Challenging

Farming tests you physically, intellectually, spiritually and always emotionally. 

Not a day goes by where I get away with just using my brain. Muscles are a must on a farm. If you don't have them, you soon build them. There has been many a joke about needing to use my 'man muscles'. It can be utterly infuriating as a woman on a farm. There are days when I have to wait for a male to help me do something, only to find they can do it by themselves. It's not just muscle though, it's stamina. We've had loads of young, fit, and strong people come through the farm. They just don't make it through a whole day of farm work day in, day out because they don't have the stamina. You become battle hardened to long days that leave you dog tired and bone weary. 

There are intellectual challenges in everything. Laws of physics apply to fencing, building gates and sheds, lifting heavy items with a loader. Math equations are in every element of measuring materials, dosing animals, assessing seed or chemical rates. Chemistry lessons are in the fertiliser components and the chemical make ups. Biology tutorials are in makeshift autopsies, in learning how to keep an animal healthy, in keeping worm burdens down and understanding their ecosystem along with the ecosystem of the farm. Farmers are just frustrated engineers, we prop things up that should really fall down, we build new things that last for tens of years and we run million dollar businesses in the middle of nowhere. 

Farming tests you spiritually as well. I'm not a religious person but I can't help noticing the beauty in nature or the natural balance in everything. I also can't help noticing the pain some natural systems inflict on animals or ecosystems. Through all of this there are days when I wonder if it's all someone else's plan or if evolution is what it is and we just keep finding new ways to survive. We may never know. 

Farming always taxes you emotionally in some way, at some point. It also uplifts you, every single day. Some people aren't cut out for the days when it taxes you. Today is one of those days. Last year it was a fly wave that kept hitting the sheep harder and harder that broke me. I couldn't keep chasing animals down on a bike to treat the maggots crawling over them, eating them alive,  and hope that I wouldn't find them dead the next day. Today, it's knowing that the weaners were put into a lovely paddock, thick with feed, only to find the grass seeds have stuck in their eyes and turned some of them blind in a matter of days. This also means they can't find the water point in the paddock, which wears them down until they just can't hold onto life anymore. Seeing animals that I care for as my own in a state like that tears me up inside, it's like being hit by lightning. My emotions explode within me, splintering in every direction. Then I gather the pieces and I tend to the animals as best I can because I love them, and I love what I do, and I will never let the pain I feel rank higher than their wellbeing. The day my wellbeing is placed above my animals wellbeing will be the day I quit farming, because I won't be caring for those animals the way they deserve to be. 

Undoubtedly I am lifted higher by farming than I'm ever pulled down by it. Drought, deaths, frost, hail, fire.. The list of 'taxes' goes on. I take all of that because the joy of farming, of lambs, of beautiful crops, of being immersed in nature will always lift me higher. 

Mistakes of Young, Knowledge of Old

Well... It's been an immense gap between my last post and this one. For those of you who followed the blog avidly, I apologise; life has a funny way of getting in the way of things we intended to do. 

In that time the Facebook page has had many a photo added to it, but I feel that the written word has an undervalued power, and so it's back to writing (when I have time for it!). Please forgive me while I get back into producing informative yet enjoyable blogs and I do hope you enjoy hearing of my antics and the photos will still be added to the Facebook page too. 

Today has been one of those Friday's where things gain a little clarity. Clarity from a UHF call informing me the top dresser and tractor are bogged to the moment when we finally beat the laws of physics with brute horse power. 

I learn from my father on the farm, as many family farms would relate to. It's only on the days when he's not around (today) that I realise just how much information is in his head. Not necessarily because he's a genius, but because he's done it before, and learnt from it in his younger years whilst being open to innovations and adapting to technology. Today it became clear that a) I'm incredibly lucky to be able to learn from him in this safe and challenging workplace and b) that I can't fear making mistakes my father has made 10's of years ago. He did it once and the only way to learn is by making that mistake for myself. It also crosses my mind that there's an optimal balance between having knowledge imparted to you and learning it first hand. It's safe to say I discovered a few things I'll never do today that had my father simply told me not to, may not have sunk in quite so well (if you'll excuse the blogging pun). 

Again I find myself marvelling at how much science, common sense and satisfaction in accomplishment can be learnt or found within a farm. The physics of tractors and gravity in wet areas, the chemistry of why we apply lime to a cropping paddock, the common sense in drain placement and muddling through the fundamentals of the sciences to realise why the tractor isn't shifting yet. 

I love farming because there are physical challenges that I learn from every single day. I love farming because it's a different way to learn, a book only tells you so much. Needless to say, every farmer knows the value of a carton of beer - the price of every mistake that warrants your neighbours tractor. ;) 

Unsung Heroes

Small country towns don't have the luxury of huge fire fighting departments. The town itself is supplied with fire fighting capabilities by volunteers. Drive 50 kms to the edge of the shire and take a look at the stubbles, the bush, the roadsides... It's all fuel at Mother Nature's fingertips. When those summer storms hit, more often than not, they're full of lightning and thunder, and the rain doesn't always show up. How do we stop a fire that sends up black plumes of smoke that can be seen from kilometres away? Through the selfless actions of the surrounding neighbours. We don't see the neighbours very often, they actually live 5-15 kms away in most cases. When that smoke signal goes up, they're there.

They commit and they don't stop fighting until it's under control. The wives, mothers, grandparents or children rustle through the pantry and get food together for these selfless people because that smoke signal leaves no time for preparation. You jump in the ute and you go, which is why all fire units are prepped at all times in Summer. A full tank of water, a serviced pump, a full fuel tank - preparation is key if containing this is going to be possible. 

Once they've held it at bay, so begins the 'mop up'. As many units as possible make light work as you grid the fire and 'black out' anything smoking, smouldering or still burning. 

Many a tank of water is drawn from the dam by a fast fill pump that can fill a 1,000 litre tank in less than a minute. Not to mention the behind the scenes volunteers coordinating the attack. These people are manning radios and phones to get enough units, bulldozers, loaders and any other resources required on the scene as quickly as possible. These fires are monitored for days for any flare ups, as is the rest of the country side. Lightning strikes can smoulder for days and flare up in the heat a few days later. Vigilant eyes are something we are taught from a very young age. 

Without these volunteers our properties and many a home would have been lost over the years. We thank you.