What did you do today?

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by wanneroo » 29 Aug 2022, 11:30 pm

It's been a busy month for me, I was in Colorado in the Rocky Mountains for a week. Then was home briefly and then away for work.

Summer is having it's last fits of heat, today I think it hits 30C and then will start trending downwards. Some leaves and vegetation are already turning. I think we will have great fall color this year with the fall forecast predicting dry weather with warm days and cool nights. Now the race is on to get a lot of projects done before winter.

I have been working on a couple of things when I have time, a 38 Special project, some 300 Blackout resizing, 9mm loading, etc.

I am doing a rural property privacy and security video series for Youtube, so stay tuned for that, I want to get that done this month.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 30 Aug 2022, 7:52 am

wanneroo wrote:I am doing a rural property privacy and security video series for Youtube, so stay tuned for that, I want to get that done this month.


That sounds good!
As long as it doesn't need wifi :-)
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 30 Aug 2022, 11:16 am

Did a hay run this morning.
Chain it to the shed and drive the ute out from underneath it :-)
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by wanneroo » 30 Aug 2022, 12:21 pm

bladeracer wrote:
wanneroo wrote:I am doing a rural property privacy and security video series for Youtube, so stay tuned for that, I want to get that done this month.


That sounds good!
As long as it doesn't need wifi :-)


No you can do without wifi, but having some trail cameras or cell phone trail cams in some spots is not a bad idea.

I wrote out a 2 page synopsis and want to divide it into two videos, some background/introduction and then a video on the execution part of it.

The idea behind it is not to turn your property into a castle in europe or a firebase in Vietnam, but just using some passive and active measures to minimize trespassers, criminals and unwanted lookie loo people from snooping around. When I first moved to where I was, people treated it like some state park, just doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, so I had to nip that in the bud and came up with various ways to discourage such activity and as a result really don't have a problem now. I came up with about a dozen different things you can do.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by wanneroo » 30 Aug 2022, 12:22 pm

bladeracer wrote:Did a hay run this morning.
Chain it to the shed and drive the ute out from underneath it :-)


That's one way to do it! :lol:
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 30 Aug 2022, 12:52 pm

wanneroo wrote:No you can do without wifi, but having some trail cameras or cell phone trail cams in some spots is not a bad idea.

I wrote out a 2 page synopsis and want to divide it into two videos, some background/introduction and then a video on the execution part of it.

The idea behind it is not to turn your property into a castle in europe or a firebase in Vietnam, but just using some passive and active measures to minimize trespassers, criminals and unwanted lookie loo people from snooping around. When I first moved to where I was, people treated it like some state park, just doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, so I had to nip that in the bud and came up with various ways to discourage such activity and as a result really don't have a problem now. I came up with about a dozen different things you can do.


Our farm is three separate blocks, on both sides of a major road, with other blocks and houses in between. It's a 2500m walk from the house here to the gate of the furthest block. We have our cows grazing on two neighbour's properties in between our own blocks at the moment. There is rear access to our other two blocks from the pine plantation, but it's a 3km drive around there, and at this time of year it's pretty dodgy getting back out on the wet clay tracks even in the Landcruiser. We also avoid driving in the blocks so we do _a lot_ of walking.

I'd love to set cameras around the property that we can access from the house, more for the time it would save us having to go out and check the cattle, than for security. But hills and trees make lines of sight very difficult for radio signals, and cabling would run to several kilometers. I keep coming back to a drone being the most effective answer, but it requires us to direct it to a situation we're already aware, so not much of a passive security solution. Trail cameras are good too, but I can't see the tiny screens out there so it's a matter of going out, swapping new cards (and batteries) into them, and coming home to view them on the computer - long after any event has occurred.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by NTSOG » 30 Aug 2022, 4:35 pm

wanneroo "unwanted lookie loo people" tend to be 'hydraulic' in my experience. We have an unmade, but passable Crown road up one side of our property. My big machinery shed is 100 yards in from that road. I never used to worry twenty years ago, but, as 'tourists' have come to live nearby on smaller blocks leading to their 'lookie loo' mates visiting, I have removed all 'man-portable' equipment from the shed leaving only large farm equipment like the hay rake, 5' slasher, hay mower and so on. I deliberately leave the large 16' roller door up rather than have them need to force the entrance door so they can come, look and leave without having to break in. I've thought of installing cameras, but didn't in the end, partly because I'm out and about with a rifle looking for foxes several nights of the week. Anyone local [and hopefully their mates] will know that I shoot after dark on the property and all will be aware that I'm retired and always on/around the property working.

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by wanneroo » 31 Aug 2022, 12:41 pm

bladeracer wrote:Our farm is three separate blocks, on both sides of a major road, with other blocks and houses in between. It's a 2500m walk from the house here to the gate of the furthest block. We have our cows grazing on two neighbour's properties in between our own blocks at the moment. There is rear access to our other two blocks from the pine plantation, but it's a 3km drive around there, and at this time of year it's pretty dodgy getting back out on the wet clay tracks even in the Landcruiser. We also avoid driving in the blocks so we do _a lot_ of walking.

I'd love to set cameras around the property that we can access from the house, more for the time it would save us having to go out and check the cattle, than for security. But hills and trees make lines of sight very difficult for radio signals, and cabling would run to several kilometers. I keep coming back to a drone being the most effective answer, but it requires us to direct it to a situation we're already aware, so not much of a passive security solution. Trail cameras are good too, but I can't see the tiny screens out there so it's a matter of going out, swapping new cards (and batteries) into them, and coming home to view them on the computer - long after any event has occurred.


Sounds like you need a side by side recreational vehicle. Much better and more nimble for getting around a rural property than a Land Cruiser. I use my Kubota RTV every day when home and I patrol once a day around the property.

You can use trail cameras wired into cell phone networks to provide an instant picture send to you, however if you have a busy trail camera that can end up buggering you with lots of pics. Might work for a gate or something like that.

I just use regular trail cameras and switch out cards once a week. A good trail camera batteries with lithium AAs should last almost six months of battery life.

Thing is trail cameras let people know you are keeping an eye on things so I place some in the open and some more hidden to watch over the others. I have them at all access points and at random spots around the property. Even have one on the driveway that records the licence plates of anyone coming or going.

I have about a dozen different things I do which I will cover in the video. All of them together combine to keep things under control and minimize any issues.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by wanneroo » 31 Aug 2022, 12:47 pm

NTSOG wrote:wanneroo "unwanted lookie loo people" tend to be 'hydraulic' in my experience. We have an unmade, but passable Crown road up one side of our property. My big machinery shed is 100 yards in from that road. I never used to worry twenty years ago, but, as 'tourists' have come to live nearby on smaller blocks leading to their 'lookie loo' mates visiting, I have removed all 'man-portable' equipment from the shed leaving only large farm equipment like the hay rake, 5' slasher, hay mower and so on. I deliberately leave the large 16' roller door up rather than have them need to force the entrance door so they can come, look and leave without having to break in. I've thought of installing cameras, but didn't in the end, partly because I'm out and about with a rifle looking for foxes several nights of the week. Anyone local [and hopefully their mates] will know that I shoot after dark on the property and all will be aware that I'm retired and always on/around the property working.

Jim


In the end you may want to use a trail camera or two just to record what might be coming around and you might be surprised.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 31 Aug 2022, 3:04 pm

I've considered a side-by-side or a quad bike but it just seems to be another vehicle to maintain that still cuts wheel ruts around the paddocks. We have a Ratbarrow, which is made locally here in Gippsland. Golf buggy driveline with a bucket in front and a trailer behind. Not a great design, but it's lightweight and leaves no tracks, hopeless in mud or wet grass though. We've pretty well worn it out now and I'm looking to do an electric conversion which will improve it significantly. It does what we need it to, dragging water troughs around, removing the occasional dead calf. Rose's dad used it as a sort of mobility scooter to get around the sheds before he left us. The Landcruiser or tractor really only go into the paddocks when we collect firewood. And we do enjoy walking :-)

Stripped out the axles and springs from under the tandem cattle crate just now. Need to measure everything up for new axles, springs, linkages, brakes and hubs. Then I want to build a deck on top that we can swap in to carry eight bales of hay, back it into the shed, jack up the deck and pull the trailer out from under it.
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wanneroo wrote:Sounds like you need a side by side recreational vehicle. Much better and more nimble for getting around a rural property than a Land Cruiser. I use my Kubota RTV every day when home and I patrol once a day around the property.

You can use trail cameras wired into cell phone networks to provide an instant picture send to you, however if you have a busy trail camera that can end up buggering you with lots of pics. Might work for a gate or something like that.

I just use regular trail cameras and switch out cards once a week. A good trail camera batteries with lithium AAs should last almost six months of battery life.

Thing is trail cameras let people know you are keeping an eye on things so I place some in the open and some more hidden to watch over the others. I have them at all access points and at random spots around the property. Even have one on the driveway that records the licence plates of anyone coming or going.

I have about a dozen different things I do which I will cover in the video. All of them together combine to keep things under control and minimize any issues.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 07 Sep 2022, 3:12 pm

First calf of the season. Came backwards so had to drag her out with chains.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by JimTom » 07 Sep 2022, 3:19 pm

Got up in the dark to go chase a deer. Successful hunt, just finished processing everything.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bigpete » 07 Sep 2022, 4:25 pm

bladeracer wrote:First calf of the season. Came backwards so had to drag her out with chains.

Used to hate having to do that
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 07 Sep 2022, 7:25 pm

bigpete wrote:
bladeracer wrote:First calf of the season. Came backwards so had to drag her out with chains.

Used to hate having to do that


It does tend to have a high failure rate, but both are doing great. She was standing within two minutes of dropping.
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Then we tested some more .303 loads.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by wanneroo » 07 Sep 2022, 11:48 pm

After a very dry summer, the past five days haven't seen the sun, half a foot of rain has come down, no breeze either. So that has kinda of crimped plans the past few days. It is however going to warm up to about 25C this weekend before trending down. Leaves are starting to turn, autumn is gradually arriving.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Lazarus » 08 Sep 2022, 2:28 pm

Good to see you guys getting some relief wanneroo :clap:

I went back inside watched it flog down the moment I finished setting up targets out to 200m.

Good onya Hughie

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bigpete » 08 Sep 2022, 3:44 pm

bladeracer wrote:
bigpete wrote:
bladeracer wrote:First calf of the season. Came backwards so had to drag her out with chains.

Used to hate having to do that


It does tend to have a high failure rate, but both are doing great. She was standing within two minutes of dropping.
20220907_174322b.jpg

Then we tested some more .303 loads.


Strangely enough I don't remember ever losing a breached calf,but I can only remember finding 3.....
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 08 Sep 2022, 4:24 pm

bigpete wrote:
bladeracer wrote:
bigpete wrote:
bladeracer wrote:First calf of the season. Came backwards so had to drag her out with chains.

Used to hate having to do that


It does tend to have a high failure rate, but both are doing great. She was standing within two minutes of dropping.
20220907_174322b.jpg

Then we tested some more .303 loads.


Strangely enough I don't remember ever losing a breached calf,but I can only remember finding 3.....


We've pulled a few, more than a half dozen probably less than a dozen I would think, haven't lost one yet. Not uncommon, that's why we keep the lube and chains handy during calving. Rose thinks it has some hereditary cause.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 09 Sep 2022, 6:43 pm

Got all the trailer gear this morning.
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Welded the spring locating tabs on the axles, then finished painting everything - I had expected it to come painted. He did ask me for the spring centres measurement so they could weld the tabs on, in which case perhaps they would've painted it as well, but I preferred to do it myself. The springs came with 12mm nylon bushes in the ends, but the bolts are 14.3mm so I had to get a 14.5mm drill bit to bore them out. Had to go to town to get paint and a drill bit, so I grabbed 1000 Large Rifle Magnum primers while I was in there. Got the springs hung on the axles now, and one wheel mounted on each. Hopefully just roll them under the trailer in the morning and it should all bolt together neatly. Then I have to hook up the hand brake, wire up the electric brakes, and check the wheel alignment.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Flyonline » 11 Sep 2022, 4:28 pm

Spent half the day chasing a fault in our internal wiring for a speaker system that was in place when we bought our house recently. I couldn't get the 2x rear speakers to work for some reason as it had originally been wired to run the amp in an internal cupboard which I don't want to use (my family would be forever leaving it turned on!) to the 5ch ports in the walls. Turns out the only fault was between my ears as I'd forgotten I'd run the Left Rear speaker through the CEN port and a jumper across the central hub to the amp i.e. AMP - CEN - Left Rear rather than the logical AMP - Left Front - Left Rear. Of course I wasn't going to get a continual circuit testing the Front Left :oops: :oops: So now I've got the Front Left cable halfway up inside the wall and have to decide if I want to risk cutting one of the other cables off to pull a string through into the roof so I can then pull both cables BACK through the wall to the hub :crazy:

Then I went out to the olds to check my trail cam and try various settings in a reasonably controlled environment before turning it loose in the bush. Turns out you shouldn't hedge your bets on two game trails as you might not get any photos of either, so I moved it around to pick up a funnel on a fence edge. Hopefully might pick up a samber or two but will probably be almost all roos.

Had a bit of a win with a very old goat shoulder that was taking space in the freezer. After de-frosting it I brined it overnight in a simple brine then simply roasted it like a lamb (@ 225c for approx 40mins to high 60s internal temp) with a quick spice rub. It came out really well considering everything against it: nice and pink in the center, very juicy and tender and not tough at all. Not quite as good as a home kill lamb, but not far off. Better certainly than your average supermarket jobby. Next goat that comes home with me will get a full roast back leg to really see how it shines. I usually do a very loooooong slow cook curry/stew to beat the toughness of goat (even young ones), but even at 12hrs plus I end up with some chewiness/al dente so this might be a good option to get past this as well. It even lost that goaty smell you usually get when browning off the meat, so win/win!

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Wm.Traynor » 17 Sep 2022, 2:41 pm

Cleaned mould from the ceiling of the en-suite, by squirting with 50/50 vinegar and water. Wiping off was the really difficult part and there are still dark patches around the edges.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by on_one_wheel » 17 Sep 2022, 6:16 pm

Wm.Traynor wrote:Cleaned mould from the ceiling of the en-suite, by squirting with 50/50 vinegar and water. Wiping off was the really difficult part and there are still dark patches around the edges.


Did the same thing not long back, used stronger than 50/50 vinegar and a sponge mop to make life easy... the mold came back pretty fast.
Last year I used beach and it kept it under control for much longer.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Wm.Traynor » 17 Sep 2022, 6:51 pm

on_one_wheel wrote:
Wm.Traynor wrote:Cleaned mould from the ceiling of the en-suite, by squirting with 50/50 vinegar and water. Wiping off was the really difficult part and there are still dark patches around the edges.


Did the same thing not long back, used stronger than 50/50 vinegar and a sponge mop to make life easy... the mold came back pretty fast.
Last year I used beach and it kept it under control for much longer.


Thank you o_o_w. Good to get your feedback :) :thumbsup:
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by on_one_wheel » 17 Sep 2022, 9:05 pm

Wm.Traynor wrote:
on_one_wheel wrote:
Wm.Traynor wrote:Cleaned mould from the ceiling of the en-suite, by squirting with 50/50 vinegar and water. Wiping off was the really difficult part and there are still dark patches around the edges.


Did the same thing not long back, used stronger than 50/50 vinegar and a sponge mop to make life easy... the mold came back pretty fast.
Last year I used beach and it kept it under control for much longer.


Thank you o_o_w. Good to get your feedback :) :thumbsup:


:thumbsup:
You've prompted me to get it done again tonight, all I can smell is bleach... stinks.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by NTSOG » 18 Sep 2022, 6:43 am

G'day,

Wednesday we brought in the calves - 10-11 months - and separated the steers to sell at the local store sale last Friday. We kept two, the largest steer to be killed for the freezer in two weeks and the youngest/smallest. [We're keeping the heifers to run on; for some reason over the last few seasons we've bred very few heifer calves. Our mature cows are getting old and we need to replace some of them.] We expected to make about $1800 per head as the market has been down due to the Foot & Mouth scare. Before that steers were making $2200 locally. To our delight the mob averaged 330kgms weight and scored $2150 per head.

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Wm.Traynor » 18 Sep 2022, 8:45 am

on_one_wheel wrote:
Wm.Traynor wrote:
on_one_wheel wrote:
Wm.Traynor wrote:Cleaned mould from the ceiling of the en-suite, by squirting with 50/50 vinegar and water. Wiping off was the really difficult part and there are still dark patches around the edges.


Did the same thing not long back, used stronger than 50/50 vinegar and a sponge mop to make life easy... the mold came back pretty fast.
Last year I used beach and it kept it under control for much longer.


Thank you o_o_w. Good to get your feedback :) :thumbsup:


:thumbsup:
You've prompted me to get it done again tonight, all I can smell is bleach... stinks.


My wife tells me that bleach will eat through my clothes if I get a drop on them. Sooo................We might hold off on it in future but now she's had the bright idea of painting over it and I have been conscripted :huh: Might have to research mould resistant paint this morning.
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bladeracer » 18 Sep 2022, 9:34 am

That's good news, we're taking six steers in this week.

NTSOG wrote:G'day,

Wednesday we brought in the calves - 10-11 months - and separated the steers to sell at the local store sale last Friday. We kept two, the largest steer to be killed for the freezer in two weeks and the youngest/smallest. [We're keeping the heifers to run on; for some reason over the last few seasons we've bred very few heifer calves. Our mature cows are getting old and we need to replace some of them.] We expected to make about $1800 per head as the market has been down due to the Foot & Mouth scare. Before that steers were making $2200 locally. To our delight the mob averaged 330kgms weight and scored $2150 per head.

Jim
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by NTSOG » 18 Sep 2022, 10:42 am

G'day bladeracer,

Hopefully the market will continue to get stronger for sellers and you'll do well. My neighbours [who made $2200 for their steers before the FMD scare] also got $1800 for their heifers at the same sale.

Let us know how you go.

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by bigpete » 18 Sep 2022, 3:03 pm

Did a 4km walk with the missus and kids and stuffed my knees big time. Stupid arthritis :(
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Oldbloke » 18 Sep 2022, 3:40 pm

Well, my osteo arthritis & gout in the feet has settled down after almost 6 weeks. Now the weather is shet. Hunting and fishing is shet, you rely soooo much on the weather.
Let's hope it improves. Hardly been out for months.
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