Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Crabbin!

 I can now say I have built an electric fence! We laid down some posts, got a tractor and a quad and some wire. The tractor was used to push the poles into the ground. That worked very well and it was fast. After we had all poles securely in place it was time to sort out the wires. The system was to attach the starting piece of wire to the quad and slowly drive to the other end while pulling the wire from one point to another. Guess if it went as smoothly as described? Of course not! The wire got jammed, then it would not run properly and it's bloody heavy to hold. There is a rolling device that is used to release the wire but that didn't really work, so we had to do it manually with the hardcore country woman. She wouldn't even listen to our ideas. We just sat back and watched her call the wire with a "c" word... hmmm. It took a lot longer to get it straight using her methods. She just feels she needs to be involved in everything,even the knife I choose to cut pork. It all needs to be done her way. It's her way or no way.

Tuesday morning was something to look forward to. We left at around 11am to catch some mud crabs and got back home at around 8pm. It was a long but adventurous day out and away from the farm. Since we have an English couple staying here too, there were four of us on the boat. The farmer guy and us three foreigners. It took us around 35-40 minutes to drive out to the creek. There is some big ass salt "mining" going on in the area. Fields and fields of salt water creeks. One of the little fields looked pink. It actually looked like a pink lake. It wasn't deep, maybe knee high but so cool :)
The area was so different from where our farm is and it is such a short drive away. There are not supposed to be any crocs around there but there was a sign post asking to report any croc sightings. We did not spot any. We all got on the boat and started our journey towards the area where we could throw pots in. It took around 25 minutes to get there. Of course, the farmer was having a bit of fun and got us all soaked by the time we got out of the choppy waters..It was fun. I really enjoyed it. Reminded me of the speedboat ride we took in Dublin except is was 30 degrees outside! Our aim was to get the pots in at around 1pm when the tide was low. Afterwards, all we had to do was check them a few times and wait for the tide to come in, bringing fresh water and food to attract the mud crabs. So we had lunch and threw in  couple of fishing lines while we were waiting to get the crabs out. We actually caught a few crabs. It's funny, they use king prawns as bait to catch fish. We got around one kg for 13 dollars. Very cheap for aussies. According to the local laws you cannot just catch any size and any gender crabs. The law does not permit to catch ny females (they are supposed to taste better) and males that are smaller in size than maybe 15cm. There was a specific "ruler" that would measure its body width. If the body fits through the area, it needs to go back in the water. Anything bigger is ok. It is allowed to catch 10-15 crabs per person. Well, we got 5-6 in total of which some were probably a millimeter smaller than legal size. Don't get me wrong, we could have got 10-15 each but we had to abide by the law and release all the smaller crabs.
Our way back to the shore we got soaked again but it was fun again. The evening was a bit chilly - around 25 degrees (considering I am used to 36 degrees). I was quite tired by the end of the day despite doing nothing all day! Poor English guy who had to pull out all 16 pots from the water. He was wrecked by the end of it. Not as easy as it looks! I have to admit I did not move a finger. His gf was helping him and it was pretty crowded there on that side of our small boat.
The vet arrived today with his big lab truck. Tomorrow will be interesting to explore embryos under the microscope and see how flushing cows works.

I was told I look like an aboriginal. Sorry, can't hide myself from the sun!


No comments: