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Saturday, November 29, 2014

Harvest 2014


I've never been a farmer...but I've always admired them from afar.

It's a menacing look on a photo, and I wouldn't want to get
in his way, but still beautiful...and amazing that I got a shot.
Sure we owned 6 acres in the Snowy mountains for a few years, but we never tried to run anything other than a horse on it, and it was not arable land.

But here, in Burrumbuttock (gotta love the name)...it's harvest time.

It's nearly 10pm and I can still hear the header whirring. It's a high pitched sound, with the low drone of motors from the harvester under toning it. Ordinarily, it's the kind of sound that would have annoyed me in the city...annoyed me a lot. But here, it's a sound that makes me feel excited.

A full paddock of ripe wheat (which is what our neighbours all had this afternoon) is a beautiful sight. Even more beautiful, after 20ml or more of rain in the past week, is hearing the headers take the wheat, knowing that it's now safe. Over and over since I heard the headers this afternoon I've been singing in my head "Bringing in the Sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves!" It's an old song, but it matches the excitement.

The Seven Silos tonight.
Our front verandah looks out on a large paddock with seven silos. Tonight there were multiple vehicles there with their lights on as they delivered their wheat. As I was walking and watching and feeling the excitement of the night, I heard one of them whoop. I know this can be a great time for farmers, the culmination of the best part of the year of planning, working and praying that the weather goes their way. It's good to be able to share in their excitement as we see our lonely lane become a bustling road of trucks, utes, tractors, headers, harvesters and chaser bins.

Tomorrow, Christian is installed as Pastor here in the Burrumbuttock parish, with 4 congregations and 5 preaching points. They have been vacant for three years. But they have not been idle, there has been much activity going on in the absence of a pastor. We pray there will be much to harvest here...and many good plantings and harvests in the future too.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Burrumbuttock

What a strange name!

Well we have moved here and have been in our new home all of a week. There is SO much to do with  all the unpacking, but there is also the exciting outdoors. We have bought a 13 acre property that used to be the West Burrumbuttock school (for a very short time 100 years ago). And with our property we have inherited a horse, Lorien (yes that's a Lord of the Rings name in honour of my horse rearing Grandma), 20 or so Dorper sheep (they naturally lose their own wool, so no shearing required), two ducks named Mopsey and Flopsey (who started to lay when we arrived), and three guinea fowl (whom the children named) Bash, Dash and Crash (apparently they will help keep away the snakes because they are so territorial).

The house we are living in is 130 years old, and used to be the Principal teacher's house for the school. So we are returning the property to it's original use after a long time. Look forward to more reports of our exploits. We are looking forward to finding some artefacts from the time this place was a school. Already this week we have found a glass bottle that was clearly a small cordial drink bottle from some time ago.

We are surrounded by paddocks and no houses are in view...it is quite blissful!


About-Australia.com says of our little town:
Burrumbuttock is a small village 32 kilometres north west of Albury onthe Albury-Urana Road. The early settlement began in 1839 at the "Burrumbuttock Station" which was at that time 30,000 acres on both sides of an unfenced track stretching from Jindera Gap towards Walbundrie. The present town has a number of buildings including a General Store and Post Office, Primary School, Farmers Inn Hotel established in 1880 and the Holy Cross Lutheran Church dedicated in 1877. It has a population of 150 people. The Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre is a four hectare area featuring a large dam constructed in 1902