Adopt an Aussie Farmer

A few days ago I received a message from my good friend Jess who lives an hour North East of Winton. Jess' partner is a fourth generation Winton district farmer (cattle and a few hundred sheep) and has lived in the area his whole life. They have two kids, a boy who has just finished Kindy by correspondence (well done teacher Jess!) and a little miss who was two a few weeks back. They haven't had much rain in the few years I've known them so are hay feeding their cattle, they do this to ensure there is some grass seeds there when the rain does come. They will continue with hay feeding  until their grass grows enough to fill their cattle's bellies, this will be months away even if they receive decent rain over the "wet season". They're doing it tough but luckily better than the Smith's that I blogged about last week. The Kindy program is associated with Longreach School of the Air and to Jess' surprise an enormous package arrived for them this week. A family from Pullenvale (15km west of Brisbane City) participated in the Adopt an Aussie Farmer campaign that was organised by Thoroughbred Breeders Queensland. The family sent an array of goodies to be enjoyed over the Christmas period as well as numerous presents for the kiddies.

Christmas Goodies!

A Christmas tree full of presents 
from the Pullenvale family

It's stories like these that warm your heart, touch your soul and make you realise there are still good people in this world. The news is full of awful and dramatic stories and sometimes the good stories like these ones are overlooked. Thoroughbred Breeders Queensland organised for 250(!) hampers to be delivered to farming families in the Longreach and Winton areas as well as Mt Isa and Charleville. They also managed to raise over $17 000 for farming families! You can read about their efforts in this ABC story.

I was so pleased to see my friends post about rain in the Winton area this past week, some had falls of up to 80mm for the week. Please remember that a few days of rain is not going to break this drought, follow up rain is needed so that grass can grow and rejuvenate. You can still help farmers doing it tough by donating to Buy a Bale and Aussie Helpers. We received some heart warming comments following our Every family needs a Farmer and every Farmer needs a Townie blog, thank you for the feedback, we love hearing your thoughts on our blogs and posts, keep it coming! Thanks also to those who we touched who were kind enough to donate to Buy a Bale and Aussie Helpers, every dollar helps!

#Bumpkin