Shopping frenzy!

Another fortnight, another shopping frenzy, this time for about 320AUD! J Yeah, it’s a lot but it’ll keep me going probably for 3 weeks now. As this amount seems pretty rediculous, I might just point out some of prices here for an idea. About bananas you know already. J

• Plasticbag – 0,9
• 2L orange juice – 4,99
• 1kg pears – 2,88
• 1kg apples – 2,70
• 1kg long grain rice – 1,89
• Cucumber – 2,98
• Pistachio nuts – 29,96 per kg
• Chicken breast fillet (2pcs) – 9,5
• Capsicum red (paprika) – 7,98 per kg
• Capsicum green (paprika) – 4,98 per kg
• Beef minced meat – 9,90 per kg
• Raw sugar 1kg – 1,69
• Eggs 12 pack (600g) – 4,55
• Seed bread (800g) – 3,25
• Yoghurt 170g – 1,69

Prices are in AUD, just to be on the safe side. J I do not remember what things did cost back at home, but yes, it is a lot more expencive here and yes, people do earn a lot more money aswell. On the other hand, I do not understand them complaining about the fuel prices. For crying out loud, it costs about 1,5-1,55 AUD per litre. Just about the same as in Estonia I guess, or even less.

Life itself has been busy, full of work and nothing else. As we had enough rain to start seeding, we’ve been up and running from 6AM till the very evening, usually finishing between 6PM and 9PM. It isn’t too bad, it isn’t too hard and that is where the money is hidden. J So wake up for me is at 5.20, quick morning push ups and sit ups to get the blood moving and warmth as the mornings are quite chilly. Once we had just +2 before the sunrise, usually 6-9 degrees which climbs up to about 15-20 degrees during the day. I open the door of my tractor at about 6AM and start filling up the tank with water and chemicals. That usually takes about 20 minutes, then it’s another 15-30 minutes drive up to the certain field. And so the day goes, spraying and filling up, unless there are some problems, which do occur from time to time. J One of the two reasons we are not working this weekend is because the pump on the sprayer decided to end its’ work contract. Well, it was an old machine already, having served for over 10 years. Another reason was one guy forgot to order the fertilizer, so even without the pump failure we would have had a weekend off. And as I said, what better way to spend it than shopping! J And I got myself connected again, so that’s good aswell. Aaah, upon getting back from work it’s just a quick meal, getting a shower, maybe watching some TV and off to bed, sweet dreams and another day starts sneaking up.

After doing some maths I found out I’ve done more than 1100ha of spraying since 09.05.11 up to today. I haven’t yet calculated the approximate consumption of diesel, but I’ll get to that aswell. J

Last week I was spraying a field (no 35) in the south east corner of the farm (while the shed is located on the north western side) and as I headed off to the field I heard Pete on the 2-way (the walkie-talkie type of thing for internal communication within the farm while on the vehicles) asking me if I could also move a truck with barley seeds from field 35 (south east) to 44 (south west). „Well, not a problem Pete, see you at 44 in an hour.“ One hour is exactly how much it took me to get from the shed (north western side of the farm) to field 35 and from there to 44. J Our manager Richie, a nice lad from UK, and also Pete are doing about 150-200km of driving around the farm in a day in their utes (the off-road vehicle with a case in the back). So that’s the size of this farm!

One more thing that comes with a weekend off is that I go jogging. Here in the farm I’ve managed to do it once every week, that is 5 times already, except the second weekend, cannot recall why though. Earlier while still in Brisbane I tried to go out twice a week. As I already started doing some maths then here are some another figures – so far 13 times and 91,91km, totaling 8241 calories. Not too bad I’d say. J

That’s all I have to say now.