Late last week I got the third round of edits back and although there’s still a reasonable amount to do, there is a backlog of farm and housework that wants my attention too. Harvest has started and for a couple of days last week, I was on the chaser bin.

Thursday, thinking I had a day at home, I quickly loaded the washing machine to the brim, threw on a loaf of bread and a cake and sat down at my office desk to start. Unfortunately all of these activities were still in play when the phone call to go and help in the sheep yards came. Nothing that any other farmer’s wife wouldn’t understand.

Rocket is Fleur McDonald's new Editor

Today, I’m thinking about taking the phone off the hook and turning the two-way down. Anna and Matt (the two main characters in Purple Roads) need my attention and to be honest, I need them. I have a few ideas racing around my head that I need to somehow work into this edit.

And obviously my new editor thinks it’s time that I worked on Purple Roads again. He seems to have that look on his face. Or maybe he just wants the opportunity to curl up at my feet and sleep.

I wonder if the boss would come looking for me if I didn’t answer his calls?

Harvest in full swing

I love the urgent calls over the two-way: ‘Truck due in twenty minutes.’ Or ‘This sections is yielding really well.’ Today I heard the boss saying that there was a section that looked like the kangaroos had used for both their living room and kitchen! I’m think that the barley must have been fairly flat and non-existent in that small patch.

I enjoy looking at the vividness of the golden barley stubbles against the blue sky and the green of the header. And I take great pleasure in knowing as soon as we’ve finished the paddock, sheep or cattle will be in them, grazing on the wayward grains that have somehow slipped through the header and on to the ground. It’s great feed for them.

Cattle will graze on the barley stubble

We have finished harvesting our canola with a return per hectare that left us quite stunned it was so good!

Our barley is swathed and we’ve decided to have a go at direct heading the last paddock of barley, which is what we’re doing today. I’ve been on shifting duty – shifting silos from one place to another, moving augers and taking samples to the bin, to check if the moisture is low enough for us to start.

I’m waiting for Hayden to get home from school. I know the minute he does, he’ll be entrenched in the little seat along side the header driver (his dad aka The Boss) and won’t shift until I insist he comes and does his homework!

Harvester in action

Rochelle on the other hand, will be just as happy walking Rocket and practising her basketball shots for a carnival on the weekend.

Making Round Hay Bales

Making hay is one of the fun things about the farm … unless you get hay fever, like I do!

For the last few weeks I’ve been sneezing my head off and will continue to do so until harvest has finished.

Rye grass, grain dust, normal dust and ‘fines’ (minuscule particles of hay) send me into a world of itchy throats, weeping eyes and sneezes!

But I still love watching the hay being made and if I keep up with my medication, I can actually rake the hay for the boss.

The baler trundles along eating the rows of freshly-raked hay. Inside, the machine wraps it into a tight bale before covering it with netwrap and flicking it out the back.

When it looks like this, the cows do their utmost to break into the paddocks or storage facility!

I love stone fruit and we are lucky to have moved to a house with a delicious peach bearing tree. Big, fat, juicy ones!

Trouble is, the tree is completely overloaded, so much so that one of the branches broke off about two weeks ago. Also the fruit all ripens at around the same time!

There are only so many peaches one can eat without upsetting the body’s equilibrium!

So the simmer pot has come out and I’m bottling, stewing, freezing… anything that makes the peaches last a bit longer.

Its a messy job, with juice everywhere, sticky fingers and knife handles, but it brings so much pleasure to know that we’ve prolonged the life of this fruit and they’ll be yummy into the winter months.

Look at this beautiful sunset! You know what that means, don’t you? ‘Red in the morning, shepherd’s warning. Red at night, shepherd’s delight’. We’re going to get harvesting tomorrow … I think!

I could look at this sight forever, sipping a cool glass of wine… but there’s dog’s to fed and chooks to put away! One more moment …