The Breakfast Radio Diaries 107 - A lot of good people there

I'm exhausted, slightly sun burnt and sporting a couple of self inflicted whip wounds. Welcome to day one of the the three days that is the returning Henty Machinery Field Days!

I'M DRIVING A TANK

Okay, not a real treaded battle field monster, but something that feels like a tank when you usually drive cars a little less high up from the ground, a Ford Ranger. We finished the show as quickly as we could, jumped into the station car that felt like double the dimensions of my little Slowbaru and drove past some incredible fields of golden Canola as we hit the road to Henty!

The trouble was that just about every man and his dog was also doing the same and just as we found the last road there, we also found the massive conga line of cars doing the day one crawl to the car park. And so we crawled, I questioned the meaning of life, Lu looked over her happy snaps of canola and eventually they waved us in and we found a park.
'Yeah we've got a lot of busses here, you might need to park this thing over there..' - A passing traffic marshal. 
So I parked again and then our field day adventures and media challenge began. 
Well kind of. 

ZAC SAYS, HANDS ON YOUR HEAD

Zac from promotions was trying to be helpful with directions but it turns out he can read a map as well as I can read ancient Greek as we found ourselves down 5th Ag Lane...which was nowhere where we were supposed to be. Coming back to give this whole map reading business another go, we did stumble over where we were supposed to be eventually, narrowly missing that part of the media challenge by a couple of minutes. Oh well - no wool throwing for me! Still, we did have a couple of station representatives standing by so we didn't miss out on the possible points in this round.

Throw that wool!

WHIP IT GOOD

Luckily we were on hand for the whip cracking event. Crack a whip? How hard could it be? Turns out there's a knack to it...and the knack was lacking for team MMM.

Lu - Gave it a good crack (get it?) but failed to make the noise the judge was looking for. 

Maddy - Managed not only to hit herself in the back of the head but also scored a welt on her forehead to boot. Didn't make a noise sadly.

Me - Hit my arm, hit the bottom of my hand and made the noise on the final swing. It didn't sound like a gun going off like the guy who was showing us the ropes (er...the whip) but it was a satisfying crack. Am I the next Indiana Jones now? No, no am I not. 

Maybe I'd fare better in the scone eating challenge?

GET IT INDIA

These were the scones:

And the scones were damn tasty. Made with love by the Country Women's Association, four of these wonderful halves disappeared down my gob in a mere sixty seconds.
Unfortunately my opponent smashed through five, winning that round and sadly the championship. But hey, I did get some tasty scones and a day out of the studio so that was something. 

A LOT OF GROUND TO COVER

For the next hour Lu went one way, I went the other just to see what we could find. Which in a place like this, could be anything hence the picture dump. Because let's be honest, I don't really know what I'm looking at here and can't tell the difference between a spreader or a seeder or a cultivator or a corncobinator (which I think I just made up.) But there seemed to be a lot of happy people in the know there having a great time!

'Maybe take a picture of the way we came in to make it easier getting out?' -Lu

And so I did, which made exiting so much less of a random adventure. 

Put water in these concrete things, animals show up to drink from these concrete things. I'm great with my farm terms obviously!

If I'm not mistaken then this is a Ausmix Cocktail Master 3000. Pour in gallons of high end booze into the great mixing tank and then use the hose to spray unsuspecting passerby's with for your own amusement. I hear this is what happens a lot at farming parties and hoe downs.

Again, don't quote me here but I suspect you're looking at a Britix Detossinator MK4. You hop in, hit the freeways looking for idiots in convertibles holding and talking on their mobile phones while driving, drive right over the unsuspecting fools and then hit the dump button which unleashes a full tonne of fresh cow turds directly below. Fun for all the family! 

The Ford I wished I was driving on the way back. No such luck, even after I offered them a half eaten scone. 

Best guess? Complete overkill pizza making machine. But when you're a multi millionaire farmer and you want a hot pizza driven to your door (through just about anything including fences, cows and the occasional mountain), you really won't go any better than this PizzaTrak Masscre 2.0.

'Talk a selfie with us for the chance to win $1000!' So I did. Didn't win the cash though...

Some kind of machine shop? What I am I doing there? I forget. What I should've done though is work on making my new boots stop feeling like I've just strapped one of those concrete baths above to my feet and danced around for eight hours. 
By the time I made it home, even my roughest pair of shoes now felt like walking barefoot on freshly laid plush carpet. Oh well, they were only 40 dollerydoos, so... 

And finally a massive shout out to the Australian Army Band Kapooka who played everything from Bon Jovi to the Black Eyed Peas and smashed it. Protecting the nation while bringing the groove - top notch!

TOMORROW

Back in the studio but without any scones. Still, thanks for the wonderful day out Henty!

-Almigo