Omelette Anyone?

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DAY 373

I awoke with terrible cramp in my calf muscle, I rubbed it for ages before it calmed down and went back to normal. I had a glass of water beside me, it was a warm night so I drank it down with ease and eventually went back to sleep.

I knew Andy had already got out of bed, it was daylight already but I was tired so carried on sleeping, we had a late night last night and after all that travelling a small lie in was deserved. I finally succumbed to the daylight at 7.30 and got up. I remembered that Andy told me when he went out to the truck this morning, he noticed that overnight someone had “egged” it, the egg was spattered over the rear, the drivers window and wing mirror and all across the bonnet.

Andy was having a shower and shave, he had been sat outside on the veranda enjoying a cup of tea and watching the beautiful view over the back of Bathurst.

Clayton, lee and Marilyn’s son is also up and about, he makes a cup of tea for me. I eventually join Clayton and Andy on the veranda, followed closely by Lee and Marilyn.

We sit and chat, admire the stunning view over a breakfast of tea and toast, but time again moved on and we were needing to hit the road, Andy wanted to be away by 10.00, although we have not got so far to travel today we still have a good four hours drive ahead of us and we don’t want to arrive late at Woodstock.

Just before we leave Bathurst, Lee spends 10 minutes washing the egg off for us, otherwise once the sun heats up we will have a baked on omelette.

We say our goodbyes and head off pleased that we were able to see Lee and Marilyn if only very briefly, but Woodstock beckons and we must go.

It is 10.00 and we are heading out of Bathurst toward Cowra, a fairly uneventful journey, we grab a coffee as we drive through Young and pick up the Olympic Way toward Cootamundra, we are now taking some country roads, in true KangarooJack style we had a small bet on what time we would arrive at Woodstock. Neither of us had taken this road before and we have no idea how long it would take so I said it would be 2.02 pm and Andy went for 1.55pm.

We were soon in Bethungra and turning off for Nangus, this bit was going to be guess work because the map can get a bit vague on some of these lesser known tracks and if there is no signpost it is all guess work.

We pass one turning but I was not sure so we carried on, then another turning that said Nangus so I knew that we were good. Then at the end of the road we took the turning for Nangus and then realised that we should have turned right instead of left, Andy reckoned that I threw him a bum steer in a bid to win our little game. However, we turned around and in no time at all Woodstock came into sight.

Instead of the parched landscape that we had seen back in February this year, we are now driving past fields of wheat, canola and triticale, the colour is beautiful and the texture of the landscape looks like velvet.

We turn for Woodstock and drive down the familiar dusty lane, remembering how last time it all looked very strange and different than what we were used to, but this time there is that nice sense of familiarity.

We pull up under the Red Flowering Gum tree just outside the house, the engine is off and it is 2.00, we agree that we should call our little bet a draw, we were both very close to the time and considering I directed Andy to go left when we realised we should have gone right then I thought it was the fair thing to do.

We knew that everybody would be out, it is a busy time here, so we wandered up to the house anyway, and surprisingly there was someone inside. Bree introduced herself to us, she is here with James, Helen and Roberts Son, everyone is apparently out and about concentrating on the harvest.

James and Bree are going back to Canberra today, but James is obviously still out working.

One of the first things that I notice is the significant amount of flies around, I don’t know which type of fly but they are not the black variety but small and light brown, they don’t bite, apparently, but they are everywhere, I notice a large spot lamp on the lawn with a fly zapper next to it, I now suspect there must be a problem, the flies are all over the windows and the mosquito screens.

Eventually James reappears and suggests to Andy that he should give him a training session, Andy agrees, but of course only a training session then he will be right back, I knew that would be the last I saw of him until about 9.30.

In the meantime Helen reappears, it is great to see Helen, she already tells me that we should make ourselves at home and we are in Susan’s bedroom, so I start to get organised.

A phone call comes in and Helen is receiving instructions, take some water and something to eat out to Andy, as he only expected to be out there to do a bit of training and all of a sudden he just carries on and drives the tractor with chaser bin behind, so the tractor chases the header, (Combine Harvester) so instead of stopping everything to unload, they unload as they go so the header just keeps cutting the crop and time is not wasted.

I am despatched with Helens car, the water and some fruit for Andy, I know I need to drive about 12 kilometres to a place called Yileena (aborigina for Dream Come True), I roughly know where it is so off I go, but I do drive up and down the lane a couple of times to get the right turning, it felt like ages before I came down the hill and could see exactly what I was looking for.

I pulled up in the lane, I was driving a normal 2 wheel drive car so was unable to take the car into the field, I see Robert who tells me where I need to go to find Andy, if I want to join in I can sit in the header as there is 2 seats, so I would have to go and sit with Jason, I go up and wait by the lorry in the field, a tractor and trailer soon appears alongside the lorry.

All I can see in the cab is Andy’s smiley face, he seems to be enjoying the challenge. Andy persuades me to go and sit in the header while Jason cuts the rest of the paddock, I am not too keen for some reason this farm machinery I find quite scary it is all quite huge.

Jason stops and I jump in, well ok, I actually climb in and we are away, Jason instructs Andy over the UHF where he needs to be and when in order for Jason to empty the header into the chaser bin.

Jason explains how the header works, it is amazing really this thing is run on computers and GPS. The GPS tells the header exactly where to go you can see on the screen an image of the paddock that is being cut and you can see what has been cut and what has not, you can even tell how much in weight has been collected in a day.

It feels really weird to be sat up so high in this huge monster of a machine, it turns round in the field on a sixpence, Jason also shows me the comb that cuts the crop, I can see Andy on the hill waiting for the call from Jason to say that he can collect the grain, soon he is alongside us again the grain from the header is dropped into the chaser bin, not an easy roll by any account as the bin has to match the speed of the header so that the grain goes into the bin and not back on the field.

Once this paddock is finished I jump out of the header, the guys all move to a different paddock and I jump back in Helens car and head back to the farm where a nice chilled glass of white awaits my attention.

I have a shower and change into clean clothes, Robert appears long before Andy does, but at 9.00 Andy appears ready for dinner.

Helen has the lamp alight on the front lawn, there are lots of flies buzzing around in the light, which means that there are fewer coming into the house, there are some but they are congregating around the overhead lights, I wonder how long they will hang around.

It has been a very long day for us both, but Andy did not expect to go straight into work, it has been a touch day for him, he has done most of the driving this morning, so he is exhausted, at 10.00 we all retire, but no sooner than we jump into bed, the dogs start barking, but they pale into insignificance as tiredness takes over.

Andy hopes for a straightforward day tomorrow to carry out his task with the chaser bin, however as we know things never work out quite the way you expect, so tune in tomorrow for another exciting day on our adventure.

Goodnight.

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Photos

Omelette Anyone?
Someone hd egged our truck overnight, I don't know how many eggs, but it was well done!

Harvest Time
at Woodstock

Dumping the Grain
Andy drives the Chaser Bin.

The Header or
Combine Harvester as we know it.

Dumping the Grain
into the chaser bin.

Fire Truck
On standby

Moving the Header
from one paddock to anther

Comments

[Darryl and Sarah]

Fun on the farm
What a fabulous experience and we bet Helen, Robert and the dogs are so pleased to see you both. Have a great time, half the fun is in the hard work we bet. The photographs are fantastic, very envious. Can't believe somebody egged the truck, didn't they know about Caroline's iffy moment back in Undara?! Take care Much love as always WW x x

[Lee & Marilyn]

Omelette Day +1
Dear Andy and Carol, Looks like you are right into the hard yakka already!! Next time I am having a slice of toast I'll be thinking: 'Could be the wheat The T's harvested'. Of course I'll then spread a bit of Cocky's Joy on it as a bit of a ritual . . . Hope you can put up with the flies . . . They're maddening aren't they! Take care. Lee and Marilyn

[kangaroojack]

Doggy Hugs
Hi guys, I have been trying to catch up on your blogs, but it has been quite busy since reaching the farm. It was not a very pleasant experience looking at the dried egg on the Patrol, even though I have started to eat egg again (not boiled) it brings back those horrible memories from Bad Egg Day. We had lots of hugs from the dogs, and sloppy wet kisses. KJ xx