Bimbadeen Journal

Sunday 4/8/85 Interview at Range View, Dalgety. Offered the job. He offered to fly us to Canberra on a regular basis if we took the job. Asked him if he would wait a week because we preferred the job we were going for at Tarana.

Mon 5/8/85 Interview at Bimbadeen, Tarana. They will let us know.

Thur 8/8/85 Rang Jim Moore re job. He will ring tomorrow and let us know one way or the other.

Sat 10/8/85 Jim Moore rang at 10:45 pm – Got the job. It snowed overnight.

Friday 16/8/85 Packed. Ally’s folks brought truck up from Dungannin. Loaded truck.
Sat 17/8/85 Moved to Bimbadeen. Unpacked. Put tools up in workshop.

Sun 18/8/85 Unpacked. Put tools up in workshop. 46 points rain.

19 – 25/8/85 Painted and renovated Bimbadeen Cottage.

Monday 26/8/85 Started working on Bimbadeen. Got Fiat 540 tractor going. Loose battery connection. Fixed with lead sheeting. Ground gear teeth down to fit on seed drill. Pulled King pin bracket off Iseki and welded broken steering arm and pout back. Hard faced harrows. Did Stott’s assignment no 5.

Tues 27/8/85 Welded harrows. Sowed oats, ryegrass and clover in Creek Paddock. Did Stott’s assignments 9 & 10. Sent off with Ken & Jacky.

Wed 28/8/85 Dipped 800 wethers at Koorawong in useless plunge dip. Fixed gate. Rolled field bin up. Put ring lock along pine trees. Went after roos on oats in Koorawong. Got thrown from the back of the truck with a loaded shotgun. Jim yelled out “Stay down” as he let fly with the semi auto shottie. Took 2 sheep home for doggers.

Thurs 29/8/85 Finished harrows for manure spreading. Finished sowing creek paddock. Pulled Fiat and sowing rig out of creek with Iseki tractor. Took towball of HQ and put it on the Fiat. Took my trailer down with super and oats. Broke steering arm on Iseki 9000. Covered seed drill and left it in the next paddock. Brought Fiat, trailer, grain and gear up. Put door back on Iseki 9000. Seed drill settings – seed – 5 Super – closed fully Small seed – closed then open 3 or 4 mm.

Fri 30/8/85 Brought seed drill and roller up. Took steering arm off Iseki and re welded old way (with Oxy acetylene and mild steel rods). Fuelled Iseki. Replaced steering arm grease nipple. Fabricated a wheel for Heather Moore’s wheel barrow. Sharpened her secateurs. Cross ploughed Road paddock. Killed 2 dog sheep, one with a ruptured stomach.

Mon 2/9/85 Finished ploughing Road paddock. Worked on seed drill. Tightened discs. Greased drill. Sowed paddock near house and sheds with oats, rye, clover and super. Fiat 540 conked out – fuel problem. Tried to bleed it out – unsuccessfully. Went back after work to try and repair Fait. Replaced second fuel filter – still no good. Suspect fuel pump.

Tue 3/9/85 Worked on Fiat. Got it going once but it conked out again straight away. Pulled injector pump out ready for Ally to take to town. Harrowed ploughed paddock on the road. Harrowed ploughed paddock behind it.

Wed 4/9/85 Harrowed behind Hayshed and Top Clareville. Welded drawbar pin. Dinner with Moore’s Freezer motor conked out.

Thur 5/9/85 Harrowed Top Clareville, Clareville Lucerne and started Bottom Clareville. Welded loop in chain to keep harrows in the right position. Repaired harrow with 3 broken front arms after work. 8:00 – 9:30 pm

Fri 6/9/85 Harrowed Bottom Clareville and Lucerne paddock. Welded and repaired harrows. Bought new freezer for $400 – got $69 trade in for old freezer. Ally’s folks come up for birthday.

Mon 9/9/85 Dogs due to be wormed with Droncit for tapeworms. Rang Bathurst Tech Rural welding starts Feb 86. No charge except bring your own mask, goggles, gloves etc. 1 year course. Rang Orange Ag College for an enrolment form. Finished welding harrows. Put Agro low on Iseki. Welded plough points. Ploughed paddock behind small sowed paddock.

Tue 10/9/85 Ploughed and cross ploughed rape seed paddock. 72 points rain.

Wed 11/9/85 22 points rain. Finished cross ploughing rape seed paddock. Harrowed same paddock. Hardfaced plough tips. Put battery back in little truck. Harrowed paddock above Blink Bonny.

Thur 12/9/95 Drenched cattle. Welded plough tips. Made manure scraper for cattle yards. Cleaned cattle yards out. Put injector pump back in Fiat 540. Replaced first fuel filter. Both fuel filters leaking. 60 points rain.

Fri 13/9/95 Finished cleaning cattle yards out. Harrowed two paddocks east of Pete’s. Harrowed several paddocks. Ordered air kit.

Sat 14/9/85 Greased HQ Cleaned and tightened sump. Checked and adjusted timing 5 degrees BTDC. Dwell 33 degrees. Vacuum – normal. Idle 550 rpm. Adjusted idle air/fuel to highest vacuum. Decompression vacuum 2 ˝ inches of mercury. Tightened header/manifold flange. Mowed lawn. Check PCV valve. OK and cleaned. Reverse flushed cooling system. Thermostat working. Broke thermostat housing gasket. Rang Guy re too much pay. Folks rang – will be up next weekend.

Mon 16/9/85 Worked on pipeline and troughs and plantation tap. Crutching weaners and drenched weaners. Sorted wool.

Tue 17/9/85 Put troughs in in cottage paddock and cattle yards. Drenched cross bred ewes. Sorted wool and dragged for Pete. Killed dogger. Took guts down to dump. Gearbox played up on HQ. Adjusted linkages and tightened clutch linkage.

Wed 18/9/85 Worked on water line. Repaired leak at tap connection. Connected cattle yard trough and yards tap. Put rocks around yard trough and broke them up with sledge hammer. Towed Buddy King from Deep Creek on road to Tarana pub. Big end gone in tipper truck. Did Stott’s Lesson 7 in Farm Mechanics.

Thur 19/9/85 Worked on slasher Finished digging pipeline in. Put new spring in on gear lever in Rover ride on mower. Dragged, drenched and sorted wool with Peter – ewes and lambs. Nellie had four pups.

Fri 20/9/85 Slashed in front of yards and around sheds. Fabricated ball cock cover for bath tub. Repaired gear change selector on Rover Mower. Moved runaway sheep back to yards possibly breaking a sucker’s neck. Orange Ag College enrolment form arrived.

Mon 23/9/85 Crutching – dragged, drenched and sorted. Changed cylinder head gasket. Broke 2 pivot arm bolts.

Tues 24/9/85 Crutching – dragged, drenched, sorted. Finished working on car. One pivot bolt suspect. Possibly stripped thread. Rockers rattling. Radiator hose leaking.

Wed 25/9/85 Crutching. Drove mob of ewes to cattle yards. Drenched and hormone implanted steers. Moved steers to Sandy Hollow and Syd Hills. Brought Pete’s calves back from Top Clareville.

Thurs 26/9/85 Drenched and Hormone Implanted cattle at Lagoon. Got home at 9:00 pm. 1 hour in Buddy’s pub. Worked on Peter’s car. Adjusted rear brakes and changed tyres around. Checked front discs - 

Fri 27/9/85 Drenched and hormone implanted cattle. Killed calf. Rubbish run to dump. Drenched rams and culls.

Mon 30/9/85 Put conveyor belt on Cattle Yard gates. Fed hay to cattle. Changed oil in Peter’s car. Greased nipples. Checked transmission oil. Major service. Did Stott’s Lessons 8 & 9 Farm Mechanics.

Tues 1/10/85 Adjusted by cutting and welded ram links on disc plough. Drenching. Crutching ewes. Repaired steering arm on Iseki 9000 after breaking with Jim driving.

Wed 2/10/85 Finish disc ploughing rape paddock. Agro ploughed this paddock. Mowed Jim’s lawn and around sheds. Dinner with the Moore’s – blackout.

Thurs 3/10/85 Moved dead cat from Moore’s front step. Agro ploughed large rape paddock. Broke 3 point linkage sway adjustor. Fabricated a new one. Changed Master Cylinder. Bled hydraulic system. Checked brake servo unit out – faulty.

Fri 4/10/85 Finished agro ploughing large rape paddock. Disc ploughed large rape paddock. Peter Moore’s birthday. Did Stott’s Lessons 10 & 11.

Mon 5/1/87 Worked on header and Iseki.

Tue 6/1/87 Stripped crop.

Wed 7/1/87 Stripped crop.

Thur 8/1/87 Stripped Oats. 18 ton from 25 max acres. Put chain on sheep feeder and straightened feeder flaps out. Dinner with Peter & Kay.

Fri 9/1/87 Moved header back. Cleaned and greased. Fibre glass repaired the bottom of the auger bottom in the header feed out auger. Moved feeder out to swamp paddock.

Mon 23/3/87 Shearing – Lagoon. Bad news that the tractor has broken again.

Mon 12/1/87 Worked on Briar ripper. Fixed lamb feeder lid. Fixed fuel blockage in Fiat.

Tue 13/1/87 Worked on briar digger. Freed header up.

Wed 14/1/87 Fixed Iseki. Fixed Peter’s car – bad plug. Started repairing Peter’s mud flap. Pulled Peter out of bog in dump. Killed dog sheep.

Thur 15/1/87 Started ploughing. Iseki stripped trans gears. Briars shearing - shed.

Fri 16/1/87 Briars. Shearing shed. Set Phalaris stripping rig up. Fiat conked out again – fuel blockage.

Sat 17/1/87 Helped the Great Gelling put his fence up.

Mon 19/1/87 Got header ready. Stripped 1 ˝ ton of Triticale. Pulled Briars. Harvested beans and peas for the first time from the vegie garden. Knocked off at 7:10 pm

Tue 20/1/87 dug briars – swamp. Fixed Phalaris front on white truck. Loaded Iseki on Andrew’s truck for Orange. Ordered drum bars for header.

Wed 21/1/87 Briars in swamp. Got caught by diff lock. Killed dog sheep.

Thur 22/1/87 Repaired header. Repaired drum bars. Stripped Triticale. Balanced drum. Adjusted concave disawning bar.

Fri 23/1/87 Unloaded 4 tons of Triticale. Stripped another 4 ton.

Tues 27/1/87 Started stripping but it was too moist. Killed dogger. Cleaned workshop up. Cleaned up woolshed. Picked up Tarana Tiger and loaded wool.

Wed 28/1/87 Stripping Triticale until 8:30 pm. Shearing.

Thur 29/1/87 Stripping Triticale until 7:30 pm. Hot & dry. Shearing. Punctured a steer tyre in the header.

Fri 30/1/87 Shearing. Finished briars in gully block. Broke header feed out auger. Uni joint. Broke V belt and she really spat the dummy.

Mon 2/2/87 Set dip up. Killed 6 doggers. Ken moved flyscreen door around the other way.

Tues 3/2/87 Dipped lambs. XB ewes. Worked on header.

Wed 4/2/87 Finished dipping and drenching. Cleaned header up. Repaired belt drive alignment mechanism.

Thur 5/2/87 Drenched wethers. Worked on header. Welded feeder and drafting race up. Welded bracket on agro plough for Tip bucket.

Fri 6/2/87 drenched wethers. Worked on strengthening briar digger. Dug briars in swamp paddock.

Mon 9/2/87 Dig briars – swamp.

Tue 10/2/87 Iseki came back $1600.

Sun 15/2/87 Orange Ag College Computer residential school.

Mon 16/2/87 Ploughed yard paddock. Ordered header parts. Rang Roger – tractor hydraulics still not right.

Tues 17/2/87 Ploughed yard paddock.

Wed 18/2/87 Ploughed yard paddock.

Thur 19/2/87 Finished ploughing yard paddock. Killed horribly fly blown ewe for dogs. Fixed torsion bar on white Nissan.

Fri 20/2/87 Fixed seed drill. Hard faced feet and tips. Killed dogger.

Mon 23/2/87 Sowed Yard paddock.

Tues 24/2/87 Sowed Yard paddock. Drove to Rosconi’s and bought cog for seed drill.

Wed 25/2/87 Loaded seed drill up. Repaired body transmission linkage on Iseki. Lamb shearing.

Thur 26/2/87 lamb shearing. Worked on tyned seed drill after unloading.

Fri 6/3/87 Ag College assignment – Vist Barry Lang at “Langely Heights” Oberon to see computers used in Farm management.

Mon 9/3/87 sowing Bottom Clareville.

Tues – Fri 10-13/3/87 Sowing Bottom Clareville.

Mon 23/3/87 Bad news that the tractor has broken again, and I got the blame for it.

Tues 24/3/87 Finished up at Bimbadeen.