I’m going to try to avoid it from now on. Eckhard did get me hooked on a cooking show. Rick Stein? :) It’s really funny because he tends to go to extremes with things…he will travel somewhere and point out the interesting food in that area and then make something himself.

Anyway, back to work. Fingers crossed that the sun makes another appearance soon.. OH...I have some pics and will try to post them tomorrow ,more to come: