What did you do today?

[bigpete]

Went fishing with my homemade fishing pole. Caught 18 carp on it ranging from 4" long through to around 18" long. Absolute ball of a time

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[bladeracer]

I think your fence might need a lick of paint.

Rose's dad got a quote from a neighbour in 1971, we're just waiting for him to find time to get to it

The fence is five-metres behind it, the steel is just a windbreak that Rose's dad put up many years ago when he had his cattle yard there before he planted the pine tree wind break. The posts are rotten at ground level, they'll be lucky to last another winter I think. The wind that comes over the hill is impressive. In the background where you see some cows just over the crest of the ridge is a five-bay steel shed that blew over one day. When I walked up there at the time to get some pics to send to the owner I measured the wind at 42mph.

Shooting from this spot is deceptive as there is virtually no wind at all beneath the pines, but it howls through the branches overhead.

[animalpest]

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Checked a few loads in a .Remington 243. Absolutely hated 90g Ballistic Tips (as did my Ruger).

Cold clean barrel shot lower but came up after 2 shots with Berger. 100m

[JohnV]

A climbing poi like that makes me think bedding issue , barrel touching forend , stress in the bedding etc. The other thing is bullet jumping too far to the lands or too low velocity . I am not a fan of 90 or 100 grain bullets in 243 . My 243 barrels like 80 to 87 grain as they are only 1 in 10 twist . Even the Hornady 87 Grain HPBT in my barrels is only fully stable up to 700 meters . Which is not a problem because they shoot well up to about 400 to 500 and that's as far as I have ever shot at game .

[Oldbloke]

Put in a bit of time fileing/sanding the wooden plug for my new powder horn. Very happy with the fit. I'll fit it next week.
Then just need to make and fit the sling.

(The tape is to protect it from the vice jaws)

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[animalpest]

If it was a bedding issue then groups shot with a fouled barrel would be the same. And these loads are not mild.

It doesn't like 90gr BT but will happily group 95gr SST into 0.5.

[animalpest]

95gr

[bigpete]

Put in a bit of time fileing/sanding the wooden plug for my new powder horn. Very happy with the fit. I'll fit it next week.
Then just need to make and fit the sling.

(The tape is to protect it from the vice jaws)

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Very neatly done

[bigpete]

Fishing again today,this time with the missus. Between us we caught 42 carp including 2 nice ones like the one she is holding

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Also caught another dozen or so last night including my first goldfish coloured carp

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[Oldbloke]

Went to the "Lost Trades Fair in Bendigo" with two grandsons & daughter.

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[bigpete]

Went to the "Lost Trades Fair in Bendigo" with two grandsons & daughter.

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That looks like fun

[Blr243]

That would have been very interesting. Good on someone for organising something like that .. keeping those things alive and sharing the fact that they are still alive

[Blr243]

That would have been very interesting. Good on someone for organising something like that .. keeping those things alive and sharing the fact that they are still alive

[Oldbloke]

Yeh, great day out. There was a bloke making traditional long bows too.

[Blr243]

Scaffolding roofing gutters 13 hour day. Im stuffed

[CRF]

Went to the "Lost Trades Fair in Bendigo" with two grandsons & daughter.

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Ross is going to be building me a flintlock rifle, does some lovely work.

I was planning on going to the LTF but lines are terrible these days, it is interesting to see if you can put up with that. I was going to buy a new axe head last year until I saw the price, holy moly!

[bigpete]

Well I'm having one of the most interesting mornings at work ever,I'm slashing an overgrown paddock behind a winery and I've had this young fox following me around catching mice for the last 1½ hours. Its been awesome to watch !

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That grey bar at the bottom of the photo is the loader attachment for the tractor....the fox is about 10m away there....

[bladeracer]

Well I'm having one of the most interesting mornings at work ever,I'm slashing an overgrown paddock behind a winery and I've had this young fox following me around catching mice for the last 1½ hours. Its been awesome to watch !

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That grey bar at the bottom of the photo is the loader attachment for the tractor....the fox is about 10m away there....

If we could teach them to only take the feral pests they'd be awesome buddies to farmers.

[bigpete]

Well I'm having one of the most interesting mornings at work ever,I'm slashing an overgrown paddock behind a winery and I've had this young fox following me around catching mice for the last 1½ hours. Its been awesome to watch !

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That grey bar at the bottom of the photo is the loader attachment for the tractor....the fox is about 10m away there....

If we could teach them to only take the feral pests they'd be awesome buddies to farmers.

You can't even teach humans to do that,good luck with foxes lol

[bladeracer]

If we could teach them to only take the feral pests they'd be awesome buddies to farmers.

You can't even teach humans to do that,good luck with foxes lol

Yes, it does seem unlikely
Rose is on an AI course in Shepparton this week so I'm on my own.
Our final calf from last year dropped on Saturday evening and doesn't seem to have good eyesight, but we can't be sure as the mother won't move more than ten feet from her. We got one dose of antibiotics in her eyes the following morning in the crush but we haven't been able to since - Rose had some nasty bruises that night from behind smashed around the crush and yard. I waited two hours this morning and Melody finally bedded the baby down and moved about 15m up the hill. I ducked around the bottom of the hill and up to the calf, got a hand on her head, then her mum spotted me and came charging down the hill bellowing at me. Went out again just now and nearly managed it. Mum must've heard me coming and thought "I'll dash down for a drink before he gets here!". I saw her trotting down the hill with no calf in tow - finally! I set off at a trot after her trying to find where she'd stashed baby. Then I spotted Mimi off to the right staring at me, decided I was chasing the wrong cow and went over toward her instead. They look identical. I worked out I'd been tricked and went back up and spotted baby tucked in the base of a tree. Melody was already heading back from the troughs, spotted me spotting her baby, started bellowing and charged again. Oh well, not going to happen I guess

A neighbour has a butcher coming on Saturday to butcher three steers and Rose put her hand up for the leftovers. I figure there might be about 400kg-500kg after inspecting them yesterday. So I went to town and borrowed Rose's brother's little trailer and bought a new tarp to line it with. Tied the tarp into it today and dropped it at the neighbour's place. I'm not sure how the butcher is setup but hopefully he can dress them out directly over the trailer to save both of us some work. I'm hoping I can tie all the tarp lines up over the top, drive up the paddock and pull the top of the tarp out the back, rolling everything out with it into the pit. Not sure it'll go that smoothly, but anything's possible. The big bits like head, feet and skin I can pull out first. If I'm up to it I might even be able to move them one at a time which will be easier. Rose initially wanted to get one of ours done as well but the price is over the top. $200 per animal. Plus $3/kg for the cuts, $6/kg for mincing the rest. We weighed our little three-year-old runty guy at 225kg on Sunday. Figuring on 100kg of meat, at say 70kg of cuts and 30kg of mince it's near $600. For that sort of money I'll do it myself.

[bigpete]

Learned about a new fly style 2 days ago.....tied a few versions up.....safe to say it works !

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[Flyonline]

Had the evening to myself and was tossing up between taking the rifle for a walk or go fishing. Ended up going fishing due to the heat and man I'm glad I did! Took the fly rod with me and hit a little creek not far from home which has reddies and trout. Started with a hopper as there were plenty around, but no dice through the first set of pools and riffles so I switched to a green leechy thing that was moderately weighted as there were a set of good deep pools coming up.

Flicked the fly out into the water to strip some more line and the end of the flyline twitched, so I struck into a thumper reddie of 39cm or so. Was actually lucky to get it as it dived into either a snag or rock and despite some prodding with the rod tip I was unable to free it until I waded in and must have spooked the fish. I'm thinking it's probably the same one I lost at the bank a couple of months ago.

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Pushed on through the next bit to a big pool that I've pulled a number of good reddies and a couple of decent trout out of. It only ended up giving up a couple of small reddies, before I moved onto a section of shelving rock that cascades the water down. A few misplaced flicks before I got the fly in deep into the corner and a 30cm brown snatched it as it swung past. A quick battle and it was banked (or rocked maybe? ). We have a good family friend who is suffering from mesothelioma as an ex boiler maker from way back, so as he's not up to walking the banks fishing I'd been waiting for a nice 2 person sized trout for them for a while. I'd given them reddies in the past, but nothing beats a fresh creek caught trout that'd been feeding on yabbies!

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Forcing my way through a thick tiger section (missing two fish on the way) I hit the second best pool in this part of the river where I'd caught and dropped 2 40cm odd browns in the past, plus pulled a 3rd down into it from the pocket above. An occasional rise showed an active fish, but the only thing I saw in the tail was a quick follow from a 25cm brown. Reaching the top of the pool I targeted the inside edge where I'd hooked the big fish twice before, but a sharp yank failed to come tight and I was forced to move on, tail between my legs. The next pool proved better and I landed 2 smallish and acrobatic browns before I arrived at a pool I was looking forward to.

This pool is a decent plunge pool, not large in size but quite deep with a rock island just off the main flow providing perfect cover for a hungry fish to pick food off out of the main current. Last trip through I'd had numerous swipes and a couple of brief stutters of my lure as a big fish flashed at it. I'd told my uncle (and usual fishing partner) about it and called it a 40-45cm fish, a decent size for this creek. He sent me a message a little later to say he'd landed it and it was only a high 30's - I made excuses for the bank shrinkage and thought nothing of it. Still, a high 30's is better than no 30's so I confidently flipped the fly into the water a few times before the familiar dark back flashed into the backwater I was crouching behind. Last time it had nearly beached itself so intent on the lure, but my impression this time was of a good fish, until I felt the line stop and lifted into a rock.....that kicked.

A huge, heavy weight was on the end of the line, massive head shakes transmitted through the tiny 3wt rod and 4lb tippet. The fight was a punch up, no holds barred on either side, but the fish seemed disinclined to run relying on it's massive head shakes to try and dislodge the fly but despite forcing me to jump to and fro onto the rock island a couple of times and making me smash my shin when I slipped, I was able to hold and and eventually netted the fi......HORSE. I only carry a small net for landing fish in awkward and difficult situations, not holding onto a jumping percheron. HOLY $HIT, this thing was massive!!!! It was so big it couldn't get enough leverage to flip out of the net it didn't really fit into. The couple of 40cm fish I'd landed with it were able to flip themselves out, but it didn't seem to be able to move once I had it safely inside. Somewhere along the way it had snapped the tippet, and the fly was caught in the net but it didn't matter - I'd just landed the biggest trout I'd ever caught.

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Those marks are 30 and 40cm, so I'm guesssing it was a good 52cm, just a massive fish for this small creek
Like nearly every fish in this creek it had a yabby in it, in this case a big 3" version. I ended up heading back, dropping the fish off at home, as well as the smaller fish off at our friends house. Then I headed out to a small lake to try and tempt something to eat a surface lure in the falling dusk. I caught a couple of small reddies on a SP, but I saw (or rather heard) a Peregrine take what I'm assuming was a bat overhead, before it flew up into a dead tree above about 30m away and proceeded to eat it. I'd forgotten to pack a light, so I headed home in the dark for a whiskey to celebrate

[Flyonline]

Filleted the trout this morning, made up one side as a LOX - first time so will be interested how it turns out, and the other is for tea tonight.

Finished off the last of my second batch of dried figs yesterday, so today I made up some vac bags and packaged them all away. These are awesome to throw in the glovebox of the car, fishing/hunting/work bag as they last forever and can fill in the gap if I forget lunch etc.

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Heard from the bro-in-law that my sister has just given birth to their second child, so I've now got another nephew to teach how to fish

[Flyonline]

Went fishing with my homemade fishing pole.

Hey BP

is that just like a Tenkara rod? How does it go, I've always been concerned about high sticking something like that.

What's the tail of the fly, some orange chenille type?

[bigpete]

Had the evening to myself and was tossing up between taking the rifle for a walk or go fishing. Ended up going fishing due to the heat and man I'm glad I did! Took the fly rod with me and hit a little creek not far from home which has reddies and trout. Started with a hopper as there were plenty around, but no dice through the first set of pools and riffles so I switched to a green leechy thing that was moderately weighted as there were a set of good deep pools coming up.

Flicked the fly out into the water to strip some more line and the end of the flyline twitched, so I struck into a thumper reddie of 39cm or so. Was actually lucky to get it as it dived into either a snag or rock and despite some prodding with the rod tip I was unable to free it until I waded in and must have spooked the fish. I'm thinking it's probably the same one I lost at the bank a couple of months ago.

IMG_4675.JPG

Pushed on through the next bit to a big pool that I've pulled a number of good reddies and a couple of decent trout out of. It only ended up giving up a couple of small reddies, before I moved onto a section of shelving rock that cascades the water down. A few misplaced flicks before I got the fly in deep into the corner and a 30cm brown snatched it as it swung past. A quick battle and it was banked (or rocked maybe? ). We have a good family friend who is suffering from mesothelioma as an ex boiler maker from way back, so as he's not up to walking the banks fishing I'd been waiting for a nice 2 person sized trout for them for a while. I'd given them reddies in the past, but nothing beats a fresh creek caught trout that'd been feeding on yabbies!

IMG_4676.JPG

Forcing my way through a thick tiger section (missing two fish on the way) I hit the second best pool in this part of the river where I'd caught and dropped 2 40cm odd browns in the past, plus pulled a 3rd down into it from the pocket above. An occasional rise showed an active fish, but the only thing I saw in the tail was a quick follow from a 25cm brown. Reaching the top of the pool I targeted the inside edge where I'd hooked the big fish twice before, but a sharp yank failed to come tight and I was forced to move on, tail between my legs. The next pool proved better and I landed 2 smallish and acrobatic browns before I arrived at a pool I was looking forward to.

This pool is a decent plunge pool, not large in size but quite deep with a rock island just off the main flow providing perfect cover for a hungry fish to pick food off out of the main current. Last trip through I'd had numerous swipes and a couple of brief stutters of my lure as a big fish flashed at it. I'd told my uncle (and usual fishing partner) about it and called it a 40-45cm fish, a decent size for this creek. He sent me a message a little later to say he'd landed it and it was only a high 30's - I made excuses for the bank shrinkage and thought nothing of it. Still, a high 30's is better than no 30's so I confidently flipped the fly into the water a few times before the familiar dark back flashed into the backwater I was crouching behind. Last time it had nearly beached itself so intent on the lure, but my impression this time was of a good fish, until I felt the line stop and lifted into a rock.....that kicked.

A huge, heavy weight was on the end of the line, massive head shakes transmitted through the tiny 3wt rod and 4lb tippet. The fight was a punch up, no holds barred on either side, but the fish seemed disinclined to run relying on it's massive head shakes to try and dislodge the fly but despite forcing me to jump to and fro onto the rock island a couple of times and making me smash my shin when I slipped, I was able to hold and and eventually netted the fi......HORSE. I only carry a small net for landing fish in awkward and difficult situations, not holding onto a jumping percheron. HOLY $HIT, this thing was massive!!!! It was so big it couldn't get enough leverage to flip out of the net it didn't really fit into. The couple of 40cm fish I'd landed with it were able to flip themselves out, but it didn't seem to be able to move once I had it safely inside. Somewhere along the way it had snapped the tippet, and the fly was caught in the net but it didn't matter - I'd just landed the biggest trout I'd ever caught.

IMG_4678.JPG

Those marks are 30 and 40cm, so I'm guesssing it was a good 52cm, just a massive fish for this small creek
Like nearly every fish in this creek it had a yabby in it, in this case a big 3" version. I ended up heading back, dropping the fish off at home, as well as the smaller fish off at our friends house. Then I headed out to a small lake to try and tempt something to eat a surface lure in the falling dusk. I caught a couple of small reddies on a SP, but I saw (or rather heard) a Peregrine take what I'm assuming was a bat overhead, before it flew up into a dead tree above about 30m away and proceeded to eat it. I'd forgotten to pack a light, so I headed home in the dark for a whiskey to celebrate

That's bloody awesome ! Been years since I've caught a trout,ever since my folks sold what I still consider home out at Inman Valley.

[bigpete]

Went fishing with my homemade fishing pole.

Hey BP

is that just like a Tenkara rod? How does it go, I've always been concerned about high sticking something like that.

What's the tail of the fly, some orange chenille type?

I really wouldn't call it a tenkara rod,its merely the top 3 sections of one of those telescopic bird scarer poles. I kind of intended to use it like a tenkara on steroids for carp fishing but just haven't yet.
The tail of that fly is made from a mop sort of thing I bought at the cheap store. Look up mop flies. Simple as all heck to make and they appear to work !

Like you,I've been drying fruit for the last couple of days,namely apples and pears I've picked at one of the blocks I've been working at

[Flyonline]

The tail of that fly is made from a mop sort of thing I bought at the cheap store. Look up mop flies. Simple as all heck to make and they appear to work !

Yep, know exactly what you mean thanks.

[wanneroo]

Went for a trip to visit some relatives around the state.

Stopped at the secret wholesale place for reloading supplies and ammo. This place mainly focuses on wholesale to gun shops but if you walk in and they have it in stock you can buy it. Just a small sign with an arrow leading to a couple of warehouses with a steel door with hours on it. You go inside and there is this old counter and it's not like a gun shop at all. A couple of guys in the back on computers on the phones presumably talking to clients. You go up to the guy at the counter tell em what you are looking for and he looks it up on a computer, tells you whats in stock or not, you pay and then he walks over to the warehouses and digs it out.

I was able to pick up a couple pounds of Power Pistol powder and Vihtavouri 3N37 at a great price. I asked about primers and they said they had none.

[bigpete]

Today I'm making hawthorn jelly,stewed quinces and quince jelly,jerky,and mince. And maybe some stewed apples later

[Oldbloke]

Today I'm making hawthorn jelly,stewed quinces and quince jelly,jerky,and mince. And maybe some stewed apples later

Our quince tree is loaded again but smaller this year. Picked 2 shopping bags to give to friends this morning.

Will pick the rest in about a week.
Stewed quinces and quince jam for us. Yum. Nan used to make the quince jelly when I was a kid. I looked forward every Easter to visit Nan and Pop and get a feed of scones with quince jelly and cream. Yum I think Nan loved her grand sons.

The rest will go to the local nursing home again.

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