Very quick update

This photo was taken as the sun rose behind us the morning we left Canberra.  True to form it was an early start!  We left at 4.10am!! The weather was pretty calm for the first couple of hours and then the wind came up.  It blew like a bitch for the rest of the day and made for pretty steady going, especially across the Hay Plains :(
We ended up at Robinvale that night so it wasn't a bad effort considering the bad conditions.  There is a small caravan park near the Weir that was very quiet.  The next morning we went into Mildura to stock up on groceries.  While refuelling at Gol Gol, Kate rang and spoke to Bun for a while.  I think she got excited that we were that close and she and Roger jumped in the car and came to Mildura to meet us for lunch.  After a couple of hours they left for home and we went up the highway for a while and stopped overnight next to the Anabranch bridge.

Thursday morning saw us reaching Tandou Farm just below the Menindee Lake system.  We met up with Col who Bun had spoken to on the phone while we were in Canberra.  He took us around and explained how things work there and then we got settled in at the camp.  Next morning he picked us up and we went to fill out forms.
I mean WE because I got conned into driving a tractor too!   We are both driving John Deeres (big ones) and Bun is cultivating and fertilising while mine is cultivating and spraying, both in the cotton crop.
Bun reckons that every day that we both work will mean a full days fuel for driving in the truck, don't you love the way his mind works?

So this will be my life for the next few weeks!

In my latest workplace hahaha, and no, I'm not just posing for a photo in the tractor, this is the rig I've been driving!

This is Max, Sylvana and James' baby!!  We made a very quick overnight visit home on Monday for Mrs Spangler's funeral.  Callie has been puppy-sitting Max a few times lately and apparently he gets worn out and this is what he looks like when he gets back to his bed :)

The trip home was eventful!  Somehow I don't think so many things should have gone wrong in one day but they did.

We had a great idea for pay-back and decided to strip the sheets off the bed and take them, the towels and our dirty washing home and ask Callie to wash for us while we were home!  She did them too :) However as I stripped the bed, I put the blankets on the chair in the van and they covered up Bun's wallet and phone.  This was something that became apparent about 40 minutes AFTER we left.  The start of the road out to the highway is very rough so Bun decided that we were not going back for them.

We came down the highway until the Pine Camp road and then took the bush track.  It was very rough!! Unfortunately the day got worse when we turned at the Dangali turnoff back to Cooltong. We stopped at McDonalds in Renmark for a late breakfast and Bun discovered that the tailgate had been shook loose and dropped off!
We made a quick u-turn and headed back to the turnoff but someone had decided to pick it up and 'disappear' it!!

The only lucky thing is that when we got tool boxes made for the  truck, we took side panels off and Bun was able to get Bill Wilksch to make us a new tailgate that afternoon. This morning we left early and stopped in Mildura for a few hours to get the new windscreen fitted, then hit the shops for more food.

It sounds like we'll stay at Tandou until mid-Feb all being well.  They are happy for us to work 5 days a week and have Monday and Tuesday off, that way other people can have weekends off.  It doesn't worry us
when we have days off.

Callie and Steven are hoping to come up and camp over New Year and maybe Sylvana and James might get up here for a few days while we're here.  If anyone else thinks about coming up, let us know via text message because the service is pretty poor.  I tend to get emails and texts come through while I'm in the middle of the paddock!

We're just heading out of Mildura now while I'm typing so I'll finish up before the service drops out.

If I don't get to update again, have a safe and happy Christmas and I hope the New Year only brings good things!

Cheers
Anne and Bun