Before Bed Bike Safari

At my local primary school, I was an okay runner but at the big regional secondary school an hour’s drive away, I was a star. The townies were no match for a fit farm girl.

Farm kids get a natural workout every day as my little girl’s muscular legs will attest. On Boxing Day, she urged me along 10kms of forest tracks on her new pushie, complete with a “passenger” to match mine. Tonight, she was desperate to go on a ride before bed, so I said “just around the boundary then”.

The boundary ride was a nice little adventure and a good chance to check the fences and more far-flung paddocks. We are besieged by kangaroos and wallabies who are very charming but give fencing and pastures close to the forest a beating.

The kangaroos are welcome to some of the west-facing paddocks, which are already quite desiccated. The others won’t be far away. In fact, I can say with some confidence, Friday will cast a new hue over the farm. The first summer stinker of 2013 is forecast to be 40 degrees in the shade and the Bureau says not to expect any rain for at least the next eight days.

Time to figure out a new rain dance, I guess.