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.😊
He doesn’t do many kilometres in a day, just loading the grain at the farm and taking it to grain storage. Quite often it is to the storage across the road from the caravan park . The storage facilities are open till 9pm , 6 days a week.
Others go 7 days a week, so due to the farm Chris was on last week, he hasn’t had a day off for 2 weeks. Now hoping he has tomorrow off. So not much for me to do, feel a bit guilty, just watch tv, chat and facebook on phone. And take photos of coarse.
I like the drive into Northam, fills in the full day for me. Although I did get one hell of a fright a couple of weeks ago. Was following a scrap metal truck, next sheets of metal were flying into the air, lucky it was windy, so while it was still airborne, it gave me time to back off , before it crashed to the roadway in front of me.
It took the truck driver a distance to stop, he then came back to see if I was ok. All good.
However I did pull up further down the road, taking a break and some photos of the pink salt lakes. 

Love the colours of these wastelands
More relaxed I headed into town and brought some lottery tickets!!
This last week the weather has been kind to the farmers, and they are harvesting the paddocks of wheat across the road.
So it was a good opportunity to get some photos.
It’s a bit overwhelming when these big harvesters are heading towards you. They probably thought I was mad standing there with my camera.
It’s very dusty work and with the sun setting, made for some fun shots. 


Chris is hoping to get me a ride in a header, so that could be interesting. Although it is very remote here, I don’t feel alone, as there is lights and movement all around me.
When i went into Northam this last week I stopped to have a closer look at the metal that nearly got me the previous week. Not good, think it would of been curtains, so you just never know!
It turned out to be a scrapped wheat bin, and too heavy for the driver to have completely moved off the road.
He had managed to move the smaller piece into a gutter nearby.
Till the next time, out for now.
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