Fires update

It seems from the news over the last couple of days that the extreme temperatures and winds that were the final trigger of this disaster in our nations south have finally subsided, and even though there are still 4 major fires and a lot of smaller fires still active, they are burning at a level where fire crews can finnally control them - this weather pattern is predicted for at least the next week, and with the resources that are deployed in Vict at the moment, hopefully these fires will be contained in the next 48 hrs or so.

I am not aware of any recent fatalities/ major injuries over the last few days, and the death toll was still 210 last I heard (but there are still people unaccounted for). I have yet to hear a report on deaths to native animals, livestock etc - but would imagine that this figure would run into the 10's of thousands or higher.

Now we will watch and see if the various charities that have had over $100.000.000 so far in cash donations, let alone clothing, food, fodder etc, can do the right thing , or stuff up as was the case following "Cyclone Tracey" in Darwin in 1974, where the people who were supposed to benefit from the nations response got stuff all

Re Climate Change and a few prior blogs

As some of you who read this may remember, I entered this year with the certainty that some close friends& fellow firies were going to depart this mortal realm very soon - unfortunately this has happened, along with the mother of another close friend (and fellow firie) who was a friend to many

Jack was a fairly close nieghbour,with his wife Shirley they ran a small farm with goats, Jack Russells, & Maremmas as their choice of stock- even into their 80's, they were an active part of our brigade - Shirley has been treasurer for many years and both played a part on the fireline till age limited that possibility, but they were both there doing what they could to help in a crisis

Judith (wife of our own "Lanky Yank") was secretary of the brigade for a number of years - was initially thought to be a "Greenie" till we got to know her , then we realised that she was a die hard conservationist - but not one eyed like the leftist greens. She was always keeping the long term preservation of the flora & fauna in the forefront of my decisions with hazard reductions, and continued that with my successor as captain. I think that after a few years, she came to accept that we who raced out and strategically burnt areas of the bush in a seemingly ad hoc manner, were actually being conservationists as well in that we were reducing the chance of a major fire impacting to a large extent on the native plants and animals.

"Shine"- Lover of the land - mother of a very good friend of mine - loved and respected by all in the community that was a large part of her life -even in her mid 80's, when she was finding it difficult to saddle up a horse, took to a 4 wheeler bike to be able to check on her beloved cattle -and help out with the associated husbandry -a genuine country woman.

Fires update and other nature events

Ok - so the fires in Victoria still go on but there was a bit of better news today with a revision of the expected final death toll back to approx 220 - they have been able to trace 70 + of the missing, believed killed to being alive.

Unfortunately the death toll currently stands at 210, which includes 3 firefighters - 2 volunteers and a professional firie who was working out of area to help out. Also there have been a couple of reasonably serious injuries, including members from brigades near me who were providing assistance. (Consider the fact that I live 800miles -1200 kms away from the fire scene and the enormity of the task might become a bit clearer)

On the other end of the continent, we have witnessed major flooding which has isolated communities and properties for weeks, with a number of deaths by drowning and one case of being taken by a croc (why any parent would condone, let alone allow a child to play near or in floodwaters beggars belief - floods are similar to wildfires, mother nature is running rampant and is totally unpredictable and unforgiving - to call playing in floodwaters "a rite of passage"
is akin to letting children play hopscotch in the middle of a major freeway.

Nearer home there has been major floodingto the south of me (Coffs harbour, Bellingen, Kempsey and a few areas south to Newcastle. I am under minor flood alert which is not a real issue to me at the moment - the river was rising on Tuesday so I pulled my pump etc out to high ground (dont need the pump at the moment, the tanks are full and rain is pattering on the roof as I type) ,and the cattle will work to the higher ground if the river does rise towards major levels, so all is well in my world in that respect as we needed this rain now to give us a chance to get some winter feed in the paddocks and some ground water back into the soil.

" Climate Change ???" - Mankind and the enviroment

Over the last week , we have witnessed the savagery that nature can inflict in Victoria, Australia,
with fires of a magnitude that has been equalled to the equivalenty of 660 Nagasaki / Hiroshima events.

Whole towns have been completely destroyed, approximately 200 people are dead and another 100 are feared dead at this stage -most of these towns are classified as crime scenes whilst the police and other specialists undertake the gruesome task of searching for bodies in the rubble, and also try to determine the actual cause of the fire - arson is suspected in some cases ( 1 arrest has been made in relation to one particular fire)

For those of you who have not had access to the dramas that unfolded - consider that one town that was almost completely razed - pop 500 - they expect to recover 100 bodies .

The talkback radios have been full on with comments , critisms , and debate over the causes and management/ mismanagement that led to this whole tragedy unfolding ( and the fires are still burning) , but the greatest lot of bull that I have heard on this was on the news tonight with the Xspurts blaming climate change for this event, and even going to the lengths of obtaining opinions from forestry fire fighters in the US -they might know there flora, but they dont know ours.

The bottom line seems to be the extreme influence that the radical "Green" element has imposed on the management of the Australian "bush", which has led up to the declaration, then basically locking up, of large areas of National Parks - with an ever increasing number of beauracrats & "Xspurts", and a 3 fold diminishing of the staff who were responsible for the on ground maintenance of these areas for the safety of the flora and fauna, and responsible for the control of exotic flora and fauna in these areas - and also their attitude that they can control what someone who owns property adjacent can or cannot do on their own property - perhaps thjey should look back on their own achievements in recent years - 3 dead employees at a prescribed burn + 7 hospitilised for months, properties and livestock destroyed because they refused to allow a backburn to be put in to contain an out of control fire -etc this all in NSW.

Whilst they wring there hands about the possible extinction of the "lesser known double spotted frog " and his ilk , perhaps they should consider that once there were mammoths ,dodos etc. These are now extinct, and thousands of other creatures, and perhaps we are the lesser for their passing, but it must be remembered that we live in the enviroment that is here now -and mankind has made many grave errors over the last200 years or so, which we must endeavour to rectify as far as possible, and endeavour to not worsen the damages done, - but also, we must ensure that the enviroment that we create is safe for us, and the flora and fauna that is a part of that enviroment. Destruction such as is happening in Victoria is unforgivable ,especially when it is known that a few people with "common sense" instead of a degree could see the problem, but were shouted down.

Perhaps I should mention that I am a (volunteer) firie of 30+ yrs experience and count as fellow brigade members and friends a collection of people (including 2 Yanks) who are conservationists, people who are willing to put in the hard yards to try to prevent large scale fires and devastation,whilst also trying to maintain a secure haven for our native friends on and in the earth.

Life, and its strange cycles ??

I know its been a while since i posted anything, but there have been various reasons that overlapped to cause this,mainly the ruggies and trying to get the house done inside (still not finished - had a financial setback and machinery failure at the same time which lost me 6 weeks or so - lol) butalso had the odd issue at work, and a couple of nights on the fireline for good measure thrown in in the leadup to Christmas - wont even mention thefact that my main email address was chokedwith large emails for 5 weeks till I finally found a way to get them in - bloody frustrating.

Unfortunately, todays email offerings was the news that a neighbour and fellow firie had died this morning after a period of deteriating health - this will be the fourth funeral that I should attend since Christmas - but also got the news that another friend and brigade member is also not expected to live for very long - she has a tumour on an artery in her neck.

A couple of years ago saw the end of my fathers direct generation in a period of less than 18 mths, there is only an aunt by adoption, and an aunt by marraige - both a fair bit younger than the rest -left of that era of our family. This string of events did have a consequence in that there was a family gettogether organised for all of my cousins and any children etc who could get together for that weekend - were only3 who couldnt attend out of13 and a lot of the next generation was there as well.

This event was also used as an opportunity to collate the family history - a lot has been researched - but there were gaps even within the current generation (Maiden names & DOB of spouses etc) so hopefully that info is now together and we just have to fill in some of the gaps in prior generations in Australia - Noone has been able to find records on my paternal GGG Grandfather & mother other than their names an area of residence in Sthn England

7 Years (nearly)

7 years ago on 9-11 I saw the images that were streamed around the world from New York on the TV in the maternity ward at Grafton Hospital during a "false alarm" start to the birth of the twins.

Back home next day, but with the edict from the doctors that something had to happen soon, and 7 days later,things were happening, but not as well as they should - so next morning a quick trip to the op theatre and at 4-15am No4 son was brought into the world , followed 2 mins later by No 1 daughter (AKA "the littlest feral one).


No he's not trying to cut off No 3's head (though think that he would like to sometimes - lol) just trying out his presents.














Seven years ago they were cute, controllable(??) and cuddly - what did I do wrong ??????? - oh well, they all get older and become their own individual selves, but sometimes ------(wish, wish)

Oh well , Happy 7th Birthday for tomorrow Ethan & Lilly

Stuffed up days

Woke up Saturday morning ready to get into the current (repaint ) room -everything needed purchased over the last week, so a couple of coffees and ready to fire up the sander -wrong - both the new belts were not correct (too loose), so change of plans and go to plan B (using coarser belts) -they were too bloody shortand would not even go on the machine, so much hairpulling, ranting and raving, then looking for receipts etc and off to the local hardware store to get replacements - end result was belts that fitted, but 4 hours lost, so the room that should have been well and truly finished now still needs a couple of hours at least. Given that I leave home in the dark through the week and usually get home in the dark, the loss of 4 hrs + of daylight is a big negative in my plannings - lol

Life, and its entails

I suppose that I have been a bit slack/ negative over the last couple of weeks, there were a few inputs into that happening, including being played for a dupe by a threetiming cyber friend, but that is now history. Was going through downers last post in that I couldnt achieve the goals that I was striving towards in the timeframe that I had set initially - those goals mainly being to repaint the interior of the house, and make it a place that I was not ashamed to have as a home for my children and for friends to visit - still got a way to go but Im slowly getting there.

One big upset was last Thursday (13th) coming home to a series of phonecalls from nieghbours that a young man in similar circumstances to me had hung himself in the park adjacent to my property- the ultimate form of self harm - turns out that his ex had made it that he could not go near his children through legal channels : Dont the mothers of children realise that at least 99% of the fathers of these children have deep feelings for them - its NOT just a mother thing Girls, us blokes do have feelings/ love/ affection/ etc towards our children, and to create a situation that leads to this result ultimately is a losing situation for the children - they now have NO father.

Out of sorts

The last few weeks have been a bit of turmoil in my life -have had a workplace situation finally come to boiling point ( a result of "Workchoices") that has seen me and a few of my workmates dudded for making the effort to work when we were not 100% ok- seems that we have lost our entitlements to untaken sick pay, so now if we are not feeling ok, off to the quacks and a couple of days sickies. ( given that this amounted to $800 in the Xmas pay packet, not getting it, and not being told that it was not being included led to some stuffed budgets at the least) but the chickens are going to come home to roost in the next few days - 1 bloke takes a " sickie" - and the whole place stops - noone else can do his job - rofl

Also been doing some floor sanding and painting - which has meant a lot of time just trying to clean up the mess (and loads of washing) before the kids fortnightly weekend with me.

Throw into the mix a series of (large) bills all at once, and the dreaded tax time as well, it has been an eventfull 6 weeks or so.

Waste (of natural resources)

One of the things that has interrupted my blogging access this last week was the failure of the alternator in my ute. This led to some rather drastic measures to actually being able to get to and from work (with the subsequent time involved - :-) )

There were a few possible causes of this problem, starting with a blown fuse as the first check - none blown - but the worst case scenario was a blown diode pack, which was a real possibility as the ruggies had used the ute to jumpstart the tractor last weekend.

Come Saturday morning, I stripped the alternator and did the necessary tests to find (happily) that it was no more than a worn out set of brushes that was causing the problem , so off to the auto electricians for a new set of brushes, bearings and an oil seal (max $50.00). whilst they had the brushes etc in stock, they were most insistant that the only thing to do was to throw the old one away and buy a new (aftermarket) unit for $600 - $800. Funnily enough, I had been repairing these items when the people trying to tell me what I should do were still in primary school, and have decided that there will be no more dealings by me with that firm - I may not hve the tickets but I DO have the qualifications in this field.

It struck me most tho, that in this age of greenhouse effects, climate change etc, that to just trash a whole assembly for the sake of a small handfull of parts and an hours labour was a negative way of looking at things.

Flying Foxes

Hope that this might show the general idea of a "Flying Fox". This one is a bit more elaborate than most, but was a part of a commercial operation.

It is also the common name for the fruit bat, a small bat that is native to Australia, and lives on fruit and poses quite a few problems to orchards.

Billycarts

For the American readers _ this is a couple of comic strips that should show what we in Australia call a "Billy cart".

"Ginger Meggs" is the basic "Ocker" kid,always in trouble at school for wagging to go fishing, being a bit entrepreneurial at times, getting bashed regularly by the local bully ,not understanding his girlfriend, etc.
This comicstrip has been a part of Australian life for a long time,nearly as long as the "Phantom" and a few others that are still going, it has changed a little bit over the last few years following the retirement and death of its founder, but to the best of my knowledge, the tradition is being maintained by one of his grandsons.

If you are interested , there is a website , and if you are on a reasonably fast connection, you should be able to access the archives (I cant, keep getting timed out