ozcountryquiltingmum

To everything there is a season.
When you live in town you may be able to let the odd seasonal change slip past but on the farm your whole life revolves around them. You spend months hoping THE right change will come, then the rest of the time hoping it doesn't go too far either way.

Harvest has been finished for a couple of months, so we a have been in a lovely farm hiatus when the DH actually arrives home at 6pm, but now it is time to start the whole cycle again and start preparing for sowing.

When we first married we had to burn every paddock to get it free of "trash" (the old stalks, etc) for the new season's planting. In a few short years this is no longer the general clean up tool; mulching the ground with the old crop and air seeders that can sow the new crop straight into the old ones trash have meant that we can mimimise burning and any unnecessary harm to the environment. But we have taken possession of our new farm next door and as it hasn't been cropped and it about to be, it needed all the old grass burnt ready to start ploughing.

This is not a job i line up to help with...all the smoke! I used to help on one of the trucks pre-kids. One year i was dropped off to watch a perimeter fence with my water back pack on, while my BIL checked another one. I found the fire breaking through and had to take off my t-shirt and soak it with water to beat the fire out, managed to get it back on, slightly singed, before being picked up by a laughing BIL!!! Funny, you would think they would want me to help more!

The motorbikes have lighters on them that hang down into the grass with a constant stream of fuel emitting. So you will see all the flames coming behing the bikes.

The trucks go ahead of the bikes spraying the ploughed firebreaks as a double precaution. Every farm around has these old trucks permanently setup with water tanks in case of a fire emergency.

Notice how it starting to get quite grey, well it wasn't just the smoke, half way through the burn the skies opened and it hasn't stopped raining since. So that may well be our autumn break....just a few days before we would have preferred it as the paddocks are still mainly full of grass...but that is farming and the seasons!

Dh says, if you are lucky and we can burn again, you will get to see far bigger flames than this, the rain fought against us.

The kids are having great holidays, we are trying to do at least 30 minutes exercise each day, here they are heading out the driveway, and here they are attempting the our side lane....you gotta ride on what you are given!

Now for those people that want to know how the quilt frame is going....really well except now I have worked out they set the sewing machine up wrong (Grrrr). I juast have to work out today how to thread it properly and hopefully I will be on track! So no more naggy emails girls!

I also have some sewing to show next post, but right now I have to run.

Have a good day, Tracey

ps I had the Sweet Valley high books as well.....gotta love those twins-the nice one I mean!