Harvesting Again

We finally started to harvest again late this afternoon after waiting a few hours for the moisture content of the canola seed to come down below 8% which it's required to be at the handling facility.

The two headers, Farmer Phil, the semi trailer, and the tractor and chaser bin waiting to start.

This is my view through the windscreen of the header.

Deck Update

The deck building has been a very slow process with the builder busy with other jobs elsewhere. They will finish it today with the last boards about to be fixed down now. I'll show you the finished product this afternoon. We're really happy with the result and it'll look even better in a few weeks when we oil it.

Harvey Norman delivered my new timber/wicker outdoor setting this morning. It's in cardboard boxes all ready to be screwed together! Can't wait for Summer to really kick in and have some BBQ's with family and friends on the new deck!!

Harvest 2011

We started harvesting last week, but we've now been stopped for 3 days after receiving 15mls of rain on Saturday and Sunday!

The canola is yielding really well with the oil content up to 45% - it should be at least 42%. For every % above 42 we receive a bonus premium.

We bought a second header during the year so that we can hopefully complete harvest a bit quicker before the receival handling sites become full.

I am driving one of the headers with Daniel and Ryan sharing the other one and chaser bin duties. Farmer Phil is driving the semi delivering all the grain.

Daniel is home from Deniliquin just to help with harvest, and Ryan is now a full time employee of ours after leaving school at the end of Term 3 when he finished Year 11. He turned 17 at the same time and got his Provisional driving licence so he's been a helping hand for us. Emma is our housekeeper as she's basically finished school for the year - no more lessons, just work experience and a leadership camp to attend.

We should be finished harvest in another 4 weeks - all going well weather wise, breakdown wise and sanity wise!!

Surfer/Sailor Boy

Last week when President Obama visited our country my nephew Surfer/Sailor Boy was the centre of our attention in both the print and TV media. He was splashed across every newspaper and TV news report for a few days.

You see, he recently enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy and is based at the moment in Darwin. When Obama and Julia Gillard visited, my nephew was smack bang in the front row behind the podium where they both spoke from.

That's him in the grey fatigues right next to President Obama's hand!

Family Reunion

A few weeks ago my sister Lisa and I went to a family reunion on my dad's side. The last reunion was in September 1999, a few months before our dad passed away. Both Lisa and I decided that Dad would've wanted us to attend this latest reunion even though we'd probably know hardly anyone there.

It was true!! We only knew a handful of people but we got to meet a lot of dad's first cousins who we'd heard about over the years but had never met them. We had a really nice time in the end.

As kids Lisa and I would always get mixed up by long lost relatives because they all thought that we looked so much alike! There is two years difference in our age with Lisa being the oldest and me being about five inches taller! I guess it didn't help when mum dressed us in exactly the same handmade clothes - the only difference being the colour of the material!!

Here are the two photos taken of us at the reunion - what do you think? Alike or not?

Lisa

Me

Minute to Win It and Colombo's Got Talent???

At night if the kids aren't too tired after 4 tough water ski training sets each day, we usually have some entertainment for them (there's no TV allowed!). We always have the annual Colombo's Got Talent and then this year we also had some Minute To Win It type games. In past years we've had a trivia night and a ping pong tournament.

Kirsty, I don't hink praying is going to help you with the Oreo!

Our two youngest skiers Callan and Kyle mastering the jigsaw puzzle.

Super coach Josh trying his hand with the ping pong balls.

Emma trying her hardest to get a ball in each cup.

Brodie and Jenna concentrating on their cup stacking technique.

This years winners of Colombo's Got Talent - "The Sparkles" (aka Sierra, Hannah, Tahner, Jaycee and Leah) who performed a wonderful Taylor Swift number.

Emma singing Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" - great look with the trackie pants and uggies!

Emma lost points because her back up dancers weren't quite up to scratch - sorry girls!!
Jenna, Tanika, Riley and Jayme trying their hardest.

It's really great to see the kids come out of their shells and move away from their comfort zones to have some fun!

Second Silo

Last week the builders finished our second 300T silo. Great job!! And the new "silo paddock" has been levelled to resemble a billiard table! That's Farmer Phil and Farmer Andrew having an inspection before the builders completed the cone!

Ski School

Every year in the first week of October school holidays Ryan and Emma have a water ski training camp at Colombo Creek. Here are the future superstars of Australian and international water skiing!!

Here are our amazing coaches - Chelsea ("no wimps allowed" super coach), Cathryn (Australian Water Ski Team member), Jacinta (World Champion Silver Medallist in Women's Jump!!) and Josh (everyone's favourite "Joshie"!). I must apologise to the girls because they all apparently put on weight after eating the great food we cooked for them over the two week camp!

Ryan doing his thing in slalom.

Emma showing her slalom style.

Guess What.........??

WE HAVE STEPS!!!! Yeah!!! Just a bit of cleaning up and push the mossy rocks back into place and we're in business!

We also have battens fixed down ready for the merbau decking boards to go on top!

And, the retaining wall around the pool filtration system is almost done! Just need to knock the boxing and formwork off and then the timber box creation can be fixed into place!

We can almost see the finished products - just a few more days work for the builders and they're done!

Another Silo + Earthworks

We have decided to build another 300T silo which will be located right next to the other one built earlier in the year. The builders were here on Friday setting up the crane needed to lift the silo as it is being built.

We also had the local earthmoving contractors in to laser level the small paddock the silos are in. It will eventually have just a 1% fall across the whole paddock which will make it much easier for semi-trailers to tip their loads of grain into the silos.

The machines were quite mesmerising to watch in action! The levellers hold almost 50T of soil when full so you can imagine the horsepower needed to pull the beasts!