Living Rural - www.livingrural.net

Anecdotal stories, observations,comments and discussion pieces as insights into living in Rural Australia

[ December 2006 ] [ February 2007 ]

Living Rural - January 2007

Lose those kilos - walk that road!

January 30th 2007 02:49

Walk that road

Sometimes I feel a bit like the farm dog. I may “laze around” for days with not much more exercise than washing the floor or finger tap-dancing on the computer keys. Then, like the dog, I am suddenly expected to perform strenuous sustained exercise over three or four days. Dogs seem to cope – I think they must be able to store up energy, but it’s not that straight forward for me.

How do I have regular exercise in an isolated situation? Actually,I’m not sure why I find it such a chore. I think it is because I always want a reason to be going somewhere, and not just doing it because it’s good for my health. There are opportunities to power walk everywhere. I could check on the water level in a dam or make sure there aren’t any lambs stuck in the mud. (One day there was four- so I got my exercise that day!) Then I could check the mulberry tree for fruit. There is always a walk to get the mail twice a week and I should walk to the shed, not call up the radio when I want to talk to my husband. And let’s face it, if all else fails I can always go out in the bush paddock and collect more wood to start the home fires (good for the arm muscles) .
The gurus tell us there has to be some warm ups and then some puffing. Well I’ll be right – I live on a hill – warm up walking down the hill and puff to finish when I walk up the hill.

There really is no excuse. So what, if I am not one of those lucky ones who are able to power walk along the sea front or around some artificial lake! At least it’s a bit more interesting than on a tread mill in a noisy gym. And if the truth be known, I just have to get over the fact that I have to be walking for no other purpose than improving my health, because otherwise I will be stopping to do things all the time and not actually increasing the heart beat at all!
There’s actually several good things about exercising on the farm. I don’t have to walk on hard concrete – grass is so much easier on the feet. I just have to watch that I don’t fall down a rabbit hole or twist my foot on a large stone hidden in the paddock grass. Secondly, only the sheep see what I wear – except when I happened to dress in the worst gear possible and the amused neighbour catches me at some unearthly hour of the day on the road we share, toots, shakes his head and smiles – because he suspects – correctly, that this is indeed a rare occurrence. No gym gear or designer shorts for me - just a good hat and a decent pair of shoes.
OK it’s still technically New Year and so I can make a resolution. After being inspired by various saying like “start today” and “a journey of a million miles starts with the first step”, I should review my exercise regime.
Get over the excuses and trying to find reasons and walk that road! Now!

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: bumpkin - Category: people

Email this Post to a Friend

I have a forest growing in my office - It's paper overload!

January 19th 2007 08:32

I have a forest growing in my office - paper overload

Blue gums - used for paper production

There is a forest growing in my office!!
In our part of the world we have the ever-encroaching timber companies tempting the farmers to lease out their best bits of land so that they can grow trees for the pulp mills – for paper production. While it has to be said that the money is very handy and has helped many farmers to either survive, or semi-retire, it is with some regret that they must leave their properties to the big companies who are only interested in planting neat rows of blue gums. These will eventually be cut, leaving paddocks full of stumps that will need to be re-cleared – with memories of the old days of grinding out the stumps and years of stick picking! Or, if it was a good crop it may be re-planted by the company. Sadly, some of the best land for farming crops is used for this purpose, as the companies are very selective in what will produce the trees- (naturally they need to please their shareholders).
What a shame they can’t just come and gather all the scrap paper that arrives on my desk each week- and turn that into pulp! Frankly I haven’t the time to read a fifty page document about some investment company that either wants to keep me informed of their latest results or are offering their portfolios just in case, by some miracle, I have money to invest. And I am not the least bit interested in the latest range of headers to be bought, when we don’t even do our own harvesting any more. And why should I have Coles and Woolworths food specials if, by the time I drove the 120km round trip to get them I would have lost any money I may have “saved” in the first place – besides our local specials are better anyway! And if the jewelry shops that send out their brochures think that is going to entice my husband to buy me a $3000 ring, then they don’t know our priorities.
Then, of course, there are the boxes of accounts, bank statements, receipts and other useless information that one has to keep, by law, for at least seven years.
Add to this the farming magazines and information sheets. Most are sent to the re-cycling bin after a few weeks but there is always the few which have “an interesting article” that has to be kept. Also, as both of us tend to get onto committees there is always the odd set of minutes and agendas hanging around looking important. Often this paper trail spreads like an animal with tentacles onto the kitchen table and bench and even the dining room table.
No wonder we can rarely find a square metre of clean desk on which to write and we can never find the phone book or the calculator when we want it. It really amazes me how we manage to manage the business at all!
The other thing that amazes me is that when we have visitors and I have to dump some of these paper piles in a box, to get it out of the way, how little of that pile ends up being missed as being essential documents for our daily life! It may sit there for weeks before any of it is needed.
I know of one businessman who used to put all the mail in the bin- except the ones with the red words - “pay now or die!” on them. Now I don’t advise that – because I don’t think it is fair to another business not to pay them on time – but I bet his desk didn’t look like ours!
O.K, we can get a lot of these things over the internet now, and perhaps that is the way to go – but what would happen if I miss finding out something really important because I didn’t read my emails???!!! I am a lost cause – caught in the web of information overload and I am unable to find my way out?
"Right" - she says with determination. "Here is my New Year's resolution - better late than never. I am going to get all my banks and others to stop sending me their paper accounts - and just get it all off the internet!" Let's just hope the internet works when I need them! Alright, it won't stop the need for blue gum timber industry encroaching on farm land, but at least I may not be drowning in paper! Now where is a bit of paper to write out my New Year's resolution? ........... (sigh!!!)

Vote

Comments (3)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: bumpkin - Category: observations

Email this Post to a Friend

Farming - is it a viable industry?

January 12th 2007 05:23

Wide brown land

Every day on Country radio we hear that either the sheep industry and for some, the cattle industry are no longer viable. There are complaints regarding the duopoly of Coles and Woolworths who dictate market prices in many products and world markets who “kick up” when Australia occasionally succeeds on the world stage. Globally, there are complaints of the Chemical companies that are making all farmers throughout the world more and more dependent on their products. And then there is the horror of seed companies that produce seed for farmers in India and other countries in which there is no ability of the farmers to keep seed for the following year’s crop, making them wholly dependent on the Seed company – the most disgusting and lowest form of exploitation I have heard for a long time.
Are these things symptoms of what is to come for all rural industries - where the grower must dance to the tune of the big companies that control the markets and the items needed to produce? Is farming really becoming unviable as a result?
Perhaps better, more informed people than I have written articles about such things but it is obvious, even to this little farmer that there are great discrepancies in the price rises and prices we get for product and that the standard of living for the average farmer is taking a nose-dive.

So, I thought I would give you a few of the prices of product (average in that year) that we, as the average farmer have seen in the past few years. Then you can make up your own mind.
Item.......... 1999............. 2003............. 2006
Wool............. $2.94/kg....... $5.58/kg....... $5.96/kg*
Sheep...........$21.00each.. $46.00 each. $24.08 each**
Costs:
Shearing...... $2.94 each... $2.06 each... $4.34 each
Drenches..... $16.75/litre... $21/litre........ $30/litre
Fertilizers***.. $171/t........... $164/t........... $210/t
Diesel........... $0.76/litre..... $0.84/litre..... $1.25/litre

*Remember this is a year when there is a distinct shortage of wool and a likelihood of even greater shortages in the coming year. Perhaps it is not so much a comparison with the 1999 rate but more the fact that wool has only gone up 7% - if that, in four years. And shearing costs and drenches have almost doubled, as has diesel.
In 1999, the wool industry was still in the grip of selling the enormous stockpile of wool that kept prices down for over ten years.In 1989 , the best prices we ever had were $11.60/kg. Stockpile or no stockpile, we are still being taken to the cleaners and not getting value for product -cf prices of woollen clothes in 1999 and today.
**These are prices in the drought - but even before the droughts $50/sheep was a good price in WA.
*** Fertilizers- both for pasture and cropping are one of the biggest cost for many farmers. These figure are probably not terribly accurate as the type of fertilizers vary each year depending on what the soils needs. However there is no doubt they have risen by over 20% in six years.
Perhaps the other thing to note from these brief statistics is, as I have mentioned previously in “Farm budget a work of fiction”, there is no stability in the pricing, so predicting prices and planning and budgeting accordingly is almost impossible.

One could argue that the land value has improved, but, like all land owners everywhere, this is only useful when the land is sold. The question is how is the farmer anywhere in this wide brown land expected to live from day to day and meet the needs of his family, remaining environmentally sustainable, while fair pricing – both in the selling of product and in the expenses incurred are so far off the mark?

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: bumpkin - Category: farming

Email this Post to a Friend

A stranger in town

January 5th 2007 15:03

What is "Community"? This is a question that I have been slowly tackling in my own way since the New Year. I have spent some of that time in a Community away from my home - a Youth conference community - no as the "youth" but as a volunteer - doing everything from adious-ing rubbish to setting up book stalls. This is a temporary community - in its way artificial in that it brings together reasonably like minded people from all over the Pacific Region to explore their beliefs and learn and share and have fun. Behind the scenes are other communities - those who have spent a couple of years organising the event, or those who come in for short bursts from out-lying communities to add to the event. Even in this one setting there are multi-communities.
Coming from a small town, it has been an interesting experience to be almost an outsider. True there are a few people I know or I have heard of and true, I have my jobs to do - some I am confident in doing, others not. But once again I feel a little like I did when I first ventured out into a rural community as a young teacher. At times I stood alone, uncertain where I fitted in the dynamics of the town. As I was the new teacher I was immediately associated with that community group. (just like I am now the woman who cleaned up the meeting room.) But it was important to thrust myself into other community groups. I played hockey for a while - very badly I might add, joined the Rural Youth - not just to meet blokes, went to a Church ( 'cos that is part of what I do). Then I eventually ventured into the pub and developed a liking for lemon, lime and bitters (or is it lime lemon and bitters?)
If you are to live in a rural town, you will be labelled according to the community group people choose to place you. I was still being called a teacher even after 10 years of not teaching, and I am still shaking off the jobs associated with being the Historical Society's Secretary, even though I haven't had that job for 5 years. What community groups you start with, will not determine all your life - I am certainly not a hockey stick weilding rural youth member, but I do feel I belong to some communities within the town structure

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote