Don't let last week's hail fool you, harvest has begun!
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I had the pleasure of perching in the driver's seat of my husband's enormous ute - clutching the CB radio handpiece for dear life - more than a week ago now.
I was piloting him along the highway to our first job of the season.
My death-defying responsibility was to warn the truckies coming towards us that there was a 3.7-metre-wide load headed their way.
In my rereview mirror was my husband managing a semi-trailer loaded with a windrower.
Rather than the scenic cruise necessary for piloting a combine harvester, we were hooking along the highway at the breakneck speed of up to one hundred kilometres an hour.
For me this is a terrifying and yet thrilling task.
The truckies are always so kind in their responses, letting me know they have received the message and will take action to avoid a collision with my husband and the father of my children.
Preventing an accident on a major thoroughfare is a daily occurrence for those professional drivers on our roads everyday but a pretty huge scary one for me.
Piloting agricultural machinery along the highways and byways has a way of firmly linking me to my farming roots.
Of course, as a girl I was more likely to be laying in the back of the parked truck making grain angels with my siblings and steering clear of the stressed-out farmer; my dad dealing with multiple breakdowns and weather events.
Harvest involved endless dust, heat, stress and lining up at silos back then.
These days everything is bigger and faster but there is still plenty of dust, heat, stress and the need to move machinery from location to location.
Getting off the beaten track is the most magical part of harvest for me. I get to rediscover the countryside in this region. Homes on hilltops with sweeping vistas. Gorgeous gardens and divine driveways. Stately stowaway mansions and shady shacks, they are all soaking up the huge sky and freedom of Australia's fresh air.
I'm so proud of the people who invest in agriculture, industry and business locally, providing a livelihood and lifestyle for the rest of us. I'm grateful that they stick it out and stick around. Thankyou.