I grew up with frosts covering our front lawn, frozen pipes and it being so cold in the mornings that it was 10am before our fingers and toes warmed up, but in coastal areas it’s quite unusual to have a frost.
This is what we awoke to on Saturday morning! We were on our way into Esperance for footy when we saw old ‘Jack Frost’ sitting on the side of the road! Now my kids have never seen a frost, they’ve only heard their Nana talk about it, so they were keen to get out to have a look and touch!
Frosts aren’t good for the crops. If they happen during the flowering stage (that’s when the plant sets its potential) it will effect the yield. At the moment though they’ll dry the plant out and slow the growth down, but it’s much better to have them at this time of year, than around September when the plant is flowering.
We heard on the news later that night it was the coldest night on record – Norseman (inland from us by about two hours) had got down to -5! I hope everyone’s fires were kept going that night!
While I was shifting sheep yesterday afternoon, I had to marvel at how quickly the country has responded to the rain. The feed has shot out of the ground, which is lovely because the stock really needed an injection of green feed and all the vitamins that it holds.
It was still raining as the sheep milled towards the open gate – 83 odd millimeters over a week and half has wet the soil up nicely and left large, deep puddles lying in the lower areas of the paddocks – it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen that.
The ‘fun-guys’ (as Anthony calls fungi!) has grown quickly too. There are toadstools pushing their way through the dirt in many places and my back lawn has erupted with mushrooms! They’re the safe ones, so I’ll be able to pick them when we have steak for tea. Steak and mushroom sauce – yum, sounds like a pub dinner!
How alone does the tree look though? The fact that it’s dead, the wood is so dark (because it’s so wet) and the stark, grey sky – gives me goose bumps when I look at it out in the paddock!
Yesterday was probably the worst day we’ve had this summer. We hit 44 degrees – the same as Marble Bar. Now there is something strange about that! Marble Bar is renown for being the hottest place in WA and it’s in the far north. Esperance is on the south coast and right near the sea!
We had a total fire and harvest ban, and as the strong northerly wind whipped through the trees, I couldn’t help but feel very apprehensive. That feeling stayed with me throughout the whole day – especially since thunderstorms were forecast for the evening. (Thankfully the bushfire radio stayed satisfyingly quiet.)
I had the sprinklers going most of the day (we’re lucky to have a dam, just for the garden), so our dogs and chooks would be okay, but numerous natives birds, including a couple of baby butcher birds, came to enjoy of the water and have a drink. As I cleaned the troughs out in the feedlot, the birds came swooping from everywhere to enjoy the water.
But it was this sight that made me smile: on the way to the school bus, there were about eight magpies in around the cows feet cooling their heels in the only puddle on the farm! The cows took no notice of them, as the maggies ignored these huge beasts! You can see how hot the maggies were – their beaks are open and they’ve got their wings out from their body.
To walk around, unintimidated, by the cows who could squash them with a single hoof, shows that water was a necessity on a day like yesterday!
As the sun sinks at the end of a warm day he kisses the clouds good night. His rays are much softer than the heat he throws in the middle of the day.
In the stillness of the evening, the cows are out for their nightly graze, the magpies singing their evening tune and the Wedge Tail Eagles hover menacingly overhead, looking for their tea.
This nightly glow, as the whole of the countryside prepares for bed, is one of my favourite times of the day.
We had some drama in our neighbourhood today!
A fire started just to the back of our farm and was on a neighbouring farm - if you’re a regular visitor, you’ve probably seen me write about my friend Gill who is the world’s most amazing cook! This fire photo is what fronted her and her family today.
Having fought in a couple of fires early in our farming career, I know the intensity of the heat and smothering feeling that the smoke sends out. It’s frightening, no matter how seasoned at fighting fires you are. Having kids now, I don’t venture out to the fire front any more, but the photo of the smoke is what I could see from my side!
The flaming photo was taken by Anthony on his mobile phone and portrays the danger, much better than any of my smoke photos.
Thankfully today was cool even though the wind was a bit stronger than what we would have like to fight this fire which gave the blokes a few scary moments.
One of the best thing about living in a farming community is the way people respond to calls for help. Men jumped off headers and were at the fire within minutes and four hours later things were looking decidedly better. There will be guys that watch fire all night, in case there are flare-up’s, but as of now, listening to the bushfire radio, it sounds like all is ‘under control’.
This is what my world looked like at 4.15 this morning! Magic isn’t it?
We in WA are lucky not to have daylight saving, but it does mean that our sun gets ups up at horrible hours – it kissed the horizon at 4.35am!
Anthony and I were up - it is going to be a hot day, with the threat of a harvest ban to be put on (that means that we can’t go out in the paddocks at all, unless we’re making sure our stock have water. It’s all about minimising the risk of fires on days of high fire danger.)
The wisp of cloud that you can see across the sky is actually smoke. There is a large blaze burning to the east of us – in crown and completely unpopulated land, so it is of no threat to us and all the Conservation and Land Management people are monitoring it! But it was the smell of smoke that woke me at about 1.30am. I flew out of bed and charged around the house to each window, trying to see if there was one close by, but it was this one.
As you can see, the animals know that it is going to be hot and the cows are already out grazing. It will be a good harvest day so Anthony, Jayden and I will be trundling around the paddock, harvesting and cleaning grain – unless there is a harvest ban in place!
**NEWSFLASH!! I have a surprise guest blog! Tamara McKinley has answered a couple of my questions and I’ll be sharing them with you tomorrow. She won’t be around to ask questions, but she’s just shared a few things about her writing experiences with me.
In summer one of the things I love are the amazing sunsets. They can be anything from wild - like the ones created by thunderstorms – to sublime and just plain beautiful.
I must admit, coming from the mid north of SA and after spending a lot of time around the Alice Springs area, I thought the Esperance sunsets were tame compared to the vivid colours that the other two areas could produce. Not only in sunsets, but in the landscape. I was used to striking colour – blazing reds against intense blues.
After living in Esperance for nearly seventeen years, now I’ve learnt that Esperance has more colours than I ever imagined. They are less bright and perhaps you need to train the eye to look for them – it’s easy to think that in the heat summer that the dry grasses are a drab grey, or the trees a dull green. But it’s not the case.
The sea sparkles brightly and the sand is a blinding white. The native Munji trees spring forth with bright orange flowers and even though the landscape doesn’t burst with colour the way the northern parts of SA and NT do, the colour is still there… it’s just softer.
This sunset is a particularly spectacular one for our neck of the woods!
Well, after a week of rumbling and grumbling, lightening and torrential rain, in a few spots, we’re off harvesting again today.
We’re down in our far back paddock and this is the view from the chaser bin. I took this one of the hottest days we had this week (about 40 degrees) but you wouldn’t know by looking at it!
I love the golden stalks that crunch under my feet when I walk through it, but the cut off stems play mary-hell with your legs! I’ve got little round cuts all over them from where the stems stick into them as I’ve been walking through the crop!
On the Blue Skies front, I’m looking forward to getting the first pages back this week. Even though it will still be printed on A4 paper, it will be set out like a book and for some reason, that just makes it easier to read and therefore, edit.
I’ve got the cover for Blues Skies and will be putting it up shortly, along with a small piece, written by Anne-Marie, who took one of the photos used on it. She’s going to be telling you about the time she took it and so forth. But before the cover goes up, I’m just waiting for a few little bits and pieces to be perfected.
Thunderstorms are not only impressive but their power is truly breathtaking. They are a reminder to humans: how we can’t control everything, (even though we try) and how much we are at the mercy of Mother Nature. As farmers during summer, we tend to be a bit wary of storms – especially if they don’t bring any rain.
Last night was a shocker for lightening and fires. From about 3pm we could see the clouds building and then heard the ominous sounds of rumbling in the distance.
As the day became night the flashes of lightening hitting the ground were spectacular… if you ignored the fact it was starting fires in the dry and brittle grass.
Before long we could see the red glows of fires in many different directions. The bush fire radio crackled to life and there was a hive of activity as the wind buffeted the fires along.
As with thunderstorms they are unpredictable, and some people racing to the fires couldn’t stay on the road due to the pouring rain! Thankfully, it helped control the fires quickly and before too much farming land was damaged although some of our friends lost crop and pasture.
No rain where we live and at 5am this morning it was thirty degrees. It’s looking like another day of thundery storms – hopefully without the excitement of last night.
Our season has come to an abrupt end. There wasn’t any gradual change in the grass as there can be some years. It went from green to golden in the space of about three days! Now is the time that my love/hate relationship starts with summer. I am not a fan of hot weather – which is quite strange, considering where I grew up, but my skin can’t take the strong summer sun… and I’m a weakling, when the temperature hits over thirty and I have to work in it!
But I love the school holidays, Christmas, the warm nights, awesome sunsets and any excuse for a BBQ and few drinks! (And the beach, if I’m in the shade!)
All that is still to come. First there is harvest: Anthony has pulled the header out of the shed and started to swath some of our barley, so we’ll be harvesting by tomorrow.
Second, there’s the feedlot: these lambs have been drenched and jetted (for flies) and are on their way down to the feedlot. They’ll be my charges, while harvest is going on. I’ll make sure the feeders are full and the water is clean and fresh and then let Anthony know when I think they are ready for sale.
And then there is the seasonal thunderstorms that can bring fires or a deluge of rain!
This time of the year is always stressful – trying to get the harvest off before there are any summer rains, can cause even the most placid person to get rather snarly! It is such a big job and there is so much riding on it that it hangs over everyone head and we all hold our breath until the last truck has left the farm.
Hopefully next year our season will be a ‘normal’ one and not as difficult as the past two years.
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