| Author | Message | ||
     Crusty |
Photos From Australia These first few pictures are photos of really big ass Fruit Bats in a few trees. When I was in Australia four years ago, there were half as many bats in two trees Now the number of bats has doubled and they inhabit four trees. The Stench has also increased proportionally.   Without getting close enough to measure, I'm guessing that the bats are 10 to 12 inches (250 - 300 mm) from head to foot. After the photo, we proceeded to Fernvale and went to a flea market. Once we went through the flea market, we drove over to the bakery for lunch. When you pull into the parking lot behind the bakery, there's an old International flat bed farm truck surrounded by plants:   We went into the outdoor dining area and ordered our lunch. They have a restored 1911 Model T Ford on display, so I took a photo of it while waiting for our food:  After that, I took a surprise picture of Melia and Tylana:  When we first got there, there were no birds in the vicinity. But after a while, first a few Cockatoos showed up. Then the Lorikeets arrived. They went for the plates left by a departed customer. There were six of them, but I couldn't get a photo with all of them in it.  But I managed to get a shot of two of them getting a drink from the water fountain:  On the way home we stopped to get a photo of a termite mound:  I figured that the size wouldn't be apparent from the picture, so I had Tylana take a photo of be beside the mound:  Then, I just had to get a photo of an Australian Christmas Tree:  Today was another hot one, so I don't have a lot of energy. I hope everybody enjoys the photos. May you all have a wondrously joyous Christmas. | ||
| Crusty |
It’s Quiet I’m here by myself, this morning. Melia and Tylana have gone off to help a woman that Melia works with. The quiet is nice. Melia gets coffee from a shop down in Melbourne. She ordered it a couple of weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Melia keeps checking the tracking and it was supposed to be delivered last Monday. Then on Wednesday, then Friday. Now, the latest is either today or Wednesday. 2-1/2 weeks to go less than 1000 miles (1600 Km). What’s worse is that Melia also ordered some filters for her water cooler. The estimated arrival is December 27. The filters are coming from Newcastle, NSW. That's less than 500 miles (755 km, according to Google). When people start to bitch about the US Postal Service, they should be subjected to Australia’s Postal Service. And it costs quite a bit more to send things here than back in the US. I guess that bit of information falls into the “No Place is Perfect” Category. I’m still enjoying Australia, even though Ron’s death still puts a dampener on everything. Yesterday, when we went to the pool, we had four lifeguards/ students/ attendants asking us a bunch of questions. One of them stated that he’d never seen snow. I told him he was lucky. I’m a good bit more active here than I was back in Cheviot.I swim almost every day, and there’s plenty to do around the farm. When the TV is on, it’s tuned to the Christmas Music station On a Manga cartoon. Melia loves Japanese Anime; Manga movies (cartoons) specifically. I can’t get into them, but that’s OK. I’ve been hooked on reading Science Fiction since I was about 10 years old. Other people don’t understand it, but I have nothing against someone enjoying something different. If you’re close to me in age, you can appreciate the romance in the movie, Easy Rider. A few years ago, I played it on my DVD player for someone who was about 20 years younger, and all he could do was goof on the things that were said. He didn’t feel the magic that was there. We all have some form of magic that really affects us, but others are immune to. Melia loves Manga movies; I have a friend who loves My Little Pony; I read books by Robert A Heinlein or Jerry Pournelle or David Drake. None of us are hurting anyone and we all enjoy our passion. Live and Let Live should always apply if nobody is hurting someone else. We might have three Koalas on the farm. We spotted one that looked unfamiliar on Saturday. It might just be that we just didn’t recognize it, so the jury is out right now. When I think of Koalas, I think of slow and cuddly;they can run pretty damned fast; and I personally saw one climb a tree so quickly, I doubt it was much slower than if the tree had been flat on the ground.They also have some pretty sharp claws. They could probably shred you with them. But I still like them. We also have a Goanna (Melia calls it an Iguana, but it’s not ) on the property. It’s about three feet, or so (roughly 1 meter) long. It likes to get into the chicken coop and eat whatever eggs it finds. I saw it the other day when we were doing some chores. It also went up a tree, but not as fast as a Koala. Then again, maybe it wasn’t in a hurry. I’ll try to get a picture of it, but I seldom carry my camera when we’re working. Next week, Melia and I will be going down to Kristyn and Matt’s house to spend Christmas with Kala. Kristyn, Matt and Tylana are going to Sydney for Christmas. Kala has to work, so she can’t go with them. So the three of us are going to celebrate Christmas together. My sister had mentioned in an e-mail that she usually fixes Spaghetti and Meatballs on Christmas Eve for dinner. When I told Melia that, I was instantly nominated as the chef and I was ordered to fix that for dinner. For Christmas dinner, we’re planning to have BBQ Ribs, Rib Fillet (Rib Eye) steaks, Melia’s Baked Beans and I’m going to make my soon to be Internationally acclaimed Seasoned Roasted Potatoes. I think a salad was mentioned, as well. I believe that we’ll be eating Blueberry Pie for dessert, but I heard something about Pumpkin Pie, as well. That’s what I think we’re having. That’s all subject to change, but it’s what I know at present. Once again, I truly wish all of you the best for Christmas. | ||
| Scrivo62 |
Hi Crusty, If your into seventies biker movies check out an Australian movie called Stone, filmed in and around Sydney. Its kind of like a Mad Max theme. I bet you'll appreciate a swim at the pool today the temperature in Gatton is supposed to reach 40C/104F.  | ||
| 86129squids |
Mad Max on motorcycles? The latest "Mad Max" iteration was pretty great, with the nutttty motorcycle stunts. Didn't Cirque de Soleil throw some dancers?  | ||
| Crusty |
Scrivo; it was 40 C (104 F) at 10:30 this morning. It hit 42 C (107.6 F) this afternoon. Then the wind came in and the temperature dropped to 34 C (93 F) in something like 15 minutes. Right now, at 7:15 PM it's 27.4 C (81 F). It should be a good night for sleeping. | ||
| Glitch |
Very jealous | ||
| Ourdee |
Looks like we got 6" last night. Should get a little more tonight. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Looks like we got 6" last night. Should get a little more tonight. I'm just going to leave that alone, but for the record you walked right into it. | ||
| Ourdee |
I know. Pics or something else happened.  | ||
| Tootal |
 Good one Matthew! How can you stand all that heat Crusty! Don't worry it'll all be good when you get home!  | ||
| 86129squids |
Woke up and the outdoor temp showed 70 degrees. Figured the sensor needed batteries. Nope!! Got the windows open, radio just said 72 in Knoxvegas. Yay! Motorcycle ride soon! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Man, I'm jealous of all you guys who got real snow...we only got an inch, and now we're getting a coating of winter-boogers on top of that (rain/sleet/freezing rain). Probably just as well. Snowblower is still in the shed anyway. | ||
| Ourdee |
It's snowing again here. I had to fact check Brad, and sure enough, I think I hate him. | ||
| Crusty |
Today, the high temperature is forecast to be 33 C (91.4 F). Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 31 C (87.8 F). It's going to be cold at night; the forecast low for the next couple of nights is 14 C (57 F) The humidity is supposed to be 35%. This is just one minor reason why I came here at this time of year. The other reasons were much more important. | ||
| Daddio |
Pshaw, Ratbuell... you need a snowblower for 1" of snow? For the record, we're already over 100" of snow for the season, only six more snow months to go! And, for Crusty and everyone else in the really deep South:  | ||
| Ratbuell |
Nah, I only run the blower for more than 3", mainly to expose blacktop to sun warmth. I get a lot of drifting, so I try and have warm blacktop showing to fight the drifts. Typically a 3" dry snow will net me about 18" of drifting... I just need to get the blower out before I have to literally "dig" it out...it can sit in the garage till we get some depth. | ||
| Crusty |
Melia just called to me saying that if I wanted to get a picture of the goanna, he was in a tree close to the house. So I went outside and there he was! Now, here he is:  | ||
| Etennuly |
Yep 73 here yesterday, 56 this morning, heading into 40s by dinner time. Nice warm weather break. | ||
| Tootal |
Now that's one long-ass lizard!!  | ||
| 86129squids |
My sweetie Marcia has a bad, bad phobia about lizards, snakes, any kind of creepy-crawlie. Even earthworms. That thing would send her to the moon. How she managed to live in Miami I'll never know. Digging the critter pictures, O inverted Crust! Man do I miss my birds. If I could build a serious aviary I'd love it. | ||
| Crusty |
A Day Trip Back in October, Scrivo 62 on Badweb posted a route map for me to try when I was here.  I saved the map and showed it to Melia and she liked it quite a bit; especially since she hadn’t been over the entire route. Scrivo suggested we do the route in a counterclockwise direction, but we did it in a clockwise manner today. It was an amazing ride. The Swift isn’t a motorcycle in any way at all, except that it gets really good fuel mileage. Melia drove and Tylana and I got to be the rubbernecking tourists. And there was plenty to look at. We first went to the town of Esk, where we stopped and had coffee on the front veranda of a Coffee shop that Melia likes. Then we went up past Somerset Dam and lake. The route was a motorcyclist’s dream; if you enjoy riding the Dragon or the Cherohala Skyway, you’d love the route we took At some times, it matched the Dragon for tight turns and I think it surpassed it in other places. We saw numerous bikes along the way. Since we were being tourists, we would pull off to the side whenever someone came up on us to let them by. We weren’t going especially slow; we were running right at the speed limit, but the people who passed us wanted to enjoy the roads a little faster. It was really fascinating to see the beautiful scenery and we were all marveling over how dry everything is. I’ve been set back over how dry everything is in the Lockyer Valley; traveling up along Lake Somerset was much worse. Once we got over towards Mount Mee, the corners have names. The only one I remember was Blue Rock Corner, though there were a series of named turns. We stopped at one scenic overlook and I wanted to take a photo of the valley with the assorted mountains sticking up; but between the smoke and the crappiness of my point & shoot Nikon, it was futile. The bright side of the stop was that there was an XR1200 with Vance & Hines pipes there, along with 2 big twins. The XR is definitely a good bike for the roads there. We rode up, down and around mountains for a while and we finally stopped at the Mount Glorious Café for lunch. There were over a dozen bikes parked out front, including a new Royal Enfield Interceptor. That’s the first Interceptor I’ve actually seen in the flesh and I have to say that I’m impressed. It was a metallic grey color and the fit & finish looked pretty good to me. The bike was (I think) completely stock. It’s really very nice looking. There were a number of other bikes there, as well. A mid ‘70s GL 1000, a Suzuki 650 single with an enormous aftermarket gas tank, a couple of Ducatis, a gaggle of BMW GSs, assorted Japanese multis and even a Can Am Spyder. I should have taken a photo when we pulled up, but I waited until we were about to leave. By then, most of the bikes were gone. The Enfield had a muted exhaust tone as it departed. A nice set of throaty mufflers would do wonders for it.  We rolled along for a while, but we pulled off right by the Wivenhoe Power Station. There was a Wild fire in the near distance. A helicopter was flying to the lake, dipping its water bucket and filling it, then flying off to dump water on the fire. The smoke was really thick and we could see the fire moving as the wind gusts pushed it along. It’s really a sad and terrible sight. We sat there and watched the helicopter make several cycles of filling, flying off to dump water and returning to fill again. Here the fire across the lake  And here a shot of the helicopter with the water bucket  After that sobering sight, we just proceeded back to the farm. It was an eventful and interesting day. | ||
| Ourdee |
Wow, That does look like a tinder box. | ||
| Patches |
Brothers in Arms is the story of the lead up, reasons and the repercussions of the "Milperra Massacre" where two warring Motorcycle Clubs faced off in the car park of a western Sydney pub on Fathers Day, 1984. The two clubs, the Bandidos, and the Comancheros were once under one club, only to later split, which then caused a rift that would lead to many deaths. Whilst the show is "based" on real events, there are inaccuracies that can easily be ignored and give the viewer an insight into not only the bikie (biker) culture, but also one of the worst massacres in Australian history. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdp8Yd4ou9Y DT3dmoEpZsh9nlLcpe60IE | ||
| Scrivo62 |
Hi Crusty, glad you enjoyed the route I posted. It's one of the best rides in South East Queensland. The run down Mt Glorious is steep with tight corners. My Buell X1 loves it,the 1978 750 Bonnie is fun until it runs out of brakes and the Deluxe Harley puts on a good light show scraping the running boards around every corner. I hope the Suzuki Swift didn't cook the brakes on the way down. I live near Mt Mee so depending on the day I go either way depends on who I am riding with and where we meet, but my favourite way is to go up Mt Glorious from Fernvale. Those mountains you saw from Mt Mee are called the Glass House Mountains. They are a cluster of hills that rise abruptly from the coastal plain on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. They were discovered and named by Captain Cook in 1770. The individual names of the mountains are named by the Aboriginals before the invasion of the white settlement (convicts) and have great Indigenous significance to the area.The highest hill is Mount Beerwah at 556 metres above sea level, but the most identifiable of all the hills is Mount Tibrogargan which from certain angles bears a resemblance to a face staring east towards the ocean. They were formed by intrusive plugs, remnants of volcanic activity that occurred 26-27 million years ago. Molten rock filled small vents or intruded as bodies beneath the surface and solidified into land rocks. Millions of years of erosion have removed the surrounding exteriors of volcanic cores and softer sandstone rock. | ||
| Scrivo62 |
Crusty, This what you probably could have seen on a clear day from Mt Mee. There has been a lot of smoke haze from the bushfires lately, so visibility has been poor.  | ||
| Scrivo62 |
This is an old photo of me and Graham (Lemonchilix1) out and about on the Buell X1's before he took off to the USA. Graham is on the White Lightning.  | ||
| Crusty |
Riding The Roller Coaster It’s humid this morning. According to Weather.com.au, the current humidity is 90% and we might get showers this afternoon. The green tree frogs are croaking in the rain pipes, so maybe we will, but I find that the sound is irritating me and the high humidity just amplifies it. Or maybe it’s the other way around. I also woke up in a cranky mood again. Everything is annoying. I’m riding that old emotional Roller Coaster once more. That’s twice in less than a week. That’s not good. I’m thinking it’s a reaction to Ron’s death. It’s one of those things that some behavioral scientist could explain in detail; complete with a timetable; like they do with people who are suffering from a terminal illness. “Today, you’ll laugh about the things he did 20 years ago, but tomorrow, you’ll be angry about those same things. Tuesday, you’ll remember him fondly, but on Thursday, you’ll be angry again. Eventually, you’ll come to accept it and life will go on”. Titan just let out a bark and ran out the door to attack something that wasn’t there. He doesn’t bark often, but when he does, it’s a deep nasty sound that will get your attention. Once he got out into the yard, he just stood there looking dumbfounded. Titan’s a bit of a meathead, but I can relate to him sometimes. After discussing it, Melia and I decided that I should make the meatballs and sauce for tomorrow night’s dinner today. We have all the cooking equipment, and we can tie the lid down and carry the pot in the back of the Swifty down to Ocean Shores and it shouldn’t spill over. We don’t know what cooking pots, pans and utensils that Kristyn has. I’m going to make enough meatballs and sauce to feed a dozen people. Nobody here knows how to make a halfway decent sauce, so mine is in demand. When I made meatballs and sauce a few weeks ago, Kristyn and the kids devoured the leftovers when they came up. And they weren’t even that good. I had misjudged on a few ingredients. Things like tomato paste are very different here. The paste is thinner and they put a lot of salt in it. And the bread crumbs are coarser, as well. I can adjust my recipe however, so I’m pretty confident that I’ll do much better this time. If everybody loved it when it wasn’t right, they should be ecstatic when I do get it right. Melia’s going to make her baked beans (I haven’t had them in decades, but I still remember them fondly and I’m looking forward to them) for Christmas Dinner, along with BBQ ribs and rib fillet steaks. I’ll be doing roasted potatoes. There will be Blueberry Pie and maybe apple/blueberry cobbler for dessert. Kala is working as a barista, so she’ll be in charge of the coffee. She’ll also be assisting Melia with some of the previously mentioned items. There will probably be salad, and I have no idea what vegetables for side dishes, but it’ll be a feast. Well; my attitude has improved. I’m not sure if it’s the coffee or writing this Snippet, but I feel a little less cranky. In a little while, we’ll head over to the Supermarket to pick up the items we’re short on. Maybe we’ll even stop and get a Flat White coffee. That would be good. The frogs are singing again. That's supposed to mean it's going to rain. I may dislike this high humidity, but I really hope it does rain. This country need it and it also might wash some of the smoke out of the air. Yesterday, the sky was brown and we could smell the smoke from the fires. A calm day with a good, soaking rain would be a marvelous Christmas Present for a wonderful Country. I’m typing this at 7:00 AM on Monday, December 23. In Cincinnati, it’s 4:00 PM on December 22. So I’m a little premature when I say I hope you all have a truly memorable and Blessed Christmas. | ||
| H0gwash |
Are you in the part of Australia where you can see the annular solar eclipse on the day after Christmas? | ||
| Crusty |
Unfortunately not. | ||
| Ourdee |
Supposed to be 60° tomorrow. |
