Esther's world trip
Esther's world trip
vakantio.de/esther-around-the-world

"It's not a penis..."

Veröffentlicht: 08.09.2018

After having survived the first culture/class (?) shock, I'm slowly adjusting to my new surroundings. My "utmost priority" is to help milking and attending to the cows twice a day, that's why the farmers don't want me to "waste working time" cleaning the house. I'm gradually accepting my fate as working in the barn is a really hard and tiring activity which makes me more tolerant towards the dirt in the house! I just don't feel like scrubbing kitchen floors after the barn :-/

The farm is home to 30 dairy cows which have to be milked in the morning and in the evening. I'm assisting Gudny Halla, the farmer's wife, who is actually rather frank and kinda cool. After some quick breakfast, usually a bowl of cereal, we get dressed for the barn, which means putting on old and dirty clothes, rubber boots, a long plastic spray apron with sleeves (very sexy!) and a piece of cloth to cover our hair. 

My first job in the barn is to prepare the cows for milking: Before the milking machine is attached to the cow's udder, its teats need to be washed with a piece of cloth to guarantee a certain degree of cleanliness. Some of the cows don't like this procedure very much and start moving or even kicking. Due to that I was rather hesitant and cautious in the beginning, which prompted Gudny Halla to say: "It's not a penis, don't be so shy!" As if I knew how to deal with penises :-p  After the milking machine has been taken off, I have to cream the teats with vaseline to prevent them from getting sore or infected.

My second job in the barn is to clean the wooden panels from all the cow shit. Fortunately, this is only done in the morning whereas I do the nipples in the mornings and evenings. If you're literally standing ankle-deep in that shit (thank God the rubber boots don't leak), the perspective on dirt in the house becomes an entirely new one. And imagine the olfactory experience! Interestingly I don't really mind the work that much even though some muscles of which I didn't know I had them are quite sore. After the shit cleaning I have to feed some hay to the calves and lead the cows outside to their pastureland. In total this takes up to 2-3 hours in the morning and approx. another 2 hours in the evening. In between I have some time off, which I naturally don't spend happily cleaning the interior of the house.   

One last important consideration: I was seriously wondering when it would be best to shower because everything always smells like cow (shit) and you can't really enjoy the state of being clean because the job needs to be done twice a day. Any suggestions?


Antworten (5)

Sandra
Auf jeden Fall in 4 Wochen, Esther. Wenn es weiter geht. Dann solltest du duschen. Denk an deine Flugnachbarn.

Bea
Ich würde das mit denn Duschen lassen und den Gestank als natürlichen Daseinszustand begreifen, ebenso wie den Dreck. Drogen könnten für die nötige Gleichgültigkeit sorgen.

Mechthild
This article amuses me in a way because it seems to me that you take it nevertheless with humour.

A
Quite a funny story :-) Even if you imagine, that's just the starting point of your loooong travel. Dirt is probably getting worse and in the end you might wish yourself back to “clean and propper“ Icland.

Isabel
I’m wondering about the fact that you still think about having a shower. Why don’t shower immediately? Or is there any limited amount of water?;) By the way I admire your work on the farm. Handling all the animals and so on... well, I really couldn’t do that! 👍🏼