End of the Season

It appears things are slowly dying down here in Batlow. Half the backpackers have left over the last few days. We are thinking of leaving soon too. We had 6 days off and then only had one part day, of which I was sick so Francis picked alone, and then only two hours work today. We’ve now been told no more work until next Tuesday and today is Wednesday. Not what we were expecting at all. Its Easter holiday here so there will definitely not be any work at any orchard from Friday to Monday or else they have to pay us twice the bin rate for picking. We may look for work at other Orchards that may have some other varieties coming up as so many people have left there may be room for us somewhere. We’ll also try the packing houses to see if there is work coming up. They pay $18.50/hr and after 40hrs its double time.

We feel ready to move on but still would like to make a little bit more money. We don’t want to always be looking for work so when we are working we’d like to stay in one place and make as much as we can.

We went to the Batlow show last weekend. It was really cute. There were people with show horses, scarecrow making demonstrations, and a whole room of competing roosters that took turns with their big cock-a-doodle-doos. We ran into our supervisor there in the pavilion where all the prize winning thing are. There were apples, vegetables, baking, sewing, photos and all sorts of stuff to look at. They really have such a nice small community feeling here. There was also one carnival ride and a few prize booths.

We experienced something new at the local café. Everyone here puts chicken salt on their French fries. It’s almost like chicken flavoured Mr.Noodle spice. it’s actually quite good.

Well I suppose we have some decisions to make about what we’re going to do. We aren’t sure if we should try to go away somewhere close for the holiday and then come back or if we should just go. We’ll update you all once we know.

You don’t have to worry about us in this sleepy town. We are doing just fine. We’ve made friends, we know our way around and everyone here is super friendly.