Ahh the serenity....

Today was, quite frankly, a fantastic day! We are picking apples again on the farm well-known around town as the best apple farm to work for in Stanthorpe. The boss is our age and very easy going, the farm is well-maintained so the trees are pruned well, making picking a breeze, we only pick what we can reach from the ground, so no cumbersome ladder work, and we are being paid hourly so we don't have to worry about picking a certain number of bins each day.

The weather in the morning was perfect - gently warm and sunny but not too hot, white fluffy clouds and trees with a good amount of fruit on them. I saw a couple of black cockatoos flying around nearby with their screeching that sounds almost prehistoric, and later on my curiosity got the better of me and I followed the sound of a large group of very excited miner birds to find a brown owl staring down at me from an apple tree.

I managed to tear my second pair of work trousers quite spectacularly up the bum by squatting down to reach some apples on a low branch, which although inconvenient, forcing me to wear my waterproof jacket around my waist to protect my modesty, was pretty funny. Bryn swears that I am getting thinner from picking but armed with another shining example like that, I beg to differ, though in all fairness, I had bought both pairs of trousers at charity shops at least 2yrs ago so they had to go sometime.

During our morning tea break, sat out with our mates Bob & Emi eating the delicious banana and date cake I made yesterday, a mob of about 15-20 kangaroos came bounding through the orchard. It quickly became clear from their behaviour that we were sitting across their usual path (they are very habitual in their movements) which freaked them out a bit and sent them off in all directions trying to get past us through the trees towards their next grazing spot. Watching such a big group so close up was brilliant!

Shortly after lunch clouds started to form and the rain came down pretty hard, causing all work to stop for the day as wet apples bruise far more easily than normal. Of course we were fully prepared with waterproofs to keep ourselves dry, though putting on my jacket meant the big tear in the bum of my trousers was out in view for all to see. Whoops!

So we were finished work by 2:30pm, giving us time to head into town and work through a short but satisfying list of things we needed to do, including visiting the two charity shops in town for new work trousers, and heading home for rest and relaxation. Ahh...

Some days can be tough, but today was brilliant fun!

All mimsy were the borogoves

So we had a weeks break from work which included a trip to Brisbane where we went hither and dither buying things we needed such as a deep cycle battery and dumping stuff that we didn't need with the rest of our belongings in storage.
Then celebrated Joey's 40th birthday on the Saturday which included both of us playing some tunes which we very much enjoyed (so much so that the decks are now in the boot of the van :) ).
We finally managed to pull ourselves free of the gravitational pull of Brisbane on Monday and would like to thank everyone who has put us up or put up with us.

Whilst on the way home we had a text from the job agent about a starting work the next day.... result!
So we our now doing strawberry runners which basically involves sorting out the good plants from the bad in a big shed along with 300 other people. We get paid between $5.55-$7.55 (depending on the variety) per crate and a crate holds 4 bundles of 25 and need to get about 25 to be earning enough but it has been a slow start and have both been suffering with back problems from standing on concrete all day.

We spent last saturday night and all of sunday at Jeff & Katrina block of land and we have started helping them get it ready for Jeff's 40th which is going to be over Easter more details to follow.