Andrew Bolt, columnist for the Herald Sun [blog], and frequent talking head on various TV shows, has got one right.
I was "lucky" enough to catch him on one of the TV news-faux-mercials this morning.
Generally he has little idea about the problems facing our world and society, arguing against human-induced climate change for instance, and overall having very little understanding about how the underlying problems of resource depletion have created the troubles we see all around us. Ask him what a war on terror is about and he's sure to think it has something to do with bombings by radicalized groups, failing to make the connection that it's more about subduing the terror that arises in the hearts of all patriotic westerners when they think of going without their privleges, all of which are thanks to oil.
Well folks, this morning he got it right. He uttered words so profound I was momentarily flabbergasted.
He subtley pointed out that last night's win on MasterChef was more a demographic decision than a true judgment of the skill of the participants. Perhaps he has finally found his niche, a spot in the heady world of international affairs where his incisive insights can be put to truly beneficial use.
:-P
Monday, 20 July 2009
Monday, 13 July 2009
The Party & The Cleanup
The big birthday party was a bit of a success. I spent the Friday afternoon and evening cooking up some treats and preparing the meat, so on the day we started with profiteroles, then had lunch of fennel pork belly and roast vegetables, following that with a birthday cake (fudge chocolate with vienna filling and icing and a bit of blackberry jam) and a piece of lemon meringue pie (sadly the lemon bit was runny, but it was still edible). We all enjoyed the time together, the weather was nice enough, not the sunny days of the week before, it was overcast and a bit chilly, but still nice all the same. All in all a top event!
After the main festivities were completed we sat around the campfire into the early evening, roasting marshmallows with the kids until their bedtime, then it was quiet time with the brother, listening to some old hits on the local radio station, sampling some red wine, singing to the better tunes. Campfire time was cut short when "I can't stand the rain" began to play, and, inevitably, it began to rain.
Sunday dawned cloudy, and after a suitable period of morning recuperation I packed up copious amounts of hot water for coffee and set off to the new land, hoping to get through most of the preparatory work needed in getting the shed site ready to go.
Shed site before. It is going to sit across the picture, and the bins further
back will impinge upon it's footprint. The fence to be removed runs from the
second post on the right across the picture to the left.
Started out with measuring up the location for the shed according to the submitted plans. I'd made a couple of last minute on-paper changes to the location to accommodate some other tentative future plans, so I needed to know where the shed was really going to go. Once this was sorted out it was on to removing the small fence that formed the back boundary of the shed yard. As the first picture shows, there's also a lot of materials stored in the region of the shed site. Once the fence was down all of these needed to be moved, which was the largest part of the job. There must have been a couple of ton of steel in there at least.
Shed site after. The fence is gone and all the resources are moved into a neat stash
out of the way. You can just make out, if your eyes are sharp, some white posts,
far left cutting across the shadow, in front of the right-most bin, and then a
couple more cunningly hidden on the mid-right.
Amazingly I made it through it all, and had time to chop a small load of wood before dark. Then it was off for home again. The next major action on the shed project should be getting the earthworks done, which will most likely involve a bit of (internal) road building as well.
Below is a picture, for no particular reason at all, of the wonderful old sawmill we were gifted with. It's going to need a bit of work before it runs again though... Nice old piece of machinery all the same.
After the main festivities were completed we sat around the campfire into the early evening, roasting marshmallows with the kids until their bedtime, then it was quiet time with the brother, listening to some old hits on the local radio station, sampling some red wine, singing to the better tunes. Campfire time was cut short when "I can't stand the rain" began to play, and, inevitably, it began to rain.
Sunday dawned cloudy, and after a suitable period of morning recuperation I packed up copious amounts of hot water for coffee and set off to the new land, hoping to get through most of the preparatory work needed in getting the shed site ready to go.
Shed site before. It is going to sit across the picture, and the bins furtherback will impinge upon it's footprint. The fence to be removed runs from the
second post on the right across the picture to the left.
Started out with measuring up the location for the shed according to the submitted plans. I'd made a couple of last minute on-paper changes to the location to accommodate some other tentative future plans, so I needed to know where the shed was really going to go. Once this was sorted out it was on to removing the small fence that formed the back boundary of the shed yard. As the first picture shows, there's also a lot of materials stored in the region of the shed site. Once the fence was down all of these needed to be moved, which was the largest part of the job. There must have been a couple of ton of steel in there at least.
Shed site after. The fence is gone and all the resources are moved into a neat stashout of the way. You can just make out, if your eyes are sharp, some white posts,
far left cutting across the shadow, in front of the right-most bin, and then a
couple more cunningly hidden on the mid-right.
Amazingly I made it through it all, and had time to chop a small load of wood before dark. Then it was off for home again. The next major action on the shed project should be getting the earthworks done, which will most likely involve a bit of (internal) road building as well.
Below is a picture, for no particular reason at all, of the wonderful old sawmill we were gifted with. It's going to need a bit of work before it runs again though... Nice old piece of machinery all the same.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Step 2(a) - CC & Fencing
We've got the ball rolling to get a construction certificate so we can put up the shed. It should be finalised by the end of the week if all goes well. We wont be able to get any real work started until the weekend after the next one, as we are celebrating a family birthday which will consume a large proportion of the weekend. And well it should, celebrations are very important things!
The weekend just gone started out rainy and cold, so Saturday, apart from visiting the poultry show in Orange, was spent in the shed tinkering on a project (sorry, cannot reveal this one as it is the present for the aforementioned celebration).
Sunday dawned cold but dry (except for the ground which was a slushy mess, which is proper for winter, finally). I set out for the block with the intention of installing the patch of boundary fence needed so I can open up the end of the shed yard so the bulldozer driver can push dirt to the correct spots, and collecting a little firewood.
The fencing was a challenge, 100 odd metres of fence, constructed in a new style. I'm used to fencing to exclude sheep and dogs, not goats which present a problem as they get their heads stuck in the fence due to their horns, so they need a particular sized netting to minimise this problem. Unfortunately I also took on board some other suggestions, and my experience and skill was not up to the new process.
The new fence is on the left. The shed site is behind the tree in the distance.
It went up in the end, but it's a bit floppy in the belly because I couldn't get a tight enough strain on it. As I was running out of time I had to tie it up and leave it as it was. It wont be experiencing stock pressure from within for a while, and only cattle and sheep on the far side so it will do it's thing, but it's not my finest fence. With luck I will get a chance to do some remedial work to it down the track, but I'd say after I've finished the shed!
I still need to remove the scrap of fence that is in the way, and then shift some of the stockpile so that the shed site is clear and there is enough room to push dirt around. Then comes the real challenge of the job, that of getting the site level. There is about a 40cm drop from front to back of the shed footprint. What's worse is that the area in front of the shed is probably 40cm - 60cm higher out to 4m from the opening. We can't have drainage issues, nobody wants water flowing through their work and storage space, so we're going to need to creatively shift dirt around to avoid this issue. That's the challenge for the next free weekend...
The weekend just gone started out rainy and cold, so Saturday, apart from visiting the poultry show in Orange, was spent in the shed tinkering on a project (sorry, cannot reveal this one as it is the present for the aforementioned celebration).
Sunday dawned cold but dry (except for the ground which was a slushy mess, which is proper for winter, finally). I set out for the block with the intention of installing the patch of boundary fence needed so I can open up the end of the shed yard so the bulldozer driver can push dirt to the correct spots, and collecting a little firewood.
The fencing was a challenge, 100 odd metres of fence, constructed in a new style. I'm used to fencing to exclude sheep and dogs, not goats which present a problem as they get their heads stuck in the fence due to their horns, so they need a particular sized netting to minimise this problem. Unfortunately I also took on board some other suggestions, and my experience and skill was not up to the new process.
The new fence is on the left. The shed site is behind the tree in the distance.
I still need to remove the scrap of fence that is in the way, and then shift some of the stockpile so that the shed site is clear and there is enough room to push dirt around. Then comes the real challenge of the job, that of getting the site level. There is about a 40cm drop from front to back of the shed footprint. What's worse is that the area in front of the shed is probably 40cm - 60cm higher out to 4m from the opening. We can't have drainage issues, nobody wants water flowing through their work and storage space, so we're going to need to creatively shift dirt around to avoid this issue. That's the challenge for the next free weekend...
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Victory, Sort Of...
The new development consent arrived in the mail today. It largely fulfills the agreed outcomes of the meeting with Council, excepting the fact that they've inserted a clause that means we have to upgrade 50m of the laneway along with the intersection, to the new standard. I guess it's Council policy to provide a little bit of punishment with every success. You might think you've reached an agreement with them, but it seems they're always going to try and squeeze a little more out of you. At least we don't have to upgrade half a kilometre of laneway...
All in all, the result is good enough for now. We can get ourselves a construction certificate and build the shed, which was the original goal of the project. Once we've completed that bit, it might be time to take the whole sordid tale to the mayor and his cohorts, and then to the media, and see if we can get some of those conditions altered further in our favour. After all, I was reading in Council's business paper that they've approved the new road specifications, and it states that RG1 roads will only be allowed for right-of-way lanes and those experiencing less than 16 vehicle movements per day, contrary to the guy's statement that the RG1 standard no longer applies at all. We wont stir the nest for now, we can proceed with our plans for a bit until we run up against the requirements of the new conditions, but at some stage we're going to need a better reckoning, just for the principle of the thing. If we let them get away with it, who's next on the list to suffer?
So, from here, it's construction certificate, then a bit of earthworks, then some building. I'll need to put in a bit of extra fence before then, hopefully I'll be able to do that this weekend, and I must also shift some of our stockpile around so that the dozer can get in there and push the dirt where it needs to go. Exciting, productive work, rather than the mental gymnastics and social sorties required to date.
All in all, the result is good enough for now. We can get ourselves a construction certificate and build the shed, which was the original goal of the project. Once we've completed that bit, it might be time to take the whole sordid tale to the mayor and his cohorts, and then to the media, and see if we can get some of those conditions altered further in our favour. After all, I was reading in Council's business paper that they've approved the new road specifications, and it states that RG1 roads will only be allowed for right-of-way lanes and those experiencing less than 16 vehicle movements per day, contrary to the guy's statement that the RG1 standard no longer applies at all. We wont stir the nest for now, we can proceed with our plans for a bit until we run up against the requirements of the new conditions, but at some stage we're going to need a better reckoning, just for the principle of the thing. If we let them get away with it, who's next on the list to suffer?
So, from here, it's construction certificate, then a bit of earthworks, then some building. I'll need to put in a bit of extra fence before then, hopefully I'll be able to do that this weekend, and I must also shift some of our stockpile around so that the dozer can get in there and push the dirt where it needs to go. Exciting, productive work, rather than the mental gymnastics and social sorties required to date.
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