For the past few weeks most of us country reps have been on the road for the Suncorp/Agricultural Societies Council of NSW dryland field wheat and durum competitions.
Thanks to Tom Dwyer’s years of running the competition, we had no problems finding the property for the crop judging.
I didn’t have the same success for the rest of the day.
The very helpful farmer I was seeing between Mullaley and Boggabri gave me some good directions, but I came unstuck with the last bit.
He told me it was the place with the grey mailbox, but only trouble was, nearly every other property along that stretch of road was marked with a grey mailbox.
After realising I’d gone too far and turning around, I gave him another (probably the fourth) quick call to make sure I wasn’t off track again.
Thankfully his eyesight was much better than mine. He could spot me on the road from his header and directed me in.
It turns out I was right outside the property, which didn’t actually have a grey mailbox, but a chemical drum.
Harvest team pulls up to pay tribute
I had a call last week from a farmer at Warialda who told me about a harvesting team operating at Gunnedah.
His wife and a friend were travelling around Gunnedah a few weeks ago and noticed a harvesting team - four headers, chaser bins and trucks - had pulled up at once.
They weren't broken down, as was suggested by one of the ladies.
Apparently her husband seems to spend a large amount of time pulled up.
They'd just stopped to mark Remembrance Day with a minute's silence and few minutes later they were back into gear.
The farmer reckons the boys have set a very high standard for the rest of us.
