Week 7: AGFEST

Gday Cak! Gday Princess! J I hope this blog finds you well and rested b/c I am testing the limit on blog space with this write up and I promise I left some stuff out …..anyway welcome to Gretchen’s  Agfest Adventure----

AgFest is something that not only the rural youth club looks forward to but also the state of Tasmania. It is said to be the most fun and tiresome week for the Rural Youth club and at times a bit of a shock for the exchanges. It is a week that the members spend numerous weekends not only physically preparing for but mentally as well. Vacation days from work are saved throughout the year so that members, volunteers, and tourists can attend. AgFest was the first thing the coordinator told me about when I found out I was going to Tasmania back in December-It was finally here.

Twenty-nine years ago the Rural Youth program began running what they call AgFest because the government had stopped their funding and without some fundraising they would cease to exist. In the beginning about 9,000 people visited over a two-day span.  Today around 60,000-80,000 visit over three days- Thursday, Friday, Saturday and they reckon at some point AgFest will run through Sunday as well.
Many weekends are spent throughout the year getting things ready through working bees.  With AgFest drawing near comes the arrival of the AgFest operations managers two weeks before and then the rural youth had 114 volunteers that stayed to anywhere from 1-10 days to help as well.  In addition to the volunteers, about twenty people for security also arrive a week before, running a day and night shift to watch the grounds/gates/ and equipment that venues have set up throughout the week. The exhibitors with large equipment spreads can arrive over the weekend but most are invited on Monday and expected to have things removed and cleaned up by the Tuesday after Agfest is complete. During the actual three days of AgFest the gates open at 6:30 for exhibitors to get into the grounds and open things up but they must stop running vehicles at 9. The gates are open for patrons from 8-5 and again the exhibitors can run vehicles from 4:30 and must be off grounds at 6pm. There were around 700 exhibits consisting of different kinds of vehicles, Tassie agricultural equipment, several food caravans, a building called “Utaste” filled with gourmet foods and beverages, three craft buildings, a stage for modeling the clothing being sold, a 4-wheel drive track, equine center, a paddock showing off how sheep dogs work, a dairy pavilion, hunting equipment, helicopter rides, the local cell phone provider, a central arena with live music and other forms of entertainment, etc.

On arrival volunteers are given drink tickets, a lanyard with an id, a hat, our room key, and a few other safety bits in a bag on arrival. A Hi-vi (high visibility) vest was also given to us that we were required to wear if we were ever on-site day or night.  Eating wise breakfast was on your own- toast or what not, for lunch we were given ten dollar vouchers, and dinner was served at 6:30 every evening in the function center on-site.  Dinner was always entertaining with stories from the day, fine sessions, announcements, and meetings to keep things running smoothly. After dinner we all hung out in a lounge room called the crib room and if we were hungry we were given snacks well into the night there as well. Needless to say, we never went hungry. Chocolate bars and drinks were frequently delivered during the day and dinner was always a three course meal with soup and rolls, an entrée, and dessert. I think I gained two kilos just in the one week. ANYWAY, Now that I have given a bit of background to start my story, I will go back to the beginning of a week never to forget.

Sunday evening Lisa came to pick me up at Heidi and Perry’s and we headed off to AgFest for my 8 day stay. Immediately the fun began. The fog was a bit thick and Lisa had been having trouble with her Land rover. When we stopped at a market quick we noticed it was smoking and had a bit of a burning smell to it. After phoning her husband Matt, who was already at Quercus (ag fest site), he assured us we were fine and we continued to drive. Every time we came to a stop and had to turn or what not, we watched the smoke roll out from under the hood. This time was Lisa who assured me we wouldn’t blow up because it her ute ran off of diesel not gas. It was after 9pm the gates were closed so we phoned someone to call security to open the gates for us. Down the road came three vehicles, all with yellow caution lights rotating on top of them.  Lisa informed me that apparently we had a few escorts (Marty & Jade) meeting us at the gate as well as the security. I jumped in with Jade where I discovered his fireman equipment in the back seat and had a bit of a laugh playing with it thinking of how I could scare everyone as the Kansas exchange and arrive with a bunch of fire equipment on. I figured everyone that I had met so far already knew how random I was so I had better not to try to scare anyone else………

Once I emptied my things from Lisa’s vehicle and made my bed I met the other exchange student Ruth from Northern Ireland…she had just arrived a few days before and was thrown in to the excitement of AgFest. J  I was excited to have someone else to share my adventure with and since I had been around for awhile I was able to help her out a little bit. I then walked into the crib room for a fun night ahead. One of the volunteers (Warner) that I met made a joke because of my 6ft build that I was the Chinese swim coach…..I was no longer Gretchen from America.  All in that one night I went from being the Chinese swim coach, to stretchy, to Shrek, to Princess Fiona- and a few of those names stuck the rest of the week or used in variation such as grouchy, grouchin, stretchin. Stretchy has stuck past AgFest …I now have my first official nickname since middle school when I was termed Baby Monster by my sister’s friends from a neighboring town.

DAY 1:

Monday morning I woke up to someone fixing my door using a rattle gun (cordless drill). I am pretty sure they were doing it on purpose over and over just to get me out of bed. I put on my sweatpants and sweatshirt ready to battle the day and was then told that I needed to change because I looked homeless…Well that wasn’t the look I was going for so I put on some jeans, grabbed some breakfast, and was headed back to my room to grab things for the day only to realize that I couldn’t get my key into my door. So now..my handle had came off, the door didn’t close properly, and now the key hole was covered. Once again my door was fixed and finally I was ready to begin the day. One of the operation managers took me around site to show me everything and answer any questions I had.  The exec committee of ag fest have “ag fest” phones and radios so in the mean time I think every five minutes he was called to do something and we ran around site most of the day answering exhibitors questions or sorting out a problem here and there. Mid morning I while waiting on the guys to answer a few questions, I piled up Jade’s fireman equipment and rested my eyes J ……my little snooze was rudely interrupted by Prewer opening up the door and me nearly falling out. Taught me not to fall asleep on the job!

At some time in the morning I had apparently lost my key to my room and at lunch it was returned but of course not without being teased by my friend Perry & Will.  I didn’t know whether to be glad that those two had found my key or nervous with what they did to my room before they gave it back to me.

After lunch we finally did something I could help with and Owen, Ruth, Jade & I built a fence and did a few other odds n ends jobs and that evening I jumped in with some other members to fix some fence in one of the car parks.  Due to a late night the night before, I was keen for a quick dinner, shower, and relatively early night to bed. I learned quickly that even when you plan for an early night, it never really works out that way. I went to bed around twelve but because I heard everyone else still up at 1 am and couldn’t go back to sleep I got back up again and headed to the crib room until I was tired and ready to go back to sleep.


DAY 2:

Tuesday was relatively similar to Monday but I did a bit more helping than riding around.  Will and Perry taught me how to weld.  Well kinda. They basically gave me a helmet and a brief lesson and said here ya go – play with it. Perry failed to mention that you are supposed to hold the tool closer to the metal…I was trying to weld from the end of the burnt residue hanging off the end of the tool and it was making quite the display of sparks J After welding we spent some time delivering and spreading wood chips, shifted a power point that was misplaced, and spread wood chips at the craft shack before and after tea.  Once I was done spreading wood chips a few of the guys were still doing a few jobs on-site. I was running around with them when we managed to get a flat tire on one of the trucks that was given to rural youth as a utility vehicle to get things ready and also as advertisement on-site.  At first we thought we were without a jack but once it was found we couldn’t figure out where to jack it up. It seemed much easier to get a fork lift so we took that route. J  Finally we headed back for a normal evening in the crib room.

DAY 3:

Because I was not as productive as I should have been the first two days, I was ready to go flat out Wednesday being it was the day before AgFest and we had loads of work to do. There was a board full of jobs in the personnel office to be done and basically you walked in, was given a job, finished it, and moved on down the list. I walked in Wednesday morning and was asked if I wanted to weed whip the car park…specifically thistles. Gotta love them. J  (By the way in Ireland it is called strimming and in Australia it is called brush cutting) I was over excited to do some physical work so I jumped on the job. Late morning I ran out of fuel and called someone to come fill me up and five minutes after they left I ran out of string. I was too embarrassed to call them back so I walked up to the shed to fix it and decided to call a lunch break. After lunch I went to cut around the toilet blocks….I had a man come up and tell me “You were the one making all of the noise while I was trying to go to the bathroom!” …Awkward. J He then managed to have a fifteen minute chat with me about the importance of ear plugs because at a young age he was deaf from not taking proper caution to loud noises. Haha. After I finished weed whipping, I had to do my daily tour around the site because it’s just what I do and then just as I was headed to craft to do some work I was hollered at to get in a van. As I got into the van I realized the other exchanges were in there as well. I was a little bit hesitant…I thought we were going to an exchange initiation by the looks of the 15 passenger van with limited windows but it just turned out that an agfest alumni “Boof” was head of the duty and I had not met him, he was harmless (well kinda ;)) and we were really going to lay rubber matting over the power cords to save patrons like myself who are clumsy and would trip.  I learned the hard way not to grab the biggest rolls of matting to save trips because if the tape comes undone that holds them in a tight ball before you get to the cord, you are out of luck!

We had a good dinner and then split up again for jobs to finish things up before the next morning- the big opening day. Our first duty: put out bollards to keep incoming traffic from switching lanes. Ready, set, go…. I happened to be working with a very entertaining group (Brad, Boof, Carly, Etc) that kept the night extremely entertaining even if it was freezing and we were all exhausted.  I put all my warm clothes back on from being inside for tea when I noticed that someone had decided to put pads of butter inside of my gloves at dinner. J glorious. Anyway, in fits of laughed from jokes and comments being made around us a few of us struggled and couldn’t get the bollards onto the trailer (Timmy, Ruth, & i) and partially because of height differences; however, all-in-all it was a quick job and a job well done. We then moved on to put 400 trash cans out.  I wanted to make things more exciting so I climbed into the middle of the trailer full of trash cans for a ride to the place we were to set them out …..I was then given the named “grouchy” for Oscar the grouch. Good thing I didn’t have to hide from security as they came around because I couldn’t get my 6ft frame to squat into the middle and get the lid shut. I was out safe and sound when Boof and Brad had the grand idea to put me back into the trashcan and wheel me around at high speeds --- I just closed my eyes and prayed that they didn’t drop me. J In the meantime Brad and Boof also taught us all what the term “dropping your guts” means – enough that I was nearly dead at midnight. It had been awhile since I had worked ALLLL day long and it showed. For once I went back to the living quarters and went straight to my room and fell on my bed without even thinking of going to the crib room.

Day 4: First day of AgFest

At 5:30 AM I heard the terrible alarm everyone talks about over the loud speaker. It went off after a few minutes and I got comfy again in bed and went back to sleep. After all, the 5:30 alarm was for the people working in car park.  I didn’t have to be up to ticket box until 7:15. WRONG. 5:35 alarm went off again. 5:45 again. I wanted to hit my head against the wall several times. I used to think it was obnoxious when my mom stood at the bottom of the stairs and yelled up to us to wake up for school and then sang to us in her overly cheery tone. This gave me a change of heart. I rolled out of bed earlier than I needed to, showered, ate breakfast, and headed to the front gates to work the ticket box for the first day of AgFest. Two of us were in each box- 6 people total. We were locked in so we had to stay put but we were delivered breakfast, snacks, and drinks. I was a little bit overwhelmed at first given that I had never worked a cash register and I was using Aussie money and the lines were HUGE but after a bit I really caught the hang of it. We were even asked to give back as much change as possible and I had no problem giving people large amounts of coin money but boy did I get some looks. J Also, at times I think people recounted their money after listening to my accent, knew I was foreign, and were nervous that I messed up. A few people just flat out told me that they knew I wasn’t local. To keep me entertained Boof gave me a frequent phone call from the next ticket box over.

After walking around with Ned & Bryce for lunch and a few rubber band wars, I headed over to the Efpos tent. I took credit/debit cards to dispense cash or buy tickets. For the most part I was successful but I had a few mishaps. I managed to misunderstand people because of their accent and almost pull out 400 dollars instead of 40….at one time I charged a man $50 dollars instead of $45….and I quickly had an opening without anyone at the window, jammed a piece of snickers in my mouth just in time for someone to come to the window. I quickly shoved it on the roof of my mouth and Alisha laughed the whole time because not only did I have an accent but I had a lisp as well.

I finished a bit early and was given the go ahead to walk around for a bit- I had to check out the fashion parade where rural youth members were modeling the clothing for sale at AgFest. Apparently that was going to be one of my jobs at one point and I am glad they changed their mind. Keeping a straight face and modeling is not in my dictionary. J Once everyone cleared out for the evening we had an Opening ceremony for AgFest. The exhibitors were all invited and awards were presented for best craft site, best overall site, best safety site, etc. Rachel Treasure, a popular author of Australia who happens to be from Tasmania, gave an opening speech and AgFest coordinator and co-coordinators talked with us too.

Following tea time I snuck away before everyone else to get some laundry done. I put my clothes in, dumped soap all over them, and realized that the washer was broken. Yeah for me. J All of my jeans were now covered in soap – Luckily Alisha saved me- as she seems to always do and took my and the other exchanges clothes to finish washing them so we had things to wear the following day.

That evening I went to put some signs up on site that had been forgotten and or misplaced. I am all about having fun and was feeling rested from going to bed what is called early at Agfest (12 am) so I was a bit wired.  In that time I managed to pretend I was skiing, nearly hurt myself with the two fence poles, had a dance party outside to the ipod music while we were putting up the signs, and demonstrated the table top star jump. The fun did not stop there. A few of us got into some good conversation and lost track of time (it has happened a lot since I have been gone…sometimes I don’t even know what day it is). I even thoughtfully called my Mom at 3 am my time – About noon at home—to see how she was and put her on speaker phone to meet everyone else. By the end of the evening, as you all back home know how I am, I was delirious and laughing fits were leaving me breathless. At 4 am we called it a night.

Day 5:

Friday I got to sleep in a bit longer because I was in the feature tent. Well kinda sleep. The walls are so thin in our dorm that if you roll over and bump the wall in your bunk it echo’s about three rooms down. But after the rush was over I did fall asleep til about 7:30. J Because I was in the ticket box the day before and we had mini heaters in them, I made the mistake of forgetting that I was going to be in an open tent and it was below freezing. We spent a bit of time scraping frost off the bleachers of central arena and by the time I was finished, I was slightly numb. I snuck off to the dairy pavilion for an Anvers hot chocolate (the best hot chocolate ever) and came back to sit in the sun while watching a presentation on solar power before the crowds arrived.  It was then that I got my laugh for the day. I leaned back to tell one of my friends that I thought my cheeks had frost on them.  He laughed and said he would lick it and see if it was like the movies and get his tongue stuck. Apparently he thought I was talking about my face cheeks because I don’t think he meant to comment that he was going to lick my butt cheeks. J Thank you to Will for giving me the chance to give my one and only fine of my visit.

 The feature tent is split in half. Half of the tent has information about rural youth, ag fest apparel to be sold, and pictures of rural youth events throughout the year used to encourage people to sign up for the club.  The other half housed the local band of the Wolf Brothers, who were performing in central arena, and Rachel Treasure, also a local, but an author of books popular all across the country.  

Throughout the rest of the morning I had to take a few walks just to get circulation so my toes didn’t fall off but by the afternoon it warmed up to a beautiful day. Having the feature tent right next to central arena was a bonus. I got to watch several demonstrations such as whip cracking, 4-wheel driving, and other product demonstrations. Lee Kernaghan, a popular Aussie country artist, came in as well to sing a few songs for the crowd and head off again shortly after. I was a bit surprised with how quiet the crowd was except for two ladies, well into their 60’s or 70’s that were dancing their little hearts out. I even got a video. J It made me think of something my grandma Joan would have done.

The other exchange Ruth finished her work early and so the two of us headed off to visit some other parents of families I stayed with previously and to see some more of AgFest. We were headed for some ice cream when Anthony, the Ag Fest manager, handed us two free tickets to go up in a helicopter to thank us for the work we had done. It was my first helicopter ride and it was amazing to see how big AgFest really was and to take aerial pictures.

By the time Friday evening rolled around almost all of the volunteers that were coming had arrived so it was said to be a traditional big night for the rural youth club. For awhile now I had been warned about the Ooga Booga club- A little orientation activity for first year participants of AgFest .I was so scared I was going to have this HUGE initiation done to me. They covered the windows and pulled us in one-by-one and you heard cheering and laughter from the outside.  My turn came up and in I went …..and I’d tell you what we did but I took an oath to never tell anyone. Boof and Macca, Rural Youth alumni, spent the rest of the evening teaching us little games and pranks that they used to pull when they were a part of the club. At one point they had five people driving an airplane, each person acting as a part of the plane. Eventually the “engine” starts on fire and the person is splashed with a cup of water….or you are told to try to get the quarter from onto your nose into the 20 oz pop bottle that has been cut in half. When you lift your head to set the quarter on your nose, someone pours water into the open part of the 20 oz pop bottle and it gives you the wonderful sensation that you wet yourself. J That is just a few of the many jokes and I don’t want to share all of them or I won’t be able to use them when I get home! 

Day 6: Final day of AgFest

Saturday morning was my very early morning because I had car park (parking lot) duty. We had to be out there for the exhibitors to park and the pedestrians came early as well so that they did not have to wait long in line as Saturday was the busiest and final day of AgFest. I thought ahead the night before and set my phone alarm at 5:15 so I would be mentally prepared for the wretched alarm over the loud speaker, which rings the first time at 5:30, instead of wanting to bang my head against the wall. J I don’t know how it happened but I woke up ready to go after having only ten hours of sleep total over three nights.

I got into the van with the rest of the workers and Rod, the car park (parking lot) coordinator, got in, turned the radio way up, and attempted to be extremely enthusiastic. At first I was like oh my dear it is WAYYY to early for this and then I remembered that I am usually that person to the rest of my friends so I decided to jump into the fun.

It was still very dark and again below freezing when we got to our car park down the hill. Rod started giving everyone directions and I just sat there quietly hoping I would catch on. The rest of the rural youth members hate working in the car park but the other exchange who did it the previous day absolutely loved it.  I learned my lesson from the day before so at least I had dressed warmly- I had several pairs of socks, under armour under wear, jeans, long-sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, coat, hat, and a special pair of green high visibility gloves on, and of course my green high visibility vest.

There were three grass car parks (parking lots) and one for exhibitors.  We spread out waving flags to get people to the proper area and then two people directed the vehicles into the parking spot. Oversized vehicles such as American full-sized trucks, ute’s (small sized trucks) with trailers, and campers had to be parked on the outside of the rows so if one of them came you sprinted across the parking lot waving your flag like an idiot and hoped you didn’t roll an ankle on way to get the trailer to notice and go to the different section.  Another flag member motioned like crazy to the next car behind them and hoped the rest of the line didn’t follow the trailer to the outside spot…but like I said, that was just on special occasions. J At the parking spot one person waved the car forward and let them know when to stop and the other person was the guide post. I got the special job of “guide post”. My job was to stand the perfect amount of distance from the previous car and the plan was that it would force the cars park in that amount of space.  In result, the vehicles would be parked tight and we could fit as many as possible. HOWEVER, the plan did not always work. Being bigger than the average man I wasn’t scared of the oncoming vehicles USUALLY and my belly button got tickled several times by car mirrors, my toes nearly run over, and a few times I was sworn at. I will admit some of the bigger SUV’s came in way to fast and I definitely got out of the way for them. It became a bit of a challenge how tight I could get the vehicles. J

Everything went smoothly for the most part and the time passed rather quickly. I got weird looks many times either from cars wondering why I was standing in their way, when I busted a move in my high visibility vest in the middle of the parking lot because I had been standing around for hours, or when I started stripping off my clothes because the sun came out and my ten layers were making me sweat. Oh ya, I also had a contest with the guy working with me if I could get more old men to wink or smile at me than him older women. :)

Breakfast and lunch was delivered to us which was really nice but by 1:30 or so we were done. All of the parking lots and our overflow had been filled and I was free to go tour around AgFest until closing time at 5. Just before I was done though, a car managed to get stuck, and I got to push them out with the help of another volunteer. J

I literally was so exhausted by the time I got back to the sleeping quarters that slipped my shoes off and fell onto my bed. I had to take a quick nap before I walked around…a quick nap turned into an hour but I jumped in the shower to wake me up and rallied again. A few of the member’s parents I stayed with were working at AgFest so I went to say hello and my goodbyes to them and then took a little tour. I was told I had to buy some R.M. Williams vests (which is a popular country brand like Wrangler at home) and an Akubra (an Australian cowboy hat), and I purchased a few other things and headed to the fashion parade one more time to tease my friends that were modeling. It was then that I realized I had lost my keys……for the second time that week. After searching around for awhile I gave up. I had heard stories about the final night of AgFest and I didn’t want to miss out so I figured I had better take advantage of some free time with another nap before dinner.

We had our final dinner at AgFest, shared lots of laughs from stories of the week, discussed numbers, and gave thank you’s. I felt very special when of the members got up and thanked the two of us exchanges for the help (or more excitement) that we had added to the week but of course not before I was fined for having a bunch of bruises without knowing where they came from. (Those of you at home know that I bruise easily and it happens all the time!)  At that time I should have stood up to thank all of them as well but if I had I probably would have “got emotional” and I didn’t want to be “that” girl. J

With the stress over of an AgFest well ran, about 100 of us moved on to the crib room for the AgFest after party. We had live music from the local Wolfe Brothers and dollar drinks. AgFest was ALLL about safety first so I wanted to wear my high visibility vest and gloves as my outfit because for one, it had been my outfit all week so why stop now, and IF I was to get lost that night, I would easily be found. The night went on with lots of singing, dancing, and laughing. I had learned the words to some of their favorite songs throughout my stay all but for those I didn’t know I just pretended as everyone screamed out the words. I will never forget watching Rob do the car park dance with his flags, Dana giving Alisha a shower, and thank goodness for Eleta’s midnight snacks she was always making us even if it meant her little “teapot” self pushing through crowded people dancing outside by the live band. The band quit and we hung around talking by the fire…I went to bed at around 4 am and apparently was exhausted.

Day 7:

I should tell you the rest of my AgFest story is history and spare you the detail but now that I am ok, too many funny details were mixed with my hospital visit so I must share…I woke up Sunday morning about 8 and basically couldn’t move my upper body. There I was laying there nervous and not sure why I felt the way I did (no I didn’t have memory loss from the night before- nothing had happened to me to cause this pain.) and for fear that it was something serious- I headed to the hospital. I found out on my trip over that I don’t take well to morphine or a neck brace. My diagnosis: I had slept on my neck way wrong and due to exhaustion my body didn’t wake me up and tell me to change positions. I had a severe stiff neck and some nerve damage on my left side. With my prognosis and some pain killers, my fear turned to laughter when I found out I was ok. This was why: I had a student doctor come in who acted a bit awkward and was obviously a bit nervous. He asked me three times if I was sure I wasn’t pregnant and I’m not sure if I should laugh at that or be offended. J He also had an obsession with poking at every bruise I had and asking if it hurt. It reminded me of a game my sisters and I played when we were young just to torture each other. I had taken pain killers on an empty stomach so Alisha, who went with me, got me a few sandwiches, and when that didn’t work they served me a hot lunch.  We lifted the lids to the food, I had a few bites of stew, and then discovered this glorious green something that was a mix between jello and mush. Neither one of us feeling very well we still thought it would be funny to have a stab at it. A few minutes later I was waking Alisha up, who was asleep in the chair, to me yelling her name asking for my puke bag. I was released and the doctor left to let me get dressed…Good thing I was comfortable with Alisha because she had to dress me and after a bit of struggle with the undergarments we noticed they had not taken out my IV needle in my mid arm. The doctor asked me removed it and asked me to hold pressure over it for thirty seconds before continuing to get dressed. Five minutes later Alisha asked me if I was done. Apparently I had spaced out.  Lastly I had to go to the restroom and I learned wiping with your non-dominant hand is a bit interesting.  Alisha and I stood in the bathroom in fits of laughter before walking out….plus the laughing while I was getting dressed in my hospital room, I am sure that the hospital staff began to wonder about us. Another member, Amanda, picked us up and we headed back to AgFest to pack up and head off to Alisha’s for some rest and relaxation. Moral of the story: Don’t sleep only 14 hours across 4 days or maybe don’t try to hang with Australians for a whole week straight.
-----------------------------------------
I can honestly say it is possible that I laughed harder in that week that I have ever in another week my whole entire life-  I have nearly ten pages of information on this week and there is no way that I could remember and put all of the memories, inside jokes, or the things I learned & did on paper...It blows my mind that a group of 15-30 year olds can organize and run something that big and keep stress levels as low as they were. We worked hard and we play hard. Even when we did a job such as putting out hundreds trash cans at 11 at night, there was never a dull moment. In fact, I am not sure, except for the short amount of time I slept in the week, that there was a dull moment, because when even when I was by myself I was laughing about something that happened the day or minutes before. On a serious note, after my scare with my neck I also realized how good of friends I have made in just several weeks. It was extremely scary with what happened but I was clearly taken good care of and in good hands and was able to laugh about it afterwards and never stopped making memories even in the hospital. I said goodbye to a few people before leaving the Agfest site and already shed a few of my first tears of many I have a feeling. My time has gone fast and after I get healthy, I have a few weeks to make the most of.

Week 6: The calm before the storm :)

Week six was spent with Heidi and Perry in Spreyton. Heidi lives next door to her parents in her grandmother’s old house on a section of land that has been passed down through generations beginning originally as an apple orchard. Although there is still an orchard in existence, due to the change in economy, their main business is cool storage for potatoes and hops. It was fun to spend time listening to she and her dad share stories and show pictures of her family history and feel the loyalty that they share to the other farmers in the state.

For the first two days I laid pretty low after coming off an eventful several days at the Pieman and having Ag Fest just around the corner.  One of the evenings four of us got together to see the latest Fast and Furious movie. I just so happened to be riding in a rather fast ute after the movie and warned the driver if the movie gave him an itch to please not kill me on the way home. J

Perry, Heidi’s partner, also comes from a farm that has been in his family for ages. He let me tag along at the sale barn on Thursday. I laughed because for years my Dad has been trying to get me to go to a sale with him and usually school or basketball got in the way. I will now have to go home and attend a sale to have a compare session. The sale here consisted of several rows of small pens outside containing anywhere from 6-30 cattle, mostly black angus (a few red). The auctioneer and his help stood up on an elevated walk and worked to sell the cattle at the highest price they could. I struggled to understand them but I didn’t want to get to close in fear that I would scratch my head or move in the wrong way and they would think I was trying to bid. J The drive from the sale was entertaining – Perry found a radio station that just so happened to play a punch of my favorite songs and I was jamming in the back seat. He turned to his front seat passenger and told him “you don’t have to sing!”….and it was totally me. J He put his foot in his mouth. Thursday nights is traditionally fish and chips at Heidi’s parent’s house so we dined with them, her grandfather, and one of her three sisters. I was introduced to lemon lime bitters and thoroughly entertained by Dayna’s animated stories of her trip with her sisters and their encounters with the many different kinds of people there. I rode on the back of Perry’s ute up the hill on the way home and he decided to take me under every low hanging branch he could find but we arrived back safe and sound.

Friday Heidi and I went to shoe her horse. We intended to take a ride but it didn’t quite work out that way. Instead we went inside for some good conversation and amazing vegetable lasagna that I will be making at home. Jessica owns the property we were at and is also a teacher and she introduced me to the idea of “non-rubbish” lunches and a program that she is working towards establishing at her school. I hope that when I begin teaching in my own classroom, after I get a few years under my belt, to be able to encourage school wide programs as she does to help not only her school but also the world.  ---As we were leaving we hooked the float up to what we would call a station wagon at home and it pulled the trailer like a champ and headed back to unload the horse, have a shower, and head to another member’s house for the royal wedding. A few of the girls got decked out in “royal” wedding attire and we sat down to a bunch of fancy snacks and a punch made from England. All went well except for Lisa losing the tail of her fox…..:)

Heidi is a teacher at a very low income school in Tasmania and as much as I wished to have spent a few days at work with her she was on holiday so it was not possible. Heidi is one of those teachers that very rarely uses a book and really strives to reach every kid in any way possible – even if it means spending years making games and activities to teach the curriculum. After a trip to the mainland with her sisters she had a few new CDs to rip to help the kids with literacy and a few things to do here and there so Saturday I spent the day helping Heidi with some school stuff and finishing the Heartland series that I had become addicted to at Lisa and Matt’s. Heidi’s partner was gone on a shooting trip so with the convenience of Heidi’s parents down the hill we went there for dinner again but this time her youngest sister was there. Dinner discussion ended up bringing up things we didn’t like to eat and I said vegemite, beets, and brussel sprouts. Heidi’s mom laughed- apparently she had snuck in some brussel sprouts into the other green veggies and I had eaten it and not complained a bit…..guess that teaches you to try things in different ways before saying you don’t like them. J Once again the trip home was interesting – Heidi and I walked - it was pitch black outside and she obviously had taken the trip hundreds of times winding through here and between this building and so and so. I was busy trying to use the light of my phone and just as we hit the opening to her house we were greeted by the guys jumping from behind the garage. I nearly dropped to my knees in fright. I have learned that Perry, Heidi’s partner, is usually up to jokes and trouble ALL the time. ;) Saturday night I went to sleep in my extremely comfortable bed at Heidi’s for my last night of good sleep for a very fun-filled exciting sleepless week ahead. J

Week five: Even longer but it just gets better........

I have now been here for half of my stay …I feel like I have been gone about two weeks but instead it has been five. Each week goes faster and faster. I have started using some of the slang naturally and I find myself sounding funny when I use “yank” terms as they call them here; however, this last weekend I happened to pick up a ton more so for starters on this blog lets go to an Australian vocabulary lesson:

crayfish- lobster
prawns-shrimp
grill guard – bull bar
bonnet- car hood
boot- trunk
give way- yield
take over – pass (meaning a car)
fringe – bangs
knackered- tired ----- so in my last blog I said naked was tired…apparently I found out I need to ask people to spell things because I get the word WAYYY wrong because of their accent and lack of pronouncing their “r”……this whole time I thought the Tassies were saying they were “naked” all the time they were saying they were “knackered” OOPS J 
good bird – nice girl
shiela – girl
far out – unbelievable
jetty- dock
float- horse trailer
tires is spelled tyres
color is spelled colour
rogie and righto – ok (these are probably my two favorite words J )
how you going? – how are you?

Now for the fun stuff. The blog keeps getting longer and longer but I just can’t leave anything out!  J My week started off in Stoodley with Zach and his family. On Sunday evening we went and shot clay pigeons for awhile. I can’t shut my right eye and leave my left eye open to aim properly so we made a make shit eye patch but coloring in one side of a pair of random safety glasses!  I was too hard headed to wear ear plugs so by the time I finally hit a few clay pigeons I was def in one ear. All I could think about as we were driving out the pasture was how in the movies if you talk louder to someone who is foreign maybe they will better understand your language …I was going to be THAT girl at the BBQ we had planned. I would be yelling with an accent and then pretending like I understood them or have to turn my head to the good ear like a geezer to hear a thing. Well, everything turned out alright either way…I had a great time with Zac’s family and some friends. Good food, drinks, and fun with a potato gun.  It was good idea I had some extra hair spray in my bag!

Monday Zach and I toured around the northwestern part of Tassie. His mom owns her own café in town so we started off with breakfast, met his grandma and her friend, and the next afternoon had lunch there as well.  She is especially known for her rabbit pies (which were delicious) so I made a joke that their family lives on a rabbit ranch. J Next stop was a honeyfarme. There were probably 25 different flavors of honey from pistachio to strawberry to caramel and the regular flavors. You could walk around tasting or have an ice cream made with honey while learning about the process. Afterwards we drove around seeing the sites and took some small hikes to different lookout points including the alum cliffs, devils gullet, a hydro dam, and a few creeks (where I failed at skipping rocks and nearly fell in) and fishing spots etc. that only a local would know about. One of our last stops was at Mole Creek caves. There were a few lights for the path but at one point the tour guide turned off the lights and it was so dark you couldn’t see your hand waving right in front of your nose. Several types of rock filled the caves- your typical stalagmites and stalactites were there but a huge amount of “flow rock” filled it as well. That rock was my favorite. There were also sections in the roof where you could see where water flowed through the rock at one point before making sections of the rock weak causing the inside of the cave to buckle. The natural formations were pretty interesting – one looked like a palm tree and another area at the peak of the cave was called the cathedral and had several different unique features. We were asked why we thought a few of the rocks were dark colored and Zac preceded to answer that it was from glow worm poop. It gave us all a good laugh but we found it was from the soot of fires.  On our way out because our eyes had adjusted to the darkness we flipped the lights off to see the numerous glow worms.  Just as I thought the caves were going to be my favorite part of the day….the tour guide stopped to show us the cave spiders….and he kept finding more …and more ..and oh another one! Real cool except that my head was brushing the top of the cave just close enough for a spider to jump on and go for a ride. NOT COOL. J By the time we arrived back to Sheffield it was time for tea so we joined up with the rest of the family at the Sheffield Pub. We tried to win big in a game, explored a secret door, heard about the legendary platypus, and a bird nearly came through the windshield on the way home. Let’s just say getting Zac and his brother together is rather entertaining.

Tuesday AM I woke up rather startled at something furry at my feet. Gizmo, Zac’s pup, was curled up at my feet and I have to admit I punted her across the room on accident. After that I was wide awake and ready to battle another day. Because we spent a fair amount of time driving from place to place Zac introduced me to the Wolfe brother’s music on Monday- It is red dirt style music from a local band- which I loved the first, second, and third time but by the fiftieth time we listened to the CD of 5 songs I was ready for something new. Therefore, I spent some time in the morning putting some of my music on his ipod. Then we went to his mom’s café for her famous rabbit pies and headed to the local “seven sheds” brewery.  It was home brewed beer so it was fun to sit down and talk to the owner about his operation and see how he does things versus what I saw at the commercial brewery down south. We did a bit more sight-seeing and then Zac had a few things to get done at home before returning to work the next day. I managed to find a new favorite snack-raspberry crème biscuits (cookies) and gave him a few genius ideas of how to load a wood chipper.  He shut me down every time and then asked “are you sick of me? ..How bout now?” (a few seconds later)…which happened every five minutes. J It became a rather popular saying .

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty quiet days. Bec and I went for coffee and some shopping in Davenport to get ready for our big camping excursion. We got an amazing deal on a BBQ pack and we picked up a few other things. Wednesday evening we went to the neighbors down the road for some Kelly Pool (I think it was called.) J It was great fun but I of course lost both times. Thursday we got packed up and ready to go for the trip that was probably a once in a lifetime experience for me.

At 6 am we woke up …apparently a few of the others at 4:30 am, packed our utes, and met up to head to the Pieman on the west coast of Tasmania. Darcy and Tiarna were in the “fire engine”, Ned and Tash in “stumpy”, Keelan was late (haha), and Adam, Bec, and I were in the Hilux, loaded to the brim, with pretty normal tires. We were in the ute that we all hoped would make it to the site.  Off we headed down the road only to stop five min later. Darcy had something wrong with his ute. All good. Moving on. 5 min later. Keelan said we needed some red bull and some food – nevermind he had just passed us going down the road with a whole package of Tim Tams and a double Red Bull. Stop again. Sketchy bathroom stop. Few snacks. Moving on. 5 min later. Started to rain so we stopped again to put a tarp over our ute. Ok here we go…we have food…had a bathroom stop…tarp set up..full tanks of petrol. The boys immediately started bragging about how well the tarp was tied down over the radios…..spoke too soon. Stop again. We had to fix the tarp.  Keelan got bored so he decided to have a little play in the ditch and was completely perpendicular to the road when a cop decided to stroll by. Good thing he was focused on something else more important….Off we go again……..Apparently breakfast got the best of Ned or maybe what he did the night before….he needs a toilet. Here I was sitting in the back, traveling with new people, scared to have a sip of water because I didn’t have the courage to tell someone to stop if no one else had to pee and I gather I could have chugged a bottle every ten minutes and never had to be the one to speak up and say we needed to stop. I think we may have stopped a few more times further down the road but everything went rather smoothly. I saw a few rare things…three utes across a two lane road…someone playing on their phone, talking on the radio, listening to music, eating, and driving all at the same time. Good thing I didn’t get in the car with that guy. :)

The campsite was about 50k off of the main road. You had to do a bit of planning to get there because if the tide was too high we would end up waiting for low tide to go through. Bits of the drive were over rocks, through mud holes, and the best part was the time on the beach. The radios make for much easier travel so you can communicate and keep everyone together but mainly for pure entertainment. I sat in the back listening to them take a stab at the American accent and tease me for hours. There was a very old tractor bogged off the track and they asked if I wanted to stop and take a picture. The other conversations the boys came up with were interesting to say the least. Anyway, I found it interesting that on the track if a ute passed coming the other way the driver showed on their fingers how many utes/motor bikes/people followed because they had to wait…the track was rarely wide enough for two vehicles to go through at the same time. I got in with another one of the guys for the off road part and we were the first to get stuck. “This is a time when you need a Tim Tam” became one of the many quotes of the weekend. I have to admit when I first arrived here I was a bit skeptical of the “trucks”. The stud trucks here are the Toyota Hilux (Tacoma) and the Nissan Triton (Frontier) …quite small.  They have a few F trucks (F250) if they will pull horses but I have probably seen five full-sized or mid-sized trucks since I left home. Now I know exactly why the guys are so proud of their “trucks.” Full sized pickups would not have fit down the tracks here and would have been a pain to pull out after they were bogged because of being so heavy. When we got stuck we pulled out the wench and were back on the road in a few minutes.

Everyone took their turn getting bogged on the way in besides our “tour guide” Ned which is good because he had the wench. Everyone arrived safe and sound at the camp but, Keelan, who didn’t have any of his stuff covered, had doused his swag with mud and sand AND his petrol can had leaked all over.  Funny thing is he was the one that slept closest to the fire! After meeting Ned’s mom, dad, and their friends we set up camp and got the grill going for dinner. We relaxed around the fire for a bit and then a couple of us decided to go meet the neighbors. I returned back to camp shortly after and everyone was going to bed – at 815! I was wide awake so I went back to the neighbors and crashed their camp for the evening. It was nice to meet a few new people and I got to pay them a little visit the next day to get my chair and such that I had left so I didn’t have to carry it back in the dark.

Bright and early a few hours later (b/c everyone else went to bed so early) I was startled by the sound of Stumpy’s motor roaring, a loud boom, and my tent collapsing on my head. Good thing I slept in a “one” man tent that that looked like a garden gnomes house because I was able to hold my tent up with my foot (which served for jokes all weekend) until Bec saved me and put my small little tent back together so I could crawl out. I stayed awake about twenty minutes and I realized it was about 6:30 Am and went back to sleep. Saturday it rained off and on so we went on a drive for fun and ended up noticing a few people that got bogged the night before so we had some fun pulling them out and cleared a huge pipe out of the way of the track. The girls and I snuck into the shack where it was warm and played a few rounds of cards. After dinner we went “floundering”.  With spear, bucket, and light in hand, Bec, Adam, Ned, and I waded out in the water….all of a sudden a breaking wave decided to make the water quite a bit deeper and filled Adam and Bec’s boots. I ran for it and made it out of the water dry. Apparently Ned’s waders that were waist high had a hole in them because he came out soaked as well. Bec and I joined the rest of the crew hanging out on the beach and left Adam and Ned to “flounder.” He snagged one and I ate some the next morning! I am not a fan of fish and it was delicious. J

Back at camp we all dried off and warmed up by the fire. We spent some time trying to think of words that we say differently in America. The discussion got rather creative from talking about parts of cars, to parts of plants, to what drinking two cans at once is, to the road signs. A “yield” sign in Tassie says “give way” and so one of the girls as serious as a heart attack asked me what a “stop” sign says in America. I wanted to tell her that it said “please pause” but Keelan piped up and said it was probably black with pink polka dots. We teased Bec pretty bad for her question until Keelan piped up a little later and asked what state Kansas was in in America. J We were also serenaded by Keelan and his garlic and herb rissoles. He must have had a stomach ache because he was half asleep, would clear us out –wake up with a ton of energy—and quiet down again for the calm before the next storm.  After Keelan had finally fell asleep for good, mouth open, Ned decided to pay him back for bombing us all night so we squirted some meat sauce into his mouth just as he inhaled for a deep breath. J Little did we know, the fun for the night was just beginning. We all went to bed and in the middle of the night I woke up hearing something scratch around really close to my tent. Tash had just told me about the cannibals that lived in the Pieman and how they made a movie about it and here I was in this cute little tent all by myself on the west coast of Tasmania thinking there was a killer outside and surely they would see the cute little tent, think it was full of little people and go for them.  My shoulder was numb on one side and I was about to pee my pants but I was too scared to make any noise and roll over because if it was a killer and they knew I saw them or was awake they would probably kill me. On the other hand if it was an animal maybe it would scare them off if I made noise. I chose to stay still and “counted sheep” to keep my brain busy until I fell asleep again.

Sunday morning several of us woke up to a loud burst of laughter and then yelling. Of course I had to go see what it was all about – Keelan had been attacked by a Tasmanian Devil in the middle of the night. That was what I had heard. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or even more frightened that that was what was lurking around the camp. They are small but they are fierce. Funny thing is, they only eat dead things……the scenario we came up with was that the Tassie Devil bit Keelan because he smelled dead from the garlic and herb rissoles. J He also managed to take a few gum boots (which we found later in the bush), eat some eggs, and tear up some boxes.

After a bit of morning excitement I hit the beach for a walk. It was absolutely beautiful. The rest of the group joined up and we spent some time fishing off the bay and playing in the sand in the ute’s doing “circle work.” At one point a boogie board was connected to a ute with a snatch strap and we tried sand sledding. It was mildly successful but purely entertaining watching Ned chase Keelan around with a mini bike and seeing Adam and Darcy throw clean off into the breaking tide. After getting some more firewood from the tons of driftwood on the beach we grabbed lunch and went out on the jetty (dock). A few of the group were going to set crayfish pots and it was so warm that the rest of us just lounged around and waited for them to come back. I am glad we picked a different jetty to hang out on than the day before b/c I am pretty sure we nearly busted a board and ended up in the water.

Sunday evening we waited til it got dark, loading up in Stumpy and the Mud Maggot and set off on our way for an off road drive to go crayfishing. I can’t quite give you an understanding without a picture of stumpy but three of us were across the front bench seat and then in the back were two people who were sitting sideways on a bench seat. Stumpy is short and tall and the weight was not balanced so it was not unusual to have her lean a bit too much into corners and be mighty close to going on two wheels. Then we had two people in the front of the Mud Maggot and two people standing on the flat bed holding on to the cab of the ute on the back. Safe right? – J Anyway off we went. The trip to the site was not bad but Stumpy did finally get stuck...but as Ned claims no one had to pull him out so it doesn’t count. He used the wench on his own ute and put the snatch strap around a rock. Apparently someone was killed last year when snatch strap broke so we cleared the area til it was out, played some musical chairs, and loaded up once again. When we arrived the water was too rough and it wouldn’t be safe for us all to climb down and take a go crayfish trapping so we packed back up again to return to the camp site and do some floundering again. Technical difficulties on the way home made the trip a bit more interesting. A bit after we left, Stumpy’s radio started to cut out, his lights had gone dim, and his cd player quit working on the way home. Ned thought it might be his alternator going or water got into something when we were stuck. So there were in the pitch black, out in the western coast of Tassie, trying to figure out the problem with a wallaby just stopped and stared right in front of us and all you could see were these HUGE bright RED eyes. SWEET! A wallaby with rabies I thought. ..If this isn’t a perfect scene for a scary movie I don’t know what is. This where I finally got a bit scared and for those who really know me- you would have known I was scared. So that I could stop my mind from thinking I cracked jokes non-stop and tried to make other people less scared that were with me acting relaxed but really I was about to throw up and was thinking worst case scenario. All I could picture was our ute’s lights going out around one of the many blind corners on the narrow track and us slamming into an embankment and the others who were following us not seeing us coming up over a blind hill and slamming into the back end throwing all three of us through our windshield and the two of them on the back of the flat bed into the bush full of rabid wallabies, human biting tassie devils, and blood sucking leeches. I nearly made myself sick and when we finally got back I admitted I had been a bit scared, needed to sit and settle my stomach and had never been so excited to be walking instead of riding in a car. I settled down a bit after dinner and Keelan spent some time entertaining the rest of us with “how to’s”…..how to get a marshmallow without your hands, how to cook one marshmallow, how to cook two marshmallows, how to eat cooked marshmallows while saving an uncooked one in your mouth and putting it back on the stick without your hands, how to marinade marshmallows, and how to get to firewood if tea trees are in the way. Then he and Ned decided to have a stick war that turned into someone getting a branch as a stick and things could have turned dangerous quickly. J As everyone started to go to bed on our last night I refused …I stood by the fire with my flashlight in my hand and my ipod playing  so that there was constant noise and I didn’t freak myself out with the noises of nature or the scary thoughts in my head until I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open…….a few times we heard stuff and I made someone go check but nothing was ever seen. At one point we were sure we heard a tassie devil growl but after we heard it a third time we realized it was just Adam snoring. Keelan was the last person to go to bed so I decided if he wasn’t scared to go to bed after getting bitten I could “harden up” as they say here and go too.

Monday morning we packed up camp and headed by about 9 so that we beat the high tide. It was beautiful on the way out which beat the rainy views of everything on the way in. Only one person was bogged on the way out. Of course it was only natural to stop ten times in the first hour of the trip on the main road, one time because we thought stumpy was going to start on fire.  We played a few games of “I-spy” over the radios and they tried to trick me by using Tassie terms but I always figured it out…they could never figure out my “yank” terms though. J Monday afternoon we arrived safe and sound with all utes fully in-tact.  I have had an amazing time with everyone in Tassie but I was nervous that if I was to get homesick it would be Easter weekend because traditionally I am making name eggs, waking up Easter morning to a basket of candy, headed to church, big Easter dinner with the family and hiding Easter eggs with the nephew …..I reckon the Easter Bunny was bogged on the way in to the camp b/c I never got an Easter basket ;)but I wouldn’t change anything and would have to say that was a once in a lifetime experience and definitely a very special Easter weekend.

"Im flat out like a turtle in a race......"

Greetings! :) I have another week of wonderful information to share with you all! I keep learning things faster and faster as I become more comfortable here ...I have a feeling I am going to have to start writing in my blog and in a journal to keep remembering it all! You will need a least three cups of coffee to get through this one …I should have written it as a Part 1 and Part 2. J

Last weekend I got a taste of what it will be like come "Ag Fest" time. For a little background info- Ag Fest is the fair-like festival (minus all of the rides) filled with venues, live music, 4-wheel driving track, equine center, testing area for new farm equipment, clothing, crafts, and you can watch sheep dogs show off their talent. The rural youth members and other volunteers live on site in dorm like buildings for a week before the Ag Fest getting ready for it and then through the weekend (5-8 of May) to actually run the festival. Anyway last weekend I stayed on site for a volunteer weekend called a "working bee" here and we did things to prepare as well. I helped build paddock fence for the horses where I had a blast using a hand saw and realized how out of shape my muscles are. :) I also go to play in an excavator -- one of the boys taught me how to drive it, put me in pile of dirt, jumped out, and said I was free to play all I want. I was great at digging holes and not so good at leveling dirt. After driving the excavator I got to drive around in a tractor- I was much more comfortable in that seat AND the driving is just like at home versus driving in a car is obviously a bit different. Sunday they took a tree down on site that had been labeled dangerous --it was HUGE! They cut a wedge out with a chain saw to ensure it fell the right direction and pushed it over with the excavator. It was so loud but super fun to watch! I tried to get it on video and my battery died. :(  Sunday I managed to get into a wall plaster fight while we were putting up siding and a few people painting joined in on the fun as well.  Good thing it was raining so that the plaster all over my face didn't dry too much. The members told me not to worry, it was an "Australian mud mask!" 

At one point throughout the weekend a man for a local newspaper came and interviewed a few of us – He asked me the difference in our organization and theirs. I would say the biggest difference I have noticed is that our program is called 4H and for 8-18 year olds and here the club is for middle-aged people.  Listening to the other members talk about Rural Youth gave me a chance to learn a lot more about their organization. It is also pretty amazing to me that a committee within the club can organize and run something as big as AgFest so effectively in a laid-back and fun manner. In three days the rural youth club keep 80000 people happy getting up at 5 am to set up for the day and sometimes staying up well into the night to get things ready for the next day all the while keeping over a hundred volunteers housed and happy for the week while they are helping as well. They have competitions as well at a club region, and state level during the year. Competitions could include a young farmer competition, shooting, best new member , etc. They offer training opportunities within the club such as getting your ATV, tractor driving, forklift, and chainsaw license etc for a better rate.  If a member chose to get an additional license not offered, the club will provide up to $200 of your training course as well. To join the club it is just $25 a year and to me you will make all of that money back and more with the benefits rural youth will bring. In addition, the social life within the club is a bonus as well. Everyone seems real laid back and accepting, whether young or old, coming from rural backgrounds or not. 

Anyway, basically another great weekend in the books. I gained the new nickname of Kansas, mastered making instant “hot drinks”, nearly had milk come out my nose from laughing so hard due to a guy singing “I’m a Little Teapot,”  learned the exercise of choice within the club is star jumps, had a joy ride in the back of a bloke’s ute, was introduced to the idea of “cracking a whip”, and I also drove for the first time around site and when someone approached me coming down the middle of the drive I panicked and immediately went to the right side of the road – OOPS…..luckily the oncoming driver knew that I was from America and went around me on the left hand side with a smile. ;) I have had another driving session since then actually on the road and passed with flying colors so no worries. Everyone drives manual vehicles here and it is quite hilly so I have learned to get it into a low gear at the bottom of the hill and not try to drop it to a lower gear in the middle of the hill….that was a bit of a challenge trying not to roll backwards all of the way back down the hill when I killed it. J

On Sunday evening I changed families and moved to the northern part of Tassie with Matt and Lisa. They live in the town of Railton, smaller than Peabody, which had cute little shops and the small town feel which I enjoyed. We had some take away (food to go) from the local café and Lisa ordered me a chicken burger that came with the works. Coming from a beef family I wasn’t sure of a chicken burger- I knew my father wouldn’t approve but I tried it anyways. J It came loaded with beet root, egg, bacon, and the normal fixings. The bacon is more like our Canadian bacon and the beet root I took off. The beet root is a big food here but I have to admit I am not much of a fan. Lisa and Matt live on an old milking farm and immediately I fell in love with the wrap-around porch that overlooks green pastures and has a view of the mountains in the background. It was very peaceful…..except when the frogs came for a visit. ;)

It rained the first few days of the week but I went to work with Matt who drives the country school bus (which looks like our charter buses) and works for a horse exporter. The bus is privately owned and picks up public/private, elementary, middle, and college level students from several different communities and from several rural stops. Each time a student gets on the bus they pay about a $1. It is much different than our busing system in the states. After we were done with the morning route we went to the horse export center and cleaned horse stalls, fed, watered, and organized things for a new group of about 15 horses to come in from the mainland for the night.  I picked up a new way of recycling tires as feed basins as well. J

Tuesday I visited Sheffield, “the town of murals.” First I stopped at a second-hand shop, picked up a few couches for the Ag-Fest site, but decided to turn down the second-hand awesome pairs of underwear that were offered. J Within the community each year, around Easter time several people read a poem and interpret it in a mural. The murals are displayed in a park for a year to be voted on until the winner is chosen and a new contest begins. Around town, murals can be seen depicting moments or people in association with the town of Sheffield as well. There is even a man who walks around town with an Alpaca and you can take a picture with it if you give him a bit of money. J Fun bit of information – there is a store in Sheffield that is a recommended stop- the marble store. I walked in for a visit and noticed a book with Wichita, KS on the back of it. Apparently Wichita has an exceptional marble making factory and the lady that owns the store learns marble making techniques in Wichita about once a year!  I spent the afternoon with Lisa’s Dad and he took me site-seeing. I went to a Lake Barrington where national rowing competitions are held and also where one of the dam’s are that works for hydroTasmania and supplies electricity to the state. I have learned that Tasmania is a very efficient state and environmentally aware. They have a lot of natural parks preserving the natural state of being and they get hot water from solar power or electricity from hydroplants. Wind farms are becoming a thing here but apparently people complain about them because of the noise.  Like I said earlier all beef produced in Tasmania is also natural. Forestry is a big money maker and typically as soon as trees are taken down, they are replanted to be used again.  The ‘greenies’ have some power here and a lot of Tasmania is reserved for National Parks. Some towns that have become ghost towns have been bought out to be plowed and the land used to plant trees. It was very neat to drive around and see where old driveways and streets used to be.   Anyway imagine that -I got a bit off subject ---- back to the Lake – there is a section of the Lake that is calm enough for water skiing but it is so populated during the summer season that you must all ski in a clockwise circle and that is it. After visiting the Lake, Lisa’s Dad and I went to TasMAZia and the village of the lower crackpot. It is a maze of trees trimmed but of course higher than a human could see and you walk around trying to find the village of the lower crackpot and other neat buildings. It was pouring down rain but it was still very interesting and good fun. I even saw an area of the mini village that resembled yellow brick road and scene from the Wizard of Oz. J  I did at one point go through the spook house…mind you it was a “mini” house. ….So there I was practically duck waddling through this house in the pitch dark with my hands in front of me trying to find my way through. I smacked several walls but there really wasn’t a way for me to turn around. Lisa’s Dad thoughtfully yelled from the other end so I could find my way after he heard me struggling for a bit of time. J

Thursday it finally quit raining which made for a beautiful drive to the West Coast and Savage River. Lisa’s brother -in-law Craig took me to his work – He works for CAT but twice a week he goes to the mines to be sure their equipment on-site is working properly. After an initial tour of CAT we went about on an hour drive up around the mountain to get to the mine site. The roads were narrow and constantly winding but after Craig told me about his experiences on the road with fog and black ice I knew he was very experiences so I relaxed and had fun with it – except I did go for the “oh shit” handle with two hands when we rounded a curve and four semis were one after the other hogging the narrow road. It helped that we had a radio as well to hear if there was a “live vehicle” coming our way.  At the mine site I put on my hard hat, safety glasses, and vest and started my tour. The first thing I got to do when I arrived was drive a simulator that they use to train/test drivers of the equipment. They can simulate rain, snow, brakes going out, the vehicle starting on fire, etc. I did manage to start the dump truck on fire and run it over a cliff – but only because they told me I was being too cautious and I need to try to work faster J After driving the simulator I was taken out to ride in an actual dump truck. The truck hauled almost 200 tons and held over 20,000 gallons of petrol (which only lasted 24 hours). The best part was that the lady I rode with had an iphone and she connected to an American radio station. J The workers on-site work for five days – 12 hours each day- and then have five days off – and so on and so forth. If you do not have a family it is a pretty ideal set up due to great pay and the rotational work. The ride home was beautiful as it had started to sprinkle leaving a large rainbow, a beautiful sunset, and a stop in the town of “penguin” to see the town icon- A huge penguin in the town square.

Friday Lisa was able to get the day off and we traveled to Cradle Mountain. Apparently there are only 80 days out of the year that it does not rain at Cradle Mountain and I was there on a day it didn’t rain AND it was clear. Some people have to rely on postcards for the pictures that I got to take with my own camera because it was so nice out. Lisa drove a little more cautious that Craig on the way up the mountain but we enjoyed jamming out to American country and talking. When we arrived we passed the tourist center only realizing we had to go back and get on a bus to get to our destination. We decided to take a half day walk around Dove Lake – a lake at the bottom of the mountain. Everything went smoothly for us and we had a nice treat at the end of the walk as well. J After a good lunch at the café on the mountain we rushed to Davenport to catch the national basketball tournament for 18 year olds which would be college age kids here.  We grabbed a coffee at the concession stand before going into the game and I about died when they handed it to me in a real coffee mug without a lid and allowed us to enter the gym with it. All I could think of was that Mr. Savage my old high school AD would have a fit if I spilled it. Everything about the basketball was pretty similar to ours except I found that the referees did not call near as many fouls as they would at home. It was a little more rough style of play.  Overall it was very exciting to be around a ton of people my height and to watch basketball. I felt right at home ….I couldn’t help myself but to buy some Australian basketball shorts and a hoodie. I was lucky to find an American style pair of shorts b/c they do not wear their basketball shorts we do in America. The length is quite a bit shorter.

Saturday Matt, Lisa, and I went to a cheese factory and yet another chocolate factory. I tell you what, they like their sweets down here and I understand why. The cheese factory was very interesting and we got to taste about ten different kinds of cheese. They had a few unique ones with wasabi and peppercorn in them that were pretty tasty. Of course I have nothing to complain about with the chocolate factory either – especially the hot chocolate they made me filled with fresh liquid milk chocolate. J After these two visits we made a trip to the supermarket to get groceries for the family BBQ we had planned for the evening. Matt and I were not much help in the supermarket because Matt tried to suggest that we play hockey and he also tried to drive the cart sideways. Lisa had to milk cows so after Matt and I had been obnoxious she left us to cook super for eleven people. I think she was a bit nervous we were going to mess it up. Successfully we prepared a potato bake, marinated chicken, wallaby, and steak, Caesar salad, and garlic bread. The wallaby (marinated kangaroo) was probably my favorite meat. It was very tender! It was very nice to have the large family atmosphere with the nieces, nephews, parents, etc. because as much as I love it here I do miss those family times at home. J

And as always –a bit of random information – flat out, naked, stuffed means tired. “Do a skid” means to peel out. They say me where we would say my. Good gear is a frequent saying.  “That was gold” means that was good stuff or very nice. Coolers have a whole different word I can’t spell. I get teased for saying trash cans. Napkins are not what you wipe your face with they are for sanitary purpose. J Chooks are chickens. They have a form of the bachelor called “a farmer wants a wife.”  They have a UTE BUSTER in October similar to the Country Stamped in Kansas and that is when I will plan my next visit. J