FARM LIFE (Part 1)

It’s been a very busy week at the farm. But before I get to that I will tell you about my adventures. A couple of weekends ago I took a ride south to the Stirling mountain range. I didn’t have the energy to hike to the top of any, plus the heat was around 35, far too hot for adventuring of into the unknown. But luckily there was a car park half way up one of the peaks, so I was able to take some pictures of the flat farm land to the north. I then ventures further south to Albany.

Although it was a Sunday the shops were still open as a cruise ship was in. Although Albany is a city, it’s about the size of a large English town. And Sunday trading is only heard of in the major cities like Perth or Sydney. I drove around to the view points and the very windy beaches before heading to the most southern point I have been to. Dog Rock is a couple of rocks that have formed to look like a dog, hence being called Dog Rock. It’s actually shown as Dip and Bridge on the map. But the Dog rock was a lot more interesting than the dip or the bridge. Albany did not grab me as an amazing place, but didn’t come across as a horrible city. I don’t think I will be rushing back.


The following Wednesday we went to Bunbury to pick up some Lime for fertilising the paddocks. The ride was very bumpy in the 80’s lorry. After picking up the load we went into town to get some new glasses as my previous ones got crushed under a tractor after falling out of my pocket when opening a gate. I also got my RAC cover and a new ‘Next G’ phone so I cant pick up a better signal when out in the middle of nowhere. We then went for a quick look around the beaches after looking into getting MV licence so I will be able to drive the Lorries and tractors on the road.

In my spare time I have been doing up my truck ready for my camping adventures. I have put a new carpet in the back and patched up all the holes in the body work. I have also (very importantly) sprayed an England flag on the back. And I’m just about to fit a roof rack to the top of it now I have sanded it down. Gary has welded it back to life after hanging around on the farm for the past 10 years. I also have rams skull that I will be attaching to it to scare away all the city folk.

I almost forgot to tell you about my birthday. After a nice long day of putting up fences, Myself, Gary and Mee-Ra had a BBQ. And that weekend I went on an Aussie style Fox hunt. Unfortunately I was unable to spot them in the spotlight as I was still without glasses. Over the two nights we were able to shoot 45 in total. An Aussie style hunt is done on the back of a pick-up. One person driving, another holding the spotlight and another with a riffle to shoot them. The rest of us had to collect the dead foxes and open the gates. So I was able to do my bit to kill of non native creatures and save the lives of sheep, kangaroos, chickens and parrots.

This past week I have been spreading Lime on the paddocks ready for seeding. This involved learning to drive a tractor and use a GPS system to spread the lime evenly. Then the past two days I have been sorting the wool during crutching. This was not a nice job, it involved separating the urine and poo stained wool from the good stuff so it could be sold for more money. Luckily it was only a two day job and it’s now over.

I will be adding photos and a video to this blog as soon as I get into town. As I am using my phone as a modem, I can’t upload too much as it will cost me the earth.

Just a short one to say all is going great. No photo's again for this one but I will hopefully be posting a video blog soon about life on an aussie farm.

I have been living with Mee Ra and Gary shepard at Viewpoint farm (nxt 2 muradup) for a week now. They are great people and am very happy to be working for them. I am learning a great deal about aussie farming.

So far I have be helping to Muster the sheep ready for sheering. Feeding the sheep (no grass here for them). Building a fence. Drenching the sheep and many other odd jobs. Every day is different and its great not having to deal with customers and shop managers while working. Its great fun to drive the quads about and the farm is very large so they have planty of land to explore. The local town of Kojonup is very nice place and very central to south west australia.

I should hopefully post the video at some point next week after the fox hunt on the 20th. I will also try to post a few photo's before then.

Clich here to view the farm on google maps.

OFF TO WORK

I'm having to write this very quickly as i'm using up the little internet time I have left before I leave Perth.

So last monday we left the farm and headed back to perth, spending the little money we had left on fuel to get back. The dirt road from the farm had turned into thick mud after a heavy rain storm in the night. If we didn't have a 4x4 we would have had to leave another day. But luckely we were okay.

every day this week has been the same. And it is as follows.

8.00 wake up
9.00 walk to aussijob agency
12.00 get lunch
13.00 back to the agency to wait for work
15.00 to the beach for a swim
18.00 cook and eat dinner
19.00 start drinking
01.00 go to bed

So thats all. But I finaly got a job on friday and now I am packed and ready to leave this morning (Sat). I will be working on a farm 3hrs south of perth on a sheep farm. My job will be to drive the tractors to feed the sheep. Round them up for their clothes to be stripped off and building fences. Should be a lot of fun, and tthey are training me :-) I will be doing this for 3 months, but as i have weekends off I will be able to venture off to see the local area.

soI hope i will be able to update this offten, But if not then don't worry. I'M OKAY

INTO THE BUSH

I have ended up staying at Glenorn station, about 25km south east of Leonora. Glanorn station is a very remote cattle station. While being here I have seen loads of wildlife. Such as a Kangaroo, Lizard, Scorpion, bat and loads of other wired insects. I struggled to sleep last night after very nearly standing on the scorpion. But how did I get here?

I’m not sure on what days I did what before leaving Perth, but I basically went to a couple of beaches to have a swim and loaded the truck. Being very low on money myself and Blair decided to try our luck getting a job in the east. So last Wednesday morning we set off east on freeway 94 in search of some work.


The roads are very long and straight, as far as the eye can see. Trees and bush on both sided for miles and miles. Luckily the Truck has a primitive cruise control. So I was able to rest my feet for the 550km drive to Kalgoorlie. We stopped half way in Merredin to stock up with rations for the week and fill up with fuel before finishing our trip at Lake Douglas. This was to be our home for the next couple of days. Free camping in the middle of the bush. We explored the site for a short while before finding an old gold mine. The bottom had filled with water that we were later told had 15 times more salt in it that the sea (interesting fact for you). The views were amazing, the rock has so many colours and textures and the water was so clear and still it just reflected the sky.

After our Kangaroo and salad dinner it was time to do some star gazing. I just wish my camera was able to take some photos of the stars. The Milky Way was so clear, every star was bright and absolutely no light pollution was affecting the amazing night sky.

On Thursday we headed into Kalgoorlie to start our hunt for work. We signed up at most of the job agencies. I even applied at the local subway and hungry Jack fast food restaurants. It was then time to go to the pub for a few drinks. And then I got a call. It was Subway asking if I was available for an interview. So I headed over the road and met the manager. Luckely for me he was only looking for a part time position to fill 9 hours a day. So I was happily able to turn it down. That evening we headed back to the campsite for a few games of cards before setting up the tent, folding down the seats and hitting the pillow.

The following day we set off to sign up to some more agencies. But our luck in finding some work was running very low. One of the local nickel mines has recently closed due to lowering metal values, so over 2000 people were looking for the same work. That afternoon we got a call from Cooney who I had also met in Perth. He was arriving in Kalgoorlie that evening and was looking for a lift to Leonora so he could see his girlfriend who is working on this very farm, so we accepted as he would be paying for the fuel. Before meeting him off the train we headed to the super pit. Super Pit is a massive open gold mine just outside Kalgoorlie. The photos just don’t show how massive the mine is. The photo on the right is only a third of the mine.

Then after some dinner we went to the train station to meet Cooney. After a late arrival we headed back to the campsite to set up one last time before an early morning start to head up to Leonora. As we had come so far we decided to take him to the farm. Easier said than done with the basic instructions we had. After many wrong turns we finally got to the farm. As we dropped Cooney off we asked the farm owner if there was a local campsite we could stay at. But they replied to say we could stay in one of the miners rooms till we leave on Monday. All we have to do in exchange is tidy them out ready for the miners to move in. So we chose our rooms and set up before heading into town to pick up some beers for the barbecue we had been invited to.

That evening we had the most amazing BBQ with the farms very own lamb. Far more meat than we could possibly eat. We were up till midnight talking to the wife who was able to tell us all about the land and it’s wildlife. It was then that I almost stood on a scorpion.

We awoke to the fire alarm this morning, we checked the dorms for a fire but it was all clear, so I was left to fix the broken alarm. We then had some beans for breakfast and put some tea on the stove. And here I am now, writing this up before cleaning out the rooms.