Erin and I are staying with Chris and Melissa Rickard who are an amazingly resilient couple who live about 25 kms north west of Birchip. We had a great night last night with them and even convinced them (over beers and wine) to be interviewed on camera for the little DVD we hope to produce at the end of this trip. Erin and I are keeping our fingers crossed that we had the video equipment set up right because it was a fantastic interview, quite confronting and even emotional at times, but fantastic nevertheless. Melissa moved to the farm when she and Chris were married 10 years ago and she told us she has never seen a season as good as this one in her time on the farm. Interestingly, she said the drought and dry years have never affected her in the way that the expectation, promise and anticipation of this year's potentially fantastic harvest has. She told us that when it rained just two days ago and she could see it raining on the neighbor's property and not her's she had a physical reaction, she felt like crying and thought " we can't miss out again". She said this was the first time she had felt like that and had such a reaction. That story really illustrated the pressure on farmers at the moment. Feels like the hope, anticipation and anxiety could almost be bottled! The crops look so incredible here that these growers can almost taste the end result. After 10 -15 years of drought and dry years the need for a good year is critical. In saying all that Chris still talked about the possibility of frost, the impact of a lack of spring rain, the effect of heat shock, and of course the impending locust plague.
Our crops at home are made to look so much worse when compared to Chris and Melissa's but it's hard to be jealous after hearing their stories. Here's hoping all the stars align for them this year.