Sustainable forestry

As a kid going to school memories take the form of log trucks and saw mills, scrub lands and desolation. What I have said before there was a swamp in front of the house if you would like to call it that. The nights were cold even freezing and the only form of heat was a open fire, lots of stories were told by that fire. I went back to see where I lived as a child and there was nothing left I mean nothing, they told me a fire went threw a few years earlier and burnt down the village and the trees fences and every thing. There wasn't even a brick as the foundations were wood and the fire places were corrugated iron. There was nothing it was like no one ever lived there the village was called Bostobrick, West of Dorrigo. Even the timber mill was burnt to the ground. Getting back to the story. The timber trucks were bigger and the bloke who drove one was my best mate Ray. There was a new mill and the yardman was asked if he knew Ray and he did, He was due in in the next half hour. He asked who I was and I told him and he said Ray wouldn't recognise me after forty years. I said he would and he even wanted to bet he wouldn't. When Ray came in the yardman said to Ray that there was someone here to see him and Ray turned round and said hi Stewart I'll be with you in a sec. The yardman couldn't believe it after forty years and with a beard as well to cover my face and I didn't say anything, I thought it pretty cool. I went with Ray out to where the were getting the logs from and there were stumps in the forest which were cut down when I was a kid. It is sad to see the closing of the mill which used selective logging practices. The mill was a band saw mill and the old one was a circular saw mill. They milled the trees into timber to be used in the building industry. I'm a bit of a greeny( the farmer's in Gundagai recons I'm only half a greeny and I was OK.) but I do see the need for logging but not the destructive way they have raped the bush on the south coast of N.S.W and in Tasmania for wood chip. I will stand up to this type of logging any day. As for plantation timber the Forrest's are bare of wildlife and are eerily quite. There is no undergrowth at all. The tannin's that are produced in the clearing of plantation timber seeps into and destroys water quality for fish and the dependants of streams and rivers (including humans). Talking of rivers there should be no stock allowed near the rivers because when they get into the waters of a river they defecate. You can't drink the water below Tumut but you can at the Blowering dam as for Gundagai its a no no. All the towns and city's below farmlands are drinking putrid water that has to be cleaned up at the cost to the tax payers. Would it not be better practice not to have to clean the water up in the first place saving dollars and the environment. Would this not be a sustainable practice? This is why a lot of people go threw the motions of sustainability and never do anything and look down on people like me. More could be said on this subject but I might be sticking my head out too far. Nuff said. cheers Stewart

Stove part three

The hinges have been welded and the door latch made and put on.The final cut is done around the door opening and the door opens freely without binding.

Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle. or Murder

Noddy will never be the same without Mr Golly. Who will fix Noddy's car at a reasonable rate? Noddy doesn't have a lot of money. Will Mr Sparks rip Noddy off? Were all the golliwogs murdered?
That white-faced Mr Sparks, who become the proprietor of the Toytown garage that fixes Noddy's car! Is Mr Sparks a developer? Did Mr Sparks pay a bribe to the mayor of Wollongong city council. Is he a scoundrel for erasing Mr Golly from the new book? Is he a member of the mafia? Has he paid off the ICAC? Is he a drug lord pushing pills from the garage? Is the box Mr Golly's coffin? Or is it mine? :)

The question is, was Mr Golly murdered and his belongings stolen from his family? Where is Mr Golly's body? HeHe HeHe :)The plot thickens. ;) Will the truth will come out in time? Is Plodd good enough to catch the perpetrators?

Or were these figarines found at the local rubbish tip? Were they found there? Who put them there and why , the plot thickens.

( Wollongong is a city 50 miles south of Sydney, Australia)

(ICAC is the Independant commission against corruption in N.S.W. Australia)

Tune in for the next episode of the missing Mr Golly and all the black golliwogs...and is bribery and corruption alive and well in the government of N.S.W.? HeHeHe :)$$$$:)

House for sale

under offer
Sorry for commercialising the blog.

All of the dead trees are gone they had a horse on the property before I bought it, and it was lacking salt and it ring barked the trees to get salt. Did you know that when sheep are feeding during the heat of the day they are probably starving, Even if the grass looks green. Well fed sheep and cattle eat in the cool of the morning or evening and are not on the paddocks during the heat of the day, same goes for Kangaroos and wombats that is why it is dangerous to drive at dusk.

This house is for sale it has about 1 acre of land walking distance from the main street of Gundagai. Just post a comment and I will get back to you if you want to buy it. The selling price is $130,000 Australian.

Steel mills

Gallaway steam engine
As an apprentice I worked in the billet mill at AIS Pt.Kembla. On down days we were assigned to work in various parts of the mill. In the soaking pits the billets were red hot and in the crane over the the soaking pits had to be worked on while the operation could not stop and the temperature was over 140 degrees and you could not put your spanners down cause if you did they were too hot to pick up again. We worked five minutes on and half an hour off. On one occasion I worked in the Galloway steam engine the largest horizontal steam engine in the southern hemisphere. I could stand in the high pressure cylinder and the stroke was probably 10 feet long. This engine drove the mill to produce railway lines, the rolls were 36 inches diameter and this engine nearly stalled when the rolls were squeezed to close. It was about 5 thousand horse power. They also squeezed down steel ingots to be used in the billet mill, the steel started as from memory 3ft square and went into the mill at about three miles an hour and came out the other end at thirty miles an hour. Some times we had a cobble, that's when the steel goes the wrong way and comes out the side of the mill and goes any where and the process can not be stopped till the steel stock is threw the last rolls. There is a fifty ton billet that is squeezed into a three inch billet and all this steel is wrap around the mill like spaghetti then it cools and hardens and has to be cut up with oxyacetylene. At the end of the mill the steel is cut into billets to feed the wire mill, this is done on the flying shears at thirty miles an hour the blades slam shut every two seconds at the end of each billet, each billet was about forty feet long. From the billet mill the billets are reheated to white hot again and put threw the wire mill rolls and the length of the wire is a mile or more long after this. The blokes who worked there were cool to watch as they grabbed the red hot steel and sent it back the other way threw the second rolls and again threw the third rolls.
Posted by imagineering at 2:51 AM

hayfever

This does not come under the blogs heading so it is in a category of its own.

Just got some new tablets and the price has doubled in less than 12 months by halving the quantity.Thirty to Twenty.The last time you raised your price you changed the colour of the packet. The brand name is POLARAMINE made by Schering-Plough Pty Limited Level4,66Waterloo Road North Ryde.NSW 2113 Australia. Thanks guys, I now know how much you love money So watch your selves for loving money. You know what it says about loving money.You have got me as I have no other choice.If you have hay fever try putting a bit of bi carb soda in some water and sniffing it up your nose , it works and there is less need for the drug lords... cheers Stewart

steel boat

Finally have just launched the steel boat went like a dream the total cost is around $500 for boat and trailer. I can stand on the back corner and the thing don't try to tip you in the water it is really stable. I would recommend building in steel using 1.2 steel plate, the cabin is square tube covered in alloy sheet and glued in with Sega flex. I wouldn't use this glue again as it let go and the cabin vibrates... cheers Stewart