Can’t believe it’s been almost a month on the farm now. Here’s some impressions from that time. View over the farm - the house is behind the trees Sunset The small river that crosses the farmland Ben, JD’s girl friend and AJ in the kitchen One of the peacocks (looks worse at the moment cause the dog got hold of it…)

This morning Susan left for a couple of weeks of holiday in France. The farm is now in backpacker hand, mostly in Ben’s who already spent more than five months here and is in charge of everything now. While it might sound like endless partying all day and night, it is not. The three Frenchies are as boring as a white carpet. They hardly ever chat and if I wanted them to drink a beer I’d have to force it down their throats.

On Saturday AJ, Sean and me went for a little off-road action near the farm. AJ took his 4WD, Sean manned the quad and I gave AJs dirt bike a try. I never sat on one before and never drove a motorcycle off the road. Well I did once but that didn’t end well. With our colourful group we headed down to the river where a crossing leads to the more remote parts of the farms land.

On January 26th Aussies celebrate the landing of the first fleet in Sydney Cove in 1788. Indigenous groups claim it should be called mourning day or invasion day. They probably have a point there. We were invited by the sister of a friend of Susan to celebrate in the traditional Aussie way: With beer and BBQ. We didn’t know any of the people and they didn’t know any of us (except for Susan of course).

Ever since we left Brisbane I wanted to get my car checked because of some suspicious noise from the CV joints. I got a recommendation for a local mechanic from Susan and stopped by his shop on Thursday. While he examined the car I went for a stroll through Yass. The town is almost 200 years old and with a population of 5.300 reasonably big. The main street features a lot of old buildings and if it wasn’t for the cars and the tarmac it could almost look like the Wild West.

6:30 am, the alarm clock is ringing. Due to daytime temperatures of 30-35°C we now start work at 7 am to be done with it before the worst heat kicks in. I spent the last two days with removing dead wood from tree lines and driving it to the farms fire place. It was about 12 trailer loads and when that pile of wood is set on fire one day, they’ll see the smoke from Canberra.

It’s been almost a week on the farm now and I’m still having a really good time. In the beginning I was a bit concerned about whether it would be a good deal to work 4-5 hours a day and just get food and accommodation in exchange. But the food is just awesome and the work is usually easy and often fun as well. My main occupation is still taking care of the farms electric fences.

At the moment I’m staying on a small farm near Yass, about half an hour north of Canberra. It is actually more a riding school and pet care than a farm. I’m a voluntary worker which means I get food and accommodation in exchange for work (more info on helpx.net). There is four of us helpers here in total and I spent the last two days with a Swiss/Irish guy repairing electric fences.