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March 2013
04 March 2013
Can you believe it is March already?
The rain is still falling in Qld and the river at Mundubbera is rising yet again. The river when we got there was a sea of trees flattened and leaning over etc, today there is not a branch or leaf to be seen.
River on the left and Bowls Club on the right. When the flood came only the top half of the bowls club roof was visible.
With little work to be done for the farmers because of the continual rain we decided to leave Mundubbera and headed over to Maryborough for Vince to get his car serviced, and for us to get a wheel alignment. Passing through Ban Ban Springs we managed to use the water over the road to give our underside a wash and after a wet journey we arrived at Janelle's nephew's place in Torbanlea.
Vince washing his caravan
So with the vehicle bits and pieces done and with the Sorghum down in Dalby being written off because of the floods we are now trying to make our minds up as to what to do next. We have applications in for jobs in places as far North as Bowen and as far South as Murwillamba and Goondiwindi, and as far East as Bunderburg. The next few days will mean a few phone calls to these places to see what is going on and then if nothing looks promising we will come up with a new plan...and we can also go back to Mundubbera and do some more Blaizeaid work if the weather allows us to. Of course we could also go to Melbourne or Perth where there is some sunshine :)
11 March 2013
Another week down and while we are waiting for replies to applications we have had some travel and are now back in Mundubbera about to commence with Blaizeaid again. Our travels took us from Torbanlea up to Gin Gin to see Andrew's brother and his family and then down to Buderim to see an Aunty and to catch up with three cousins. So in a week we traveled over a thousand kilometers which was simply amazing.
Heading back to Mundubbera today we crossed the Burnett River at Gayndah and saw quite a change in the river levels. The first picture here is the river level last week, the second as it was today.
The river a week ago
The river today
After setting up again in the showgrounds Joanne went for a walk to post some mail and then went down to the river to get some shots of it today compared to when we left. Here's the before (a week ago) and the now.
The River at Mundubbera a week ago
The river at Mundubbera today
So tomorrow we are back to working to help the farmers recover and with luck it will be a dry week.
15 March 2013
More flood recovery work for Blazeaid this week on a property that really did go under. The Golden Mile Orchard has 21,000 citrus trees, 5 houses, a very large processing shed, lots of farm machinery etc and the owner and family were plucked off the packing shed rood by helicopter when things got really bad.
Somehow I managed to get appointed as Team Leader and that means I have a team of 6 to look after, but they are all good workers and get on with the job so it is a pretty easy, and over the past few days have managed to clear debris off of around 600 trees. Working from around 7.30 until 3 pm with morning tea and lunch in what is left of the packing and processing shed.
The water was 3.2m high in the shed and yes, the car went under.
If they get it going again it will just be a farm ute from now on.
The damage to the gas shed.
These hay bales came from 150m away
The sorting shed
One of the trees before it was cleared
Cleared of debris.
Yesterday we nominated Sunday as our day off and just as well because we were told today that the Sorghum harvest is back on and we are needed back at Jondaryn to start at 7.30am Monday, so that means tomorrow is our last day on the flood relief and we will be heading South on Sunday.
21 March 2013
We are back in Jondaryn again and this time the Sorghum harvest is on. Janelle phoned the site manager on Thursday and he said he needed us there for Monday, so it was a case of finish up with Blaze Aid and take the 200 km trip back in time for work.
We started back at work on the 18th with a 12 hour dayshift (though it was dark when we finished) and since then have swapped over to afternoon shifts working 1130 am to closing which has been around 8 or 8.30pm. We have been getting a lift with Vince and Janelle so that has meant we can leave the motorhome at the caravan park about 5 km's from work.
Joanne has been working as the panel/grid operator for the huge steel silo's feeding grain up the elevator into the silos or down the belt to the stacker which is over 100m away. Now anyone who knows Joanne knows she does not enjoy or have much of an interest in technology, but here she is working and using a huge million dollar toy where things can go very wrong.
and she can even do it with her eyes closed.
The photo is a bit blurry, but this is Joanne's new toy.
this is where the trucks come in to drop their grain under Joanne's direction. Her new toy is behind her.
So while Joanne is enjoying her technology I have been working with Vince and building a Sorghum stack on a ground bunker like we did at Surat with the wheat. It's early days yet but we have already had compliments from management on what we have built and how we have done it. It's a good job unloading the trucks and building the stack which we build with pride, cursing the other shift if they get it out of shape or going over the guide lines on the tarp.
Each shift is the same, a constant stream of single and B-double trucks come in to deliver their grain and the stack gets a longer and higher. The constant delivery means that there is little time to sit around (so the shift goes quite quickly) and tea and lunch breaks are a welcome respite from the the worst part of the job -the dust off of the grain as it comes out of the truck, especially when the wind is coming the wrong way and pushing it all over us as it has been since we started.
25 March 2013
The weather has been rather hot and humid the past few days, the clouds have been building all around us and last night they had their final get together. A large thunderhead formed on the horizon and just kept forming until there was a huge light show inside of it.
Initial efforts to get a good photo were thwarted by lots of very hungry mozzies so that session was aborted until the wind picked up enough strength to keep them away. Here's the results.
The cloud building up
The caravan park managers house had a front row seat as the show began.
Natures light show over the top of the Woolshed
But with all of the light and noise we only received a few drops of rain but parts of Southern Queensland copped a flogging.
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