Merry Christmas 2016

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

John 1:9-14

The blog might go a bit quiet for a bit - it's a bit hard to say how much time we'll have around new puppy duties, socialising, cricket, beach, gardening, etc.,.

Family is already arriving, and taking some magnificent pictures along the way!  Here is Mitch and Chelsea marvelling at the Great Ocean Road.

Apostles dropping like flies

Also along the way Mitch demonstrates what Chelsea calls "like father like son".  Harsh! (and possibly accurate)

What would Willie Nelson say?

Kelly bursts onto the scene

“What hath night to do with sleep?” 

John Milton, Paradise Lost

Fresh from the Adelaide Hills arrives Meg MKII otherwise known as Kelly, our second Gordon Setter.  Meg was bought by Kym in 1991 for me to pass the inevitable "Test" which is a new bride's way of saying "are you good enough to sire my children".  I passed the test (even though Meg was carried upside-down to the loo a few times) and now Jackson and Mitchell have much to thank Meg for her forbearance.

Kelly doesn't sleep a lot (as is a puppy's prerogative), and we do not understand why ageing Lotharios have babies well beyond their capacity to deal with the consequences.  At the moment we have slipped back into the wonderful tag team that produced Jackson and Mitchell, but we can't say we'd like it to extend for more than a few months.  For those gentlemen of a certain age with new children - we salute your confounding mix of optimism and stupidity!

To honour Meg and celebrate Kelly, here are a couple of pics.

How to melt the internet

Jess slightly interested, Oskar not so much...

Glamping

“It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental.” 

Cheryl Strayed

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Driving the bus for the end of Year 9 camp was interesting - not least because the Freycinet National Park where we stayed over the three day camp is pretty impressive!  Whilst the kids battled on in tents, cabins complete with en-suite showers and a full kitchen were de rigueur for teachers - nice!

After days filled with kayaking, bush walking, mountain bike riding and surfing it was sure nice to go down to the beach and play a bit of cricket during sunset.  And what a sunset!  Normally our blog pics are scaled down but we thought you might like this one in it's original glory - for your viewing pleasure...

God does good work

We are looking at bees at the moment - it would be nice to have some honey money maybe(e), plus they work so hard!  Here are some locals foraging about and landing back at The Honey Pot in Huonville.  Go you little blighters...(and thanks for the honey!)...

And finally to melt your heart here is Kelly our new Gordon Setter - joining us next weekend after a flight from Adelaide...awww...

Unbearably adorable

Another day, another chicken picture

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. 

Marcus Aurelius

First you must bash nature into submission...

Cage fighting!

Then a quick cuddle with your favourite chicken...

And they leave me in charge of children as well

And finally a stretch and a bit of a relax...

"Watch me fall off this balcony" - Marvin

Strawberry Season

I think drugs are like strawberries and peaches.

Edie Sedgwick

Summer must surely be upon us - the strawberry patch is bursting in verdant splendour...and here are the first offerings from said patch.  Looks great, smells great and tastes amazing.

Oh for smell-o-vision!

Another hint that we are in warmer times are more frequent beach visits - here are Jess and Oskar worshipping at their temple today, for the third time this week.

Overcast but still great...

A day on the farm

Farming with live animals is a 7 day a week, legal form of slavery.     

George Segal

Busy day today with the official sign going up at the end of the drive.  We also cleaned out two chicken coops, moved sheep, mowed lawns, whacked weeds, planted more stuff, and generally caught up on a heap of jobs around the place.  The happy coincidence of good weather and time means we can spend a few hours pottering around as intended when we bought this place.

Can you spot the old sign?

No weed too large!

Shocking!

“Electricity is really just organised lightning” 

George Carlin

More fun on the house front this week with a simultaneous loss of both AC and DC power on Wednesday. I'll put my hand up for the AC problem as I had run an extension cord down to the chicks and some rain had shorted neutral and ground, enough to trigger the RCD on that circuit.  Whoops.  The pain of it is that the light had been turned off for a few days anyway - so it's not live, and it's not dangerous, but thanks to our regs the whole circuit becomes stuffed.  Good one, regs!

The DC problem is more interesting.  Apparently we have the "Rolls Royce" of inverters, and the panels are good as well.  It turns out that numpties installed the thing and the poor workmanship has led directly to a short in the system - a bit of an expensive one as well.  Great - thanks numpties!

Speaking of Rolls Royce and numpties reminds me of a time in the UK when the kids asked me what sort of car we drove in Australia.  They were informed it was a "Rolls Canardly" - as in "Rolls down one hill, canardly get up the next one".  After the punchline and a long wait, one student snarled "You're a teacher, there's no way you can afford a Rolls Canardly".  Ahhh kids, they say the damnest things!

The tomato and chilli patch before the chickens got to it <sigh>

Ovum Exchange

The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire.

Pamela Hansford Johnson

Decades ago, learning watercolours at Radford College, a recurring image of mountains featured in many (admittedly very poorly executed) paintings.  Here we are years later and the outlook from Charis looks decidedly familiar!  Very spooky weirdness...

Call the X-Files!

Meanwhile back on the farm, while we are all glued to the opiate that is "Australia's fattest dancing chef ™ (season 11)", an age old formula for political success, our masters have been skulking away doing weirdo trade deals that no doubt secure their future, er...sorry the future of the country.

Unlike the nearly dead TPP, the machinations of this new deal are not open to groups outside of business, because of course they know how to run the ecomoni real good <heavy sigh>.  Anyhoo as a counter to all of this impending financial mayhem, we have been carefully negotiating the food/egg exchange rate with hens.  The current rate is a half bowl of chopped vegie off-cuts for one egg...

Mmmm...better deal for them we think!

This is a very good deal for the girls, but we are hoping that now the girls know how to lay eggs, the exchange rate will eventually tip more into our favour.  Maybe we could get smoking Joe to stop double dipping for a few weeks and negotiate a better deal for us?  He had a few successful budgets passed didn't he?  Joe??

Springing into action

"...but these backwaters of existence sometimes breed, in their sluggish depths, strange acuities of emotion..." 

Edith Wharton

Last weekend I attended the "Formal" at the current school - it's a type of graduation I guess as many students seem to finish their formal education at the end of year 10 here in Tasmania.  It takes us back to the seventies when it wasn't unusual to see 80% or more of our classmates gone by year 12.  We're fairly certain it cannot be good for the state or the country - particularly when in other areas (e.g. Canberra), year 12 retention rates remain consistently above 95%.
Anyway the formal was a great excuse to dress up and visit a wonderfully picturesque location near Sandy Bay called Glen Albyn Estate (click on video to see the Advert).  The night was dark and stormy, but still beautiful...

Yes, one student did fall into the pool <sigh>

The springing thing means that grass is growing mad and insects abound.  Good for sheep and chickens, some of whom can be seen capitalising on this warmth by cavorting happily in the grandly named "orchard".

The soundtrack comes from the album "Lament" by Nick Osborn.  We heard Nick a couple of weeks back at our local watering hole "Willie Smiths Apple Shed" which is where we can be found some Friday nights glugging our way way through growlers of Apple Cider (organic of course - i.e. made out of Carbon).  Here is one fair maiden spotted in the corridors of this fine drinking establishment.

Fine technique for the Cider guzzle!

It's amazing to have quality local music and great food/drink within a few kms of home - nice one Tasmania!

Curl up and die

The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly.

Richard Bach

It's not all fun and games on the land, even a small parcel like we inhabit.  Last weekend we heard Starling babies just under our roof line in the the ceiling cavity.  We really should have paid more attention to Marvin who was sitting up on the window sill tracking the movement of their parents with zombie-like zeal.

So, armed with plastic bags and breathing protection, up goes Anthony and squeezes into the narrowest of spaces, fully prone and using a usb-camera hooked up to Kym's laptop to guide the extraction.  With Kym counting babies, we pulled all four of them out (and three garbage bags of nesting crud as well).  Sorry babies, but that's not the place to nest.

Further distressing news was the arrival of "leaf curl" on our beautiful peach trees.  Too late for spraying (note to self for next year), but not too late for a brutal pruning and handfuls of quick release fertiliser to help the trees fight the fungus responsible.  Maybe not so many peaches this year!

Yikes - leaf curl!

Also our puppy Kelly has been born as part of a litter of eight in Adelaide, and we have already seen the loss of one (the runt as it happens).  Here are the seven remaining with mum Freya:

So watch out Oskar and Jess - and make sure that you are caught up on your sleep - things are about to get very interesting...

Surfmist is the new orange

“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.” 

Vincent Van Gogh

We have had an army of painters crawling all over the orange monstrosity in the last week or two.  Now we have all the trimmings to do (yay!).  The place looks really different and the wood certainly needed the drink having not been treated since Day One - it was cracked and peeling in places.

Who would have thought that an ounce of prevention was better than a pound of cure?  Thanks Michael and Co for a great job!

The weather continues to improve - but with the odd snow day!  Locals tell us that Hobart Show Day is the cusp of the change of weather, so we will attack the garden with renewed vigour after next Thursday.  Kym has been clearing some weeds today and so tonight we celebrate with cider and music.  Chin chin!

Yuck!

Yum!

Cornelius the Magnificent

“If you don’t hear the crows of the roosters in the mornings, you are one cursed city fellow!” 

Mehmet Murat ildan

A very quick post to let you know that the most magnificent Cornelius has joined our flock.  He is the lord of roosters I'm sure you will agree (and he has a most polite morning crow).

The weather continues to challenge with massive winds and more rain - everything is intact and we sure enjoy being snug inside even if the garden is suffering a bit.

We had about 30 people around for scones on Saturday and some stayed for an evening meal - all in order to properly warm the house.  Consider "Charis" warm!

What beautiful plumage...

Chicken Circus

For a busy day, just add water!

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We watched with horror as first Jackson's birthplace of Forbes (NSW) was taken out by floods, and then South Australia was knocked out by a storm front.  We knew that it would hit these parts a day or so later.  So Wednesday was on the beach with puppies in full sunshine, and Friday was a flood in the basement!  Such is spring in Australia - albeit with increasing ferocity over the years.

Our politicians have sought to reassure the populace and the big end of town (from where they take their donations) that it is renewable energy that is at fault.  I think it is safe to say that we have crossed the intellectual line and can now be thought of as a third world country in terms of governance - look out for Malcolm in epaulettes and a silly hat real soon.

Anyone who starts a sentence with "I'm not a scientist, but..." should stop right there instead of spouting the rest of the nonsense that normally follows.

In the meantime we continue the cleanup...

Inorganic chickens

I don't know what organically grown chickens are; I've never seen one.

Tony Curtis

Given that "organic" means made up of Carbon (together with it's mates Hydrogen, Oxygen, Sulphur and Phosphorus), it's semi-hilarious that folks sell a lot of organic produce around the place.  In other words, they sell everything.  It's only semi-hilarious because the education system seems to be broken when people tell you that an apple is organic with a straight face - we're like "Duh!".  Even the dictionaries have fallen for what is essentially a triumph of marketing over Chemistry.  Well, who needs Chemistry...

Anyhoo, we now have organic chickens (made out of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen).  First we had no chickens for such a long time, and then a sudden glut; four "point of lay" Hyline Brown girls, and then four stupidly cute Barnevelders of indeterminate gender.  Oskar is very very keen to either meet or eat them - we're not sure so we are keeping him away, but he does love "chicken tv" which consists of staring so hard at them they may end up hypnotised.

The girls are Ruby (top girl and a great fan of Takeo Ischi), Valery (who likes to go to raves), Portia (who is more of a traditionalist)  and finally Lenya (who is famous in a well known chickumentary - can you spot her?).

We had another fine day in the garden today, and we can even see some green stuff (which we are eating tonight).  Pretty cool!  Also, the sheep are several kilos lighter - two shearers named Corey and Corey came along to divest them of their organic fleece and take our inorganic money at the same time.  Not a bad transaction - well done Coreys!

"Milling" about - get it?

Awww....

The spud queen with her perfect patch...

Re-use(less)

The purpose - where I start - is the idea of use. It is not recycling, it's reuse. 

Issey Miyake

We've been recycling and repurposing up here in the hills.  When we arrived we had a mountain of packing boxes and paper.  Throw out?  Sell?  Or, looking at the fireplace, maybe knock up some firebricks with the internet as inspiration.

So:
1. Mush up cardboard boxes, packing paper, junk mail, etc. in a 20L bucket
2. Add some local (free) sawdust.
3. Add water and the secret ingredient (vegetable oil).
4. Let it sit for 24-48 hours.
5. Use an evil looking homemade agitator on the end of a drill to chop it all up
6. Transfer to another 20L bucket that has holes drilled for collection of water/oil mix
7. Sit weights on the top and leave for 24 hours.
8. Turn out brick and then let sit for a few weeks/months
9. Burn, baby, burn!

The leaning tower of recycling

It's not a biscuit - but it burns in a rather yummy way

Also, recently we had need for an extractor fan due to all the soldering going on <rolls eyes>.  Solder is lovely stuff, and pretty nasty in gaseous form.  You can buy an extractor fan for a stupid amount of money...or...

1. Pull apart an old computer and dig out the (still working) 12V cooling fan.

2. Pull out the housing nozzle and stuff with an activated carbon filter

3. Attach to power source and solder safely

OK so it could have been dusted a bit before the photo shoot.

Complete with dodgy electrical tape heated to seat filter

Anyhoo that's kept us out of trouble for a few hours...

Riotous colour

The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.

Jean Giraudoux

Flowers and Bees now - peaches later on...

Riotous colour pervades our senses as the garden wakes up.  Here is some peach blossom for you, please enjoy it as much as we do!

I suspect there will be quite a few more snaps from the garden in the next few weeks.  Have a grand weekend - we're off to sample some local cider to live music.

Papa Bear Day

You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around — and why his parents will always wave back.

William D. Tammeus

What a grand weekend of catching up with the extended family - here's breakfast at the South Melbourne Markets.

Which one is the Mountain Man from Tassie?

We also caught up with a swag of other peeps and generally ate and drank like vikings.
Thanks kids for a top weekend and I'll wave to you on the merry-go-round any time you need me to...

Tanks for the memories

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

W. H. Auden

Now that the gardening season is up and running, our thoughts turn to watering.  When we purchased this house we were amazed at the three giant 20000 litre tanks under the house, connected by a maze of pipes and with three pumps servicing the house.  We were assured about how well designed the whole thing was, and how wonderful the water security for house, garden and firefighting.  In fact, the system was very poorly designed (or implemented) and subsequent investigations revealed the following weirdness:

Some obvious problems here!

1. The bore water and rain water are not separated but mixed.  Consequences include a rusty hydronic heating system and mineralised water being used for human consumption.
2. All domestic water from only a single tank, no access to any other tank.
3. Garden being fed by rainwater mixed with bore water!
4. Bore pump had no feedback loop and thus needed to be manually turned on until overflow of mixed tank was detected.

Crazy crazy stuff.  So $6000 later and here is the new system:

So now rainwater fills two tanks, both of which are accessible for domestic supply.  The bore pump is on a feedback loop that means the pump only turns on when the bore tank is low.  Bore water supplies the garden and firefighting only.  Rainwater supplies domestic and can supply firefighting together with bore water if required.  An extra pump ensures the garden is fed from the bore water tank.

Next on the list is to check out the quality of the bore water.  It is from 300m below the surface so that should be most interesting.  The final system should be up and running later this week so we'll let you know how it all runs!

Take care and enjoy a nice glass of pure water as we hope to soon...

Peas release me - legu me go...

Gardening requires lots of water — most of it in the form of perspiration.

Lou Erickson

From tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow...well, peas in this case...

Another rambling visit to Bunnings sees a few more gardening projects underway.  Some digging, some weeding and the worm farm delivers it first worm tea for the plants.

We also took in another load of wood today.  The electricity bill arrived to gasps of horror this week, particularly as we have hot water from a heat exchanger and a solar collector, as well as power from solar cells.  Also, we are only two peeps now, not four.  So we need to track down what is causing the erg leak.  Of course Aurora Energy were very unhelpful - it's in their interests that we spend up big time - someone should sit them down to watch Star Wars:

Governor Tarkin: Princess Leia, before your execution, I'd like you to join me for a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.

Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

Y'all take good care...

Polling day?

The pollen count, now that's a difficult job. Especially if you've got hay fever.

Milton Jones

Spring is springing we think - or maybe just wishful thinking.  Oskar has decided that it is definitely spring, and he is hilariously moulting from around his ruff, making him look like a seedy old man wearing a shabby coat way past its use-by date.

Its lighter in the morning and even after school now we get time to chop wood, walk dogs and start a fire all by daylight - not the case a few weeks ago.

There are more buds about - and we are thinking about having our first official day in the garden.  To be honest we really enjoy reading gardening books...er, as opposed to actually gardening.  That's gotta change soon.

Counting pollen with Jess for company

The darling buds of...August?

Misty Sunday

“Trying to remember a dream from a decade ago is like trying to catch fog in a coffee filter. I could subsist on morning mist.” 

Jarod Kintz

On the way to church this morning I snapped an industrious arachnid who greeted the misty morning with a pretty good web too lovely to pass by without recording its beauty.  I don't like spiders, but this one does good work!

Nice geometry for a tiny brain to make!

Kym didn't make it this morning as she is still riding the coughing wave that has plagued this home for five weeks now (!).  The locals say it is our "Welcome to Tasmania" virus.  Really a gift basket or scratchie would have been fine.

Due to this induced and unwelcome lethargy no gardening has been done.  It will need to be soon because we see buds and wattle everywhere.  The weather has turned at last and indeed the Italian Princess went out for a light thrashing down the mountain yesterday - she's a beaut that thing.  Five weeks off and still fits like a glove.

Maybe next weekend for the green thumbs to get going?  We'll keep you in the loop...

ICU

Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it's only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%.

Edward Snowden

How to fool a criminal?  First, order a fake CCTV camera.  It looks pretty authentic and, once the batteries are installed, flashes red on and off once a second.  Semi-convincing but proper CCTV can be made to react to movement, so regular flashes are not as realistic.

Maybe design a better circuit which flashes two LEDs randomly to simulate both target acquisition (red) and data transmission or recording (green).

To make the battery requirements minimal, program a small micro-controller to flash the lights. Include in the code the ability to "sleep" when required to further minimise energy requirements.

Wired and ready to go

A little bit of soldering...

Damn small those soldering points!

 ...and then sneak the whole thing into the barrel of the fake camera.

Which begs the obvious question - where are the real cameras? ;)

P.S. Computer music for the CCTV video footage provided for by...a computer!

Some little birds come back to the nest

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.

Richard Bach

Even those with a merely a passing interest would know how influential Richard Bach has been - featuring, for instance, in 50th birthday speeches.  This weekend we were surrounded by family, some related by blood and others through intertwining bonds of Richard's "respect and joy".

We dined, we rode around in the car marvelling at the scenery, we went to church and in general had a great and relaxing weekend.

Say "Fromage!"

It also snowed again - such a treat here in the hills but do drive carefully in the black ice as there have been quite a few cars upside down which is not the ideal way to travel.  It is lovely when it snows, and the fireplace is roaring, AND there is an abundance of good food, wine and good conversation...

Lovely outlook across a balcony rail of snow...

There snow business like snow business

This morning of the small snow I count the blessings, the leak in the faucet which makes of the sink time, the drop of the water on water.

Charles Olson

It's been a while since we have lived in snow.  This morning we awoke to the driving white which ironically means no driving for us.  I am wondering if we need to invest in chains?  Time will tell...

Skiing anyone?

Open the sauce

Certainly there's a phenomenon around open source. You know free software will be a vibrant area. There will be a lot of neat things that get done there. 

Bill Gates

As part of our plan to automate some stuff around the new house (including eventually the greenhouse and irrigation), I'm relearning programming microprocessors (or to be more correct microcontrollers).

After years of mucking around with the Raspberry Pi, including using it to teach coding at various schools, I've moved to the Arduino platform where both the coding and the control interface is a little more intense, but perfect for the job/s at hand.

In the following video you'll see a very simple LED pulsing program designed online, and then downloaded, compiled and uploaded to an Arduino-clone connected to a breadboard.  Small steps I'm sure you will agree, but pretty neat and all open source.

I've been on the open source bandwagon for nearly 20 years, and to this day don't understand why people are still using Micro$oft for their OS and pay for crappy software when there is so much free, stable and productive software out there.  Are we an innovative bunch Mr Turnbull?  Perhaps still a little risk-averse...

P.S. Sorry for the raspy voice, as always when school holidays hit my immune system relaxes and then gets smashed!

Holy Daze

The morning ritual is to chop wood and feed sheep.  The sun was just peeking over the hills when all that was happening this morning, bathing us in a lovely golden hue.

Irony - too hot from chopping to light fire afterwards!

The meek shall inherit the stock nuts

Other than that there is a steady stream of tradies as we get on top of the usual teething issues when taking over a house.  Joy!  Turn on the fire hose!

Empty Nest? Fill it with animals...

One of the best gifts you can give to an animal is a donation of a blanket to your local animal shelter during the winter months.

Carrie Ann Inaba

We moved the sheep today, a successful manoeuvre involving a bucket of "stock nuts" (try asking for them at the store without smirking) and some audible cajoling.  The three little blankets on legs then went about happily mowing the grass in the orchard for a few hours before being encouraged back to their regular pasture.

No mower required. (✓)

Speaking of blankets, Oskar finds it quite necessary to cover himself when sleeping - he's rather taken with his new Scottish-themed spread.

Zzzzzz

The other dog is in disgrace so I won't mention her name, but suffice it to say that another nosy wallaby is now cruising the other side of the life/death abyss after last night's canine capers.

That's three down since we arrived in Tasmania and a few million to go....stay out of the dog yard you mad macropods! 

This political life

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

Winston Churchill

Lining the Dream

My soul is in the sky.

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V. Scene I.

Sometimes when chopping wood, teaching mathematics and feeding sheep is just too mundane I take flight in my 787 Dreamliner and fly my regular route from Melbourne (Tullamarine, YMML) to Sydney (Kingsford Smith, YSSY).

Then, for the hell of it, I fly back..

P.S. The Dreamliner is not real...but the dream is...

Dark Mofo Midwinter Feast

“And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart:

Your seeds shall live in my body,
And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
And your fragrance shall be my breath,
And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.”

Kahlil Gibran

All the peeps be eat'n up large...

We visited Dark Mofo's Midwinter Feast last night, where thousands of people gathered for some music and communal eating and drinking beside wood braziers and along large tables.  The atmosphere was very relaxed and convivial, the food excellent and the spiced wine particularly warming.  There was some art happening about the place as well, but to be honest my snout was in the trough a little to long to appreciate it.  Maybe next year!