My job has been improved by some major alterations to the harvesting barge which has made a vast improvement to our production capability, I am now able to get the packing team on the go and then go off with the "Mussel Cat" and take care of other things on the farm, such as getting oyster stacks out for cleaning and sorting (and tasting!) and the odd bit of maintenance that I have had to help with.
Before the alterations the Mussel Cat was an integral part of the process and had to stay alongside the barge as part of the machinery and the packing tables were on the deck. Now the barge has been extended by five metres and the whole process; lifting the mussel ropes out of the water at the one end to the finished 5kg bags of cleaned and sorted mussels packed at the other end, all takes place on the barge.
Add to this the fact that for the past ten days the weather has been glorious and you can see that things have been pretty good for me. The sun rises at 0815 by which time I am already driving the boat around the farm and thinking "Damn, I'm getting paid for this!" I don't envy people who are sitting in traffic jams on their way to an office, that's for sure.
I still haven't had much time on the big red machine yet, I had to go to a meeting in Capetown on Saturday so we only had time for a short ride on Sunday and when Janet went for her customary afternoon kip I went for a fast blast to Yzerfontein and had a couple of cups of coffee. A good fast ride home and in the evening we went to the Blue Diamond for a short while, they were playing some good Country Rock for a change.
We haven't had a braai for ages but that will start happening soon.
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