Bugger

There was a little mishap yesterday while loading out of one of the White bulka bags in the Paddock, they hold about 300 tonnes, Dale was loading with his second load when it just split opened, Bugger, which meant he & some of the other guys had to shovel the grain into the hopper to load the truck, it got to 37 degrees, Dale enjoyed a beer when he got home & he didn't need any rocking to get to sleep.

December 30, 2011

We are back at work at Cascade trying to finish the harvest, in our last blog I said it was on hold because of rain, they got back into the harvest the week leading up to Christmas but it was slow going. This week we have had sunshine with quiet hot days but its still slow going, the rain caused a bit of damage to the crops also it made all the weeds grow, so we had one tractor working 24 hrs a day spraying to try & get on top of the weeds.

Both the headers & Spray Unit have been having a little problem with some water in places.

The Spray Unit

G'day Everyone

G'day everyone, we hope all our friends & family had a Merry Christmas, we had a quiet but nice one.

We gave Jeff a very good send off, at the funeral we caught up with alot of friends & family, some we haven't seen for quiet a while, we hope it wont be as long before we catch up again & we see them for a happy occasion next time.

Emma & friends at the Park

While we were over east it was our granddaugther Emma's 5th birthday, she had party on Sunday morning at the local party with her friends & we attended, which was a bonus from our visit over east.

Brad, Dale & Ty

Emma  & Hannah

R.I.P. Jeff

Dale's brother Jeff lost his battle with Pancreatic Cancer on Saturday 4 weeks short of his 60th Birthday.We will be over east for the next little while.

December 8th, 2011

Everything has been put on hold with the harvest as we have had 47 ml over the last 2 days.

Phill & Shell came for a visit

Farmer Phill

Friends Phill & Shell Todd from Rockhampton came for a visit the last week of November. They both really enjoyed seeing how everything works on the farms during harvest. The Walters gave Dale & myself a day off to show Phill & Shell the sites of Esperance.

More Interruptions



We had 2 weeks of harvesting without interruptions. Finished the Wheat & Barley at Mark & Liv's and Wayne & Chris's properties then moved to Gary & Karina's and Male's properties, that's when we had more interruptions. One day there was a harvest band put on the area as the temperature got above 38 degree. Then Wayne's truck had to have new clutch fitted. As we where down one truck day for a few days the headers kept going and the grain was put into storage bags and will be delivered to the Silos later. Then we had 3 days of cold weather which made the crops tough to harvest.

Filling a Storage Bag

Harvest

We had a full week without any rain, but the crew had a couple of brake downs, but we finished harvesting the Canola & started on the wheat. So this week we are hoping on a week with out any interruptions.

Sunset at the end of a day of Harvesting

Cascade Falls

The only good thing about the rain is that the local water falls on the Lort River can flow. They are about 30 ks from the farm at Cascade, we went and had a look yesterday. Dale had to have a bit of fun on the way.

Cascade Falls

Harvest started



Dale getting the first load of Canola

On Tuesday the crew started to harvest the Canola, Dale took the first load to the local silo on Tuesday night but by Thursday night things had been put on hold again, from rain. We hope things are on the improve as we have had 28 ml over the last three days.

Sunday October 30th 2011

The crew have finished the swathing of the Canola, we have 2,000 hectares. Usually 2 weeks after the Canola is swathed they start to harvest, but we had 30 ml of rain last week, so we are hoping  for some sunshine so we can start the harvest.

Yesterday we had an univited visitor (Tiger Snake) at the backdoor.

Back at Cascade

G'day all, sorry it's been a while since I update the Blog. We had a very enjoyable time with our parents in Finley when we were over east. We got back to Cascade 2 weeks ago, before all the Qantas trouble.

The bosses finished the new kitchen/coolroom while we were away. I have been using the kitchen this week and I'm very happy with it. We used the coolroom & meat cutting up room this week for me to have meat to feed the 11 people working for the Walter's over harvest.

G'day All

After we left Marie, Brad, Emma & Hannah at Falls Creek we drove up to Singleton near Newcastle to see Dianne & Ty, had  we great time catching up with them then we drove back to Jeff & Jo's and watch the AFL grand final, we were very happy with the final score GO GEELONG. We are now heading over to Finley to our parents & friends there.

At the Snow

Emma, Jenni & Hannah with our Snowman

We flew over east to Albury had a few days with Jeff & Jo then we went to Mount Beauty to see Marie, Brad, Emma & Hannah. We went up to Falls Creek for them to show us their Snow Sking Skills. Emma has been going to Milo Ski School at 4 1/2 she is a natural, Hannah had her 1st go on ski's while we were there, she is 2 1/2, another natural. If their grandmother can't brag I don't know who can. Marie & Brad aren't to bad on the slopes as well.

Emma

Hannah

Early September

G'day All, a few of the family have been asking us if we are seeing wildflowers everywhere, I'm afraid there are only a few in the Cascade area. The end of August the bosses & Dale started making a new Kitchen to be used during Harvest & Seeding as well they poured a slab for a coolroom, they will finish it while we are over East. We are having a month off before harvest.

More Visitors

Jeff, Jo, Trent, Jenni & Dale

We just said goodbye to Dad & Mum when Dale's brother Jeff rang to say they were coming for a short visit. Last Friday Jeff, Jo & Trent arrived. On Saturday we took them into Esperance for lunch then took them along the Ocean Scenic Drive to see all the beautiful beaches & wind farm.




On Sunday we had a quick farm tour, come Monday we had to say goodbye to them, a short but nice visit for us all.

Trent & Jeff

Farm Tours

Spraying weeds

Back at Cascade we had 2 weeks of relaxing, reminising and touring all the farms the Walters have. Dad was blown away with the size of the machinery, like we were when we first arrived, compared to what he uses over in Finley. In July we had 45 ml of rain so the crops are growing nicely but so are the weeds, so the Walters have been busy spraying them.

Some of the Canola crops

Our time together came to an end to soon. Dad & Mum travelled back to Perth by Coach and had 10 days there touring the Swan River, Rottnest Island and the Margaret River winerys before flying  home to Finley.

Dad & Mum's visit

Dad & Mum arriving in Perth

The first week of July Dad & Mum came over on the Indain-Pacific Train for a visit, we picked them up in Perth and took a week to get back to Cascade. From Perth we travelled east to Northam & York then south to Wagin, Katanning & Kojonup looking at lots of farming & sheep land, then southwest to Bridgetown were we started the many winery's we visited on our trip.

The Gloucester Tree

In Pemberton we did a scenic tour on an old Tram seeing many of the Karri & Marri trees in the area the most famous is the Gloucester Tree its 61 metres high, from there we drove to Walpole and went on the Tree Top Walk in the Valley of the Gaints. In Denmark we went to The Elephant Rocks, Greens Pool & Ducketts Mill it was the best winery of the trip it also sold cheese. Our last stop was in Albany at Whale World.

Something different for us Both



Dale cleaning the seeder

Seeding is over for 2011 so all the machinery had to be cleaned.

With all the seeding over Dale & Wayne built a new shed at the farm.

Dale also helped Mark do some Sheep work

With seeding over I got my bus Licence & I am now driving the bus picking up 15 children taking them to School in Cascade.

Seeding

Seeding in one of the paddocks

When seeding over here in WA they Direct Drill without working up any of the ground, the seeders have a 62 foot bar, they control the weeds by spraying them.

showing the rows while seeding

We finished seeding on Thursday, we had a very good run lost only one day with rain in 6 weeks the crew seeded 4810 hectares of Wheat, 4036 hectares of Barley, 1967 hectares of Canola, 625 hectares of Peas, all up that's 11438 hectares.

The strike rate of the earlier sown crops is very good.

Holiday is Over, Now its Back to Work

After leaving Finley we had a few more days with Jeff & Josey in Albury, then we flew back to Perth and stayed the night with Trent. On Wednesday we drove back to Cascade.

Dale with the Tractor he drives for the seeding

The  first couple of days back Dale carted some more Fertilizers back from Esperance to the farms at Cascade. On Monday of this week I got back to work, I'm only cooking for 9 during the seeding, the Walters are in full swing of seeding their Canola, Barley & Wheat for the summer harvest.

They have two tractors seeding 24 hours a day, Dale & the others do a 12 hour shift and on the shift they usually seed between 100 to 120 hectares

Loaded the seeder with Fertilizier & Seed

The Seeder is 60 foot Wide

60th Anniversary Party

My parents Bob & Dawn

From Mount Beauty we drove to Finley, which is in the Southern Riverina of NSW, for my parents 60th Wedding Anniversary, I would like to congratulate them on a wonderful life they have shared together. A great night was had by all the family & their friends celebrating the anniversary on saturday night.

All the Family



Easter

Jenni, Hannah & Emma

We had a very enjoyable easter at Mount Beauty, like everyone we ate to much chocolate, lucky easter only comes once a year.
Dale went fishing with Brad & Emma and Emma caught her first fish, it was a Rainbow Trout, we had one very excited little girl.
We also drove up to Falls Creek on Easter Sunday for a family fun day. We went for a ride on the Chairlift up to the Summit, got some really good views, the only thing wrong was that it was a bit chilly up there.

Brad, Emma, Hannah & Marie at Falls

Time Off, over in the Eastern States

Trent

Drove to Perth from Cascade, saw our nephew Trent then flew over to Rockhampton via Brisbane.
We had a very busy & enjoyable week in Rockhampton & Gladstone catching up with friends, special thanks to Phill & Shell. We also checked on our house & storage shed, everything was ok especially after all the rain Rockhampton has had over the summer.

Us with Phill & Shell  

Dale & Ty

We flew down to Sydney where our daugther Dianne & hubby Ty met us then we drove to their home at Singleton near Newcastle. They took us to our first ever live game of NRL, Dale & I are born & bred AFL supporters (Essendon & St Kilda) Ty is a Newcastle knights supporter. One thing for sure it doesn't matter whether its AFL or NRL the umpire always gets abused. The game was different but not that bad, still trying to work the cheerleader thing! The Newcastle Knights won so Ty was happy.

Dianne

Our time with Dianne & Ty went far to quickly & we had to leave and we flew to Albury on the border of NSW & Victoria to see Dale's brother Jeff & Josey

Dale & Jeff

Its easter now and we have just arrived to spend it with our daugther Marie & hubby Brad & our granddaugthers Emma & Hannah at Mount Beauty which is at the base of Falls Creek in the snow fields in Victoria's northeast.