Monday, October 27, 2014

Spring?


October is nearly over and generally it's considered Spring - at least everywhere else we've lived for quite some time. Here, it is feeling like instant Summer. Sure, there were a few days when we put the scarves and hats back on, but otherwise it's been around 30 degrees! Almost nothing in between. I'm not entirely sure if it's considered normal or not!


The last item to arrive from the Henty Machinery Field Days was the "jazz tank" from Clark tanks. Excellent colour! Not quite blue, not quite green. The shed that it's suppose to be collecting the rain from isn't ready, so the tank is waiting around for now.

Speaking of the shed.. got 2.. maybe 3 posts in the ground before our friendly neighbour in town had some advice to offer. We have spent a good few days pondering this advice.. thinking takes time! Made some changes to the design - but only in our heads at this stage.

We've been to a few "clearing sales" in the area lately too. Lots of fun, many bargains, much junk. Basically, when a farm is sold (or for a few other reasons too, I guess), the stuff the new buyers didn't want to pay for.. the stuff the farmer doesn't want or need.. and sometimes, stuff that other random people don't want too - all gets sold via auction. The junk, err, stuff.. is spread over a paddock (or bigger sometimes!) in "lots".. usually lying in a heap or on a pallet. As a group, you and everyone else follows the auctioneer around as he calls for the highest bids. Quite often the auctioneer starts the bidding at the price which he thinks it might be worth, and when no-one bids, he comes down in price until some cheeky so-and-so calls "Two dollars" (or a similar low number) and that's when the real bidding begins. Other times, the cheeky one walks away with the lot for two dollars after all! It's a fun game, but one has to be careful or you can end up either with loads and loads of junk (selling quite cheap, but it all adds up!), or spending far too much money for far too little goods to show for it.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Went to the Henty Machinary Field Days

.. and we did have a good time there!

The HMFD's was much bigger and more fun than I thought, actually. I admit, I wasn't sure if there would be much that would interest us.. Oh was I wrong!

The map, highlighted places we wanted to see.

When we first came to the area, it was quite difficult to shop for what we needed. The phone reception was spotty, the distances seemed great. Getting what we needed at a good price felt something akin to head banging a splintery wooden plank. At the HMFD's, everything was all in one place, multiple businesses all trying to get your money, and offering good prices! Not only that, but saying "We're 20 minutes thatterway" for delivery was a positive - unlike trying to explain where we are to people at our major centres only an hour away.

Marty signed us up for volunteer duty at the steakhouse, and we spent half the 2 days we went to the field days, in there. It was fun, although neither of us felt like eating steak for a few days afterwards!

Cooking steak

We came home with our little hatchback chock full. A Grandpa feeder, a beautiful ceramic water filter, and a stock trough big enough to water 4 mini cows some day. The 2,500 litre water tank arrived the next day, and the 10,000 litre one will arrive in a week or two.

Added to that, a most glorious 30mm of rain fell into our gutters! Every grass has burst into seed, all the trees have new growth, and we're no longer buying bottled drinking water. Hooray!