How Sweet It Is...

Chris pulled us out of bed early one morning to go fishing at Kinchant Dam (about 10 mins away). As you can see from the attire it was a bit chilly early on, but we soon warmed up once we got a few bites and had a few fish in our bag. We lost a couple, let the turtle and massive eel go and ended up with 4 lovely sooty grunter for our tea, yum!

These photos below may give you some idea of how much land in this region is planted in sugar cane. As far as you can see in almost all directions there is cane. Even houses are hidden and tractors are dwarfed by it.

The kids have been wondering what Chris actually does at work so last week he took them for a ride in the tractor to see how the sugar cane is harvested. They really enjoyed it and Laura wants to go every day! Hopefully you can see from these photos and videos how the process works. The harvester drives up the row of cane and cuts the stalk of cane into little short lengths. The driver needs to make sure he stays nice and straight because he can't see where he's going. Chris is driving the tractor/trailer beside and catches the cut cane, making sure he fills to the top of the trailer but doesn't let it overflow. The leaves and other waste get blown out over the top onto the ground. Some of the farmers burn the paddocks after harvesting to clear the rubbish. It's amazing to see, but the smoke gets very thick in the air for miles around- cough, cough.

Chris is in the red tractor with the trailer. His boss is in the harvester which is almost hidden behind the cane.

At the rail siding Chris tips up the trailer and directs the conveyor belts to shoot the cane out whichever side the bins are on. In the first of these two photos you can see the full bins on the right and the empty ones which Chris is filling are on the left.



The little red engine on the left is coming to collect the full bins to take to the mill. In the background Chris is still emptying his trailer.

So that's how the cane is cut, collected and sent to the mill to be processed. We hope to do a factory tour soon to see the remainder of the process. I will keep you posted. Take care and love to you all. x x x

It's Show Time!

On Sunday the kids and I went to the Finch Hatton Show, just 1/2 an hour from Mirani. It was a beautiful day, and as you can see from the photos, the kids had lots of fun. We saw horse jumping, wood chopping, a cow dressed up as a horse, and all the other usual show things. Of course we ate too much, but noone threw up so that was OK.

Will and Laura slipping down the slide.

Having a blast up the front, hurtling around on the roller coaster.

Laura with a good grip on things.

Laura (in pink on the far right) seeing the sights from up high.

We are settling in to life in Mirani. Chris is doing very long days, leaving at around 3.30am and not getting home before 5.30pm most times. He works 6 shifts on and then gets 2 off. I don't even hear the motorbike any more...loving wife that I am! Did I tell you we decided to lash out and get Chris a bike (with an engine), so I could have the car to get kids here and there and everywhere. It's about 20 years old but he really loves it and it goes like a beauty, even on these chilly mornings. Brrr!

The hot rod!

Yesterday Chris had the day off and went fishing, caught 2 "sooty" (don't ask me what sort of fish they are exactly, but they tasted lovely).

We heard from our friends Mark and Sam this week and they are hoping to get up for a visit in a few months time, can't wait! Laura also got a big fat letter from her old 1/2K class at Elliminyt primary school, full of postcards and photos of all the kids. She was so pleased and read them over and over.

We found a really great park in Mackay. This video is brilliant if you want a good belly laugh!!

Well cheers until next time!

MIRANI

We moved camp on Sunday to be a little closer to Pleystowe, where Chris is working. Our new home is a caravan park ajoining the local pool in place called Mirani, a half hour west of Mackay. At the moment the pool is closed for winter but we have been told that we can be the first ones in when it opens in September! As soon as we drove into the park there were people there giving us directions on where to park and coming to say hello. It was very nice. It's a small town and everyone knows everyone so I'm sure we won't have any trouble making friends.

Everywhere you drive there is sugar cane as far as the eye can see. It blocks a lot of the landscape, but not for much longer. Monday was the first official day of the cane season so there were tractors getting started with the harvesting and trailers loading it on the wagons for the trains to take to the mills. Need to be careful now of all the rail crossings, the trains are very long but at least they go quite slow. Chris started his new job this week, and according to the stories he tells me it's not too bad and he's quite good at it. Unfortunately the weather has slowed work down and according to the locals it is "unseasonally wet" at the moment, which makes it hard to get on the paddocks to harvest the cane. What a surprise! Everywhere we go it's "unseasonally wet"!!!!! Starting to think we have created some kind of black hole which dumps Victoria's rain on us wherever we are!!! But it is nice and warm still, so that's a bonus.

Chris, I've lost the kids!!! Can anyone see them?

The kids decided to go dunking for apples. Here is Laura's attempt...and then the camera goes flat before Will can get it.

Finally VICTORY!!

There are lots and lots of green tree frogs around here. I had to chase one out of the shower cubicle yesterday before I was game enough to close my eyes and put my head under the tap! Chris also found this lovely little gecko who we thought might like to eat some of the ants and mozzies we get in the bus from time to time, so we put him up near the bag rack and every now and then we see him. Much to my disgust he has been named "Norbert", a very ugly name for a very cute little critter, but he doesn't seem to mind.

NORBERT, our resident gecko!

Well my windows are grotty and I am heading out to give them a scrub. Hi to you all and if anyone wants to write you can send mail "c/o Mirani Post Office, Mirani, Qld" (not sure of the post code) and they tell me it will find us! Chow for now, love the Stevenson's x x x