Harvesting

Today we went to a friends farm 30km from our house. It is harvesting time and Sarie knew that Callyn would enjoy the big combine harvester! We wre lucky enough to drive with Sarie's husband, George and his two little girls in the harvester.

 We learnt so much! The harvester is fitted with a fancy GPS/computer and it is programmed to run by itself. The farmer can sit back and read or have a snooze as the harvester knows when to turn and where to cut. There is no overlapping and the fields are cut in dead straight rows. Today they were harvesting wheat. The harvester cuts the wheat, separates the stalks from the seeds and tosses the seeds into the back and spits the stalks out back onto the field. When it is full, the harvester parks next to the tractor with a big trailor and empties its load into the tractor. The tractor, when it is full, goes to town and drops off the load at the silo. Oh, the computer system even measures the moisture content of the crop being harvested as it cannot be too wet - maximum is 16% moisture. The wheat is graded at the silo and the farmer is paid accordingly.

 

If the driver gets up off his chair, the harvester stops - it senses that there is no one on the seat!

 

 The platform is 9m long.

 

The field is about 2km long so Jordy, Mienke and Mari go out after one trip there and back and Callyn and I stayed for an extra trip! He wanted to stay in it all day but we had to leave!

 Callyn, Mienke, Mari and Jordy

 I love the farmhouse and the gardens. They have a bore hole so they can water the garden whenever they want to and it looks lovely! The farmhouse is lovely - high ceilings, big rooms, wooden floors and beautiful oregan pine doors and door frames!

There is also an amazing play area for kids. There are little wooden wendy houses. One is the police office, one a hospital and the last one is a house set up with a play kitchen, bed, cupboards etc. Needless to say the kids had  ball and I had to nag them to go home! Callyn would love to live on a farm!

I have known Sarie for about 9 years as we met at Nautilus Maths where we were both teachers. It is held once a term at Grey College for all the kids who are Maths boffs. We were each assigned a class where we coached the kids before they wrote a big exam. We were paid really well so did it willingly! I stopped doing it when Callyn was a few months old and then she had her first child, Mienke. We met up again at Mothers and Miracles when the kids were babies and then again at Kindermusic and also at ballet! It's amazing how we make friends through our children!