Time at home in Casino went quick, and before we knew it we had flown back to W A for Chris to work in the wheat belt. I usually spend one day a week going with Mary to help her with whatever she needs to do, either to Perth or out to a farm . Olly the dog is always ready to come along, he is never far from Mary’s side, and I’m becoming quite attached to him too. Such a great companion for her.
The farms are so big out here, and the roads to them very isolated at times. We enjoy each other’s company and always make time for a bit of shopping, a coffee stop or even a photo stop if something takes our eye.
Chris also likes company as well, so I’ve been with him on some of the more interesting runs. He took the float trailer down to Manjimup area and picked up an excavator for the eucalyptus farm, one day. 
Quite interesting for me to see over the distillery plant .
The oil is extracted from the cropped trees by feeding plant into the furnace and distilled into stainless steel vats, 
Cooled and put into plastic pods.
Mainly it’s sold overseas to Johnson and Johnson. The plastic pods are worth around $35,000 each.
Another trip was out to the farm where the eucalyptus trees are grown.
They’re harvested, loaded and brought back to the distillery in Kalannie.
They take a while to load, so the camera and I went for a walk around the farm. 
There’s always gotta be one black sheep eh!
Unloading is simple, just tip it off.
After 2 weeks, the work is starting to slow down in the area, as the farmers wait for rain. It’s so dry and not looking good for this years crop. Chris and I have decided it is time to head towards home. So with one last load of sand from Jurien Bay, our time here will come to an end, well for this year anyway.!
I went for the last trip, leaving early in the morning and getting back to Kalannie as the sun set, after unloading on a farm out near Beacon.
Well that’s it from the work side of this adventure, its been 15 months since we left Casino in the van. Sure has been interesting. We have decided to go north from here and over the top, which means we will do the big loop as they say, this trip.No matter how many times you loop this country, you would still not see it all. Just a magic country we are privileged to live in.😊
The firies put on a recovery breakfast on the sunday morning. By the time Chris and I walked over to the oval and joined the que, they were running out of bacon so it was an egg and sauce sandwich for us. Think they said they had gone through 25kgs of bacon !! With the cropping finished , it’s time to fertilize the paddocks. Now this could only be done in the West, crazy as it seems they use sand off the beaches . I went for a day with Chris in the truck, to see it for myself and get photos, of coarse.
It’s a 3 hr trip to Jurien Bay, we left by 3am, and was just breaking daylight when we drove into the sandhills, and loaded sand by headlights. Once loaded it was back on the road again, and a we headed to a farm drop off way out East [I think ], these farms are just huge, not a house or person in site. The drivers get a pin drop on google for directions, and the farmer usually leaves a small bucket or stick where he wants them to unload. Bit like finding a needle in a haystack.
Note the size and colour, of the drop off marker, took awhile to find it.
That done it was time to head back to the depot, and Chris can do it all again tomorrow. And to finish off, i’ve found another nice sunset photo. 
You must be logged in to post a comment.