Doth gire and gimble

We’ve quit!!! YAY! Basically we ran out of good apple trees and had to go back to trees that we had already colour picked (colour picking is taking just the ripe fruit off the trees) .We gave it a go yesterday but only manage to pick 4 bins between us in 5 hours which was exhausting and soul destroying climbing up trees for 5-10 apples.
We aren’t too worried as there seems to be a lot of other work around and it gives us a break from all the hard graft and getting up at 5:30am.

Reading through the blog it seems like we have done nothing but work and sleep in the last month which isn’t true as we have gone on little adventures most weekends so I’ll try to fill in a few places now.

On the 28th February for our wedding anniversary we went a couple of hours north and camped at a site called Bestbrook which is mix of farm/stables with chalets and camping down by a creek.
We went horse riding which was Bel’s first ever time on a horse and my first time for 20yrs. It was a very gentle introduction except Bel's horse knew who was really boss so she had little control but the horse knew where it was going anyway and basically we got led around for a couple of hours along a creek and then in to the eucalyptus forest which was most pleasant and only left me slightly saddle sore for the next couple of days.

In the evening we had a meal at the main house (hmmm steak) and end up chatting to the owner and his friend Barney till late, then went back to the campsite with Barney to sit by the campfire we had prepared earlier in true Blue Peter fashion. Whilst talking to Barney, it turned out that Bel had worked for one of his mates many years ago so they gabbled on whilst I stared at the amazing array of stars.
The next day Barney drove us in his 4WD to the top of the hill to see the view down the valley which was awesome except for the combination of a hangover with the bumpy ride.

It was a great break away and left us feeling very energised.

For my birthday we went with friends Jeff & Katrina to the Steakhouse across the road for dinner which was lovely but subdued as it was a school night. Yummy more steak…. If there is one thing they do right here it's the steaks…..:drool:


Last Saturday we went off to J & K's plot of land which they bought last year, about 20Kms west of Stanthorpe. We had a very lovely evening around the camp fire with another couple Bob & Emmie who introduced me to campfire cooking (garlic mushrooms wrapped in foil & cooked on hot coals are superb) and then later Bel jammed on the trumpet (the nearest neighbour is a good few Kms away) with Bob on guitar & djeme.
It's a beautiful spot and J&K are planning to build a house on it so I have my first project as an eco designer helping them with the design.

Uphill struggles

OK, so the first week of picking was hell. Especially for Bryn cos he had to put up with me whinging about how hard it was. A couple of weeks later, when we were comfortable with it, we went from being paid hourly to contract. Contract means you are paid a piece rate, in our case $30 for a bin that is about a metre cubed, so we now have to fill 5 bins a day each to match our hourly rate, though while paid hourly managed about 3.

It's amazing how you can rise to the challenge when there are financial implications. On Monday we picked 13 between us without stretching ourselves too far and had reached a point where we were feeling pretty good about how well we were doing .. but then, right on cue, came the next challenge. Today we were moved to a new field where the trees are a lot taller than before, therefore requiring more time on ladders. This has slowed us down hugely and we only picked 9 between us and left feeling utterly frustrated. I know in a few days we will probably be coping with this as well as previous challenges but right now it seems to be a pretty tough call.

Anyway, that's about all I have the energy to write about today. Despite the hard yakka, we are enjoying being outdoors and being in touch with what goes on around us. In an office, you're very immune to the world outside.

Photos

Click linky to find some of our photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brassybel/

..... must get to bed......zzzzzzzzzzzzz

We are now apple pickers and as such well and truly knackered. It is now 8.30pm on Monday and we are about to crash.
That is all.

Saturday 14th February

Today reminds me of the great British summer - grey, windy and wet - ah the memoirs of festivals gone by (mostly last summer) come flooding back but no something is different here, ah yes we are all toasty and warm snuggled up in bed (Bel is snoring to my side) in our little cosy Jym.

Since arriving at Stanthorpe 3 days ago and whilst still with out work (more on that later) we have been re-organising and pimping Jym to make it more homely. we had a fail with the car stereo that we ship from the Uk as we forgot to get the security code before we left so we finally bit the bullet and forked out for a new one which I installed last week prior to leaving Brisbane.
I seemed to have turned into the handyman of the house(van)hold after adding a few extra shelves and a cubby hole for the imac and installing stereo and new speakers which is all well and good except when Bel starts her sentence with "could we just....."

So far no work but hopefully next week we should have some apple picking as we have talked to some fellow pickers in the pub yesterday (we went to network and not for a pint honestly....I know you don't believe me...I wouldn't) and there is the work around we just need to badger the agency constantly and go around the farms as people are always coming and going

Escape!

After wanting for so many years to spend some time in Brisbane, I've suddenly found myself very pleased to have escaped. As much as I love it and don't feel like I properly caught up with it all, living in a city, particularly a familiar one, does not mix well with a lack of regular income. There are far too many temptations, whether it be visiting favourite haunts, buying meat and booze for BBQs with friends or buying spur of the moment meals and funky things just cos they are there. We've parked outside various friends' houses since early January and it has been fantastic to spend some proper time with them, not to mention extremely grateful for use of their creature comforts, but we bought Jym to go travelling and it was well and truly beginning to feel like the world tour of Brisbane! After being away for such a long time, it has been a valuable time to reconnect with people. It's impossible to fully maintain friendships over such distances, so I better understand where friends here are at in their lives now. I think Bryn feels closer to them too so rather than them just being my friends, they have become our friends.

So a number of expected (and unexpected) van repairs and improvements later, we've set off to Stanthorpe in search of apple picking. We feel bloody lucky to be where we are at the moment, comfortably south of the flooding in north Queensland and north of the NSW/Victoria bushfires, so despite suffering a severe lack of funds, it's not all bad. We are staying in a beautiful, peaceful place, it's warm and sunny and there are some amazing national parks nearby. We're trying not to get too stressed about being broke but it's hard to adapt to the uncertainty that accompanies both a change of career and the very nature of harvest work. We've had a very comfortable lifestyle for a few years, where we'd spend money all over the place without a second thought and still increase our savings, so having to scrimp again is at times a fun challenge and other times utterly frustrating.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that we get a bit less sun for the next week or two so the apples colour up nicely and we get some work nice and quick.

Adios 'til next time...

Australia Day

Well I managed to survive my first Australia day weekend without being dunked into a pool of crocodiles or being fed to the sharks. For those that don't know what Australia Day is, it's a day to celebrate the landing of Captain Cook on this green and pleasant land although now it's more to do with celebrating everything Australian especially barbys, booze and backyard cricket.

We went to to one barby on Sunday where I proved that english backyard cricket can hold its own on the international stage with a fabulous display of catching, but another barby yesterday with more of the 3B's and a pool, complete with volleyball net, has left me feeling a tad jaded today.

Bel has broken our work drought (although there seems to be no cake drought) and starts tomorrow in a meatpacker warehouse and I finish my forklift truck course on Saturday so hopefully we can get more work till we head off to Tasmania in March.