What did you do today?

[deye243]

Christened my new boat with a very tasty fish.

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Ended up with a good feed .

It was flat going across the lake but a little bumpy off shore as usual .

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[NTSOG]

G'day,

I was informed by SWMBO as she drove off with her horse to a riding lesson that it was a good day to start cutting hay. My plan had been to tidy the big machinery shed and check and lube the hay mower so as to start cutting next week. As I lubed the tractor yesterday and cleaned the cooling fins - Fendt 280P tractor with Deutz 80hp air-cooled engine - I cut the front paddock in 32C heat without any problem. Hopefully it will be a bit cooler tomorrow. At least there is little or no rain forecast for a week or so which is a change from last year when I just about needed a boat to get around the paddocks.

Jim

[Flyonline]

Christened my new boat with a very tasty fish.

Ended up with a good feed .

It was flat going across the lake but a little bumpy off shore as usual .

Nice! Been a long time since I've landed a flatty and that water sure looks flat, bet you don't see it like that often!

Fri PM I took the game camera out to a spot I'd found last w/e which looks like a heap of pig pads coming up a small finger ridge which join into others contouring off, there was a couple of pig rub trees and about 4 deer rub trees so hopefully see some of both. After dropping the camera off, I jumped the road onto the other side of the ridge and headed down a little side gully with difficulty to the junction with the main drainage. I'd remembered a large clearing from GE, but I was about 100m off and came in too low and didn't realise until I headed back to the car on last light up the main drainage. As I was sitting at the junction, I could hear something scuffling in the bush on the opposite side, but was never able to make out any movement. A koala or two fired up as I was waiting, then just as I was about to head back, I heard what I since think was a Quoll - kind of a mix between a koala and a yowling cat. I've played a few recordings back and some of them area quite close to what I heard, so I'm wondering if they could be present or I was just listening to to a couple of agro koalas squaring off in a tree. Might have to drop off the camera on this side of the hill with some nice chicken and egg mixture and see if I can get a photo.

On the way back to the car I found the clearing, a nice 200m or so opening with some blackberry patches and heaps of cover around the edges which is very rare in this part of the word. I bumped what I'm pretty sure were a couple of sambar and about 47,000 roos and wallabies, seriously the most I've ever seen in a short space of area and time. I also ran into a couple of wombats close up including a ginger one, something I've never seen before That was it other than nearly hitting another 47,000 roos on the way home and a lone sambar hind on the forest road verge.

[bladeracer]

Today we've spent in bed with covid, so we can finally tick that off our bucket list
Just went down to check the cows, this little bloke looks just how I feel today

[bigpete]

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Celebrated another trip around the sun on the weekend by going out for a hunt,followed by a bit of fly fishing. Then home to spend time with the missus ( who confusingly still looks attractive with a painted on moustache for movember),kids,and a little Scruffy dog. Drank a fair bit of rum,smoked way too much pipe tobacco, and chewed the fat with some mates. Photographed some birds,and all in all had a great day

[Oldbloke]

Best group of the black widows i loaded last week. Rest was just old wobbly picnic table so perhaps could do better.

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[Wm.Traynor]

Today was spent (partly) in dealing with the corrosion in one of the torches that would not work in last night's blackout. Scraping at the white stuff, inside the Endcap, with a sharpened screwdriver was only partly successful. That stuff was Welded to the metal It took the help of Stillsons to even get the cap off
The contents of an unlabelled bottle of white powder, when mixed with water, did nothing but waste time. Ditto for white vinegar, although I think it softened it a bit. In desperation, I tried the Dremel and an abrasive bit which worked and about time too.
The moral of the story is, "Don't store you torches with the batteries in them".

[Flyonline]

Ducked out yesterday afternoon/evening for a bit of a look see. Weather wasn't predicted to be great with high winds and some rain but my plan was to keep an eye on the radar and make a dash for the car or hunker down under a big tree and wait out the showers. Walked down a track on top of a steep finger ridge before diving off into the bushes to look at the gully bottom. Ended up putting up two sambar - both looked like yearlings though I only got a good look at the second but the first one honked me a couple of times.

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I was hoping to sit on the point of the finger ridge and glass the opposite face and/or gully bottom where it meets the main creek, but the trees were thicker than I remembered and there wasn't a lot of clear space to see so I doubled back and trekked up the other side of the ridge some way towards the car before deciding to hoof it back to the car and do a bit of road hunting and slowly drive out scanning for anything silly enough to be seen from the road. Turned out a good plan as I had just dropped off the top of the ridge and saw a group of goats hightailing it away from the road about 50m below me. Quickly parking the car I grabbed the gun and bag and raced off after them as quickly as I could through the dry leaves. Reaching the end of the little ridge I couldn't hear/see anything, so I decided to slowly make my way back up the side of the ridge and after only 20m or so, saw white shapes about 50m ahead - on!

The main mob of 10 or so were slowly feeding towards me, then just as the were about to get into a shooting lane, the all stopped and lay down or kept feeding in one spot. About 10m below them were a pair of young nannies, but I didn't have a good shot through the brush so edged my way closer. I slid my earbuds in and was just lining everything up, when a gust of wind behind me alerted the main mob and they all stood and slowly moved off. The two below me, turned and trotted off a few steps before stopping again. Through the trees I could see a clear shot on the bigger of the two nannies (couldn't see the other) and took the shot. As the mob bolted, the nanny turned and made it a few steps before crashing off out of view below me. Almost immediately the younger kid started bleating and I moved in but couldn't quite make out what was happening in the twilight of the evening - the white nanny was down without moving, but there was a smaller black head almost on top of it from my view. I figured that the black one was the nannies kid and was hanging around,but as I made my way down, I could see that the black one was a meter or two behind, and could hardly move - WTF?

Reaching the goats, I could finally see that the bullet had clearly passed through the white nanny and then blown through the stomach of the little black nanny standing behind, so I ended up finishing it off with the knife. Weird that they ended up a meter or two apart after falling 30m

Snagging a quick photo I whipped off the two back legs and one front shoulder in the last of the light before easing my aching legs back up the hill before the final scramble up the loose gravel of the road edge to the car before driving home again for a beer and a shower.

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2 for 1 deal!

I was also interested to try a new gut hook I'd bought - a box cutter!! It worked a treat and I was able to quickly unzip the whole length of the body to the sternum with ease and didn't even look like piercing the gut. This one takes 10sec to undo and change the blade in the field with a screwdriver, and as it's double sided you could get 4 fresh cuts without having to sharpen or change the blade and because it's plastic it weighs nothing. I don't know if it would do a big crusty mud covered boar or stag, but for goats, fallow and smaller bodies I'm sure it would do fine, and at $20 I'm not too fussed if I drop it and forget it https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/diplomat-safety-parrot-knife-a31-lediploa31

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That's enough for a pulled goat dinner for the whole family over Christmas sometime!!

[Wm.Traynor]

Well done, Flyonline. I'll bet you are

[bigpete]

Took my boy in to work today so he could earn some pocket money. To his credit he worked a solid hour dragging tree branches to a burn pile in the rain and lightning before he called it quits. Very proud of him.

[Oldbloke]

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/off ... lediploa31

That's a top idea.

Don't know where you are but obviously a top area for hunting. Like most I have to drive miles. Well done.

[Flyonline]

Took my boy in to work today so he could earn some pocket money. To his credit he worked a solid hour dragging tree branches to a burn pile in the rain and lightning before he called it quits. Very proud of him.

Great to hear! Gives me hope for the future to hear things like that - must be turning into an old crusty

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/diplomat-safety-parrot-knife-a31-lediploa31

That's a top idea.

Don't know where you are but obviously a top area for hunting. Like most I have to drive miles. Well done.

Can't remember what gave me the exact idea but I was glad it worked! I tried putting a gut hook on an existing knife and failed. Then I looked at a safety knife I have for the kayak (basically a gut hook to rip through rope/lines/webbing etc. if you go under and get wrapped up) but it's fully metal and quite heavy so wondered what else was out there. I reckon sharpening some of those tiny curved blades in other gut hooks would be hard at best, these are just like an old fashioned razor blade and you can get replacements.

Yes, I realise I'm VERY lucky to be 10min from Sambar and Fallow (have seen them 3min from home), 15 from goats and pigs and have plenty of space to walk around in Plus no bookings etc. like NSW and can go whenever I like That's not including the fishing either Sure, there might not be record book sized animals (numbers or size), but there's enough to keep me happy and hard enough I don't take them for granted. Ironically, I've had a hell of a lot harder time finding the goats lately than deer but the drier weather over summer(?!) should keep them a bit more tied to water.

Well done, Flyonline. I'll bet you are

Thanks

[wanneroo]

I played a bad guy as a role player in a training scenario for people going overseas in dangerous locales and spent the whole morning firing an AK with a blank firing adapter, went through a couple hundred blank 7.62x39. Not too difficult of a job, every time people would run from cover to cover, I would bang bang bang to get them to get a move on. Between scenarios I would have a snack and reload magazines. Not my usual job but happy to help out.

Finished with the program at noon, drove a couple hundred miles home, stopped to have a cheesesteak and pick up BBQ for tomorrow.

Back home now for the year and so many things to do. At thanksgiving my relative had a squib in my new 45 ACP Glock clone build. If it had been me shooting I would have recognized the pop and no recoil but as I was standing back with double ear pro on, I thought it was mechanical failure ejecting the casing and that the round had been fired but in fact the bullet was lodged in the barrel. Next shot, POW and the barrel expanded and jammed the slide and the gun was totally locked up. Ended up having to smash the slide back with a rubber mallet. Barrel is definitely toast and will have to inspect the slide to see if it is cracked or not. Also the ammo I used is segregated.

Anyways ordered another upper parts kit and barrel and if I have to, I will order another slide.

I've had nothing but trouble all year with these Glock clones. I could have had two nice factory pistols by the time I finish with all the expense of getting these two running.

[Flyonline]

Went and pulled my game cam today, found this little guy mosying around in the sun. Don't think I've ever seen such a coppery version.

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Tramped through some new ground, looks the goods and I'll be aiming to do a full trip along the length of the gully come autumn/winter and hopefully catch up with a pig or two and sambar. Jumped at least two sambar, but time was limited so I was covering ground rather than stalking.

[Oldbloke]

Went and picked up "Rocket". Our new family member.

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[bigpete]

I approve of your new pup oldbloke

[Oldbloke]

I approve of your new pup oldbloke

[Oldbloke]

We were told Chihuahua x terrier.

But looks like Jack Russell to us.
3 month old.

[bigpete]

I hope it doesn't have chihuahua in it. Psychotic little ****** those things are

[Wm.Traynor]

Very nice looking pup, Oldbloke

[Oldbloke]

I hope it doesn't have chihuahua in it. Psychotic little ****** those things are

That's what we were told. But seems like he is abt 90% Jack Russell. So far we'll behaved and likes a cuddle.
And rockets to the fridge when you open it.

[Flyonline]

Loaded up the dehydrator today with a 3kg(ish) of sambar jerky. Made a small batch last w/e as a tester and liked it so much I defrosted a large lump of leg to do a much bigger batch. Just a pretty standard recipe, though a quick taste of the small bit that had finished made me wish it was a little spicier, so I might through a sprinkle of cajun pepper in the vac bags as they get made up.

Have been out a few times fishing lately and can't seem to catch a cold. This time last year I would have been 100's deep (literally) in reddies and quite a few trout. Not sure what the difference is, other than I seem to miss-time the storms and get there too early or late to take advantage of them. Still, there's still plenty of summer to go. Gotta get back on the small creeks for some hopper time as it's about the best trout fishing around watching them smash a large dry in the clear water!

Was so impressed with my Shapton 1000# stone that I bought one for the kitchen at work and myself a 500# for putting a new edge on old/dull blades. A few passes with the 1000# on a slightly dull knife and a quick strop and they're back to razor sharp, and it's so easy with just a quick spray of water and then a rinse under the tap for cleanup. Hopefully can get my a into g and make up a roller sharpener for razor blades so I can sharpen then up again.

[bigpete]

Just been giving my blackhunter longbow a bit of love and smoking a bit of sutliffe vanilla custard

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[bigpete]

Renewed my Victorian deer licence and ordered my hog deer tags. Bring on April! Woo !

[Lazarus]

Went and picked up "Rocket". Our new family member.

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Cute baby OB

I also have a new best mate, she's 9 months old on Thursday, but this is one of her baby pics

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She's grown a little since then, 32 kg now and growing like a weed, eating 4kg of chicken breasts a week on top of her kangaroo kibble.

[Oldbloke]

They certainly are little "cutties".

[wanneroo]

It's about -15C right now and we got 6 inches of dry fluffy snow today, more like the snow you would see in the western USA.

But I went shooting a bit out on my winter range to finish filming a review on a Glock 45 ACP pistol lower. Used a propane heater on the back of the RTV to keep my hands warm.

The weather has mostly put a stop to outdoor activities so I have been in the barn loading subsonic 300 Blackout and 9mm and prepping tons of brass.

[JohnV]

I spent the morning finishing off a changeover to my back up computer number 1 . My desktop has suffered a failed hard drive or something like that and no recovery media worked , nothing ! it's 12 years old and been fixed a few times . I have not had time to pull it apart . For a while I thought I would have to go to backup computer number 2 as I could not get the printer installed but I finally worked out that it was the metered connection setting was wrong and blocking updates and now it's working ok .
Lost a small amount of data but nothing serious as I had 99% of files backed up on an external drive . Backup systems for backup systems , it's a Military thing .

[Lazarus]

I spent the morning finishing off a changeover to my back up computer number 1 . My desktop has suffered a failed hard drive or something like that and no recovery media worked , nothing ! it's 12 years old and been fixed a few times . I have not had time to pull it apart . For a while I thought I would have to go to backup computer number 2 as I could not get the printer installed but I finally worked out that it was the metered connection setting was wrong and blocking updates and now it's working ok .
Lost a small amount of data but nothing serious as I had 99% of files backed up on an external drive . Backup systems for backup systems , it's a Military thing .

We should always have our "actions on" John V, bloody computers, I have a love hate relationship with them they love to make me hate them

[JohnV]

I spent the morning finishing off a changeover to my back up computer number 1 . My desktop has suffered a failed hard drive or something like that and no recovery media worked , nothing ! it's 12 years old and been fixed a few times . I have not had time to pull it apart . For a while I thought I would have to go to backup computer number 2 as I could not get the printer installed but I finally worked out that it was the metered connection setting was wrong and blocking updates and now it's working ok .
Lost a small amount of data but nothing serious as I had 99% of files backed up on an external drive . Backup systems for backup systems , it's a Military thing .

We should always have our "actions on" John V, bloody computers, I have a love hate relationship with them they love to make me hate them

I am the same , computers are good when they are working well but a PITA when they are not . Luckily I started on computers a long time ago and I was not too old to learn a few things that help keep me operating . I am in two minds now , should I try to fix my old desktop or just buy a new Windows 11 computer ? Decisions , decisions . I might do both and see If I can upgrade it to windows 11 as it has 16 GB Ram and I will install a new hard drive and see what happens . It could also be the motherboard has died . Windows boot disk memory diagnostics say the hard drive is not connected in and out error , what that really means I don't know . Could even be something as simple as a bad Sata connector . I will try and fix it just for the experience and if it don't work remove the ram and hard drive and chuck it out .