Well, as of this mornings mail (which usually arrives around 10:45 am) there hasn't been any word from the consulate. Thursday and Friday were rather hectic, and the thing I have my fingers crossed about now is that my DS-2019 form catches up with my passport and they renew my visa automatically.
Well, things have been fairly quiet over here interrupted by a few moments of excitement. On Saturday I cleaned windows and then Mum and I bought some little vegetable sprouts from the nursery in town (onions, lettuce and silver beet). After getting the garden nice and wet I planted those on Sunday afternoon.
There was no hot water here on the weekend, but we had the electrician in and so it was back by Monday night. I had a really nice sun-burn across my shoulders, with a big sports bra white mark in the middle. I didn't spend that much time in the sun, but I guess I burn pretty easy. I suppose my temporary exile will result in me having a great tan by the time I get back to the US.
Sunday was fairly busy. In the morning Mum, Dad and I went down to our other little farm just down the road a few kilometers. We had two calves which needed to be marked, which means putting in ear tags and if they are bull calves then we have to throw them on the ground so that Dad can get his pocket knife out and make them steers. Well, after we had roped them around the neck, Dad and I moved in and Mum held the rope. With three people it's fairly easy and we had those two calves done pretty quick. Generally you try and do all this on calves when they are about a month old, lest they get too big to throw. Up on the home block however, we had a big calf who was about 2 months old. We caught him later on Sunday evening and ear tagging him was easy, but he probably weighed as much as me and they are very strong. To cut a long story short, when we tried to throw him I went under him. I was worried the most about him kicking me in the face or breasts which fortunately didn't happen. He did however stamp my left wrist fairly well, and gave me a nice long slash across my kidney area and a few other grazes here and there. It was only a few seconds, but it seemed pretty long. I was rather shocked when I got up. We tried to throw him again and got him this time and that was that.
I was dirty but I suppose I was lucky not to get covered in too much shit when I was down, and so I went back to the house and cleaned myself up a bit. The slash around my kidneys hurt the most, but it's covered in a thick layer of flab, so no harm. Mum was really nice and heated some water up on the stove so I could have a shallow bath. That was nice and I could take care of most of the grazes. Not unlike a bike crash, but a little bit of a better story I suppose.
So that's my excitement for the weekend. Monday was fairly quiet, I really didn't do much at all. Mum works 2 and ½ days a week and Dad alternates between being here and down at the other block. I wouldn't mind going for a bike ride, but the sun is pretty fierce and the days are quiet hot, usually about +30C.