March 2014

Onions, onions and more onions. This month has started off with the harvesting of onions. Three of us are driving tractors (John Deere 6630) hauling large trailer bins which once full we take back to the shed area and unload into the hopper where they are taken up the belt and onto the grading table.

Harvesting

The view out of the office rear window as we drive up and down alongside the harvester.

Unloading

Docked at the hopper the bed of the trailer is a metal belt which is used to unload the onions into the hopper.

Grading

Rubbish is removed by the machine or the four women as the onions fall depending on their size through the mesh and onto a conveyor belt where they are taken to the bin loaders before the bins are loaded into the shed to allow them to dry before they head off to the city.

There has also been plenty of time spent "topping" the onions which is basically a special slasher attached to the tractor which cuts the tops (and the weeds) off the top of the onions ready for the harvester to bring up.

Topping

Topping taken through the dirty windscreen. Before on the left and after on the right.

In addition to the onions there has been some days among the spuds as they grow. Driving a larger tractor and towing a damadyker which is basically a plough which opens up the ground on either side of the spuds, forms the ground into a square and then a large wheel with small spade like implements leaves a divot for water to collect in so that each plant gets a certain amount of water each day from the pivot as it goes around.

Cultivating

Turning this into this

Cultivating After

Joanne left us to the onions to go to Melbourne by train to be with and nurse her Dad who was coming home from hospital. It was an hour and a half's drive down toe Bordertown to meet the train. We arrived at the station to find the building itself all boarded up and closed and consigned to being an old historic building from yesteryear, the train only stopping if someone is on the platform.

Train to Melb

Joanne took The Overland to Melbourne

A week later we finished the onions and the others moved onto the pivot containing the seed potato's and I began damadyking and cultivating the pivots that had been planted just as the potato plants broke the ground.

Tractor and Damadyker

The tractor and damadyker

The weather closed in and after some really good rain the damadyking stopped because it was too wet to get onto the ground without damaging what I was to be cultivating, so I moved onto disc ploughing the trash and left over's on the onion pivot. It was great having a new toy to play with and a new skill to learn and perfect.

Weather

The weather closing in

Disc Plough

Using the disc plough to turn over the onion patch. Its not the best photo but...

But it has not been all work this month because we also added to our solar set up for the motorhome. After some deliberation as to what we wanted and the pro's and con's of each possibility and why we ended up buying a 180w portable panel (Bosch) that we had seen at the Caravan and Camping Show in Adelaide. The 200w already on the roof is okay for what we need but it means we have to park in the sun all of the time, so now we can park in almost anywhere and still get power in from the sun.

Solar Panels

180w folding panels and the various attachments that came with them. They fold up and go into the carry case and that sits behind the drivers seat while driving.

Its the end of the month now and we are both in Melbourne. Joanne's Dad passed away in his sleep on Friday night and now it is time for the family to see him off in style and to sort out things that have to be sorted. So at this stage we'll be here for about a week before heading back to Pinnaroo for a bit to let the dust settle before we move on to see some more of this beautiful country.

Mark Twain once said "...years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do that by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - and so we will.