Shearing and a change of schedule

Our shearing contractor had promised us that our shearing would be done in December, leaving January free to get things tidied up and to head off on our annual holiday. I say our annual holiday, and every year we have two weeks on our calendar designated to a holiday by the beach in January. But in reality, we have never had two weeks away for a holiday. Last year shearing finished so late (and we had to come back for my parent's golden wedding anniversary party), which left only five days for our holiday.
So even the best laid plans can be thwarted, and when you are a farmer it is often the weather that does the thwarting!
With so many days of rain and other delays at the end of 2011 our shearing contractors got way behind in their schedule. So instead of being finished in December, shearing at our home farm started on the 3rd of January.
And it is not only shearing which is late. We are still waiting for our harvesting contractor to come to harvest our grain.
This year I will be having a holiday by the sea with the children, while The Farmer keeps working. I hope he can make it to the beach for at least a few days...

June Rain

Through the windscreen in Darkan

Looking out the car window across Burrowes Street in Darkan.

Have I mentioned that it has been raining a lot lately? During the month of June we had inches of rain. Low-lying areas are becoming waterlogged, and most of the dams are nearly full. It is good for the farm, but I have given permission for the rain to stop for a while.

These photos were taken on Monday and show some of the water that was left after the rain stopped.

You probably can't even see the water going across the road in this photo...