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Welcome

I am not sure whether this is going to print this week, if not it will put it up on the blog. So welcome to the last or second last edition of the Square Leg Files for 2010. I have really enjoyed bringing you all the Marnoo news in 2010 and I have had some great feedback in that time. In this game you have to be very careful what you print as some are more sensitive than others. Some you can give all barrels, others you wouldn’t even mention in despatches as they may get upset.

How long can we keep going……

It’s probably getting harder to write this column on a weekly basis, I think it’s getting harder to find news stories because I am removed from the area most of the time and do hear stories from time to time, but there is not to many sent down the line. So I am not sure how long we can keep going with this column. I will give it some thought over the Christmas/New Year period.

Harvest grinds to a halt again

Farmers are frustrated with the weather they are been dealt this harvest season, the stop start nature has prolonged the harvest and it’s now unclear where the finish line is. It is also frustrating to see prices for feed grains fall as dramatically as they did last week, this really eats into farmers profits. I suppose in years gone by local farmers would have been all but finished harvest by now so the situation is better than that alternative.

Cricketers back in town

No I’m not talking about the MCC, I’m talking about the Aussies, what a win and it’s exciting for us that will be attending the Melbourne test. I know of a few “cock sparrows” that are going, Andrew “Clown” Newall, Andrew “Upstart” Nisbet, Dwain “Daryl” Duxson, Ben “Glendemar” Duxson and David “Towser” Newall will be present and depending on the harvest Stewart “Smacka” MacPherson, Armand “Lids” Duxson and Reuben “Rostron” Chessman may turn up. What a crew.

All the best for 2011

Here’s wishing you all the best for Christmas and the new year from all of us here at The Square Leg Files office. It’s exciting times ahead for small farming communities like the Marnoo area as we could see a sustained Agriculture boom and some seasons to back that up. You may call me bias but I encourage local business to use technology and communication tools for business efficiencies. You really do have to enter the modern world otherwise you will miss advantages that some are getting. You only have to look at internet shopping these day, recently I bought 500 self designed business cards for $12.50 which included postage and they are great quality. The last lot of business cards I bought cost $190 for 1000. This is just a small snapshot of what you can do on the net. Of course our sponsor Product Tender also allow both local farmers and suppliers to participate in a very new and innovative system. www.thefarmtrader.com.au/product-tenders

Swimming trend

Joining the Cameron’s are the Douglas’s, they are also putting in an inground pool. I spoke to the former MCC left arm quick last week and he said that he is looking forward to getting a level of fitness back to emulate the days when he used to terrorise batsmen with his left arm bullets.

Righto that all

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Hello Hello

Welcome to another edition of the SLF. I was away at the Adelaide test last week and didn’t have time to send the report in, so apologies for that. Hopefully we can make up for it this week.

Adelaide a test

I spent a couple of days at the Adelaide test last weekend, the two days of cricket I saw yielded 3 pommy wickets and about 600 runs. Not a great return I thought. But the Adelaide Oval is now a world class venue with the new grandstand and it’s just a matter of time before they see AFL footy there. One complaint I did have was they had bugger all bars and you had to walk down 2 levels to get a beer. Many others were protesting as well.

Adelaide alive

I have been to Adelaide on many occasions and my visit there last week reconfirmed that Adelaide is a great place and I could easily live there. It’s such an easy place to get around and the traffic is 10 time better than that of Melbourne. I also reckon the local brew “West End” had actually improved, which was a pleasant surprise.

MCC in the mix

The Marnoo Cricket Team is starting to put together some good performances that sees it’s self in the finals mix. Like most cricket associations they have had more Saturdays off than on due to the wet weather. It’s good to see the improvement in the young fellas who are taking more responsibility. It was also good to see “Smacka” MacPherson get a heft score the other week.

Drummed again

I had a laugh the other day when Angela Drum posted on her facebook page that she was on long service leave and looking forward to some weeks off. I posted that I bet that should would be hoodwinked by husband John to spend a fair bit of here leave working for slave wages in his Minyip Butcher shop. I called through on the way home from Adelaide the other day and sure enough here she was working away. I had a good laugh.

Harvest woes

The excess rain has put a bit of a dampener on the harvest locally. I see where leading farmer Brian “Farmer” Healy got the header bogged a couple of time whilst harvesting his canola out Marnoo East way. It looks like croppers will be busy harvesting over the Christmas period which will be a bit of a change compared to seasons past.

Swimming in it

I have been following the Cameron pool drama on facebook and I hope for their sake they will be swimming by Christmas. First they bought in the wrong sized pool and following that the wet weather hindered the installation. Will keep watching with interest.

From the sponsors

The Farm Trader is still cutting some great deals on Product Tender and it is great to see a couple of local farmers taking it up. Remember if you are thinking of buying anything for the farm then think Product Tender. To list something just login or join then go to MY PROFILE > PRODUCT TENDERS > LIST SOMETHING FOR TENDER

That’s all folks