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...

Year of The Farmer

Happy 2012. In Australia this year has been designated "The Year of The Farmer".

I have copied this information (below) from the Australian Year of The Farmer website

About the Year

Australian Year of the Farmer celebrates the hard work of everyone involved in producing, processing, handling and selling products from 136,000 farms across the country. Australian farms and the industries that support them generate more than $405 billion each year, that's 27% of our GDP.

The celebration was conceived by Australian Year of the Farmer Directors, Geoff Bell and Philip Bruem. Geoff and Philip wanted more people to appreciate the fresh food and quality materials our farmers produce to keep us fed, clothed and sheltered. And so, the concept has grown into a national celebration, one which will reach every Australian – reminding us that our farmers sustain the Australian way of life and the economy.

Australian Year of the Farmer is about celebrating and enriching the connections between rural and urban Australia. We want you to take time out of your busy day to think about how farming affects your life, there's more to this agribusiness than meets the eye.

What are you going to do in 2012 to celebrate?

 "What are you going to do in 2012 to celebrate?" was the question asked.
And that made me think back to what my blog was intended to be - documenting our farm life. But we are just one farming family, and maybe in this auspicious year many more farmers would like to jump on the bandwagon (blogwagon?) and share some insights into what it is like to live life on the land.
So I am in the process of setting up a website that will bring together blogs of Australian farmers so that all blog readers can learn a bit more about what it takes to produce the agricultural products that we all rely on.

Do you know any Australian farmers who would like to document their year on the farm and share it with everybody online?

Tidy Town Award Winner

Sophie at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle for the Awards.

The Shire of West Arthur is the proud winner of the Western Australian Tidy Town - Sustainable Communities Award. Tidy Towns - Sustainable Communties is an annual awards program that aims to encourage, motivate and celebrate the social, environmental and economic achievements of regional communities across Australia.
On November the 18th, I accompanied Sophie to Fremantle for the State awards ceremony. Sophie has just become a member of the local Tidy Towns committee, as a representative of the Youth Advisory Council.

Although West Arthur was nominated for five out of the six category awards, we didn't win any of them. So to be announced the overall State winner was a huge surprise and a great thrill. The award was presented by His Excellency Mr Malcolm McCusker AO CVO QC, Governor of Western Australia, to our Shire President  Ray Harrington. See a newspaper report HERE.

The announcement was very exciting.

The Governor with West Arthur representatives.

The acceptance speech.

The winners.

Now that West Arthur has been announced as the Western Australian winner of the Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities award, we go on to the National judging. The committee has to prepare a new submission with different guidelines, and the whole community will be working towards seeing if we can bring home the national award next year...

Narrogin Triathlon

Last Sunday the children competed in their first triathlon. Actually Sophie didn't enter because she couldn't organise a team - originally she thought she could have a team with Bonnie and her friend Amelia, but both Bonnie and Amelia decided to do individual events. Hugh and Odette also competed as individuals, doing all three legs of the triathlon.
The Narrogin Primary School P&C triathlon has special junior sections to encourage the participation of younger children, so Hugh and Odette in the 9 years and under event swam 50 metres, cycled 800 metres and ran 400 metres. Bonnie was in the 13 years and under section and had to swim 100 metres, cycle 1200 metres and run 800 metres.

Sophie offered high fives to Bonnie and her friend Amelia after their race.

Bonnie and Amelia at the finish line.

Bonnie coming in at the end of her race, followed closely by Amelia.

Bonnie at the end of her cycling leg.

Odette showing her race number drawn on her arm. They also wore electronic ankle bands for the timing.

Odette after she recovered from her race.

Bonnie completing her swimming leg.

Odette in lane 5 waiting for her race to start.

All of the children performed very well. We had been doing a small amount of training, and had done a couple of trial races in Darkan beforehand. We had mainly concentrated on the swimming because that is our kids' weakest area. We are lucky to have a community-managed swimming pool in Darkan that we can use at nearly any time. Odette chose to swim backstroke, which is her strongest stroke, and Bonnie swam one lap of breaststroke to break up her freestyle so she didn't get too puffed out. Hugh only had his first swim in the deep end of the pool the week before the real event! He has only passed stage one, which is the introductory level at swimming lessons, and he hasn't learnt proper swimming, but he has taught himself pretty well to do freestyle. Of course he can't do the breathing so he was holding on to the edge of the pool to take a breath.

Hugh wouldn't let go of the side of the pool!

I walked alongside Hugh and encouraged him during his swim (actually I encouraged him to let go of the edge of the pool, but he didn't listen!)

But in the Narrogin pool there is a low "waveless" edge on the pool, so he grabbed onto that and didn't let go for fifty metres! Needless to say his swimming leg was pretty slow - it took him over seven minutes. But he made up for that in the cycle leg. I knew he rode quite fast, because he almost kept up with the older kids during our practices, but I was astounded when I saw the results and he was the fastest of all competitors in the nine-years and under category. He isn't six yet, so by the time he is nine he should be really really fast!!

Odette finished fourth in the girls 9yrs and under category, and she performed well in each of her three sections. Next year she will have to go up to the next category as she is already nine. Bonnie came third in the girls 13yrs and under category. Running is her strongest section, but she did well in cycling too. If she trains a bit more and perfects her swimming she should be a real star by the time she is thirteen!

It was such a great event that I am now looking for more triathlons to take the kids to. And who knows, one day I might be able to swim, cycle and run that far too!!

Perth Royal Show with Odette

Because it is Odette's birthday next week (she will turn 9 on Monday) I took her for a birthday treat at the Perth Royal Show. She invited her friend Jen to go with us too. We went to Perth last night and caught some of the night time action at the show. We went on the big wheel, watched the fireworks, and saw some nerve-wracking FMX (freestyle moto cross) stunts in the arena. We stayed the night at my sister's place not far from the showgrounds and went back to the show this morning.
I took Hugh's little point-and-shoot camera - no way was I lugging around a big heavy camera and lens all day!  So in pictures, here is some of what we did at the show:

Went on the tea-cup ride (we wanted Odette to go on it because 7 years ago we went to the show and the operator had to stop the ride and get her off because she cried so much.)

Went on the chair lift

Milked a pretend cut-out cow

Posed as/with Captain Cleanup

Explored permaculture concepts

Played with a junk sculpture robot

Bought a showbag

Swapped shoes and socks when Jen got blisters

Yes, Odette's toes are really long

Drank lemonade (not as good as Bonnie's home-made stuff was the verdict)

Climbed on a rock-climbing wall

Fell off the wall

Went caving in a model cave

Learnt more about Malaysia

Rode on the "Dragon Wagon"

Saw lots of poultry

I had lots of fun with the two girls, but I had forgotten how tiring a day at the Show can be! Maybe I'll be ready to tackle it again in another seven years...