Life on a flower farm - Australia pt 1

Brellowgirl
Dec 21, 2015
14 min read

12.12.15

Time really does fly when you’re having fun. I’ve made my way to Australia and I am loving this crazy country already. Well, everything except the Melbourne airport. That airport is the worst to fly into, ever. It might be even worse than JFK or Laguardia –no joke. Paul was kind enough to drop me off at the airport at 5:30 yesterday morning. My flight left at 7 and I got into Melbourne at 8:30. We only got off the plane at 8:50 and it took me close to 11am to get through border control. Another 10 minutes got me my bag and then another hour to get through customs. I wanted to get a sim so I stood in yet another line. Took a 20 minute bus to Southern Cross Station, caught a train to Warrnambool (about 5 ½ hrs west) and then I got a bus from there to Hamilton (an hour away) where Greg, my workaway host picked me up. I was exhausted after traveling but super excited to hear all about my new workaway.

Greg and Sally have about 120 acres of farm land near Casterton in Victoria. There’s a dam on their property and tons of Australian wildlife. Snakes, cockatoos, kangaroos, echidnas, koalas and more. They are flower growers and provide cut flowers to the wholesale market in Hamilton. Their blushing brides have won awards and they grow crazy looking African and Australian flowers that aren’t allowed to be imported into the US so I’ve never even heard of some. It’s the first weeks of summer here and they got a hot spell early so everything had to be harvested a few weeks ago. They have huge white king protea growing that are really amazing to see. Sally took me on a tour of the farm and they also have tons of pincushions, wax flowers, rice flowers, brunia, berzelia, leucadendronds and boronia (and more). On the farm Sally and Greg have over 80 sheep, some chickens and a bunch of horses. There’s one other wwoofer here now (WWOOF is kind of like workaway but more geared towards farming), his name is Anton and he’s from Sweeden. He’s from he city where IKEA was founded. He’s been here for about 8 weeks already. He also has a nut allergy, which made me think of my own brother, and he’s also allergic to stone fruits. Greg and Sally have two young daughters, Poppy and Matilda. They’re not shy at all which is great. Last but not least there’s Jonesy the cat and Annie, the dog. I fell in love with Annie the second I saw her. She’s an Australian Kelpie which are a breed of herding dogs. When I was little I used to have a dog named Booda. Everyone said he was a german shep/lab mix but I knew he was a kelpie. Annie looks just like him and has the same mannerisms. I was shocked at first to see her but she came running over to me and gave me so much love. I cant get enough of her. Greg told me that Casterton, the next town over is the home of the Australian Kelpie. Coincidence?

I got in late on Thursday so I had dinner with the family and we watched a horror gore movie called Wolf Creek about backpackers in Australia. Lol I have my own room in a flat that’s connected to the house by a garage. Anton also has his own room in the flat and we share a bathroom. The flat is adorable. There’s a kitchenette, dining table, pool table, movie and CD collection, a guitar and a bunch of exercise equipment-there’s really something for everybody.

Friday we got up and moved the sheep inside because it was going to rain out. Typically it’s okay to leave them out but they are getting sheared on Saturday and you can’t give them haircuts if their wool is wet. So we got them in and then cleaned up the barn where we needed to work the next day. It’s so interesting working with the gates to move animals. It’s like a maze which ones to close and open depending on which pen you want them in. We got all the ewes and lambs together in one big pen and then I had to move them up while Greg moved the divider back and forth to separate the lambs from the other sheep. Super fun. Moving the rams always makes me a bit nervous cause even though these don’t have horns they still get agitated and butt things and I wasn’t in the mood to get headbutted by a ram twice my weight.

When it stopped raining we got outside to the flowers and worked for the rest of morning pruning blushing brides. Greg did four years at horticulture school and so he taught me the correct way to prune back the brides leaving proper airflow near the bases of the plants so they’re less susceptible to disease and where to make the best cut so that next year’s flowers will be happy and healthy.

I have been warned about everything poisonous here. Black widow spiders, another poisonous white spider and 3 kinds of snakes. I saw a skink run by me when we were pruning and then Sally pulled out a long molted skin of a snake. We laid out both halves and it was about a meter long…she said it looked like an Eastern Brown, the second most venomous snake in the world. I then started to get a bit nervous. Usually where there’s a molted skin there’s a snake nearby…

We had lunch, went back to prune more then went to town (Casterton) for the girls’ sports. I felt like an older sister watching all the kids do their relay races and cheering them on. It’s an organized sports meetup every Friday where you compete against your own time in different events. They do various races, long jump and shot-put. While the kids were doing their thing you could hear these huge white and yellow birds screeching in the trees. I thought they were cockatoos but they were Rosellas. It’s so crazy that big birds like these are flying around everywhere here while the only time we see them is in pet stores. Seeing cockatoos flying around is very cool. On our drive we saw an echidna, it was huge and super shy so we let it be. On our way home though we saw TONS of kangaroos!!! It made me so happy! At first we saw them in the distance and I didn’t think I’d be able to see any up close but Greg drove around to the back of the farm and they were everywhere! It was like our deer back home. The sun was going down and they were all out eating in the fields. They are so fast and bounce so high! It really is the absolute craziest thing to see these animals in their natural habitat. It’s also crazy to watch them. They’re not like any other animal I’ve ever seen before and it’s so weird to see them move the way they do. At one point we were driving and there were about 5 or 6 of them hopping alongside our car out in the fields. So unreal.

Sally made a yum sweet and sour chicken stirfry with onions, peppers bok choy and celery. It was delicious and we stayed up late watching the Santa Claus with Tim Allen. I can’t believe how old that movie is.

12.13.15

Saturday morning. Anton wakes up so early. We typically start around 8-8:15ish but he’s up and downstairs for breakfast around 7. It’s good motivation for me to get up early too but it’s quite cold in the mornings and I hate getting out of bed. We walked over to the barn and Ross, the shearer had just pulled in. We have a lottt of sheep to give haircuts to so we get started right away. First are the girls, they’re easier to manage than the rams. All the sheep are held in a pen right next to the shearing area and Ross just has to go in, wrestle one to its back, drag it out and then shear it. It takes about 3-4 minutes each and when he’s done there’s a pen behind him and he pushes the sheep between his legs in to the pen behind him. The fleece that’s on the ground gets picked up by the legs, scrunched together then picked up again by the front legs and carried over to the table. You have to throw it out and then once it’s all layed out you can work with it. My job was to pull off all the oily bits. There are different bags for different parts of the wool. The belly goes in one then the oily bits from the fleece go in another and then the fleece itself goes into a third bag. It’s a quick process so you have to be on your feet the whole time. The fleece is very oily and my hands were wrecked after the first one. They were sticky and by the end they were covered in dirt and oil and I smelled like straight up sheep haha. The oil is called lanolin and it’s used in hand creams and soaps as a moisturizer. When the sheep’s wool is boiled all the oil that floats to the top is what gets drained off and used. My hands feel so good now that I’ve washed them. Anton got to try shearing but I didn’t want to. Especially after one of the ewes kicked him right between his legs. Lol. We can laugh about it now.

We took a break halfway through for some cookies and tea. It’s so hilarious how people have tea breaks in other parts of the world. I remember in England when I would go next door to talk to Tom and the guys that were building the house next to ours and I’d bring them cake and they’d all stop working and have a cuppa. Builders all dirty from work holding tea cups and having cake. It just cracks me up every time. So that’s what we did. Sat around the barn with our tea cups and snacks for a bit before getting on with the rest of the sheep. The wool is sold by kilo to a buyer and the price depends on the quality. Some of Greg’s sheep are crossed with Merino so they should fetch a higher price-we put those fleeces in a separate bag. It’s all a very interesting business and I had tons of fun cleaning the fleeces, throwing them and packing them until the early afternoon.

I spent a few hours after that playing with Annie and the horses Jane and Tam. I always loved horses when I was little but was never around them so getting to spend time with them now is such a treat. Jane is a huge dark brown horse and she’s beautiful. She’s a momma and has a really pretty girl named Floss. I spent a few hours with Jane petting her and talking to her and she is the most gentle horse I’ve ever been around. All she wanted was attention and every time I stopped petting her she’d turn her head towards me and nudge my arm to pick it up again. When I finally had to go in to get ready she followed me along the fence line to see where I was going. So cute.

We all got ready then headed down the street around 6 for a Christmas BBQ at the firehouse. A Christmas BBQ!!! So awesome. I only get to wear shorts and tees in Dec when I’m down in Brasil. It’s so crazy to be having a bbq days before Christmas! There was tons of grilled food and all kind of yummy salads. My first aussie bbq was a total success. I met a bunch of the locals and everyone was super nice. There was a little redhead named Nate who was zooming around on his bike and I fell in love with him. Every time he rode by he would smile the cheekiest smile and my heart would melt. I think I have a thing for gingers. Anton and I ran around with the kids playing tag and keep away. Sometimes I forget what it’s like to be a kid.

There were a few people I talked to in particular, one was Ron, who once he heard that I liked to sing wouldn’t stop asking me to sing all night. He was a riot. His hair was shaved except for two tiny patches where he had his hair braided. He had brought an old sony boom box and played DJ all night with his CD collection. We ate and drank, some more than others, and some of the ladies danced in the fire house. It was such a good time. Around midnight me, Greg, Anton and Ron were the last ones tidying up and we drove to Ron’s house. He lives in an old mansion. It’s ridiculous. Super high ceilings, a huge library, etc. It was really cool to walk through his house. We hung out for a little in one of his sitting rooms and watched music videos. I’m not kidding. He loves ACDC and saw them in concert a few days ago here in Melbourne. We saw some of his pictures and then watched a DVD he had of their old music videos. One of his cousins played the bag pipes in schools out for summer and he pointed him out. He knew all the words to the songs and was keen on showing us the entire dvd. I sang for him a bit and then we watched some Michael Jackson music videos. There was a Bruce Springsteen old ’96 vhs on his coffee table too. The highlight of it all though was walking into the sitting room and seeing a plaque of Ron 15 years ago running with an Olympic torch. Anton and I were mesmerized. This guy carried the OLYMPIC TORCH for the Sydney games in 2000. We asked him about it and he brought the torch out so we could hold it. What. Who would of thought I would be pruning blushing brides while listening to the thong song and going to aussie bbq’s and meeting a guy who helped open one of the Olympic games in small town Australia??? This is a crazy life and a crazy world.

It’s Sunday morning here, 12.13.15 and Greg let us know we have the day off today. I’m thinking of doing some laundry and going for a walk around the farm so I can play with the horses. The internet isn’t super great here and my data plan works out in the flowers but not well so I’m going to try and upload some pictures for you guys but we’ll see how that goes.

12.14.15

14 days until Kirk flies in! 11 days until Christmas! 10 days until we check into our awesome flat in Sydney! 7 days until I get to see my friend Jun! 4 days until I camp outside under the stars in Uluru! 2 days until I see Tia again! 1 day left here on the farm.

I wish I could stay longer so badly. 6 days flew by and it doesn’t seem fair that it felt like no time at all. This family has been so good to me and I loved living with them the past few days.

12.17.15

Tia and I are on a bus to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. It’s an all day bus ride we left yesterday at 6pm and we only get in today at 1:30pm.

My last day with the Mason’s was so bittersweet. Sally and I pruned the brides in the morning until Robin and Fenton (family friends who Anton stayed with before he came to the farm) picked Anton up. Anton will be with them for Christmas and then he’ll be with some family in Sydney for NYE and we’re hoping to meet up. Robin and Fenton were, of course, really lovely people and we had tea and lussebullar that Anton taught me how to make the day before. Lussebullar is a fluffy Swedish saffron bun made with a yeast dough. He shared the recipe with all of us under the condition that we ONLY can make them around Christmas time because that’s the tradition. The girls helped make some and had fun helping garnishing them with raisins before we popped them in the oven. We all got a taste of one before bed which was a nice treat. After Anton left we did some more pruning before having some real fun playing with flowers. Sally went out and harvested some amazing king proteas, lucadendron and some other bits and we put together two Christmas wreaths. There were extra flowers so I wanted to make the girls flower crowns before they got home from school. We ended up having a photo shoot with the girls and the flowers right before the sun went down. It was beautiful out and we got some beautiful shots. Sally’s daughters are gorgeous and even though Poppy wasn’t too fond of the impromptu modeling gig I think they both secretly has some fun.

Side note – apparently we have these spiders back home but I’ve never seen one…they’re called huntsman spiders and they can get to be like the size of your fist. I found a couple while I was pruning but they were babies and anyways they’re not poisonous to humans so it was fine. Sally said they like to drop on things though so when I found one above my bed I wasn’t too keen on having it drop on my face in the middle of the night so I asked Greg to get it out of my room haha. I felt like 5-year-old Cassie again asking my dad to kill a spider in the house. It wasn’t killed, just removed but very relieving nonetheless.

Remember I told you about Casterton, the town over, being the home of the kelpie? Sally told me the story of the origin, I’ll give you the condensed version. There was a breeder who had a lot of really good working dogs and a guy wanted one of the dogs. The breeder refused but the breeder’s son wanted a horse that this guy had so they agreed to meet up at a river and make a trade. The guy got one of the dogs and ended up naming it kelpie after a body of water because the dog loved to swim. The town of Casterton has a big kelpie festival every year on the queen’s birthday and they close down the main street and have a kelpie auction and races for the dogs. They’ve auctioned off well bred, fully trained kelpies for over $12,000, crazy.

I’m all over the place! So yesterday morning Sally drove me an hour away to Mt. Gambier so I could catch my bus to Adelaide. She and Greg have been so generous with welcoming me into their family I can’t even express how thankful I am to them. I caught my bus and got into Adelaide 6.5 hours later around 3pm. Tia was flying into Adelaide from Sydney but her plane got delayed because of the hurricane watch in Sydney. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 6pm and Tia’s plane landed at 4:50. She ran off the plane grabbed her bag and hopped in a cab getting her over to the bus terminal in record time, less than 15 minutes before we departed. I’m SO grateful she made the bus because Alice Springs is a super remote area in the Northern Territory and the only other way to get there at that point would have had been to take a very expensive plane the next morning. The bus, like I mentioned before, is an overnight bus. 19.5 hour bus ride from Adelaide in the south to Alice Springs in the north (which really isn’t in the north, it’s just in the northern territory). Did I even tell you guys why tia and I are going to Alice Springs?? WE’RE GOING CAMPING IN THE OUTBACK! WHAAAAT??!? Cassie going camping? What a joke. Yeah, Anne, the Dutch girl from my New Zealand workaway did an excursion like this a few years ago and said it was the highlight of her trip and told me I had to do it even though camping scared me. So I recruited Tia and we ended up booking a trip spontaneously. I’m glad we have each other because I’ll need someone to cry to when I find a snake or a scorpion or a skink in my sleeping bag. We’ll be camping two nights under the stars in the desert. Very cool and definitely different, I have absolutely no idea what to expect, I’ve never gone camping before. The itinerary said we have to “prepare” our toilets………….what. lol If you could see my face when I read that haha.

We’ve stopped a few times so far. I think it’s been about every 4 hours we have a rest stop. We’re on a greyhound bus so it’s comfortable and has air conditioning. It averages 97F in the desert with a high of around 117F Should cool off in the evening but we rented sleeping bags so I’m sure we’ll be toasty if not burning during the night. We have an awesome itinerary that includes seeing Uluru and the Olgas. We leave at 5am tomorrow morning. We have about 3.5 more hours on the bus until we get to Alice Springs and then we stay there at the YHA hostel overnight. I have so many pictures to show you guys! Will try and upload them when I get to the hostel tonight but not sure if they’ll have wifi.

Wish us luck!

Much love,

Cas