Shot off Like a Bondi Tram!

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DAY 375

Andy brought me a cup of tea this morning, it is 7.00, I wanted to be up in good time as I am going to Wagga Wagga today with Helen to do a bit of shopping, Helen has a 9.00 appointment in town so we need to be leaving Woodstock by 8.15 in order to get there in time.

I am up and about, chat to Andy about yesterdays fire, he is enjoying a short time of peace and quiet, i.e. everyone is out and about doing sheep things so Andy is surplus to requirements at the moment, by 8.00 however Jason appears at the door, so it is time to go.

Jason and Robert appear and Robert asks if I want to go with Jason and Andy, also that Helen is still too busy with sheep to head into Wagga Wagga so she will have to rearrange her appointment, I can drive the pilot vehicle ahead of the tractor and chaser bin.

The day is a bit of a blur really so I may actually miss some things out or get things slightly wrong, but somewhere along the way this morning I remember being told that Helen is out walking with the sheep, she walked behind them with the dogs when they were transferring them from one paddock to another. The sheep had “broken” into a neighbouring paddock as they had run out of water, so they broke part of a fence down to get to a neighbouring dam that still had water, Helen’s first job of the day was to retrieve the sheep and get them back into their own paddocks where they still had water.

Jason, Andy and I are heading down to Roberts brothers farm a few kilometres down the road, they harvested the crop for John and are now moving the equipment back onto Woodstock land to continue their own harvest.

So Jason explains to me what needs to be done, the Landcruiser has an “Oversize Vehicle” sign on it, along with a flashing beacon, my job will be to drive ahead of Andy as he drives the tractor on the bitumen. No problem this is something new and exciting to do, as I have never “piloted” a vehicle before.

The landcruiser is quite heavy to drive, it is not automatic and the clutch is quite heavy to depress, my last two cars have been automatics so it is unusual to drive a manual again.

We are soon on the bitumen, Andy is a short distance behind me, he can only do about 30k’s an hour, so I have to maintain a steady speed and distance in order to warn oncoming traffic. In behind Andy is Jason, he is driving a truck and towing an auger (An auger is a device for moving material or liquid by means of a rotating helical flighting. The material is moved along the axis of rotation. For some uses the helical 'flighting' is enclosed in a tube - Wikipedia) it is also a long piece of equipment on its own set of wheels.

It is still early so there is not much traffic around anyway, but we soon get to our turning, however Helen is coming down the lane with some sheep so we have to get into the paddock to the right hand side without getting in the way of the sheep.

Andy moves the tractor in, followed by Jason. Once this is done Andy and I dash across the road to pick up the comb for the header, this sits on its own trailer, which is 12 Meters long so is also classified as oversize, but it is only going across the road to the other paddock.

Helen and Robert have gone off to sort some sheep out, so I radio in that I will head back to Woodstock, knowing that I would be needed as there is another pilot job to do.

I am back at Woodstock for 10 minutes when Helen and Robert appear, we are now all off to Yilleena (aboriginal for Dream Come True) to pick up another tractor and oversize grain bin, dropping Helen off at Johns farm to close some gates up. I dropped Robert off, he asked me to go and pick up Helen and he would “catch up” unfortunately by the time I got to Helen she had a phone call from Robert to say that the tractor would not start, can we get some jump leads, no joy at Johns farm, so Helen called up a neighbouring farm, a chap in the header says that they are all out, there maybe some in the workshop but does not know.

So we drive up to the neighbouring farm, success we find some jump leads and are soon on our way back to Robert.

At this point we still have plans to head into Wagga Wagga, we thought we will just get the tractor started and moved, then we can get on with our day.

But no, this is were it all goes horribly wrong and fortunately remembering Helen’s comment from yesterday, “Remember to take water with you when leaving the house as you don’t know when you will be going back to it”, I had grabbed an Esky of water for myself when I popped back to Woodstock earlier, very fortunate manoeuvre on my part.

We now have no sign of being able to get back to Woodstock least of all get into Wagga Wagga any time soon, the tractor wont start from the jump leads despite the capability of the Toyota Landcruiser and the ability to apply extra power when needed (sounds like Star Trek - “more power Scotty”).

So a few phone calls later we are all back in the Landcruiser and heading to Illabo, just down the road, but remember just down the road in Australia is not as it is in England when just down the road means 5 or 10 minutes drive, just down the road is usually at least half hour away, at Illabo, we find that the battery they have is slightly too big to fit in the battery casing on the tractor, so we drive to Junee, no joy there either, same problem and then on to Wagga Wagga, where Helen and I were due to go anyway, but as we are on a mission we are not going to do what we wanted to do, just get a new battery, so a long drive with the 3 of us cramped up in the cab of the Landcruiser we eventually get back to Yilleena.

Robert fits the new battery and within seconds the tractor has started so with Helen and I in the pilot vehicle we all set off, on the very slow journey over to a paddock just opposite Woodstock where Jason and Andy are now in full flow of harvesting.

In fact it seems that this delay has caused a bit of a problem, the yield is about 2 tons per hectare which is pretty good for the season that they have been having therefore they need the space in the grain bins, so Robert has called a truck in from somewhere to take the grain and thus creating space. Robert would usually fill his own truck up and take it into the grain merchants.

This journey is a lot slower than the one I piloted this morning, the tractor is pulling a huge bin, and the bin is so big that if it contained any grain then it would not be able to move!

Eventually we get there, so Helen and I can now deal with some sheep that need moving and get return the borrowed jump leads. But in the meantime, a call comes out for more water, so we go back to Woodstock and grab more water containers from the freezer and get them back to the field.

With that done, we go back up the road to drop the jump leads back to the farm that we borrowed them from I put my hands over my eyes when one of their sheep dogs runs in front of the truck and stands there not moving, but Helen assured me that it would move. I don’t think I am cut out for this farming game.

It has been an exhausting day already! Fortunately Patricia one of the farm owners is there so Helen and I are lucky enough to have a cup of tea and some cake, well we did not get any lunch apart from a Calippo and a bag of crisps, not very healthy I know but we have been busy.

Then we have to put some road warning signs out on the highway, we are going to move about 700 sheep from one paddock to another across the road, so we need to follow the rules and warn the traffic that there is sheep on the road.

With our payload of sheepdogs on board, the ever popular Trixie, Wally and Jack each eagerly awaiting their task in hand, I am driving, but am not familiar with 3 dogs all hanging off the back of the Ute, looking excited and enjoying the air hitting them in the faces. I worry that they may jump off, Helen assures me that they will be fine.

We put up the road signs and head out to the paddock, it is amazing that the sheep will run when they see a vehicle come so that is the first action, with the sheep now running in one direction, the dogs shot off like a Bondi Tram from the back of the truck with instructions from Helen they all go off and do their thing, in turn we use the truck to help steer them in the right direction.

Helen walks for a spell so I drive manoeuvring the truck to head the sheep off. The gates are now closed, the sheep are heading down the lane, we hope now that the roadsigns are doing the trick and people know there are sheep on the road, this is where fingers crossed that the sheep do the admirable thing and take the right direction at the road, of course they don’t they all turn left so Helen and the dogs have to go round and head them off, I stand waiting at the top by the turning to make sure that they don’t go the wrong way again, fortunately when one suddenly takes the right turning they all follow, amazing.

Once they re off the road, I whizz down the road in both directions to pick up the roadsigns.

Now some way down the lane, Helen gets a call, we need to go somewhere else, so the sheep are now gated into the lane, while we head off to do something else.

I wont go into the boring detail here, as it will probably make you sleep, but it involves a huge amount of tooing and froing all with the lovely sheep dogs on board wanting to get out at any opportunity they can. I have no idea what time we managed to get the sheep but poor Wally’s back leg started to play up, he had an injury a few months back so it still aggravates him, so he needed a helping hand to get back in the Ute every time.

The sheep went almost where they were supposed to, again I had to use the Ute to head them off at the pass, they wandered all over the place in the farm yard before we could get them into the paddock, but with everyone in the right place we soon managed it. Not only am I watching the sheep I have to keep an eye on all the dogs too , Wally has a habit of walking in front of the truck or running alongside of it, so you need eyes like a hawk, I am happy as long as I can see all three of them.

On the way we noticed a tap that was leaking by a water trough so we needed to go and find the stop tap, so driving up into another paddock we find another rain water tank, we stopped the water and finally managed to head back to Woodstock, drop the doggies off to their little houses, feed them, feed the chickens, ducks and cockerel, pick up the eggs that had been laid then indoors for a much earned shower and glass of wine.

By now it is 8.10 pm so just in time to freshen up and watch Packed to the Rafters. A couple of glasses of red wine later I feel terribly relaxed. At about 9.30 Robert appears and asks if either of us are sober enough to move a ute down the lane, hmmm!

Eventually Andy appears, it seems that the wind has got up outside and it is now an impossible task for the grain to be transferred into the chaser bin and from the chaser bin into the grain bin, the wind just blows it straight out. So Jason has carried on until the header is full, then he has to stop.

We don’t actually eat until gone 10.00, steak and salad has gone down exceptionally well, Andy and I retire soon afterwards, but by now it is 11.00.

The last two days have been a bit of an eye opener to me, I can see what grain goes through before it gets to the products that we buy in the supermarket or bakers, perhaps that’s why bread is so expensive in Australia?

Well, hopefully and easier day for me tomorrow but I cannot promise that for Andy!

Goodnight!

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