Hot feet

So my time at the farm has finished……. WOO HOO…..  Don’t get me wrong, I have really enjoyed working there, but after 5 weeks of solid work, of which has mostly been harvesting, life got a bit tedious.  Also the house I was staying in was a bit of a hole.  So I stayed on the farm for Christmas, and although I wasn’t at home for Christmas I still had fun.  I missed Guernsey a lot over Christmas.

Had a bit of a night, well afternoon, out with Karel and Ova (2 Estonians) the other day.  Day after we finished harvesting, we went to town to celebrate with a meal and a film and some beers.  Well, we had drinks in the cinema, drinks in the restaurant and drinks in between.  Such good fun, they took me to see some beaches which is what Esperance is famous for, and I wanted to go swimming.  With my beer jacket on, stripped down to my boxers and went for a swim.  The beaches here are so clean and beautiful, and the water is so blue and warm, it was amazing!  I attached a pic of Karel next to the beach, such a nice beach.

Bit of a love drama on the farm too.  Ok, so Kevin and Simone hired a nanny for their children, a nice Estonian women.  Mart really really liked her and spent the past 2 weeks flirting with her, Mart is the kind of guy who really thinks he is the Shiz-nizzle and thinks he is the boss of everything.  So one night, we were all up drinking, and Mart went to bed early.  I woke up the next morning to find Karel isnt in his bed, but is sleeping with Karel, to which Mart is very very unhappy about.  So funny, he didnt speak to any of us for days, which was kind of nice.

On Christmas eve, the Estonians went to town to have a big night out.  I wasn’t feeling too good, as that day I had been in town setting uo Amberland (will explain after), and I think I caught a bit too much sun.  So yes, I did spend Christmas eve alone and Christmas morning.  But it was ok, Christmas morning was great as I had a couple of parcels to open and lots of pics and videos from Claire to watch, thanks baby.  The Estonians came back about lunch, of which we had shrimp on the Barbie and beer, YUM!  Throughout the afternoon we drank beer and chilled, and then the we had the big Christmas meal.  Australian families have a few strange traditions, one is where all the kids and adults stand together with little brown bags whilst the oldest member throws bags of sweets and everyone has to scramble to get them.  Good fun, and tasty!

So I have my new job, yay :D  Lots and lots of money!! I start on the 20th, so I have 3 weeks to spare.  2 of those weeks I have been roped in to staying in Esperance and working in Amberland.  Amberland is a load of inflatable bouncy castle and water slides for children and adults,  I spent the majority of this week setting it up and will spend the next 2 week working it.  Its quite fun, slides rock!  We were open for the first day today, and went quite well, but I got sunburnt feet :( But nothing else! Although I did get really really wet.  

The final week I will spend in Perth relaxing, and enjoying a little bit of off time before I work the next few months.  After my next job, I may be volunteering at Australia Zoo for a couple of weeks, as it would be so so much fun.

Anyhoo, off I go.  I will need to put on more sun cream tomorrow, on my feet anyway.

Ryan x

Karel on the beach

Bear the dog

The farms road train, which I was taught how to drive, not on the road though :(

The house I was living in on the farm

Alpacas

So its coming to the end of my current job.  And the past week hasn’t really been that overly exciting to be honest.  Just lots of getting up early and working late.  Today is Tuesday, and it’s the first day off I have had in two and a half weeks.  Yesterday we all finish harvesting and celebrated by drinking way too much beer and rum, so today is a good day to have some time off.  Tomorrow we will all be going in to town to set up Amberland, which is what they call the bouncy castle park.  There are about 20 to be set up, which stays up over the holiday periods, so going to have a free go on them :D Then Friday is when we will be cleaning all the machinery and tools to be stored away until next year.  I will be staying on this farm for Christmas and will probably be leaving Monday or Tuesday for Perth.

My new job, or possible new job starts on the 20^th of January.  It is driving a truck that sprays something called super, not too sure what it is but I think it is a fertiliser of some sorts.  The guy said his normal employee is leaving Oz, but he needs to double check and will call me today to confirm.  Now its not the most exciting job in the world, or even close, but the money is the important thing.  If I am offered this job, I will have to work it until the middle of May, and if I do, I will leave there with over $22,000.  That’s going to allow me to have a lot of fun in Australia for the remainder of my holiday.  Now I have just got to wait and see.

Unfortunately I don’t have much to say today as not a lot has happened in the past week and a half.  But when I know more about whats going on or after Christmas I will do another blog entry.

Ryan x

Rain, pain and sheep balls

Ok, so we have been doing really well, working lots and harvest was going well...... Then it rained, a little to start with, then a lot more.  With grain such as barley and wheat, which is what we harvest here, it has to be under a certain moisture level, and with so much water, it has taken 6 days to be able to start harvesting again.  Anyhoo, when it rains, it means we do other bits or have some time off.

First day off, I actually didn't leave the house, just had a long lay in and used laptop to watch Two And A Half Men, dam American comedy being so simple and fun to watch.  Second day was better I suppose, I went to the nearest town called Esperance, its about 140km from the farm, and wow, small town!  It does have some shops and a cinema, so took the opportunity to grab a cheap digital camera, as my camera was my phone until I had to use a nasty special rural phone for the outback.  Also watched Paranormal Activity 2 at the cinema, the film was alright, but the cinema was awesome!! Especially for such a small town.  Not seen a screen that big before, and for less seats than at the mallard, and all the seats are comfy and have cup holders.  Ozies know how to do cinemas!


On this ranch, they also have 1000ish sheep, and as we couldnt harvest, this was a good time to do it.  What we had to do was muster them all in to the pens, seperate the lambs from the ewes, and then process the lambs.  This involves putting the lamb in the carousel, injecting it with vaccine, putting a rubber band around its balls and tail (so they drop off) and ear tag it.  I have attached a few pics, but open if your not feeling squeamish, there is blood .  The pain mentioned in my title, is because a 70kg sheep wanted to get past me, so it ran at me and tried to jump over me.  Failing to jump high enough it just headbutted my gut instead, sheep are heavy!

Has a rubber band on its tail

Baaaaa

The first time I put a lamb in the carousel

So yesterday and today, I have been able to harvest, not wheat and barely as which is what I normally harvest, but harvesting peas.  Peas are a nightmare, have to do it sooooo slow, and cut so low to the ground the blades keep blocking up so I have to stop and unblock it, and its just so frustrating and slow!! See my video blog below.  Originally it was a video for Claire, so a lot of it has been cut out, as you dont need to hear me go on at how I love her and all that lovey stuff.  I love you by the way.... lol

Sorry for poor quality, need to compress videos so that they finish being uploaded this century.

So, I am learning random facts, some useful and some not so, so I will add some to each blog from now on:
Facts I have learnt for this blog entry:

• bottom of clouds are flat, only just noticed since Ive been here
• in Western Australia there are no 1 or 2 cent coins, lowest coin denomination is 5 cents
• Outside of towns there are no police
• "12 months" in Estonian is kaksteist kuud (Say it like kaks teist kuud)

Anyway, if you want to email me, you can still email my old address : firestorm445@hotmail.com

Please remember that calling my mobile over here doesnt work, as Guernsey networks seem to be not important enough for Telstra to set up...... But I think landlines work, but not sure.  Just remember I am 8 hours ahead of England, so don't call me during your evening, as I will be sleeping!  Mobile number is +61458934750

Ryan

My header at night

How I have my dinner, tonight its roast in a box

Farmer Ryan

I’m about 8 days in to my new job, and it is both fun and hard.  The actual work isn’t too bad, but the days are long, working 14-16 hours a day 7 days a week, in the last 7 days I have worked 84 hours, which is nice as I get $22 per hour.  What I do here is drive harvesters (AKA headers), fun as it’s a massive machine with loads of buttons and leavers.  Driving and manoeuvring a 5m high machine with the front end being 39ft wide, driving parallel within 60cm to a trailer being towed by a tractor, its hard to write down how difficult it is, but it is. 

Its been exciting at some points too… My harvester caught fire, which was, fun.. Was just cutting crops and my header cut out, got out to have a look and notice smoke, and flames.  Remember I am harvesting in a 200acre paddock in 35*c heat with 30mph winds and its bone dry, so putting out a fire is more urgent than usual.  If a fire goes out of control here, it can be a case where no matter how fast you run the fire will out run you.  It took 2 hours and 500l of water, but it went out, and its going to take 4 days to fix, disaster averted.  Also we ran out water, another big issue, as I need to drink it.  We had to drive to town with a water tanker in tow to get some drinking water, Australia is in a bit of a drought.

The wildlife is amazing, even the birds are fantastic, beautiful exotic birds are ‘pests’ here.  Wild horses, kangaroos, lizards and so much more, what is normal to people that live here feels like I am on safari.

You know what is strange though, that I get really bad hayfever is Guernsey, but here where I am surrounded by fresh cut crops, winds blowing it in to my face all day, and its not too bad, strange.

I’m not able to take photos at the moment really as I had to buy a special phone for rural areas, and the camera is less than usable.  But I do have a few random snaps below.

Anyway, as It rained yesterday and is still drizzling a little bit, I wont be harvesting today.  Grain has to meet certain criteria before it can be sold, which includes a moisture level.  It needs to be practically bone dry, and its going to take a day or two of hot sunshine to dry out the grain, so basically its now the weekend for me.  Yay.

This is my header, not my actual one, but a picture of one, without the cutter on the front

This is my header, not my actual one, but a picture of one

Guess where I went to eat in Perth

Me trying to take a pic of me in my harvester on my useless phone!

When I flew to marble bar, the middle of Oz is just desert!