I've been busy

The beginning, the sides cut out and clamped and glued together.


The hull together, glued and ready for Epoxy coating.


Looks nice in this one does it not? Three coats of Epoxy coating to waterproof the wood forever. (so the story goes)


Two more coats of Marine grade two pac primer.


..and here we are now. Ive had second thoughts about painting it Stark White though.. Even on this cloudy day it's still too bright to even look at...and this is only the dull primer. Im not bad at spray painting so it has quite a bit of gloss off the gun but nothing compared to the gloss it will have in two pac hi-gloss.


I’ve been building a boat…more about that later. (slight overstatement…it’s a canoe)
I started at Christmas time and fully expected to have it in the water by now, but living in the middle of nowhere has slowed me down somewhat, it takes two weeks to get anything I order. Run out of stainless screws…two weeks, need a bit more Epoxy…two more weeks..
During the process I’ve learned many new terms…tradie things like Bow, Stern, Thingamajig and Whosiwhatsit (official nautical terms)
I learned the finishing steps, the hole filling, sanding and finishing is called ‘Fairing’ or ‘Making Fair’. (not that I’m quite there yet)
I had some major work done on my house a couple of years ago and I learned many things...like ‘complete price’ does not mean it’s actually the complete and full price of the job and the process of hole filling, straightening things which should have been straight in the first place and finishing and sanding is called ‘Making Good’.
I’ve had some experience in the steel industry and the bringing together and joining of two parts of steel is called ‘marrying’, you bring in one part and marry it to another permanently by welding.
I’m thinking in this day where marriage is anything but permanent this misnamed procedure needs to have it’s name changed…I’m thinking it should be called ‘Partnering’. The bringing together and welding…for a while.

Just a thought!


.

War On America

Lately I’ve been thinking of declaring war on America.
You may well wonder what brings on this apparent madness on my part, after all America is one of our major trading partners, our comrades in arms and a constant source of wonderment.
Her beautiful natural wonders, her incredible scientific accomplishments, the great many fine people and friends I have there, the natural barrier she provides to prevent Canadians coming South. (sorry Cal)
Despite the wonderful people, the wonders and the accomplishments, there is something for which I cannot forgive…
TV..
not just any TV mind you.

Let me explain.
Here in far away Australia we have a new TV channel…Channel 11.
Channel 11 seems to be caught in a time warp, time zone 1970’s and the reason for my despair. Why, in the 1970’s did America commit this crime on us and TV viewers throughout the world. What did we do to deserve this bombardment of…of..
Well…have a look for yourselves.






This is just tonights ‘Entertainment’…and there are worse nights than this.
Mork and Mindy…
The Love Boat… (weeping now)
Happy Days… (shamelessly crying)
The Brady Bunch… (reaching for the razor blades)

Come on...what have you to say for yourselves?



.

The tale of the Drop Bear

It is well understood that the Dropbear has evolved over thousands of years. It's diminutive cousin the Koala was more often found in dryer areas of Australia where it's herbivorous lifestyle was a natural adaptation to scarce food supplies. Conversely, Dropbear prides were more common in sub-tropical forests, where larger mammals (a primary food source) were more prevalent. The population density along coastal areas accounts for the less than comfortable relationship shared over the years by humans and Dropbears. Due to habitat destruction, many Dropbear prides have divided over the years, some of which head further inland in search of more plentiful food sources, and safer environments in which to raise cubs. This in turn has displaced some koala populations. This in fact serves to provide the Australian government with a convenient cover story. They (and others) claim that coastal Koala habitats are being destroyed, thereby lowering the count of koala's typically seen around urban Australia. This is a fallacy, as koala's never inhabited coastal areas in any great numbers due to the Dropbear not being particularly concerned with matters of etiquette regarding the feeding on relatives. However, since many tourists tend to be disappointed that they do not see a koala in every eucalyptus tree, the government perpetuates this story of an endangered species in a shrinking habitat. As horrible as it is, it sounds a lot better than saying "Oh, those cuddly things? Yeah, the Dropbears ate them all".



.

I am a vegi

Shamelessly Stolen from: http://thingsthatarenotnormal.blogspot.com/

Aussie Spirit, alive and well!

A friend posted this on her site today Spiral is smart and funny and a joy to her many friends. http://mymandorla.wordpress.com/
There is no original credit so I'll just have to thank her/him here...Tah!
This is typical of the kind of thing we have to put up with in Australia.. it pays not to take yourself too seriously here or you'll get the piss taken out of you. (made fun of)

Hmm, seems I spoke to soon.

Right now it's pouring here in lower South Australia, some 4000km away from where Cyclone Yasi made landfall we are all coping big rains. Virtually right across the country it's raining hard. To put that into perspective...Australia is over 5500km from East to West(3200miles) and some 4000km from North to South (2500miles)and it's raining over most of it.
Yep, it was a big storm!
It's not so bad here, being near the sea there's little likelihood of serious flooding since the water will run straight into the nearby marshes and to the sea..but even so, my yard is completely under water just now...just an inch! But an inch can make all the difference...so my Ex-wife used to say!
It's been 100% humidity and most uncomfortable for several days now but that was broken late today when the rain started..it's still hot and rather nice to go out walking in the rains but a little cooler now.
I had coffee at the beach with daughter/son-in-law and all the kids and friends late today and we really enjoyed the pouring rains, we all got saturated and loved it!



.

Queensland Floods

When your local sewerage works goes under water you dont want to go into the water..this one was at Rockhampton.


No aircraft coming or going from here, this is why the armed forces were brought in.


Where do you start?


One wrecked boat, one stuffed bridge.


Gday mate!


A man saving a roo, just one man, just one roo but every bit makes a difference.


This guy is a dead set hero, he will probably be forgotten by history but he motored around hauling drowning Roos into his boat and taking them to high ground. You can see theyre not happy with their ears back like that..but are reserved to being rescued. (these are wild roos)


This is why were having troubles here. Australia is a largely flat and the flood spreads far and wide.


One TV station said in places the flood was 2000km wide. (1250miles)


You have to have a sense of humor, even at times like this..Queenslands mud army.




I wasn't in a hurry to put these up but good ol' Queensland is already heading for it's next disaster and I need room for that. Thats right! as you read this a cyclone closes in on the former flood zones.



.