Pennant Banner

Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours cutting and sewing some pennants to make a fabric banner to decorate our hall for Ag n Chat's "Ball in the Hall" in October.  I have lots and lots of fabric scraps so the banner will be a very cheap way to jazz up the hall.  It's about 7m long, but I might make a few more pennants to make it up to 10m.

Women of the Land - Liz Harfull

I have just downloaded this book to my Kindle (the joys of not having to go to town to buy a book - I can get it instantly with the click of a button!).  It sounds like a very interesting read!  Here is the write-up from Liz' website:

Women of the Land

Making your living from the land in Australia is not for the faint-hearted. Isolation, hard physical work, long hours and the vagaries of drought, floods and fire make it a challenging environment for any farmer. But how do you cope when you are a woman in what is traditionally a man’s world?

Women of the Land brings together the inspiring and heart-warming stories of eight remarkable rural women who run their own farms, or in the case of one, manage a cattle station on behalf of an entire community. Often juggling the demands of raising a family, they have overcome tragedy, personal fears, physical exhaustion and more than a little scepticism to build vibrant futures that sustain them and their families, in the process inspiring their neighbours and communities with their entrepreneurship, humility and determination.

Despite the fact they come from diverse backgrounds and run very different types of farming enterprises in widely divergent parts of the country, the women have several things in common – they have made active choices to be farmers, they have a genuine love of the land and a deep, spiritual connection to the place where they live and work.

Each chapter explores the personal story of one woman and the people who have inspired her, the challenges she has faced as well as the humorous and heart-warming moments that have sustained her. The book also captures something of the rhythms and routines of daily life on their farms.

Most of the women are virtually unknown beyond their local area, or the industry in which they work. They agreed to participate because, in this, the Australian Year of the Farmer, they see the book as an opportunity to bridge the gap in understanding between city and country, and to explore issues that matter to them and their communities.

Mothers Day - 2012

Mothers Day 2012 had a much better outcome than last year's.  If you remember this post from 2011, Farmer Phil made sure that my family didn't feature negatively in my Mothers Day post this year!!  I received some yummy Body Shop body butters and a gift voucher from Witchery!  I wasn't sitting on a tractor either!  Farmer Phil had the day off because it was too windy for him to do any spraying, so the seeder had to stop as well!  I spent the day inside with the heater on watching TV and then had tea cooked for me.

Marrar Ag n Chat

Jump over to Marrar Ag n Chat's blog to see what we've been up to this year, and what charities we've been supporting.

Our main one is lending to Kiva to distribute microfinance loans to women in agriculture in Africa.  We are currently financing two loans.

Faith - a tea grower from Kenya

Millicent and her group - maize growers from Kenya

Last year we also decided to donate money to the Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) to buy supplies for these very important kits.  The kits are then distributed to developing countries to help reduce the number of deaths attributed to pregnancy and childbirth - "every 90 seconds a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth".  For less than a cup of coffee you can buy all the supplies needed for one kit - a plastic sheet, soap, 2 gloves, sterile scalpel blade, 3 cords and 5 gauze squares.  Funds are also made available for training women on how to use the kits.

A Little Bit of Sewing

This afternoon I've been a bit productive and churned out the centre of a quilt top.  I'm still waiting on the rest of the fabric to arrive via Australia Post to add the borders on and get it sent off to the quilter. 

Our Ag n Chat group has decided that since 2012 is the Year of the Farmer we should put on an event to recognise and celebrate the impact farmers have on our community, region, state, nation and even the world.  Our event will be a "Ball in the Hall" in October and we'll have a lovely dinner and dance with some raffles and items to auction.  I volunteered to make a quilt as one of the prizes.  More details will come in the next few months as we finalise all the details of our night.

Can you see why the fabric is called "Prince Charming"?!

Professional Waterski Photos of Ryan

Rocco Pirrottina of Distant Light Productions took this photo of Ryan flying through the air!

At one of the many waterski tournament we attended last Summer, a professional photographer hopped in one of the boats while the jump event was on.  He took some fantastic action photos and Ryan happened to get some taken of him.  I'm planning on having the photos enlarged and put onto some canvases for Ryan's room.

Why We Dislike Sheep!!

This is what greeted us yesterday morning!!  About 150 of the neighbours sheep had jumped across the stock grid and had a lovely time with one of our bags of wheat from last year's harvest!  They had climbed all over it and put holes everywhere.  There was a few tonne of wheat spilled on the ground, and probably a fair bit in their stomachs!  They'll be feeling quite ill for a few days with that much grain in them!  This is just another reason why we don't have sheep and probably never will again in the future!!!

Cropping 2012

There's been an awful lot of this going on over the last few weeks.  All the canola has been sown, and now we're onto the wheat.  We're just over half way, so we can see the end in sight!!  I've been relegated to "gopher" for this year's cropping as Ryan has taken to the seeding rig like a duck to water!  Not that I mind at all!!!

Fanny Lumsden and her Glorious Band

Emma up in lights

Fanny and her Glorious Band

Fanny and Emma - two farm girls

What a night in Ganmain last night for a fundraiser for farmers affected by the recent floods in our area.  Fanny and her band came from Sydney for the weekend to perform 3 concerts.  I'd never heard of them before but let me tell you their music has you tapping your feet, clapping your hands and wanting to get up and dance it's that good! 

Check out Fanny and her band on our local news - http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/n4/video/-/watch/29106636/rising-star-returns-for-flood-concert

Emma and I had a great time along with hundreds of others at the Ganmain Hall.  Emma opened the show singing 5 songs - Landslide, Sweet Home Alabama, You and I, Cowboy Casanova and Rolling in the Deep.  She received a lot of applause and support which was fabulous.

Country Hall "Flood Raiser" Tour

After ten years of drought and two years of severe flooding, the small communities of the Riverina have suffered a battering. In true rural spirit Fanny Lumsden and her Glorious band have decided to leave the city streets behind and throw a series of old fashioned country hoe-downs in Halls in flood affected towns of the Riverina.

Fanny and her band will be playing at Tallimba Hall on Friday the 27th April, at Ganmain Hall on Saturday the 28th April and at Boree Creek Hall on Sunday the 29th April.

A competition is being run in each area for a local singer-songwriter or band, 25 years and under to play at each of the gigs. All they need to do is send in a recording or a youtube clip and the reason they think they should play in 250 words to fanny.lumsden@gmail.com by 5pm Wednesday the 18th of April.

GUESS WHAT!!

Emma is the local singer who will be performing at the Ganmain Concert on Saturday night!!

All money raised will go to Blaze-Aid which you may remember was set up after the devastating Victorian bushfires a few years ago to help farmers get their fences re-built.  Well, after the recent floods in our area, Blaze-Aid is restoring farm fences washed away.