Dry, hot and dusty

"He envied the bark, which had been, in the course of one lifetime, both forest and fire. One endured; one destroyed."

Karen Joy Fowler

The extent of the fires in Tasmania are beyond comprehension - our local conflagration is around 60000 hectares as of time of writing (and growing). The others around the state are also massive. The damage to one of the last remaining wilderness areas on the planet is staggering. From satellite photos you can see the extent and the ferocity of the long fire fronts.

Amazing scenes from high up

With no rain in sight and February traditionally the worst for local fire conditions, we are still braced for more trouble down here at the bottom of the world. Rain please!

In better news, the clock pcbs from jlcpcb turned up yesterday and today we soldered up the latest incarnation, and it works!

Marvellous, compact and quick to solder

The process took around 30 minutes which is a huge improvement on the three hour soldering marathon early in the project. The new ATmega88pa-au version seems to be holding up well, and we'll see how long the batteries last with the new code and wiring. Anything to take our minds of the flames over the hill.

Take care and keep up the rain dances!