It's a Dirty Job, But Someone Has To Do It!

This is what my hands look like at the end of the day - covered in soot, dirt and seed treatment! There are no hand washing facilities out in the paddock so when eating lunch you have to be very careful not to contaminate your food!

Seeding

Thought I'd do a post about about seeding and what equipment we use to get the job done.

This is our seeding tractor - it's a Case MX 285. Very easy and comfy to drive which is essential because of the long hours Farmer Phil and I sit in it. It is equipped with a GPS unit which makes sure that the tractor drives in a dead straight line so that there is no overlapping or missed bits on the paddock which reduces our efficiency.

This is the air cart with the addition of a liquid spray tank. The tank is used to apply the chemical "Impact" which is a fungicide to control diseases in canola and wheat when mixed with the fertiliser. The air cart has two compartments or tanks - one for seed and one for fertiliser. The photo shows Farmer Phil filling one of the air tanks with fertiliser. The air cart has a fan attached which blows the seed and fertiliser along tubes to the cultivator bar.

This is the cultivator bar. It's 10.5m wide and has 36 tynes which are 12 inches apart. The tynes dig a trench and the seed, fertiliser and fungicide are placed behind the tyne in the trench.

Here is a close up of the tyne with the fertiliser hose, the seed hose and the smaller liquid tube.

There is a row of press wheels behind the cultivator bar which presses the tilled soil gently back into the trench.

This is what the paddock looks like after the seeder has been through. Hopefully in a week or so we should see little canola plants popping their heads through!

Hope this sort of explains seeding at our farm!!

My Mothers Day!!!

Since I took over driving the seeding rig a few years ago I have spent every Mothers Day sitting on the tractor for the day sowing our canola crop. This year was no different with me on the tractor for the daylight hours and then Farmer Phil taking over at night. You can imagine what my Mothers Days have been like over the past few years!! I'm not complaining too much but this years' Mothers Day really topped me off!!

None of my three children (or my husband!) even wished me a Happy Mothers Day, let alone gave me a small token of their appreciation for me!! I sat all day on that bloody tractor imagining what all the other mothers in the world were doing - a nice sleep in to start with, then the kids making breakfast in bed, homemade gifts given that were made with love, maybe a picnic in the park with the family, and someone to cook dinner and clean up when they get home!! Ha - not in this household!!!

So, I'm giving myself a photo of a nice bunch of flowers that I deserve!! Hope you all had a much nicer day than me!

PS - Sorry about this post - I don't normally write anything too personal here but I really needed to let off some steam!

Update.........

Yesterday I put some poison mouse baits in the ceiling cavity next to the manhole so that they were easy for me to get to. Looks like it paid off because when I checked it this morning all the bait was gone - hopefully eaten by those pesky mice! Thinking about it now, the house was decidedly quieter last night with no scratching noises coming from the walls and ceiling. So hopefully I may have contained our furry problem for the time being!

Just one small problem - what if the mice decided to die in the ceiling? Look out for the stench in a couple of days!!!??

A Small, Furry Problem!

Yes, we have a mouse problem here on the farm! Thankfully, they haven't found their way inside the house yet although we do have some in the walls!! All our neighbours are battling them inside their homes - YUCK!! I guess because our house is relatively new (almost 10 years old) that it is sort of mouse proof! We also have a Jack Russell Terrier and 5 cats who have been doing a great job at keeping the numbers down around the house and shed - evidenced by bits of mice bodies everywhere outside!

The paddocks are literally covered in little holes which the mice dig as a nice cosy nest for themselves and their family. When you drive at night the roads are alive with mice running across everywhere! We're all hoping that once some colder weather starts that the mice might eventually die off!

A Royal Wedding

I can vividly remember sitting up all night watching Charles and Diana's wedding almost 30 years ago when I was 12. I really hadn't thought a lot about watching William and Kate's wedding until the coverage started on Friday evening - then I was hooked and couldn't wait to see THE DRESS!

Kate didn't disappoint - she looked as elegant and stylish as you would expect a royal to be. And Pippa's dress was just gorgeous! William and Harry looked very dashing in their military uniforms and they looked the epitome of young prince's.

All in all I thought it was a beautiful wedding and I hope their marriage is filled with happiness!

2011 Water Ski Nationals

We arrived home late Tuesday night from Townsville after a week there for the 2011 Australian Water Ski Nationals. We had a really great time but just didn't get enough time to have a look around Townsville. We shared a house with two other families for the week - 6 adults and 7 kids!

It was our first time at Nationals and both Ryan and Emma learned a lot about serious competition. Ryan skied well enough to get a new tournament PB in slalom.

On Monday night we had the Presentation Night at Jupiters Casino which was attended by over 400 people. There was a fantastic fireworks display and the food was magnificent. All 8 states and territories of Australia were represented for the first time this year with NSW winning overall. There were many Australian records and PB's broken during the week so it was a very successful tournament for most competitors.

Ethan, Ryan, Deanna, Jayme (Under 17 Girls Slalom Champion!), Jenna, Emma and Brodie

The winning team from NSW

Winner!

Last weekend we were in sunny Port Macquarie at Stoney Park for the NSW/ACT Water Ski Titles. Ryan and Emma both competed and they skied well. On Saturday night we had the annual presentation night for the Malibu Series that they compete in during the season.

Ryan won the Most Improved Overall Skier Award which was presented to him by the gorgeous Sinead from Stoney Park. He was very pleased with himself because he has worked very hard on improving his skiing this season. The award also includes coaching sets from the experts at Stoney Park.

Ryan also won his division of jump for the series too. He's pictured here with Jayme (2nd), Timmy (World Overall Junior Water Ski Champion!!), Rabbit (World Junior Jump Champion and more recently winner of Women's Jump at Moomba!), and Jenna (3rd).

On Tuesday this week we're flying to Townsville for the Australian National Water Ski Championships, so I hope that there are no more earthquakes there!!

PS - Thanks to Liat for taking the photos of Ryan when my camera died before even getting to take one photo!

New Old Lounge!

I finally picked up my lounge from the upholsterers yesterday. I really love it and I think it still looks like it's from the 1940's era. Check out the old lounge in my post here before it's makeover. It's more than 100% better than before!

I picked a striped velour fabric from Warwick called Brioni in Olive and a plain velour called Bond in Mocha. I think the lounge would've looked too stripey if I hadn't broken it up with the plain chocolate brown.

I also changed around the lounge/dining area so that the lounge is now against the wall and the dining table and chairs are in the bay window. This will save the fabric from fading after sitting in the sunny bay window. It's lovely to now sit at the dining table with the windows all around to look out at the surrounding farmlands.

Best Mates!

Squirt and Jack snoozing in the sun this morning!