Aussie Aussie Aussie

Happy Australia Day to all.

Sorry we couldn't be there to share the great day

We managed to round up a few people at the park

for afternoon drinks and BBQ later on,

even though we worked till 11.00.

Had a good afternoon/evening with most having a drink

or two and the couple of kiwis here

joined in also. They were quite receptive when

Les and Gordon, (one of the residents), decided

to put up some aussie flags around

their vans. We also replaced a larger All Blacks

flag at the front of the park which had been flying

since the world cup games.

There is a now a real Australian flag flying.

Below - from left Gordon, Maree, Les

Les and Bryce the kiwi.

Bryce trying to look Ausie till he speaks!

And the crowd grew, we ended up with 17 people.

We haven't worked since Aust Day, back to

the mushies Tuesday.

We have started applying for some other jobs

around here and also other towns, see what

response we get.

We decided to get out and go for a drive to

Parkes the other afternoon.

Whilst in Peak Hill, about half way to Parkes,

we came across this bone yard with heaps

of old cars sitting in this yard.

The photos will give you some idea of

just what is there, couldn't believe  it!

Unfortunately, the man who owns these cars is

not interested in selling any of them

or any part of them apparently.

He used to own/work the local Holden dealership

quite a few years ago and supposedly has an original

 FJ sitting in storage somewhere.

We hear you guys have had considerable rain

over the last week.

We have only had one real rain day and it

has just been overcast, drizzle etc.

Still saying we have rain coming though??

'til next time

Hi again everyone we have had an up and down

week with work. Couple of days 8  and 10 hours, then 3 hour

day and then Thu off, work 4 hours Fri, Sat off

and working for a while Sunday.

We visited the Old Dubbo Gaol on Wed night for a night tour.

Quite interesting evening, learning about the old gaol

opened in 1887 and had quite a checkered past.

It was used not only for prioners, but also

for hanging of some of the locals most dangerous

criminals. The guide was dressed as an original warder

and gave a very authentic look at the way things were.

They had some other actors in a few of the cells also.

we were all locked in the solitary confinement

cell for a few minutes in complete darkness,

the prisoners who were sent there spent 21 days in the cell

Storms have been threatining here for the past three days, Bathurst

and Orange have been getting it all, we have missed out.

Bye for now cheers.

Hello everyone, we have had a couple of bike rides since last post, to Lake Burrendong and around Narromine and Trangie, (smaller towns out from Dubbo).

Average working week, basically been off work since

Thursday after we finished at 7.30am.

We decided to take a bike ride on Mon 9th after work as we finished

earlyish. We went down to Lake Burrendong which is out from Wellington towards Orange. It's about 80ks away.

Very nice set up there, owned and operated by

State Govt, so there is a fee to get in even as a day visitor.

It has all the facilities and is used as a water supply but also

power boats, skiing and fishing are all carried

out on the lake. They have some permanent residents,

cabins, camp sites, kiosk and fuel.

As you can see we found the Burrendong Hotel,

it's at a town called Mumbil, near the lake.

Saturday we went on another ride just to a couple of the local towns,

Narromine and Trangie, not really much at these towns,

but we did find a statue of Glenn McGrath, who was born and bred

at Narromine and been playing cricket there from 7 years old.

Friday night we had dinner at the "Drovers Dog Hotel"

at Eumungerie, which is about 30 k's from Dubbo.

One of the women from work lives up there and invited us up

there for dinner. It's a classic old town country pub.

Meals were $10 each and very nice.

Cam and Amanda know of this town, as some of Cam's

relatives are from there.

There isn't much there that's for sure!

Saturday night we copped a huge storm here, the neighbours' annexe collapsed during the storm. He wasn't around as he is a tanker driver

and is out for days at a time.

We went over and sorted it out Sun morning.

Our van and annexe withstood it all, did very well

There is a constant flow of short term visitors coming through,

being holiday time I guess.

One of the motor homes here has a classic saying

"Jim and Sue, Cruzn, Boozn and Snoozn", love it.

We have finally got around to including some photos of the model car and caravan Amanda and Cam gave us before we left.

We had to name the van "The Snail" of course.

here they sit on the exhaust fan ledge.

Brother Chris also gave us another model car and caravan,

it's an XW panel van and old caravan, they all now live on the ledge

above the exhaust fan. The number plates on them

is "Moff 81". Check the Peter Brock magnet also.

Well that's about it for the week, back to the mushies in the morning.

Happy New Year

Hello everyone, happy new year to all, we are now back in Dubbo, after a very busy two weeks back home.

Apologies to those of you we didn't catch up with.

We did have some great times with our children and

grandkids, as well the newest of them, Bailey.

Prior to leaving Dubbo and the mushroom farm,

the bosses, David and Janelle, gave us a coffee

mug each with the mushroom farm name and our name on.

They were also very generous and included us in

the bonuses given out to everyone.

The trip back to Vic Pt was quite good, only

minimal leftovers of flooding around Moree and out from Goondiwindi.

We had borrowed a tandem trailer from the caravan park

owners, took it home and loaded the

bike on and took it back to Dubbo.

Had a very smooth run back, no dramas and

the bike travelled very well.

So you may ask how do we tow the van and the bike?

Susan is going to tow the van whenever we move around

and I will ride the bike.

The previous tenants on the site we are on planted a small

tomato bush and it has now gone beserk and we have lots of

cherry tomatoes to eat. There is also a capsicum bush and parsley growing in the garden.

That's about all for now, we are back to the mushies tomorrow

and the early starts, so will update again soon.

Nearly Christmas!

The time has come again for our update,

it's been a quieter week for the mushies, they are slowing

the bed growth due to Christmas break and will build it up again for early January for when we are back.

No work Thursday,

Only worked two hours Friday, back home for brekky.

While we are on the subject of the mushies, Susan wanted to take a photo of the infamous knife, have a look at this one.

Our grand total picked mushies for the last week was some 740kgs between us. and we are the beginners!

Getting the hang of it, however Susan is still ahead of me in mushroom weight and dollars, so she thinks she is pretty good.

Speaking of which, we had a mini pool tournament

at the Bowls club, yep the pool shark won that as well.

Something we had forgotten, while we were walking around Dubbo CBD couple of weeks ago, a journo from the local paper,

The Liberal, stopped us in the street and asked a few questions

about our thoughts on the pollie pay rise.

he wrote some notes and took Les's photo for an

article in the paper. We didn't think any more about it, but on the Monday the paper had Les's photo and his comments.

The supervisor at work came in to tell us about it,

a star in the making, not!

We will be heading back home for about 10 days, hopefully leaving here Friday morning, dependent on work that morning.

We will catch up with as many people as we can

over that time.

As we had Thu off, we decided to head out to the Western Plains Zoo and check it out. Had a good day as it was a bit cooler

day as it would be very hot out there normally.

Couple of pics below from the zoo.

Meerkats

Even baby giraffes are taller than Susie

This one wasn't interested in moving any closer

Sunday, we have just been for a good

walk down to the river and the markets,

having a quiet afternoon, probably head to the West Dubbo Bowls Club for ham draws and dinner.

To one and all, have a very Happy Christmas and we will try and catch everyone whilst back home.

See ya soon.

The tourists

Hi again after another week in Dubbo and being kept in the dark and fed on you know what! hehe

Ah yes, mushies, well we had another week of picking the little buggers.

Our pay slips show the total kgs of mushies picked and between us we totalled some 740kgs, it's amazing how quickly it adds up. We are the newbies and slow compared to the four permanents who are much quicker than us. have a couple of pics here to give you some idea of what goes on.

Susie checkin out the crop 

The left side has been picked to give more room for the remainder to grow ready for picking the next day, the right side front has yet be thinned out.

There are five of these rooms on the go all at different stages of growth, and the beds are all

placed and last 8 weeks then removed and sold off as compost.

The other four having a smoko break.

Here shows the three levels of beds, because it is an organic farm, the beds and shelves have to be removed after the 8 weeks and the whole room cleaned out.

Only worked Mon to Thurs the last week and back into it Monday.

They will slow the growth a bit due to the Christmas closure.

We had a trip to Wellington on Friday to have a look around.

They have some very old caves which we had a tour of and learnt quite a bit about

the area and the shell fossils well down in the caves.

There have also been major discoveries around Wellington and in the Caves area of

some very large prehistoric animals.

Some pics below will show some of what it is all about.

This is a model of the huge goanna type creatur which roamed the area

some 10-200 million years ago, it would run on it's rear

legs and take off at the speed of a car chasing prey.

This is Cathedral Cave, named because of the "columns" here which in the 1880's was used a a church and the front right, smaller stalagmite was used as the pulpit. When it was rediscovered some years later a bible was found still sitting on the pulpit which the Minister left.

This is a wider view of the cave.

it's called a column when the stalagtites and stalagmites meet from top to bottom.

Susie havin a break

Check the jellyfish!

Another of the animals which lived way back, related to the Wombat, fancy that.

The entrance statement at the turn off, they have used steel girders from the bridge

which collapsed in 1989 and then has a variety of small stories around in the rock formations.

And a pic of one of our memory pieces, (thanks Tan and Luke), and our "home"

The details to date

Hi again everyone now that we have settled down a bit with work and "home"

we will give some more detail of our journey from Victoria Pt on Sat 26 Nov.
We will endeavour to update the blog eachweek on a Sunday

Saturday

Left just before 8.00am, had some family present, (some mixed feeling for all at the time),

was trying to rain

Headed out to the Cunningham Hwy, mornos at Aratula, (Nano's cherry cake) then onto Warwick through the continuing roadworks through The Gap.

Arrived in Warwick, refuelled, then whilst heading for the exit from town to Goondiwindi, sign advising Newell Hwy closed at Moree due to flooding!

Pulled up and flicked to channel 40 on UHF to get some truckie news.

Got the news from the truckies there was no point heading out that way, so had to head down New England. had a look at map and it meant we had to head to Tamworth area to then head west.

Rain started as we left Warwick and continued for quite some time. We stopped at Tenterfield for lunch, very nice town, will spend some time there soon.

Because of the rain all along the hwy, we played dodge the pothole, some beauties too

Considerable rain had fallen around the area, could see constant water flow through properties.

Overnighted at Guyra at a free camp just behind the Bowls club. because of the rain we weren't too keen to get off the road, so just pulled up on gravel base near the camp area. the site is known as the "Mother of Ducks Lagoon" rest area. Basic but enough for an overnighter.

Went for a beer at the bowls club and stayed for dinner, had a great dinner, good home cooked meals.

Locals at the club very friendly as we were in shorts and thongs, we discovered later when we left why the locals were in jeans and jumpers!, bloody cold outside. In bed by 9.00, not realising what the next day would bring.

Mother of Ducks Lagoon

Sunday

Woke around 6 to a very nice day, did some checks on line for road closures.

Seems the hwy was good south but still had some doubts about heading west.

Did a check with the truckies as to fuel stops around. Was a catex on the highway next to Armidale airport. Refuelled, head through Uralla, (very nice town, will have to sepnd some time there too).

Stopped in Tamworth at Maccas for breaky, then checked with truckies again as the chatter was about the Oxley hwy closed just east of Gunnedah, which of course meant we then had to head bit further south to get around to Gunnedah  via Werris Springs and some minor road flooding, plenty of B doubles on the detour roads as well.

Got to Gunnedah, and headed to Coonabarabran and some 20k's out of Coona, the first tyre shred itself and wrapped around the axle and behind the brake drum. attempted to remove the remains but no luck, called NRMA, they arrived some 60 mins later, then the guy realised he didn't have the tool box in the ute he needed, so had to return to Coona, get the tool box and return to us. He spent some time buggering around with the tyre and eventually sorted it out. This was three hours after we first stopped! We then debated whether to continue or stop at next town and get a tyre in the morning.

We decided we wouldn't have 2 blowouts in a short distance between there and Dubbo!!! :)

Weeelll, at a spot called Dusty's creek, the spare we put on the van blew out and we managed to stop quickly to save the tyre doing any other damage. This was only some 10k's out of Gilgandra on a Sunday arvo. No sooner we stopped, a young guy from Dubo had passed us and turned around to check on us. Thankfully, he called a friend who gave him a couple of numbers of a tyre place in Gilgandra who may be able to do after hours tyre repairs. Managed to get hold of one of the guys and he agreed to fit a new tyre, he was going to come out, but seeing it was so close to town, I decided to take the "spare" into town myself. Unhooked the van and left Susie with the van and the beer!

I headed into town, and by the time I dropped the tyre, went to the ATM and back the tyre had been replaced, $150, not too bad for something like 5.30ish on a Sunday arvo.

Thankfully, got back on the road, with about 70 k's to Dubbo, arrived at about 8.00 and set up van with the basics so we could get some sleep, yep been on the road for some 12 hours. Spent some time looking for something to eat.

Monday

Had an appointment with the owner of the mushroom farm at 8.00. Headed out to the farm which is located on the Nth Minore Road Minore, some 18 k's from Dubbo. Met with David Minehand, and his wife, Janelle, the farm owners. David gave us a brief run down on the farm and introduced us to Keiran, the supervisor. We then headed into the growing sheds to have a look at the set up.

certainly something different to look forward to, the sheds are all climate controlled at 18degrees, so the outside weather is not relevant. It is an organic farm, so the pickers have to wear cap or hair net and gloves for handling the mushrooms. Start for Tuesday is 6.00.

Returned to camp, met neighbours from WA, they have been travelling working for some 5 years and have been in Dubbo for three months.  They left a couple of days later for a week or so of relaxing and then to Nelsons Bay to help some friends with a shop for a while.

Tuesday

Started at the farm at 6.00 the other four pickers are female and are good country girls.

All good fun though, mix of ages and one, Helen, is a local and is also a member of Workabout Australia as we are. Her and her husband will be heading off around early next year.

The other pickers are Jennifer, Lisa and Pauline and they all live in Narromine about 20 k's the other way from the farm. They were itching to get started as they start at 5.00 or earlier! so they can get the day done and go home. They gave some instruction as we went through the day and we learned heaps about the way it all works. We will get some photos of the farm and set up soon. essentially, the mushrooms are pulled from the growing beds, (three beds at different heights,), cut the stem, and size them as they are placed into the boxes. there are two types, the standard whites and smaller amount of Swiss Browns. Finished at 3.30.

After our lunch break Susan made a confession to all and sundry in the picking shed, she had been using the knife with the blade around the wrong way, wondered why it was not cutting mushroom stem cleanly??

Wednesday

Started at 5.00, by the time we arrived, the girls were already in the sheds picking, they are keen!. Unfortunatley, the early start means early rise, around 3.45.

Wednesday is pay day, so we had the Tuesday pickings to be paid for. Our pay slips were issued and as we finished for the day we had a look as they advise how many kilos of mushys we have picked. there are different rates for whites, browns and then some time we have to pick whites into punets also.

We were pleasantly surprised as we had both picked 109 kgs of mushys each, not bad.Finshed at 2.30.

Thursday

Susan found out the hard way there are resident frogs in the toilet, he!he! everyone had a laugh.  Because mushys have a mind of their own, and their growth is unpredictable, the hours worked varies from day to day, finished at 10.30 as all mushys had been picked.

We returned to camp and decided to move the caravan to the site next to us as we didn't have a concrete slab for the annex, only grass. Considering we are going to be here some time, we decided a couple of hours of work would be worhtwhile. so that took us about 2.5 hours. Not bad considering we had only erected the annex three times.

had a drive around past the Western Plains Zoo, and found the Red Earth Winery, naturally, we sampled some wine.

Friday

Finished at 8.30, came home had a cooked brekki, then had nanna naps till lunch time! Drove out to Narromine to have a look around bought some meat at the local butchery and checked out the old pub, had a beer, naturally. Whilst in Dubbo CBD, we checked the Old Dubo Goal for prices,times etc. They conduct night tours during holidays so will have a look at that later.

Saturday/Sunday

Managed to have a sleep in for a while, Sat night went to the speedway, did some touristy things around the area, including checking out an antique shop, some markets, and had a look at Minore Falls. (as it turns out Minore Falls is just a locality not falls at all).