Brekkie and Chockie...feels like home.

Traveled from Boonah club to Goondiwindi (prounounced gun-da-windy) or Gundy for short. We're here in Gundy until Saturday and that will mark the half-way point of our Rotary journey.

We didn't really realize it, but Beth's host and my host live a stone's throw away (or closer) so we decided to go for a walk this morning at 6:30. We start out down the block, find a newly constructed path and start following it. We were gone for a good 3o minutes when we realize our path is taking us to a place in which we might not be able to get back to our homes, so we turn around and backtrack. Along the way we were greeted with friendly Aussie "good mornings" and felt very welcomed. We must have looked the part also, because as we were walking we came across an older gentleman and his little dog. He asked us "Does this path lead all the way around?" I said "We're from the US, we don't know this path either!" We all had a good chuckle and we kept walking and found our way back to our respective homes.

I spent the rest of my day doing vocational stuff. Talked with John MacDonald (he could be THE Old MacDonald) because he was older and technically it was a farm...E-I-E-I-OOOOOOO And on that farm he had some fruit. EIEIO. With a citrus here and a plum tree there. Here a pom there a pom, everywhere a fruit tree, Old MacDonald had a farm EIEIO!

You're welcome now that you have the Old MacDonald song in your head for the rest of the day.

Then Peter drove me to his son Sam's farm. Peter used to own and run the farm and now it's in the hands of Sam. He was growing cotton mostly and it is about a couple weeks away from picking. He was spraying defoliant and ethephon (Florel for you horticulrally inclined folks) to deleaf the plants and make the bolls open up.

Australians in general aren't very accpeting of GM (genetically modified) plants. Sam's cotton however is Roundup Ready (RR) from good 'ole Monsanto. They cut a $50 check to Monsanto for every bale of cotton they sell. He seemed to think that that was a little high and that Monsanto should be making quite a bit of dough...but overall was so pleased with the RR traits that he wouldn't go back to the old way of growing cotton. So he gladly pays the $50. I think because cotton is a fiber and not a food that that's why it is allowed to be grown. But if a farmer grows RR cotton, he/she has to also plant 10% of it and not use any chemicals. He showed me the field of unregulated cotton and it was farther behind and a lot taller. Taller isn't better because it doesn't work with the machinery as well. They don't have RR soybeans.

A stop for lunch and then off to the feed lot where Joe and Shawn were finishing their tour and I was beginning one. Peter's son Jeff is the manager there and I got the tour from him. Their capacity is 20,000 head with most of the beef headed to the Japanese market. There were a few head ready to be shipped to Japan in the coming weeks and he was a little concerned as to what was going to happen becasue of Japan's recent earthquakes. The other cattle on the lot were being raised for domestic use and sale at Cole's (one of two large supermarket chains in Australia.) Cole's and Woolworth's pretty much control much of the food market in Australia.

We went to Woolworth's our first day in the district. We were rained inside so we spent a lot of time at Woolie's as they call it. They abbreviate everything. My family, especially my dad, will be glad to hear that they do indeed call breakfast brekki, and chocolate milk, chockie! Those two things were the start and end of my vocational day...started with the brekkie and ended with a chockie when we got home!

G'day y'all,
That's how I'm going to address people hear from now on. A good mix of Aussie and Missouri dialects.