OK ok, i gotta say something, else u guys will never come back to my blog!!!! :(

sooooorrry

i've been meaning to, but just havent had the time!

Wongan Hills was................. not my thing. Nothing wrong, just not a place i would spend...... large amounts of time at.... e.g. Harvesting, which lasts like 3 months or something... no no no no no thanks..... BUT i do have photos...

sorry, but i think this maybe a short entry (hehehe, soz chia)

Welcome to Wongan Hills



Ok, perhaps not the best angle... haahaa, but thats somepart of the place where the Ag Dept Research Station is... its like thousands of acres big... have no idea how many, but its pretty much heaps and HEAPS of land for the ag dept. Sheep, lupins, wheat, barley, oats..... you name it, i think they got it, or at least, farm crops, or animals.... something something.....

Well, yes, i had to pull out single plants, but it was more like a few single plants..... its confusing, but its like, well, the wheat breeding program, they are trying to develop new varieties of wheat with desirable features, such as, perhaps a better wheat for breads, or cakes, the colour, the texture, better disease tolerance, all that kinda stuff, just depends on what they are looking for. SO, what they do is get two varieties with the traits they are looking for and cross breed them. Since there are many......"children" produced.....(just say that, coz it gets confusing if i say seed), and well, of course, they show all different kinds of traits of the parents, so what happens, they pretty much cull out the ones they dont want, and keep going in the process to get the ones they want. it takes about 12 years to get to the stage when they release a variety, soo, this single plant thing i was doing, its about less than half way there...

anyway.... it gets more complicated to explain, but thats kinda the low-down of what i do.

we took this truck thing from the main shed bit, and drove down the paddock.... to where the plots were, it was kinda far-ish.... but yah....

heres the mirror from the truck.



and here we cross the road to get to where we need to go



travelling down this sandy track



here are the rows of the wheat we had to get.... we had to figure out which line it was in, then pull out like 48 plants...... it wasnt from ALL the rows, just a selected few....



here's the bins full of the "single plants" from one plot.... so one bin, one plot.



here is my shadow... hehehe, didnt want to take a photo of my face..... hot the first day... maaan, i sweated.... not nice........ crazy stuff.... i wore a brimmed hate with the cover at the back for your neck..... i wouldnt wear it at home in the burbs...



look at these melons!!!
i think i noticed them out of the dull landscape! i thought they were pretty cool! there are kinda everywhere now and then, but u cant eat them... i just think the yellow is quite attractive in the habitat.





close up of the Good ol' wheat



I stayed at the motel thats attached to the pub.... it was decent, i got a room to myself, had tv, fridge, shower, toilet..... basics.... air con.... was good, not the flashiest, but good.



Room number 9, get an idea how old it was.


bathroom and toilet





There was this shed we were threshing the wheat, coz u get the heads and thresh them to extract the seed, and there was this cat that lived there! it was funny.... when i first got there, it kept meowing and meowing! i couldnt really pat it, coz i had to do work, but then when i took a break, it was such a nice cat.... i think it just doesnt get enough attention or affection.... poor cat.... at least it kept the mice away from all the wheat.

i found out later it was named Boots. coz she (i think its a she) was around everyone's boots!







thats not my hand btw...

it was a skinny cat... but then it could climb up everywhere, coz the shed was quite big and had high things.....cant explain, kinda like racks, but not....hmmm....

also, i reckon its not fat, coz i think they only fed it the dry biscuits...



those are called magazines, they had ba-zillions of them! coz thats where the seed goes, and i think thats what they use for seeding.

theres the wheat



there were LOTS and LOTS of them..... that pic doesnt show how many, but we had LOADS!

this is the threshing machine



and just to finish off with the cat... coz i liked the cat alot... i think i blinded it with the flash! hehehe... naah, it didnt seem to mind....







the last pic of the cat sitting in this like big wood crate thing....

when driving home, we went thru Toodyay, and well, just to see where the bush fires were..... and i dunno, they kinda pulled over for a short while..... so took pic of that.





the roads are freakin' long..... Wongan was quite flat.... going towards Toodyay, it was more hilly, u can see the change in the land... interesting stuff.....

the work wasnt hard, but if it was hot all the time with the weather (e.g. harvest in summer....[die]) i dont think i can cope..... but yah, wasnt TOO bad....except i think im young.... among the others.... and there were lots of men... too blokey for me..... i dunno...

i kinda feel out of place....

dont get me wrong, everyone is nice, but i dont think its the job for me, or at least long term. its more of a stepping stone, a filler for now to earn some money and fill in for time, and well, i have plenty of time while i work to figure out what i want to do i guess.... coz I just think alot, and i think that if you have time to think at work, you're in the wrong job. i know i am.

the thing now about this transition in life, is to find something, a job that gives me some kinda satisfaction, i think i need that kind of feeling.

for now, i dont feel like i contribute much, it doesnt return much back to me, i need to be in a more sociable habitat, somewhere with people around my age, or at least not THAT old like the average age i hang around with.... i cant relate.... i need to relate...

its hard... but im going to be job hunting more....

im happy with life, but life with work... its just work on its own that im not happy about....

well.... see how it all goes...

OH happy valentines day peoples!!!

i dont know whats happening, but we're cooking tonight, steak... got some mushrooms and gravy, and we'll have wedgies and salad! i hope it all goes well...

i think i'll be getting some chocolates!!! hehehe.... well, i better! bubs wont let me buy any!! :S and i've been complaining since last week!!! damn cravings.... lol

ok, better be off!!! :)