A reflection on Dorothea Mackellar’s Country with Belle and Pods from the Farmcast
In Dorothea Mackellar’s poem, My Country, she refers to Australia being a land of droughts and flooding rains. With the River Murray currently flooding many river towns and with people on the land preparing for a summer and its threat of bushfires, we’ve recording a dual podcast with Belle and Pods from the Adelaide Hills Farmcast.
In the Musical Pilgrimage, we have a recent song by Lucas Day called, Without It.
And Steve plugs his 2023 Adelaide Fringe show: 100% MBA Success: Whisky And Trivia With Professor Longsword.
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Running Sheet: Of Droughts And Flooding Rains
00:00:00 Intro
A quick plug for Professor Longsword’s Adelaide Fringe show, 100% MBA Success: Whisky And Trivia With Professor Longsword.
00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week
No SA Drink Of The Week this week. It now an occasional segment when stellar beverages are discovered.
00:04:28 The January Edition Of The Adelaide Hills Farmcast
In this chat, hear a special episode of the Adelaide Hills Farmcast with Belle and Pods from Adelaide Hills Farm Services. They’ve been producing a monthly show in the style of a farming almanac coupled with feature interviews. It is aimed at small acerage landowners and farmers throughout the Adelaide Hills but now also includes the Fleurieu Peninsula.
We arranged this joint recording as our effort to shine a light for city people on the challenges and responsibilities faced by rural landowners and producers; the deeper the mutual respect, the better for all of us.
In your Farmcast, you usually start with an almanac of specific activities property owners and smal acreage farmers should plan for in the upcoming 4-6 weeks. You get lots of good feedback about that. This month, though, for January, we’re just restructuring the almanac into a list of five things property owners and small acreage farmers should think about over the summer break.
- Water for stock and for essential supplies should there be a bushfire
- Bushfire Risk – spraying, slashing, firebreaks, even farm firefighting units
- Summer weed spraying to keep on top of weeds
- Around the home garden and house paddock – mulching for water conservation and plant health
- And if you’re going away over the summer – alerting neighbours and consider using sensors
00:43:37 Now, to the interview proper.
I want to start with the most famous extract from Dorothea Mackellar’s poem, My Country:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
Do you really love the sunburnt nature of parts of Australia? What goes through your minds as people from the land?
What was life like on the farm around Christmas time growing up? I have family in Karoonda and often Christmas is pushed out or brought forward depending on weather conditions and crops.
Some landowners close to the River Murray are having an anxious time either being flooded or being threatened by floodwaters or by having to come up with contingencies due to transport disruptions, what have you heard?
What would you like us city folk to keep in mind when we head out and saturate farming areas for our Christmas holidays?
01:03:46 Musical Pilgrimage
In the musical pilgrimage, we have Without It by Lucas Day from the album, Swell.
Lucas says ‘Without It’ started as a song about the ego – but has come to mean something more. It’s a bell that chimes anytime his bad habits rear their ugly heads. He’s hoping it will fuel positive change in anyone who needs it.
It takes time to learn
You are not your thoughts
That’s the opening line of this song and Lucas Day is spot on. Trouble is, most of us go flat out all the time and don’t get a chance to actually stop and notice our thoughts. Belle and Pods, do farmers get more of a chance to have time to reflect, when either sitting in a tractor for hours on end or travelling long distances or doing repetative mending or cleaning? Have you had any ah-ha moments of thought while out and away from distractions? And do you think it is due to not having distractions or is there something about being closely engaged with animals, plants, dirt, and weather?
At the time of recording, Lucas has a busy December 2022 ahead:
wed 21st – Cabana Club
fri 23rd – Marion Hotel 4pm DUO w/ Rachel Coppen]
fri 23rd – Moseley Beach Club 7:30pm
tue 27th – Fox Creek Wines 1pm
wed 28th – Terra & Sol 6pm
thu 29th – SandBAR 5pm
fri 30th – The Stag 12pm
fri 30th – The HWY 6pm
sat 31st – The Stag DUO
Here’s this week’s preview video
No preview video this week.
SFX: Throughout the podcast we use free SFX from freesfx.co.uk for the harp, the visa stamp, the silent movie music, the stylus, the radio signal SFX, the wine pouring and cork pulling SFX, and the swooshes around Siri.