Vicki’s Town and Country Rural Supplies in Kircaldy Street is regarded as one of Bathurst’s friendliest and best managed small businesses

She is currently our city’s Citizen of the Year and was last week named the Bathurst electorate Woman of the Year.

Many country people are delighted that we know someone who is “famous”.

ORGANISERS of the 150th Royal Bathurst Show are putting the finishing touches in place for the event which will be held from April 13-15.

The show dinner will be held on Saturday, April 7 at Bathurst RSL.

Tickets are $70 from saz.seatadvisor.com or RSL reception.

Wool steward Brian Seaman would appreciate more wool wool entries. Full entry details will be included in this column in coming weeks or you can phone Brian on 6332 2442.

MUCH of the catchment to Chifley Dam has missed the heavy storm rains that have fallen close to Bathurst city over the past couple of weeks.

This has resulted in the dam’s water level falling to about two-thirds capacity.

Some relics that haven’t been seen for some years are quite obvious and heavy rains in the Campbells River catchment will be very welcome when the Rain Gods return from long service leave.

Reports tell of normally very reliable springs in the Black Springs and Mount David area that are not running at present, and they are usually a good predictor of upcoming wetter conditions.

Our district is not far away from much cooler conditions and early mornings have already touched 8 degrees Celsius on lower country.

MUCH of our Central Tablelands is now in drought conditions and daily reports of “which area looks the worst” are coming in.

In my memory, I can’t remember the Orange, Byng and Lewis Ponds hills and valleys looking worse than at present.

To work alongside the Bathurst to Rockley main road the constant stream of loaded hay trucks going south is painfully obvious.

Feed barley grain has broken $350 per tonne and hand-feeding into winter will be costly for all involved.

No-one takes a scrap of notice of weather predictions at present but all would love to see an old-fashioned wet winter starting yesterday.

RICHARD Butcher from AWN Bathurst mentions the importance of keeping kemp out of crossbred lamb sweepings at current shearings.

Shankings from cross lambs are usually hair and not much else and Richard tells us that sweepings that are not free of kemp shanks are being “very heavily discounted” in present markets.

A few extra seconds with the broom will be time very well spent.

LONG-TIME residents of Bathurst and district are interested in a series of letters to the Western Advocate that outline the ongoing spread of new housing onto lands that were previous producers of meat, fibre and grain, that added value to our district’s primary production.

In some cases subdivisions of two to five acres have produced nothing as many are not fenced, but sellers of ride-on mowers, garden and plant nursery products must be delighted with the increased sales.

To me it seems a shame to see so many new houses jammed into every square metre but it appears that land development for housing operates on a pretty skinny margin and the adage “desperate men do desperate things” may possibly apply.

Many of us loved our quiet city with its 18,000 population where most of us knew each other but Bathurst is certainly a busy, modern country city now and a great place for youngsters to grow up.

AFTER weeks of good rises, the merino wools fell back this week as buyers reined in their demand.

Lower speculation wools with weak tensile strength and high mid-breaks were the hardest hit while wools with good measurements held their own.

Fine and superfine wools lost around 25c/kg while the broader merino wools lost around 50c/kg.

The crossbred wools bucked the trend with 25-27 microns rising around 15c/kg and the 28-30 microns up around 5c/kg.

Merino cardings also took a hit, losing 20c/kg. The northern market indicator finished the week on 1869c/kg, down 31c/kg.

Although we have seen some correction in the market levels are still very high with 17 micron wools sitting on 2802c/kg, 18 micron at 2398c/kg, 19 at 2085c/kg and 20 micron at 1958c/kg.

With a lot of wool clips around our area averaging around 18 micron and cutting around of 4.5kg with a yield of 73 per cent, the return is around $80 per head which has not been seen for many years.

Next week will see 43,894 bales on offer nationwide.

HE said: “The wife asked me to pass her lip balm. I accidentally passed the super glue and she hasn’t spoken to me for days.”

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DID you know:

And, finally, a sign in a German lift: “Do not enter lift backwards, and only when lit up.”