How's the serenity?

“If you are driven by fear, anger or pride nature will force you to compete. If you are guided by courage, awareness, tranquility and peace nature will serve you.” 

Amit Ray

24 hours - 4 pics

A funny thing happened on the way to China

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!

Robert Burns

The plan was to cut down on soldering by designing and manufacturing our own PCB. So off to the appropriate website, mouse away and click merrily, then hand over a very small fortune (US$13.81 including shipping) and finally sit by the post box and wait (25 days from order to arrival).  And they were so pretty, and so horribly designed in the flesh...

Ooops - let's call it a learning curve ball...

The manufacturers had faithfully reproduced the nonsensical design. After 24 hours of thought (and some swearing), a bit of creative "re-wiring", some non-UN approved soldering and then voilà!

So it's lost a bit of functionality - it no longer turns on at night by itself (the LDR is incorrectly wired), but the chip does talk to the LEDs nicely to make a flickering candle effect as per the original idea way back when.  The new version is wired correctly (crosses fingers and toes) and should arrive within the month - watch this space...

It was frosty overnight and very crunchy when going downstairs to feed the girls this morning.  The pups find the first light and warm up as soon as possible.

Two dogs, one horse

We are finally getting some rain and the tanks are filling up. The rainbows are nice as well - here is Dip Road on the way to work...

A pot of gold?

Mostly we sit by the fire - although Kym has been a demon in the garden and it's looking ripe and ready for the growing season.

Fiddling while Rome burns

A fool and his money are soon elected.

Will Rogers

While it's certainly not likely that Nero fiddled while Rome burned (no fiddles back then, was it a lute?), it's a wonderful allegory for the real world events in Canberra this week, and also shows that perhaps the other meanings of fiddling are more relevant to this political life (fidget, fool, interfere, dabble, doodle, mess, monkey, play, potter, puddle, putter, tamper, touch, toy, trifle, twiddle, ...)

All those chooks seem to be running about dealing with Earth shattering events such as:

• the "Marriage Question" (please Tony, just have a vote in parliament like you were elected to do - earn your keep!) and... 
• the backgrounds of various elected officials (Barnaby - step aside and do your paperwork, it's what the rest of us have to do).

The morass of these moribund monsters, brought about by the bubble-like nature of the professional pollie, means that we aren't being effectively governed at the moment.  Perhaps we could look to Belgium for solutions.  Kick em out and let the public servants get back to the sanity of running our country?

Congrats to the parliament for the wastage and inefficiency - that's gonna help lift us up.  And we're not just complaining amongst ourselves up here in the hills...here is the research...

Mmmm...where is that trendline heading?

On a more positive note, the garden is waking up!  Pictures to follow...

The lengthening days

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

Albert Camus

When the chooks woke up this morning (Sun 13 Aug 2017 07:35:48 AEST) and looked at the mountains they saw this view from their yard...

Good morning mountain

...and when the mountain looked back it saw this...

Good morning chooks!

Egg production is up with the days getting noticeably longer - everyone is happy...

Any prouder and we'd burst

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.” 

John Joseph Powell

Driving Mr Scratchy Crazy

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” 

John Steinbeck

About a week ago we awoke around 5am to hear scratching noises.  Damn cats!  So up jumps Anthony to yell at the cats and then return to bed all grumpy.  Ditto that same night, but hang on - the cats aren't being noisy and the scratching is coming from a wall!  We well know that rats can live quietly alongside humans, so a possum seemed the most likely; coming in from the cold (-3 degrees!) to start a nest in preparation for the Spring...er...festivities.

We named the interloper "Mr Scratchy" and began a three pronged approach to convincing our noisy co-tenant to bugger off.

1. Bang the walls ferociously and yell a fair bit - also good therapy for humans!
2. Stink up the environment with "anti pet" spray in the areas downstairs where Mr Scratchy was most likely gaining ingress - very pungent to sensitive noses.
3. The most effective weapon - 3 days of ultrasonic "music" designed to make possums crazy.

How long could you last under this assault and keep your marbles?  Soon it was "bye bye" to Mr Scratchy - and we ain't gonna miss you...

Speaking of driving crazy, check out part of the morning commute around here - icy roads in sub-zero temperatures with only The Floyd to keep you sane.