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Published: November 22nd 2009
Who's Got Pigs Ears?
Andy sporting the finest pigs ears before givingthem to the dogs!DAY 379
This morning I woke up tired, we have been putting some hard yakka in on the farm, but this is farm life, this is harvest time, it has to be done, however tired everyone is it still goes on.
I have a quick cup of tea and Helen and I head off, me in the fire truck and Helen towing the fuel bowser.
The header has been working all night, we pass Jason who is going home for some rest, we arrive at the paddock where it had been parked, it is covered and needs to be prepped for the next round.
Fuelled up, greased, filters blown out with the compressor, and the whole of the harvester cleaned down as it accumulates so much chaff and dust it is potentially a fire starter on wheels so all precautions have to be taken.
Helen is lovely, she is tiny but don’t be fooled, she is a dynamo at 5ft 1 she is the king pin at Woodstock, always on the go, here and there fetching, carrying, loading sheep, driving in to Wagga to collect parts for the tractors or harvester and then importantly supporting Robert,
her Husband, who is a very busy farmer and an excellent one at that.
The very first day at Woodstock when we met Helen I met a guy called Ross who worked for Landmark Agriculture who said to me that Robert was a very well respected farmer in the area and turned out excellent sheep, I was very impressed.
You would all love to meet Helen, she is calm and capable to deal with all the things that daily life on the farm can throw at you, she takes it all in her stride, but has been on a farm all her life so very little surprises her.
The harvester (Header) is all prepped, it takes about an hour, then she is ready to roll, Robert takes the first stint, as Jason had gone to bed, and I have to say that driving the chaser bin for Robert is quite difficult and I will tell you why. The Header is GPS driven when running down the long tracks, the only thing required to be altered is the speed and the height of the cutting comb. Jason had said to me that he would keep the header at
The Proud Mummy
Candy, who gave birth to 9 puppies last night. constant speed and I had to match my speed to him, and as the Chaser Bin Tractor has slide throttles and a micro wheel throttle after a while its easy to get the perfect speed, once this has been achieved the Auger (delivery boom) can be swung over and a load of grain (about 6 tonnes) can be “pumped” over to the chaser bin and when full I just dart off and dump it all in a bigger bin.
However, with Robert on the header he works the other way around he matches the speed of the Header to the Chaser Bin, and I had to find that out “telepathically” as he had not told me. Well we had little piles of wheat all over the show, it was more like riding a bucking bronco than a smooth operation.
Josh arrived at 10.00 am to relieve me from my shift, so I could go and get some sleep as I was driving tonight, which I was looking forward to.
I finally surface at about 7.45, I feel tired from having so many late nights, heaven knows how everyone else is feeling as they are having much earlier
starts than I am. The kitchen is quiet, Josh is still sleeping as he came in at around 3.00 this morning, everyone else is out and doing their thing.
I potter around to find something to do, there is always something that needs doing, but I check my emails and browse the Internet while I have breakfast. I have a Skype message session with Gary (from Canada) one of our avid blog readers, he has been with us almost since the beginning of our adventure. Eventually Josh appears, he has breakfast and soon disappears up to the paddock to join everyone else.
Every now and then they come back, pick up some water and then go again, eventually a call comes over the UHF to say that they are moving paddocks, so we all go up and help shift the vehicles. Jason moves the header, Andy moves the tractor and chaser bin, Helen moves the comb, Josh moves the fire truck and I follow on in the ute to pick up Helen and Andy after everything is moved.
We hook up the fuel bowser to take it back to Woodstock so that it can be refilled, the
Jack... looks a bit sheepish
I don't think he likes having his photo taken! bowser itself can hold up to 500 litres of fuel, which is quite a weight to pull.
In the distance you can see darkness rolling around the hills, but it never seems to come over this way, the rain is threatening, it is humid today, but the rain does not come.
On the way back we stop of to see Jason’s dog Candy (Red Kelpie), she had 9 puppies last night, but there was some uncertainty as to who the dad is. The fact that some of them are all black may indicate that Wally (the border collie) is the dad, but I guess time will tell.
Candy’s temperament is great, she allows Helen to give one of the puppies to me to hold, the puppy is tiny and fits perfectly into the palm of my hand, Andy tries to go near Candy and she growls at him, maybe it’s a girl thing?
Jason’s girlfriend Kristy is also here this weekend, she has brought her 3 month old Kelpie up with her, DJ is tied up out in the yard so we pop over to see him, he is a gorgeous little thing, but I think
he may grow up to be a big dog, he is quite stocky with big shoulders and paws that look too big for him.
We give all of the dogs (except the new born puppies) a pig’s ear, we throw one over to Spook, but we give him a wide berth, as he has not got a good temperament.
Andy has a rest as he is working tonight, so after lunch he has a sleep. I sit quietly and have a read but that is short lived, as Helen needs to go and bag some grain that has spilt in one of the fields, I go to help Helen rather than wake Andy.
We get some bags and are in the paddock that was harvested earlier today. The wind is blowing which makes holding the bag open a little bit difficult. There is enough grain to half fill 5 bags (easily manageable not to fill them to the top!), but this grain will be used to feed the chickens. If the grain is left in the field, it will have poor consequences on the sheep, they may eat too much grain, which will make their stomachs bloat,
Boys Toys!
The steering wheel of the tractor, I know how very exciting this is! so it is a priority to remove as much of the spilt grain as possible.
The grain is dropped off and the ute is now safely in the large shed, Helen and I return to the house to find Andy sitting and waiting for Josh, Andy asks if I can bring some sandwiches and a cup of tea up to him later, I chose to make the sandwiches for Andy now, to save me the trouble of going up later, I made cheese and ham, but he really wanted ham and cheese, but never mind. Andy also asked if I would pop up with a travel mug of tea for him, but I think the look on my face that time gave away the fact that I might think it not a good idea.
Helen and I will be indulging tonight in a chic flick and a bottle of wine so Andy succumbed and said it would be ok not to have the cup of tea.
Josh arrives and Andy takes the baton and he is off for an evening with the Tractor and Chaser Bin.
After a few Skype calls, I spoke to the Trumans
More controls!
More excitement for those boys who like toys. (Travelin Truey’s) and my mother in law, Mary, with that done a glass of wine was waiting along with Hugh Jackman, well ok so he is not here in the flesh, but the film “Australia” awaits. I have been longing to see this film since it came out, so now I have the chance!
I was thoroughly engaged throughout the film, but Helen had to go out half way through, never any peace on the farm! Just as the credits rolled when the film finished, I heard a Skype call coming in on the laptop. It was my parents, we have not spoken in a while as they are still on holiday and getting an Internet connection is not easy. We chat for a while but they are off shopping and I am off to bed.
I speak to Andy just before bedtime to find out if he needs anything, but he tells me that he is ok, they wont be able to do much more as all of the grain bins are full, there were problems at the silo’s in Junee earlier which meant that Robert could only get one load in and had to wait for
two hours to dump that.
I read in bed for a while, but it was not long before I had to sleep, Andy in the meantime is still out in the paddock on the chaser bin.
The nights are fantastic, its pitch black except for the lights of the tractor and the header.
My air conditioned world is cool and exciting, the UHF chat is constant, Helen has given me some bush poetry to listen to on the CD player in the cab, which is great and helps pass the hours, by midnight we have all the bins full and have stripped about 37 hectares of about a total of 65, yielding about 60 tonnes of wheat.
We call it a night just after mid night, as we can not keep stripping as there is nowhere to put the grain and the grain we have already harvested needs keeping dry so tarps have to be pulled over and secured before we leave.
By the time I get into bed it is past 12.30, I am exhausted, I try not to wake Caroline as she seems to be fast asleep.
Until tomorrow and another exciting
day of farm life.
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Gary
non-member comment
Woodstock
Caroline, it was nice to 'talk' with you on Skype the other day. You guys sure are busy, busy working really hard on getting the grain off. There are so many obstacles, it seems, with fire being a real threat. It sounds like a lot of crop was lost. Bad! You both take care and try to relax a bit after the harvesting is done. You will need it.