Tuesday 20 January 2015

Life is Good :)

Just a quick reminder to anyone who scrolls past my blog, whether I know you or not, nasty and/or snarky comments aren't appreciated and won't be tolerated. They'll be marked as spam, so please don't bother yourself writing them.
     I myself, have a very broad opinion and at times I do like to exert my opinion on matters that are at times, controversial. However, that isn't an invitation to comment on my blog with your unwanted remarks and how stupid you think I am. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions, so this is where I like to share mine, and I know better than most that everyone has different outlooks on life.
     Although I do want to one day have a blog that many people read, and I know I have to be prepared for the negative people of this lovely world we live in, but it really boils my blood when somebody stalks through my blog and hides behind an anonymous name. As I said on Facebook, (and curiously since then, these comments have stopped), this person is probably somebody I know who's for some reason got a bee in their bonnet. Who comes across a blog and reads every post, til exactly a year back (which is kinda creepy to think about) just to find something to take a dig at? Honestly, if you've got a problem, I'd much prefer if you were to express your opinions in a much more pleasant manner and don't hide behind a false name.

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It is HOT. Okay, so it's probably not that hot, being just over 20 degrees, but my gosh, that sun has some heat in it these days. Going outside is absolute madness so we try and hide away from it as much as we can. However that's kinda difficult when you live and breathe the outdoors. After all the complaining about it being summer, and how the rain was getting boring, we desperately need rain right now. Our water tank is almost to the stage of being bone dry, and it seems that overnight the paddocks have turned from looking like wet, soggy potatoes to thin cut chips. (Chicken flavoured). You look around and see brown, lots of it.
I know that unlike Canterbury, we're doing pretty well. But this definitely isn't needed to add to the stress. As someone mentioned, all the crops have been stuffed up and put in too late. The rain kept flooding the seed beds, or washing away what was already there. The ground got too wet to resow. Now all the crops have mostly turned to nothing, barely any silage was done because of the rain and because of the previous years droughts, food in general is low. This is the beginning of the end. This is farming.





Where I'm working every weekend, we're meant to have cups on at 3pm. I can be sitting around waiting until almost 4pm until the cows turn up, they take hours to walk in with the heat and extra humidity. The farmer who's usually cheerful was quite sullen today when I saw him after work. He's not quite sure what to do. The cows are dropping production from heat stress, so tonight we're milking an hour later and he's completely changed the morning and night paddocks around so they don't have to walk too far. Other options are to do 12 hour milkings, so we'd be milking about 6:30 am and 7pm, when it's cooler. The most extreme option is to milk only once a day, which if he was to jump straight into this, he'd be screwed for the rest of the season. He may as well quit now.
This sort of thing, with being a relief milking company, we're seeing everywhere. It's getting to that difficult stage of trying to keep the work place positive, however it's not particularly easy when everywhere you turn, you see stress.
     It's difficult for us to plan ahead with what possible work we will get over the next few months, and into next season. With the payout being low, general farm staff are being dropped. The question is, will we be asked to do the odd fill in job, as it's a cheaper option? Will we be needed for more spraying, because we're cheaper than the helicopters? Will we get a sudden onslaught of work once the kids go back to school and uni? Lots of if's, but's, and maybe's to work around. I suppose you could say, it just makes life that more interesting.

Now with my uni plans gone awol, I'm sorta looking around going, hmm, now what? Mum and Dad were intending on shifting my room into the upstairs spare room when I left. Now that's been updated a little. I'm moving myself into the upstairs spare bedroom, getting rid of the old spare bed to make room for me. And the other spare room (that is currently being used for storage) will be stripped and relined as a sort of lounge for me. I'll be able to set up my desk and computer up there, one of our old TV's and DVD player etc. All I'll need to look out for is a couch and such to fill it for when I have people over. I'm not quite sure when we'll ever have time to do it, but sometime we will. It should be good!
     This year I'll be pretty much full time working. Getting to do the majority of the milkings, and being able to help mum with her calves again next season. Where I'm working has asked if I can help them with milkings and calf rearing during winter too. We just need to figure some things out, to see if it would work OK. If that is the case, I'll be fully booked almost all day every day, for three months at least! Hey, I'm not gonna be a poor student like I thought!

Because I'm now able to afford it, I'll soon start looking out for a new 2nd hand decent car for me, before mine blows up and leaves me stranded somewhere. I'll be able to stick with the Young Farmers here, and I want to be a part of expanding Youth Group to something better and more interesting. Plans have already started, so hopefully the leaders give it the go ahead :) I know I'm now a little old to be part of youth, which is why I want to save it from the despair of having no members left.

Yesterday Dad did a spraying quote and came back with a "not going to uni present" for me. Two brown shavers! He happened to be giving the quote to the local chicken farm, so he'll bring back some more when he goes out there to spray this weekend. Meanwhile, the two chooks were named almost instantly by Mum - Tersh and Sherry...AKA Tertiary lol

What I'm going to do, who knows? I've thought about training as an AB Tech, but each time I think of it, it just doesn't give me that "buzz". It would be a good thing to train in, and exceptionally good paying once you reach your third year, depending on how accurate you are. But yeah, currently I don't really see myself doing it, even though it was always a fallback option. This year I'll just work and increase my savings some more and see what life throws at me. My arms and eyes are wide open, ready, waiting. I suppose I've just got to be patient, and at the moment, I've got a good thing already

6 comments:

  1. 20 degrees??? You lot are sissies... :P We've only had two days under 30 this year, with today probably being the third... :P

    New 2nd hand car??? interesting choice of words... :P
    Just remember to check its history. Cars don't like going from doing long-distance trips to short distance ones, or vice versa. Either a life of all long, or all short...

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    1. We generally don't get many over 30 degrees temperatures, so typically we're used to about 28 max. I suppose since we had all those weeks of colder weather, having a sudden jump in temperature and humidity gave us a bit of a shock :)

      Ahuh, new 2nd hand :P
      Hmm, yeah I don't actually think that that sort of thing would be an issue really... cars that sit around a lot are more likely to run into issues, especially if they sit around for a few weeks at a time, then get driven the odd time here and there. You'd expect that. But I'm driving 20Ks or more a day, so that's not a problem for me.

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    2. Haha, yeah, I guess that explains a lot... We're currently having rain here, which is great... and then the paper arrives with a picture of the SI I think it was, which is as brown as brown can be, really... Kinda makes you feel guilty, getting rain when you weren't *that* dry... You guys getting any???

      Okay, that's good. Its just, Car salesmen are brilliant at that one, "This car is a great buy, has had a very simple life, so will be strong and reliable!", when in reality, those are the most unreliable... :P If you know already, that's good... Just thought I better check, one of my other friends was caught by that recently...

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  2. We had 24 yesterday. It was so flipping hot. A great day to have Miriam over. :) I even got a tan. Not so pale now!!! Today is a sharp contrast, it's cold and wet, and miserable.

    Your own little apartment within your house!? That sounds awesome. :D

    Hopefully the weather sorts itself out soon!

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  3. Hehe...25 degrees is cold :P 28+ is comfortable...just saying. haha :P

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    1. Well, it's not my fault I live at the bottom of the world!!!

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