My last few days in Italy were spent in Napoli “Naples”. I toured Pompeii, the Maschio Angioino castle, and ate as much pizza as I could. I also went to visit Giovanni, a fellow Workaway from the farm. I was sad to be leaving Italy but also ready for my next adventure. Napoli had way too many people for me. Also I already figured out I do not really enjoy site seeing alone. I actually went to the airport early on Sunday and just sat there all day. I was done.
My flight out was Sunday night, October 4th. My first flight was to Istanbul and I have to say Turkish Airlines is very nice and the airport in Istanbul is beautiful. It is the world’s largest single-roof terminal, covering 1.4 million square meters and handles over 80 million passengers each year. It is spotless and peaceful. I wish I had a little time there, but I had to go straight to my next flight. If you’re ever flying through there, make sure you have some time between flights. I am still thinking about the baklava I walked past. My next flight was my long one: 12 hours, 45 minutes to Bali. The airport in Bali was horrible and smelled of incense, and I had a 3-hour layover, go figure. Bali to Brisbane took about 6 hours and I arrived Tuesday at 5:50 AM. From Brisbane, I took a train that left at 11:00 AM to Maryborough, where my host picked me up and took me to Magnolia, my home for the next month.
Anne and Ross are a lovely couple. They own a 100-acre block. They bought it 26 years ago when their youngest went off to college. There was a house and metal building, but the land had not been cleared and at the time had no fences, garden, fruit trees, landscaping, animals… you get the point! They have beef cows and one bull. Many of the cows are pregnant, so I might get to see a birth. Once every 3 years they do butcher one for food. Anne said she can not bond with that one. They have names and beautiful fields for grazing. The bull and one cow are separated from the rest and get fed extra hay each day. There is another girl that is underweight that is separated and fed extra each day. I also feed the chickens and 2 geese.
There is a large variety of fruit trees, but they all just finished producing. We are still getting a few pomelo, but that is all. I would like lots of fruit trees and a vegetable garden at my next home so I am a little disappointed that I missed it. The garden has not been planted yet; already two months behind, we are working on it.
Another thing I appreciate here is the water system. They have a 10,000 gallon under ground tank that fills with rain water and then runs through a filter for the house. They have two 5,000 gallon above ground tanks for the rest of the farm. They said they have never run out of water.
Anne and Russ have both been in the hospital this year. They are both using canes and walkers and getting around slowly. Their adult children want them to sell the farm and they are coming around to moving but they do not want to. Their son Reese was just here for a few days and we worked on cleaning and decluttering the shop. We also rebuilt a small garden bed for the eggplants. The landscaping between the house and shop is beautiful but needed to be cleaned up, so I did that. I water the herb garden and a couple of things in the big garden daily, but like I said, we have some planting to do soon. There is plenty to do inside and outside and they definitely need help. Today I deep cleaned, moving furniture and dusting and moping. They did not ask I just do what needs to be done. They have created a beautiful place and you can tell they worked really hard here. I hope they have good Workaways after me and get to spend a few more years here. They have room and could always hire a live in farm hand. Getting rid of the cows might be a good idea. It takes about a week to settle in and get to know the host. This time I had a lot of trouble adjusting to the time change.
I have a plan for my first trip on my days off. I am close to Hervey Bay, a coastal town on the Coral Sea. From there I am going to take a ferry to K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island! I am going to do a 2-day tour of the island that includes accommodations and 3 meals. It is a large island so it is the best way to see everything, and I hope to make some friends in the group. We are expecting rain the rest of the week, which we need, so after the storm I will take a few days off.
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