Joys of Summer in the Bush...

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Joys of Summer in the Bush...

Post by Jorlcrin » 17 Nov 2024, 10:15 am

So,

Joys of Summer..
Twice-daily water runs; checking for bogged animals in 3 or 4 dams, and a number of water-troughs.
Sunrise run is always pleasant.
Sunset run is always stinking hot.
Most afternoons have been above 42 degrees this past fortnight, so still nudging 40 when I head out around 5:30pm.

On the bright side, usually a bit of Hot Pork to share the love with.
On the bleak side; usually an animal or two that need a bullet for kindness.
It's pretty freaking dark, when the kindest thing you can do for a month-old lamb who's lost his Mum, is a bullet...

Brought another lamb home yesterday morning; pretty sure he'll perk right up with some lucerne and lamb pellets.
Currently running a 3-lamb yard, and somewhat hopeful we see enough storm rain to get some green pick happening for the lambos, so I can release them into the wild.

Moving on...

The dry, fire-starting thunderstorms started in earnest the past 3 days.
We've had a few fits and starts over the past month, but the serious stuff started mid-week.

There's been about a half-dozen bushfires in a 100kms radius around us, in the past 4 days alone.
Fire last night was just 28kms North of us; day before was a fire about 27kms SE of us.
Couldnt attend the one last night(in our brigade), due to 25mm of sideways rain here, just before the fire started.
Zero chance of getting anywhere; there's a freaking lake where we usually park the work ute.
Other brigade members were able to get around the rain, and had it out by late evening.

Also; no (grid) power at the house since 6:45pm last night.
I'd nearly bet we lost a pole on our section of the SWER powerline that feeds us; about 11 customers off.
Running on home-grown electrons, from the Monsta-Genset.
Looking at the lightning that landed after our power went off, I'm not sure we didnt get a better deal by going off before that.
Fingers crossed the power people get the power restored, before the next tranche of storms turns up late this arvo..
Best guess is we burn around $7/Hour in diesel, but the Monsta-Genset happily runs the house without complaint for that.
Might be looking at a run into town for another 400L pod of diesel, tomorrow morning.

It's interesting seeing the lightning that seems to start the majority of fires in this area.
The big, fat, eye-watering bolts of lightning that take out a tree or a power-pole, arent usually what starts fires (in this area, at least).
The fire-starter ones are usually thin, and often 'stitch' their way across the paddock in multiple strikes in the one bolt; like watching a sewing machine stitch fabric.
They are often barely visible, and yet do the majority of the fire-lighting.
Weird.

Summer in the Bush; The Serenity...
At least I get to shoot things, most days...
Jorlcrin
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Re: Joys of Summer in the Bush...

Post by Wapiti » 17 Nov 2024, 6:36 pm

Great rundown of your day mate, I hope the damn power comes back on.
We've had quite a few outages over the last few weeks from the storms too.
Power reliability is just awful, we have an auto-start silenced genny that starts when power drops out in the lines and stops when it comes back on. Runs the whole house and shed, most importantly the A/C's.
Geeze, that genny of yours certainly chews the fuel.
I reckon if the urban folk had to put up with this terrible power reliability, they'd spit the dummy.

But I agree with you, every day I go out with a few firearms and there are always plenty of damn bullet recipients, and can shoot from my yard range too, and that makes up for any downsides to working the land.
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Re: Joys of Summer in the Bush...

Post by Larry » 17 Nov 2024, 7:08 pm

Last 2 weeks I have had 4 snakes 2 black and 2 brown the 2 brown were on the move and very near the house. The blacks were in the wood pile and the dog had sniffed them out and killed one. I could do without the snakes they have scared the s**t out of me a few times.
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Re: Joys of Summer in the Bush...

Post by Wapiti » 17 Nov 2024, 7:21 pm

We have had a few too, one Eastern Brown went between my legs when I was eating breakfast out the back pergola. Tell you what, that BS in the firearms legislation that says you have to keep ammo locked up away from your locked firearms is a real typical city-thought out rule by people who have no idea.

We also get the Spotted Black Snakes too a fair bit, they have a black head and they flatten out their neck when scared. Luckily like all black snakes they aren't aggressive or particularly deadly to fit adults. They love the mice that hang around the haysheds.
It's the Eastern Brown snakes that are not welcome here.
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Re: Joys of Summer in the Bush...

Post by Die Judicii » 17 Nov 2024, 11:29 pm

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As you were sayin,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I do not fear death itself... Only its inopportune timing!
And,,,,It's been proven,,,,, the most trustworthy females in my entire life were all canines.
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Re: Joys of Summer in the Bush...

Post by Jorlcrin » 18 Nov 2024, 11:10 am

Wapiti wrote:Great rundown of your day mate, I hope the damn power comes back on.
We've had quite a few outages over the last few weeks from the storms too.
Power reliability is just awful, we have an auto-start silenced genny that starts when power drops out in the lines and stops when it comes back on. Runs the whole house and shed, most importantly the A/C's.
Geeze, that genny of yours certainly chews the fuel.
I reckon if the urban folk had to put up with this terrible power reliability, they'd spit the dummy.

But I agree with you, every day I go out with a few firearms and there are always plenty of damn bullet recipients, and can shoot from my yard range too, and that makes up for any downsides to working the land.


Power came back on about 24 hours and 30 minutes after it went off.
Wouldnt mind too much, if someone in Ergon could give me an idea of how long they guesstimate they might take to restore power.
Not looking for a blow by blow detail, but if I knew a couple of poles were down, I can extrapolate a rough idea of time myself.
But NO; Freaking Secret Squirrel CRAP.

They push you to use their on-line outage page for the latest info, and then they neglect to update it.
We had a helicopter scouting the line at 3pm, and yet at 4:30pm, Ergon help-desk cant tell me anything new about the outage??
First update on the outage page, was to remove the outage when they restored power.
Before that, they had no known restoration time.
And yet the other 2 outages in this area, showed updated restoration estimates about 8 hours before they restored power.

Anyhoo; Moving on.
We got 25mm of rain, which might sparkle the grass up enough to bring some sheep back from the brink.
Can only hope there is more in the next few days; feels like it.

Got another pod of 400L of diesel in town this morning; along with whats in the overhead tank currently, will give us around 2 weeks run-time.

Genset (15 Kva Lister 2-cyl) runs the whole homestead complex including all aircons.
Burns around 3.3L per hour on full load; likely could be more efficient Gensets out there, but this thing is low-tech, and reliable as all get out.
I'll take super reliable any day over super-efficient.
It isnt silenced, but in a far power shed from years long before rural (grid) power.
IT HAD an ATS, but the Ergon contactor fried itself New years Day(after 20 years service..), and the replacement cost has kept me away from dealing with it.
The contactors in the ATS are a matched pair, and the make/model is no longer available.
Simpler to replace the whole ATS box.
However, I have narrowed my search for replacement ATS, and now I have a bit of time spare(between bushfires), I can talk to the supplier about sending me one.

Supposed to be storms the next few days; hoping rain first, before sparkleys...
Jorlcrin
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Re: Joys of Summer in the Bush...

Post by Peter988 » 18 Nov 2024, 3:56 pm

Just back from a few days shooting out Bollon way. Bloody hot. Bloody dusty. Road flooded coming back through Westmar. Trees over the road. They must have copped a bit of a flogging.
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Re: Joys of Summer in the Bush...

Post by Wapiti » 20 Nov 2024, 12:29 pm

Dunno where you are mate, but raining here again, steadily. Yesterday too. No mega storms though, but the dams are full everywhere from the last 92mm dump and this is all just soaking in, we don't need any more run-off.
So doing any more on the exclusion fencing is off, no end assembly welding, I'm going nuts. I have to knock up a few 100 cull reloads but dont feel like watching a Chargemaster spinning right now. Might go for a shot in the SxS, rainy weather seems to make everything doughy.
I need a break anyway.
Good luck with your power, hope it's back on. The time it's taking is quite unacceptable.
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