Friday was my window for shopping! What a hectic day. I had a deadline of 6pm to get back into my place as floodwater still abounds and night crossings are dangerous. Having been over at the main homestead for nearly three weeks I was really looking forward to getting home. The trouble with heading over the [...]
Today was chopper day. The get up in the air and see what's happening variety. My Dad went up first and checked some of our western country. I then retraced his steps and went further afield. Every flood is different. We can try and gauge levels and by extension predicted land inundation however our records [...]
With more heavy rain predicted from this afternoon onwards you really do have to wonder what the rain gods are playing at. Okay so we had ten years of drought during which time most of us bush bound inhabitants retreated to daily prayers and the shooting of crowing roosters (bad luck in a dry time) on [...]
One of the joys of bush living are the unexpected challenges that arise from time to time. You have to think of life in the outback that way otherwise at times you'd probably go stir crazy. Who would have thought for instance that last weeks weather band would have developed into a frog fest following [...]
Harvest time; the frantic hours, machinery breakdowns and long hot days invaribly culminate into a steady push towards a hopefully dry finish. With over half of our crops fed off to stock earlier in the year 2011 has been a small harvest for us. The headers and roadtrains have been rolling around the paddocks as [...]
There are only a couple of days left before Spring starts officially. In our part of the world the cold gremlins usually start to slink away by mid-August. The nights are still cool however the days are wonderful with highs of around 21 degrees. If only summer hovered around the 30 degree mark. Snake sightings [...]
A few weeks ago the Australian orange industry was facing oversupply and high costs. Not even giving them away on the streets could salvage what began as a bumper year. Now our apple growers have made an all-out effort to fight the Government decision to allow the importation of New Zealand (subject to strict quarantine [...]
The burning of cane fields in Queensland is a rare occurrence these days. The dramatic scenes of billowing smoke and flames soaring skywards have been replaced by green-cane harvesting. This season however don't be surprised to see smoke on the horizon. A particularly wet season has lead to a heavy weed infestation in some paddocks [...]
At the moment all talk in our part of the world revolves around the cattle connundrum. The horrible cruelty as revealed by Four Corners in Indonesia has resulted in a complete halt to the live cattle export industry. This is animal cruelty at its most horrendous and by extension now holds significant ramifications for the Australian beef [...]
While more urbanised dwellers may consider the drought to be over on the Eastern seaboard of Australia, the reality is very different. Yes, there has been substantial rain, flooding rains in some areas however income levels remain ordinary for many farmers and graziers. You can imagine the difficulty of recouping losses from a dry period that [...]