Emptying Silo Bags of Wheat

Farmer Phil and Ryan are still emptying the bags of wheat from harvest last year.  We have a local grain merchant who is exporting it straight to China on ships so it's just a matter of getting the grain out of the bags, and putting it into our two silos at home where we can sift any wet grain or chunks that have formed in the last 7/8 months, and then auger it into the truck and drive it 7km to the bulk handler.

Sound simple?!  Not really!!  Just ask Farmer Phil how much hassle this type of temporary grain storage has been when we had over 9 inches of rain in one week fall onto bags which were damaged by foxes and kangaroos putting holes in them!  The rain leaked in and made a mess with some of the bags and it's been a bit of an ordeal to get the good grain out.  We had to use an industrial vacuum cleaner to separate and suck out the good grain in a couple of the bags.

 As the tractor reverses the machine, the bag is cut by a heated wire attached to the auger.  There is a sweep auger that goes inside the bag which then augers the grain up into the chase bin along side.

 As the tractor pushes the machine backwards it rolls up the emptied bag onto a spindle which is released when the whole bag is emptied.  The bag is then cut up into manageable pieces and thrown away.

The grain bags are an easy solution at harvest time when you've got grain coming out of your ears and the trucks can't keep up with carting it away, so we set up the bagging machine to keep the grain away from the headers so they can keep working.  Normally we like to have all the bags empty by March, but this year it was a lot harder to sell the wheat, and then we had an unheard of amount of rain fall in one week so you couldn't even drive near the bags in the ute without getting bogged!  Then cropping was in full swing, so the bags were put into the "too hard" basket for a while.

Not sure what the solution is other than spending more money to put up extra silos at home to cart to when the bulk handlers are either full or closed overnight.  Just another hurdle to jump over as a grain producer!

Building Improvements

Over the last few weeks we've had a builder friend of ours out on the farm forming up a large pad ready to be concreted which will be Farmer Phil's long-awaited workshop.  He's been wanting a decent shed to work in for the last 10 years, and now it's coming to fruition.  It is 15m x 18m so that it will fit most of the machinery completely in there for him and Ryan to work on no matter what the weather.  The daggy old pepper trees and piles of junk will be removed so that you can drive right through the shed.

These seed silos used to be where the shed is being built so they were dragged from their concrete footings and parked in the paddock waiting for new footings to be poured.

New footings ready to go.  Just waiting for Farmer Phil to finish spraying the crops for weeds, or spraying on liquid fertiliser, or spreading granular fertiliser etc, etc, etc.  We had almost 20mm of rain yesterday, so the crops look magnificent!

Some local wildlife left their footprints for all eternity as well!

Ryan's Latest Toy!

Farmer Phil and Ryan had a quick trip to Melbourne on Monday to pick up Ryan's latest purchase - a new motorbike.  He spent yesterday afternoon assembling it.  As a mother I can only hope that there will be no accidents with this one as Ryan's waterski season is just around the corner!  He is to have his wisdom teeth out on Friday this week, so he'll be a bit quiet for a week or so recovering from that.

Debutante Ball

Last night we went to the Temora Deb Ball where two of Emma's closest friends were presented.  They all looked beautiful.

Hannah, Emma and Jenna

Emma sings at Performance Night

Last night Emma's school had their annual Performance Night.  Emma sang a song that her singing teacher wrote - please enjoy!

Sophie from The Block Bunting Necklace

I have been watching the current series of The Block with great interest.  I really love Dale and Sophie's quirky style and can't wait to see what this week's childrens room looks like with synthetic grass and furniture on the ceiling!

I spotted Sophie's bunting necklace she wears on the show and really liked it so I did some research on the internet until I found it.  I bought one each for Emma and I.  They are only $25 each with $2 postage from the UK.

Here is the link to Lucie-Ellen's etsy shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop/lucie0ellen?section_id=7225732

I'm Farming and I Grow It!

My friend Michelle sent me the link to this You Tube video last night and then I saw that the Pioneer Woman is  talking about it on Facebook, and Bushbelles and   A Farmers Wife from Life in the Country have also posted it.

Even though it's made in the USA by 3 brothers from Kansas, it's exactly the same here in Australia.

We are farmers - we grow food for the world!!!

Enjoy - it's very clever and puts farmers into the spotlight where they rightly belong!!

Emma's School Ball

Last night Emma, Farmer Phil and I got dressed up and headed to Emma's mid-year school ball for year 11 and 12 students and their parents.  Here are a few photos before we left home.

 We found Emma's dress online at Zara after exhausting all of our local dress shops.  It's dark green lace over blush coloured satin - very pretty!  Exactly the same as one worn by Kate Middleton only in black.

 Father and daughter.

The three of us.

My Favourite Cookbook

It's turned freezing cold here the last few days with today being miserable and drizzling with rain!  We should've finished cropping yesterday but it came in and rained from lunchtime on - we're not complaining because we haven't had any rain for the past 6 weeks so the 25mm we received yesterday was very welcome! 

With the cold weather here to stay I've been craving comfort food, so I dug out Julie Goodwin's "The Heart of the Home" cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas last year.  Every recipe in it is exactly what my family loves to eat - simple and tasty country food.  This week I've already made Monterey Chicken, Slow-Cooked Lamb Shanks, Quiche Lorraine, and her BBQ Rack of Lamb. 

New Mummy Necklace

I also bought my friend Andrea a gorgeous necklace through Etsy.  It's sterling silver and personalised with the boys names stamped onto it.  Here is the link to the shop, Divine Stampings in the USA.