How Do You Spell Bee?

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DAY 378

I could not believe my eyes getting back to the house last night (or should I say this morning), the ceiling over the veranda was covered in flies, they were swarming over our empty Esky which was sitting outside, fortunately they only seem to come to the front of the house and not the back, I don’t know why, maybe it is cooler around the back?

I slept in until 8.00, got up and had breakfast, Andy and Helen were nowhere to be seen, I knew that Josh would still be sleeping so I kept as quiet as possible, I heard him come in somewhere around 4.00am after spending most of the night harvesting (& helping to fix the tractor with the battery problem).

This morning I can see where the flies had come indoors the windowsills and the floor by the door was a dark brown where all of the flies had fallen to the floor, I vacuum them up while Helen is out, it seems that she has another day of rushing around ahead of her.

The wind outside is hot, not just warm but actually very hot, it feels as if the wind stops then it should be cold weather, but that is also far from the truth today the temperature is back up to its 40’s and it is Spring, not Summer! I wonder what happens when the summer comes again, will it reach the scorching temperatures that we experienced here earlier this year when it was summer.

The high winds means also that harvest has been called off for the moment, the Rural Fire Service put a call out to people to tell them to stop, the risk of fire due to high winds is too much a high fire risk.

So I knew that everyone out in the field was covering the grain and will find something else to do this afternoon.

Josh and Andy popped in for some lunch, but they were soon gone again, no sooner than they had gone, the winds picked up again, the dust was being blown across the front of the house, sitting inside I can hear the wind howling, it seems to be quite strong, I hear on the radio storm warnings, they have just come through the Blue Mountains, I am not sure if we will get the predicted storm.

Rain is expected, when the temperature drops, the temperature is just starting to drop it is 38.7 outside there is moisture in the air, the flies outside are disappearing (at the moment) I went outside to the freezer, the rain drops are starting to come down but as yet they are not heavy.

Heavy rain could have devastating impact on crop that is not yet harvested, that is to say that the heavier the rainfall then the more likely crop will be flattened, the best they can hope for are small showers so fingers crossed. But the rain does not come, it may have bypassed us, for the moment anyway.

Tonight I am off out with Helen, we head off to the Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre, I am looking forward to a night at the theatre, it has been a while.

I drive Helen’s car and we pick up Helen’s friend Josie on the way, we are driving through narrow lanes toward Wantabadgery, they seem to be littered with dead Galahs, they are not moving off the road quick enough, they are feeding on the spilt grain on the road, once fed they are reluctant and too heavy to move quickly so they are getting run over, I do my best to miss them all, but I think I clipped one of them as they eventually flew up.

We are going to see the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Andy did ask us what it was about so the response came back in unison “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee!” Actually I had wondered myself what could you possibly do to a spelling bee to make it a theatre production, I need not have wondered too much.

The cast all from the Wagga Wagga district, were all fantastic in this production, they even asked for audience members to participate, so about 4 people from the audience went up on the stage to participate in the “Bee”. This made for some unexpected one-liners and great gags.

The show is a musical, the excellent cast sang some great songs with such powerful voices, on the whole a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

When we left, Helen picked up her phone messages, there was a message saying that harvesting could begin again, so no doubt it was all systems go back on the farm again.

I drove back remembering where I needed to drop Josie off, seeing lots of dead Galahs in the road, not sure if there were any more than earlier but still not a pleasant sight all the same.

We can see lights in fields dotted over the horizon; it looks as if everyone is out in their headers for a nights work harvesting. They have missed near enough 2 days of harvest due to the poor weather conditions so once again all hands to the pump.

Back at Woodstock, we find Andy sitting reading, Josh has taken the night shift again, I think Andy will be doing night shift tomorrow night providing the weather holds out. The flies are not as bad as last night but a few are indoors.

It was already 11.30 so it was way past our bedtime, another long weary day for everyone on the farm, but as we slip into slumber and sweet dreams, for some still out in the paddocks their day was far from over for several hours at least.

Lets see what tomorrow brings, Goodnight!

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Photos

Swarming
Flies on the Esky....

Woodstock
This sign is supposed to read Woodstock, but the flies have completely covered it.

Flies
This is the roof of the veranda.... I hope these flies go soon....