Work gear

Its another rest day and so today I'd like to write about my outfit and gear when I go to work. Most of my work gear I leave in Abby's boot for convenience. Here's what they all look like - got most of these stuff from Kmart and Bunnings. In addition to work gear, I will also pack lunch from home for the 30min (paid!) lunch break that we have at around 11am ish. 

For my top, I usually wear 3 layers in the morning (pre-lunch) for the grunt work and picking. After lunch, when the sun is out I'll usually remove the outer-most layer for another hour of picking and then packing. 

I usually wear an inner, relatively fitting long sleeve T-shirt followed by a outer long sleeve button-shirt with a breast pocket. Because it is chilly in the morning with temperature in the 10 deg C range + winds, I will add on a third layer I call my 'woolies'.

3 layers of top, 1 rabakz pants and my black work boots.

For my bottoms, it is just 1 layer. I call them my rabakz pants ($35 from Kmart) - basically thick industrial pants with extra knee protection. The first couple of days of work I wore my timberland boots, but because of the kind of abuse it has to go through in the fields, I went to get another pair of black boots (again, from Kmart) for work purposes. Probably should have brought my Army boots for this. I also have a black raincoat and a pair of black rain pants for when it rains, which is ever so often in the winter. But they really only serve to reduce how wet I get; and because I'll be out in the rain for hours on end, it'll mean that water inevitably gets through. On days when it is absolutely pouring down on us, we will also wear a layer of garbage bag over our raincoats, to use as a make-shift raincoat.

raincoat and rainpants

Ok, moving on to other gear. 

Cap

A must have, rain or shine. 

If it is a good sunny day, it serves the purpose it was meant to serve - to block my face and my eyes from the sun.

If it is a miserable rainy day, it also helps to block the torrential rain from my face and eyes when I am battling the tarps or when I am waddling in mud trying to find the red amongst the green. If anything, this is one of the most important things to have in the rain so I don't have to keep wiping the rain off my face with my dirty gloves.

Kneepads

An absolute must have from Bunnings. Went my first day without it and my knees died. As you can see, they are very well-used even though I've only been at the farm for 2 weeks. I'd probably have to get a new pair (or a better pair soon). The cushion for this pair is thinning and it is no longer as effective as it has to be.

Thick gloves

I have 3 different types of gloves. This is the thickest pair for me to do battle with the tarps (curtains pulling). This pair essentially protects my fingers from the ropes and if you notice, there are blue strands of the rope on my gloves especially around the appendages area from me losing grip on the ropes and the ropes slicing through my gloves. 

If you look more closely at the left glove, you can also see the protection between the thumb and the index finger + the index finger area being worn off. I think you get an idea of the abuse it has been through and will (hopefully) continue to go through.

Picking gloves

These are my latex gloves. I usually wear them under my thick gloves in the morning because immediately after pulling the curtains, I'll be picking strawberries. As mentioned in my previous posts, strawberries are very vulnerable and thus can and should only be picked with thin gloves. It also helps that we can get a feel of the fruit and makes picking much less cumbersome and damaging to the plant. The reason why we have to wear gloves when picking is due to the amount of dust and pollen being kicked up as we move along the lanes. It supposedly helps to reduce the long-term exposure of your skin to the pollen and reduces itch. Some of the pickers even wear masks - to reduce breathing in these pollen and dust.

Packing gloves

At around 1pm to 2pm, we will transit from picking strawberries in the fields to the shed. We will then be packing the strawberries we have picked for the day into either 250g or 500g boxes. I play no part in that. I will be packing these boxes into cardboard cartons (15 boxes a carton) and them shifting them onto the padlets (2x3x15 cartons a padlet). These are gloves I use to do all that.These are thicker rubber gloves but much thinner than my thick gloves. Sidenote: we will usually pack about 4-5 padlets worth of strawberries a day.

I used to wear my picking gloves when I am packing but they wear out very quickly and tear midway through packing. There is usually also barely enough time to wear a new pair of gloves as the boxes will pile up quickly and if I take even 1 min off, strawberries boxes will start falling off the machine. I would go through 3 pairs of picking gloves per day, packing with those gloves. And so I decided it's really not financially feasible to destroy 3 pairs of picking gloves everyday I work (they're surprisingly quite expensive!) and swapped to this pair.

Lastly, my 1L Nalgene bootle. Courtesy of one of those gifts during staff seminar. What would I do without it. By lunch time, I would have gone through 1 full bottle. During lunch, I will refill this bottle with the tap under the blueberry tree where I have my lunch with the Malaysians.

On days where we had cooked rice for dinner the evening before, we would usually cook a bit more so that I can make fried rice in the next morning to bring to work. If not (which is more often than not), I will pack a sandwich of wholemeal bread, cheese, ham, guac and tomatoes. Similarly, if there was soup the night before, it'd be packed in a hot water flask. If not, my drink of choice will be a packet of chocalate milk (like a little kid hahaha).