Day 127 After a nice 2 week holiday we were back at work last week. We lost the services of Rowan along the way sometime, so were down to 3. The boss and us. Jenn got promoted to the picker as Greg did not want to be tied down to the machine. We did have an extra hand on deck though as Liam, Greg's 15year old nephew was up for the week from Brisbane. He was here on a work experience assignment for school. I'll be honest here, he didn't really want to work, lol. Being up in the country from the city all he wanted was to drive everything, hunt everything and eat! We did do a lot of hunting but back to that in a bit.
Work did not go very smooth this week. The picker (to no fault of the operator) did not want cooperate. First the door/ conveyor that empties the basket broke. The hinge on one side completely broke in half. We are talking a good 3 inch tear on the half inch piece of steel. By the time we propped the door up with the boll buggy, disassembled it, took it back to Greg's where Jenn welded it (I stayed in the paddock with the picker for more repairs), then put it all back together, we lost 6 hours of work. That day was pretty much cooked. The next day one of the heads on the picker stuffed up. We opened it up to find a roll pin had broken and a gear had slid out of position. Again by the time we removed it, found a new pin and were ready to go we lost a few more hours of picking. That wasn't it yet lol, after the very next module Greg was horsing around and bent the hydraulic cylinder that opens and closes the back door of the module builder. We tried straightening it with a jack and the ram of the builder but that only got us so far. It worked fine for the next module but then gave up. So even if we built another module we could not pull off of it and tarp it. We called it a day. The next morning back at Greg's we found a cylinder that would work as a replacement in one of his old boll buggies. Back at the paddock we switched the cylinders and finished the rest of the week problem free.
Earlier I mentioned Liam's urge, need, want, whatever you want to call it, to hunt. So most days after work we were in the ute patrolling the area looking for pigs. Our first victim however turned out to be a roo, which I sniped with one shot (beginners luck) and we took home and portioned off for Greg's dogs. We weren't around for the next kill as Greg shot a fox that was after his chickens. We were out picking when he ran home for something and caught it in the act. The next night we went out again and got bogged. Leanne came out with the second ute to pull us out. We were trying to take a shortcut through the back of another paddock....clearly not the best idea. This turned into another pig less excursion but as we pulled into Greg's we find another fox loitering around his chicken coup. This fox turned out to be Liam's first ever kill. By the end of the week we were on home turf so to speak as we started picking Greg's cotton. Greg and Liam decided to go for a circle around the paddock. There are so many pig tracks through this paddock it is amazing we don't see pigs multiple times a day. I say this cause we been out looking for 5 days and have seen None! Till that day. When the two got back it was finally "great success"!! They spotted a group of 8 or so. Liam could not believe it, the day the rifle is not with us, we see them. The lack of rifle did not stop Greg however as he managed to mow down 2 with the ute. Liam was a little too excited if you ask me lol. On the way from Greg's that night out of nowhere there they are 4 or so pigs crossing the road. We could not swerve enough to get any however. A day later in the morning Greg and Liam stopped by and announced they went out last night and got another one! What the...now we were a little jealous. Later that day we went to town to pick up pizzas. Dominos (only pizza place in town) Tuesday special, gotta love it. We were on our way back and son of a...we were between our farm and Greg's when there the pigs were again! This time I got one, didn't have the rifle but managed to run it over. Got out made sure it was dead and wasn't just injured. And that is life...you look and look with no results and when you stop looking...bam! Results!