There's no way these chooks are flying the coop!

As I've mentioned things have been put on hold a little on the farm with all this rain so we've had to find other things to do to occupy our time. Tyler tries to put me to work doing all those jobs around the farm that no one wants to do that usually involve finishing a job that someone started 20 years ago or cleaning an area that needs to be cleared by the nuclear hazardous waste team first.
This past week I decided that every farm needed some chooks! But before we got our chooks we needed a chicken coop. I was thinking a small simple modest little little coop that I could manage to assemble with bits and pieces around the farm however Tyler had other ideas. After a full days work the chickens now reside in a very spacious, safe and well secured home. I was glad we were able to build it together as there was no way I would have been able to create such a masterpiece on my own and I can now say I'm a pro with an angle grinder... woo hoo!

We picked up the chooks yesterday and now all we do is wait for them to lay some eggs. There are four of them at this stage and as they are all identical they are imposable to name. I worked out that each chook needs to lay about three dozen eggs to make what their worth back in eggs... so they better get laying!

Here are some pics!

My new day job (when it's not raining)...

So at the moment this is my new day job. The plan is the help out with Harvest and drive the Chaser Bin, however due to the rain things have been a little stop start and it feels like when you get all your toys out to play and then having to pack them all up again before they get wet... over and over.

The times we've actually been out there harvesting (or trying to) I've really enjoyed. I can't say I'm all that good at driving my tractor and chaser bin (trying to reverse it is a nightmare) but I love being outside and so far the majority of the grain has successfully made it out of my bin and into the field bin or truck.

For those who aren't up with the farming lingo, essentially I'm driving a tractor towing a bin behind it. I drive up to the Header, the Header dumps the grain into my bin and I take it back to the field bins in the paddock, so that the header can stay in the crop, keep harvesting and not waste time by driving all the way to the field bins. For those that are still confused apparently there are plenty of YouTube videos, so my brother has pointed out. Who knew!

Tyler driving the Header

I really don't know much about farming but when I wear these boots I feel like I have super human farming powers!

Time to build an Ark...

To those who during the many years of drought questioned whether the land would ever see floods again, you now have your answer. This morning Dad and I went to take a look at the floodwaters around town. Even though you can see the massive amounts of water covering the roads and crops right in front of you it is still truely hard to believe. Boort is a town surrounds by a lake and river system and Big Lake Boort has been bone dry for at least 10 years however it is now overflowing. Roads are closed and piles of sandbags are on standby.

Big Lake Boort overflowing

 Photos I stole from other people's facebook pages...

A house in Fernihurst about 20km's from Boort