Still at Tandou...

This is what I've been working on for the last couple of weeks.  Here it's called a 'smudge bar', anywhere else it would be called a grader blade.  It is 12.8m wide so I'm pretty impressed with myself haha.

Previously I was discing with this, but at one stage it needed to be folded up and taken to the shed for repairs.  Luckily I talked my way out of having to drive it back and got to drive the ute :)

This was the outside temperature according to the tractor!! Pretty bloody hot!!

I did actually drive this 'big bugger' but only for about an hour.  Thankfully someone else had to leave early and I got swapped to another tractor.  It's a pretty rough ride and I have to admit to not being keen on doing 3-point turns in it.

A lot of the tractor work at the moment is ripping where the wheat has been harvested so that the ground can be made ready for the next crop.

I just love the name of this rig!!

I can't really remember taking this shot but I do know it was up here somewhere haha

Storm looking dopey, pretty much her usual expression I think :)

I think Boof doesn't like being on a diet, he found some very over-ripe fruit to eat.

At the shed at the start of the day.  It looks almost like a machinery graveyard there sometimes.

The big track tractor is where Bun has been spending most of his time and there is no tinting on the windows, hence it gets bloody hot in there.  He managed to 'acquire' some bulldog clips so that he could rig up screen protectors along the side windows to help keep the cabin a bit cooler.

 Above photo was taken at the start of the day and
photo on the right was taken late in the afternoon.

I love these guys, obviously the family that perches together, stays together. Made me think of the song "We are family'!

Sometimes even Bun has to read instructions!!

Last week in Mildura, we bought a r/c helicopter for Bun's early birthday present.  It has a camera underneath that will take photos/video.  Yesterday it got charged and then after some help with the instructions, he got it flying.  Initially he was using it in the tennis court area (high fencing) but then got it flying a bit higher than the fence.  There was a bit of breeze that caught it and although he was able to make it go left and right and up and down, it would not fly back to him because that was a head wind.  After avoiding power lines, cabins and trees he was only able to watch it disappear into the distance.  He came back to the van with the funniest look on his face.  As he was only holding the controller, I asked where the helicopter was.  He pointed into the distance but I thought he must have crashed it onto the roof of a cabin or something.  He then said 'it's gone'!  Hahaha it was SO funny to see the look on his face.

So we headed off on the motorbike on a search and rescue mission.  We wandered around on this side of the channel behind the camp before crossing to the other side, the channel is about the width of Katarapko Creek.  We were looking on the ground as well as in the trees and trying to follow the sightline from the antenna tower back at the camp. After about 30 minutes there was success!  I picked it up and the only damage was one of the landing skids had snapped at one end.  He reckons he'll be able to glue it back together so now he'll probably wait for a really calm day to have another go!

Bun was also happy to go for a couple of rides on the new bike yesterday, one following the old Pooncarie Rd for a while and then in the afternoon he went along some of the tracks around the farm.  He'll stick to some of the tracks around here for a bit and then maybe talk to the farm manager about exploring a bit further.

We took a baby present over to Ali and Gaven tonight, Ali is heading back to Loxton tomorrow to stay until their baby is born, due in a couple of weeks.

We did another trip home last week to swap the ute back for the truck.  When we went to Broken Hill a fortnight ago to shop, the air-conditioning packed up in the ute on the way back.  It is way too hot up here for no air-conditioning!  

Callie started work yesterday at Riverland Signs and Graphics, based in Lyrup and I think she's glad to be working again after the last couple of years studying.

Ben arrived home this morning from Europe and it sounds like he had a great time apart from the cold/chest infection that he picked up over there.  Apparently it went through the whole bus so you would have to have been lucky to avoid it.  He has bought a new 4wd ute that he will be picking up in the next week and he's looking forward to surfing/biking road trips in the future.

Unfortunately Josh was told at the start of last week at work that they had to put him off due to lack of work.  Thankfully he was able to go back to Jamieson Trucks (where he was working last year) and started there yesterday.  

We are looking to head home to Winkie in about 4 weeks and at the moment we will probably be there for 4-5 weeks so hopefully we can catch up with a few people.  The plan is to spend some time down the river with the boat :)

That's it for now

Cheers!