Escargot Anyone??

 Snails on our fence posts!!!

Yes, they do eat the crop! We bait for them but with this number, we obviously don't get them all.

Harvesting Canola

Windrowing canola with our Macdon Windrower. The canola is cut down and laid in rows to dry out

Rows of canola drying out, ready for reaping

Dry canola pods

Canola seeds

Canola in pods

 After a few weeks the canola is ready to reap with the header. The comb on the front of the header is called a 'pick up'. It picks up the rows like a conveyor belt and feeds them into the header.

 View from inside the header cab. The 'pick-up' collecting the canola rows and feeding them into the header

 View from inside the header cab, looking back into the header box. The canola is fed into the box via an auger and the chaff is blown out the back of the header.

The header box holds about 6 and a half tonne. Once full, the canola is released via the header auger into the truck or chaser bin. It takes less than 2 minutes to unload the 6.5 tonne!

Wildlife Visitors - A Wombat in the Camp!

 We had a visit from a wombat last week. He was walking up one of the farm tracks and my father in law came down to the house to see if I wanted some photos.

 The wombat wasn't very happy with me following him around, but I got a few shots of him and let him get on his way up into our scub.

Our sleepy lizard family like loitering near our back door

 At the back door we have a swallow's nest. I hate the bird shit but I love watching the parents swoop in and feed their hungry brood. The babies look so funny with their big wide mouths opening up like a choir when their is food on the way.

Just add H2O



Old Shearers Quarters on part of the farm



We need some rain, we've only had 6mm for September.

 Barley is 'in head'

 Canola pods are maturing, the little black Canola seeds are inside these skinny pods

 All of the Canola flowers are dying off as the pods mature

Baby up a tree

The Tawney Frogmouth in our tree has a young chick in the nest. How cute!! Just can't get him to look at the camera yet.

New Header

 Our new John Deere Header arrived last week. A fair bit bigger than the old one. The kids were quick to climb up and pretend to drive it.

Farming the Sun

 These solar panels are at my in-laws house which is about 3km across the farm from where my husband and I live. We have had the same number fitted to the machinery shed near our house. 27 panels each costing around $40k for both systems.

 My husband and brother in law made the frame for this set up.

Considering we can regularly get temperatures into the 40's during summer, it makes sense to find some space to install solar panels. The highest temperature we have recorded was 48 degrees, although the postman recorded 50 degrees that same day.

Feathered Friends

Every September a family of Tawney Frogmouth return to a tree right near our house. I'm hoping this nest has a baby in it and I can get some photos of it in a few weeks.

We have seen their young learning to fly and sometimes see them still as a statue on the ground. One youngster landed in our backyard one year but soon flew off when he saw my camera coming!

 I love these birds, they are so stern and grumpy looking, they are hilarious.

These birds are the reason I don't get a cat. I'd like the cat to get rid of the mice but don't want to risk these birds finding a new home. Their looks and sounds are so unusual and unique, they are gorgeous.