Tractor driving, more dead sheep, a nearly dead Wallaby and the floods!

***WARNING: graphic image content!***

Monday

Raking and blowing nut that had been shaken down for a lot of the day then stick picking once the sweepers had made some wind rows for us.

Once we fill the trailer with branches and sticks we go up to the firepit and there's a clever way of getting all the sticks off in one. There's a rope tied to the back of the trailer that runs on top the trailer (before the sticks are put on) and onto the ute, then once all the sticks are on top of it we throw the rope back over all the sticks and wrap it round a tree then drive the ute so all the sticks are pulled off. Bosh!

Tuesday

Stick picking in the morning, found two dead sheep which we dumped in the firepit - they're dropping like flies coz they have worms and Luke didn't drench them this year! Although one of the dead ones today was definitely killed or finish off by something else..

Got to drive the tractor today up on the top field! That was fun :)

Wednesday

Stick picking all day but finished early at about 3 and left the farm for the first time in 16 days!

The French wwoofer Ewen bought a van for his roadtrip so we went to pick it up but he needed someone to drive the Ute back coz he'll be in the van (me).

It was an eventful trip to say the least. Firstly Ewen couldn't get the remaining money out for the van so had to ring his bank in France to sort but after this blip we were problem free for a while! We got to the van, paid for it, signed some stuff and filled up with petrol no worries.

BUT the sun had gone down, I had 32% battery left on my phone and Google maps decided to take us a different route back via some incredibly windy roads. I very very narrowly missed a Wallaby and did run over a rabbit although I beeped at it and thought it had gone under the middle of the Ute coz I didn't feel a bump but Ewen assured me it exploded under my rear tyre. Oops.

At 1% I pulled over, tried to memorise the route as best I could and hoped I wouldn't be trapped in the middle of nowhere with Warren's rabbit-killer Ute and a French guy who barely speaks English!

Somehow, my memory of the route and sense of direction came together and with a few wrong turns and missed shortcuts we made it back alive which was a miracle to be honest because there are no signs to the farm and I've only been driven here once (when I arrived) in daylight and we were coming from a different direction in pitch black! 

Anyway that's enough adventure for one day.

Thursday

Raining. No harvesting. Did a bit of fencing around the sheep pen because they want to drench them (to kill the worms) so made like a funnel shaped paddock that help funnels them through into two gated pens where they can be drenched. After that nothing really.

Friday 

Another quiet day - went into Toowoomba (nearest big place with cinema) to watch the new Avengers! Lots of rain on way back though - hit a huge puddle that must've shot up 20 foot in the air! Covered the windscreen but at least none of the bridges were flooded so we made it back alright.

Saturday 

No rain but still wet so no harvesting just sorting the nut from the rock/stick that's already been collected so it can dry out in the silo. Went to look at the creek which had covered the road after the rain last night. 

Doesn't look like much - 15cm maybe but fast flowing so can easily wash a car off. Mia didn't go to work and while I was  sat down there I saw one fella turn back in a Ute. Luke says if you're in a heavy 4x4 you'd be fine but it's not worth the risk otherwise. 

The reason the road isn't built higher is because it is designed to flood, it's called a floodway - if there was a bridge it would be more expensive to build and be likely to get washed away.

Sunday

Drenched the sheep - funnelled them through into a penned off area and went round with the bottle of drench attached to a gun and gave each sheep a squirt in the mouth. Easier said than done! They're stronger than you think, more afraid of you than you think and really don't want to have their medicine!

Here's Jonny shitting a sheep:

(This was after the drenching - clipping the hooves off one of the rams who couldn't walk properly)

Then we sorted some nut before watching the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight which was awesome but annoyed there wasn't a KO!

Sorted some more nut and went to pick up Matt from Gatton - another guy I worked with at VMG who's going to work with us on the farm :) 

Oli out xo

Escaping pigs, snakes, fire and piglets!

Did very little last weekend - watched some films, started watching Daredevil a new Netflix series and watched some snooker - not much to do around here really unless we get a chance to go hunting, fishing or shooting crows!

Monday

Moved some of Luke and Mia's old stuff out of a big shipping container down to the shed but it was raining so had to abandon as the vehicles churn up the orchard in the rain. It cleared up a bit in the arvo (afternoon) so we went to check on Pepper Pig who is very pregnant - decided to move her into the small pen near the house so that she would be nearby and because if she gives birth the male pig in there often eats the male piglets as some kind of territorial thing so they have to be kept away till they're a bit bigger.

All this was easier said than done - we got the trailer close to the outside of the pig pen and opened the fence. Pepper (who probably weighs twice what we do) had no interest in getting into the trailer so escaped and ran the wrong way! Then another pig escaped too and it was mayhem! Managed to get the second pig back into the pen (eventually) using sheepdog tactics and then ushered Pepper towards the trailer and got her in it with a mixture of food, sweet talking and shoving!

 Tuesday

Finished moving what we started on Monday and emptied the shopping contained ready for its transformation into a silo for nut. After that we just filled in a few potholes and weeded along the fence all afternoon. Saw a brown snake after Jonny chopped it's head off whipper snipping and we bled out (ie. cut the throat of) a sheep that was dying to kill it quickly.

Getting some sexy man hands too!

Wednesday

Climbed up the silo tank and cleaned the shute which had loads of old and shitty nut in it. Then fed the pigs and in the afternoon cleaned around the house for Sadie's first birthday party this weekend! Washed off the spit which we'll use for a goat Luke shot a few days ago. Warren brought us a 10 kilo bag of pecans from the processing plant which is worth about $300!

Thursday - 6 months since I left England

Did some odd jobs in the morning then used the "backpack blower" (a petrol leaf blower that you wear like a rucksack) to clear all the nut from around the sheds and containers so machinery could move around without crushing it. Then "whipper snipped" (strimmed) all around the sheds and along the front fence.

Built another fire in the firepit tonight which was badaaaasss

We've been playing a lot of Uno Stacko because it's the only game we have! It's like jenga but you can only pick certain blocks based on the last block picked! It's become almost a game or two every breakfast/lunch/dinner haha - we have a loss tally Ewen is on 4 losses as of today and Jonny, Anina and I are all tied on 2 each.. for now.

Also I've been semi-banned (more like rationed) from eating biscuits coz I have a lot of tea so I have been smashing through the biscuits #soznotsoz - my excuse is that I'm drinking lots of tea to stop myself drinking beer!

Friday

Practice harvest - Luke shook all the trees on two rows to get all the nut that was ready to fall down to the ground.

Afterwards, they use sweepers (vehicles with big spinny bits on the front) to sweep all the nut and leaves and sticks that dropped into lines or 'wind rows'. Our job then was stick picking so we went along the wind rows and picked out any big sticks and branches that the harvester would struggle with. After this we were on the back of the harvester as it went down the rows picking out the smaller sticks and rocks that travelled through the harvester into the nut bins. 

We worked later than normal today - till about 6:40 and I was proper dirty by the time we finished!

While we'd been working on Friday Pepper gave birth to her piglets too

Saturday was a lazy day - had a barbie for late lunch and watched snooker! Also shaved off my terrible chin pubes after 11 days of growth! 

Sunday was Sadie's party so lots of people were at the farm. Really windy day so lots of nut fell which is good! I watched loads of snooker too #standard

Other random bits:

- The chooks (chickens) climb from the low hanging branches up into the trees at dusk (to avoid the dogs overnight!) and the turkeys roost at the top of the water tower

- Luke & Mia have two "indoor dogs" Marlon and Indie and two outdoor hunting dogs Radar and Lexie (4 and 6 months old). Big Bogan Rob also has a dog called Molly (6 months old) so there are 5 in total. The one cat is called Henry - he gets bullied by Radar all the time and can get into the kitchen through the roof so always gets into our rubbish at night if we leave it uncovered and brings us dead rats/other animals as gifts to wake up to!

- Jonny's girlfriend flew up from Sydney this weekend but coz it's so far to the airport he set off to pick her up before she'd even got on the plane! Bloody Australia!

- Wild pigs are hunted round here but you have to have permission to hunt on people's property - sometimes poachers drive along the road at night with spotlights and loose pig dogs but if one of the dogs came onto this property if it caught a scent it would get shot by the guys and Warren has threatened poachers before with a gun. Police wouldn't do anything because it's so far out! Crazy shit.

Farm life week 1

So I forgot to pack my penknives in the hold luggage and lost both at security (sorry Lyd - think you bought me the small one with my name engraved on) but I was still allowed through with two lighters, lighter fluid and a fork? meh. 

Caught our connecting bus from Brisbane Airport to Gatton and that's where we were picked up from Monday afternoon.

Big Bogan Rob picked us up in his Ute with Jonny (my mate from Sydney who told me about the farm in the first place) and a French guy Ewen who is the other wwoofer. Drove out to the farm which took about 20 minutes.

The house is right in the middle of the property. 

The wwoofers stay downstairs (ground floor) and the family live upstairs on the 1st. [wwoofer is a willing worker on an organic farm]

Warren owns the farm and is here at the moment for harvest but lives on another farm. Luke (his son) manages this farm so this is his place and him and his wife Mia live upstairs with their baby girl Sadie. Rob isn't a wwoofer so has a room upstairs too so down here it's myself, Anina, Jonny and Ewen. We have our own TV, kitchen, dining table, fridge stocked with food and bathroom so it's pretty self contained.

Jonny showed us round the property and I got to drive the quad which is great fun!

We all went upstairs for a big meal on the first night and watched the first episode of the new season of Game of Thrones!

Tuesday (Day1): moved a shed and power washed the megabins (where the nuts go) saw my first actually dangerous spider - a redback ooooooooo

Watched I am Legend, had a barbie and made a fire in the evening.

Wednesday (Day2): sorted nuts on the conveyor - picking out the bad ones and then went to the pig paddock to chop down the weeds with a sythe!

They'd built a new firepit so we all sat round that for a bit then watched Three Kings.

Thursday (Day3): moved rocks out of the pig pen, moved the sheep into a different paddock, found some baby rats, cleaned up the shed and used the tractor to pull up some big roots in the pig pen.

Watched Remember The Titans.

Friday (Day4): raked up leaves and shit and dumped them in the firepit, filled in some potholes, fed the pigs, cleaned the machines ready for harvest then cleaned our digs and were all done by lunchtime! 

It's the weeeeekend!

A parrot shit on my kangaroo leather hat!

We hadn't touched goon in weeks so the first night back on it in Melbourne was never going to go according to plan.

We headed out after Anina had had a sensible (boring) bottle of wine and Aaron and I had had an irresponsible (fun) 2 litres of goon each. Now I don't remember what happened but from what Anina told me:

- we headed out looking for a bar

- we ended up at McDonalds

- I was asking the price of everything on the menu in turn and Aaron was trying to pay with his charging cable so Anina bought us both food and sat us down

- Aaron stole a girls chips

- Anina left to go home

- Aaron and I left and went separate directions and both got lost

- Anina had to try and find us both and although I found me way back eventually, Aaron was lost for 2 hours!

Friday morning Anina and I went to see Gloria, Steve and their son Scott (Gloria is my Nana's friend of many years). They have a fantastic house and garden and we had an amazing day sightseeing. We went to the local Dandenong mountains and first visited  William Ricketts sanctuary situated in a forest of beautiful tall trees (lots of gum trees)

He's famous for his many detailed carvings of aboriginal people and westerners too. They are really well done to be fair to him but he did seem like a bit of a nutter even if he is a national treasure! The smell of the forest was fantastic though and it was really relaxing.

Next we went up to a viewpoint at the top of the Dandenongs. On a clear day you can see all the way back to Melbourne and we could just about make out the outline of the skyscrapers in the background. We had a picnic because Gloria had kindly made us all some sarnies - it was so nice to have good quality ingredients for a change.

Had a quick look around some 'English gardens' up there too (below) before we set sail for our next destination.

Gloria knew a little place in the forest where you can feed Parrots for free and at first we were skeptical because there were only two parrots and they weren't interested but pretty soon we were swamped.

After I'd unknowingly got parrot shit on my hat we went for a pint at a little English style pub called The Oak Tree Tavern and I had a real ale - something of a rarity over here.

We were kindly invited to stay for a lovely dinner with Gloria and Steve and left quite late. All in all a great day and I thank Gloria and Steve again for their hospitality if they're reading this.

Saturday we wondered around the CBD, watched some free live comedy (part of the Melbourne comedy festival) but it was just a Japanese mime and wasn't very good at all. But we scooted over to St Kilda which promises sexy views of the city skyline and weren't disappointed.

In the evening we went wandering along Brunswick Street in Fitzroy famous for its bars. All were interesting, overpriced and underlit. Took a detour home via the Sofitel building which my friend had told me has great views of Melbourne from the toilets on the 35th floor. Checked it out and he wasn't wrong:

Sunday we packed for leaving in the morning, went shopping for farm clothes, cleaned the car out and washed it ready for it to be sold and in the evening we went for a pint with my friend from Uni who's living and working in Melbourne at the moment.

Monday morning I took my final drive to the airport in the PAJERO and said goodbye to it and Aaron before flying to Brisbane to start the new chapter working on a pecan farm!

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This tracks what nights we stayed where:

Left Sydney Monday 23rd Feb

Port Macquarie - 23

Byron Bay - 24,25,26,27,28

Nimbin 

Surfers Paradise 1,2,3

Noosa 4,5,6,7

Fraser Island - Central Station 8

Fraser Island - Dundabarra 9

Fraser Island - Eurong 10

Rainbow Beach - 11,12

Airlie Beach - 13,14,15,16

Jourama falls - 17

Cairns - 18,19,20,21,22,23

Macrossan bridge 24

Cloncurry 25

Mount Isa 26

Roadside Rest stop 27

Alice Springs 28

Ormiston Gorge 29

Kings Canyon 30

Yulara (Uluru) 31,1

Adelaide 2,3,4,5,6

Bool Lagoon 7

Port Campbell 8

Melbourne 9,10,11,12

Arrived Melbourne Thursday 9th April.

46 Days, 10,432kms, 5 states, 3 time zones

The roadtrip's final chapter. Great Ocean Road to Melbourne!

Once we were in Victoria on Wednesday afternoon we took the Great Ocean Road which follows the coastline all the way to Melbourne and saw some fantastic coastline and stunning rock features.

Made it to Port Campbell for Wednesday evening and stayed at a really nice place that was cheaper than the hostel and we had our own room and a shared lounge/kitchen with a fireplace, sofas and a TV - felt more like a house than a hotel! Had a few down the pub and got an early night.

Thursday was more great ocean roading, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

A bit of off-roading even lead us to a few koalas!

We got to Melbourne when it was dark after a very full day where we saw heaps!

This marked the end of the roadtrip. We'd reached the final destination and had driven from Sydney to Melbourne, the long way round! The kilometre counter read 10,432. Not too shabby.