The Latest Adventures in Fruitshacker Life

I'm still living at the Fruitshack on my orange farm, and things are very busy here. I haven't posted anything in so long because I haven't had a day off in over 2 weeks! Since I last posted I have picked Valencia and Naval oranges and mandarins, pruned grapevines and packed more mandarins. Today is my first day off in a very long time, and I only received it because everyone went out in town last night and the boss messaged us all to say 'If you go out tonight, don't work tomorrow'. So this morning I slept until midday and I feel better than I have in ages.

It got very cold here recently. Temperatures were at 0 degrees in the mornings - very difficult to get out of bed at 6am and into the fields! It's been frosty a lot, I didn't realise that happened over here! It means that for the first few hours of work your fingers and toes just sting! And a hot shower after work makes your fingers feel white hot in the heat.

As the frost melted, it just got muddy.

Mandarins

I've been picking mandarins. It's different to oranges because you have to cut them from the tree with teeny secateurs instead of just pulling them. It takes a lot longer, so you can only fill one bin a day instead of 7 or 8 like we do with oranges. The trees are a lot smaller which means we have to use a different type of ladder. This one is much scarier, as instead of leaning it against the tree, you swing the third leg into a sort of tripod and dig it into the mud. 

Meet the Hunstman!

Huntsman spiders like mandarins. It's a good job I spent so long in Vermont getting used to the big guys, because these fellas are pretty hefty. And close! There were at least 3 occasions when they were running around on me. Twice I picked up an orange with one of these on to have him run around my hand and up my arm. 

Packing

 I've been doing more mandarin packing too, on the Mallamace family farm. Marcello runs the whole things, with his brother Dominic and his dad Mick who is a cheeky old chap who likes to shout. And Momma Mallamace brings the tea and cookies whenever we have a break, in true Italian fashion.


 First we make boxes to pack the mandarins in before they are shipped off to Sydney market. I have to restrain myself from building a giant fort with all the boxes!

After a couple of hours of that it's time to get the conveyor going. The mandarins come down the shoots and we pack them into the boxes and put them onto the pallets ready to go in the truck. 

This is why I like working for Italians =]

Grape Time

I've started pruning grape vines. The farm has 3 varieties of orange and countless types of grapes. My friends are pruning Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, and I'm on the slightly less exciting Sultana vines, but I do have the oldest ones; planted in 1913, they're 103 years old.

The deal is to cut away all of the branches from last year, and the ones that are not well positioned, leaving just 6 branches on the top of the vine which are left with just 6 buds. It's pretty easy work, but you have to concentrate and make sure you don't cut the wrong branches. A lot of the vines are very low so there's a lot of crouching down, and your hand hurts after a few hours of repetitive cutting. But I'm working with Lilli, a German girl who I love, and we have a great time while we are working.

Back to the Shack

We get INCREDIBLE sunsets here!

Great news in that John, the farmer whose house I was staying in, is back on his feet already. He only needed a stint instead of a heart bypass so it was only a minor procedure, not the big rib breaking one we expected. So he and Kathy are back on their farm, and I am back at the Fruitshack.

From a beautiful clean kitchen with every utensil you could think of, to one where you have to wash things up before using them, and be inventive in the way you use utensils – for future knowledge, yes you can mash potato with a fork and you can grate cheese with a knife. The kitchen has a mass clean at least once a week, but an hour later it looks like a bomb has hit, even though everyone gets frustrated and says “I don’t know who is doing it, because we all complain about it.”

1 hour later...

I’ve gone from a lovely big comfy double bed in a spacious room to a top bunk in the most crowded room you can imagine. 8 girls and backpacks with everything they own makes for a lot of stuff!

It's been a bit of a scary time, going through the EU referendum. The time difference meant we were able to watch as the votes came in, swinging from Leave to Remain. But the 4 English people here stood united.

We had a visit from Mr RedBack, one of the most dangerous spiders…

And we tried to discover how many idiots you can fit on a tractor?

There is a lot of work right now. I have completed 55 of the 88 days I need to complete to apply for a second year visa, and the days are still coming fast. The orange season has stepped up and orders are flooding in to all the local farmers. Which is great, until the orders start coming too fast. Yesterday I was ready at 6am to pick 5 bins of Valencias before 9am so we could complete a order. And right now I am supposed to be picking 12 bins of Navals for tomorrow’s deadline, but can’t because the trees are still wet from last night’s dew. You can’t pick Navels when the oranges are wet because they immediately start to go black.

I’m starting to count down the days now. I have 33 to do, maybe a month and a half. And then what?! The plan as it stands right now is to head to Melbourne and find a job that pays a decent wage so I can save some money. And then, Australia is my oyster…