jrbeatty

Good result Norvic. Reinforces everything positive already stated about X Coils versus standard 👍

Here in Australia we get paid for gold in $AU, so a record high for us.

Call that a gold coin? This is a gold coin. :) On display at the Perth Mint:

New record again. Nothing like a weak $AU. Woo Hoo! Chug a lug!!! :)

Broke one drought anyway Steve. The other bastard will break eventually -

I gave it one of mine for you 2Valens :) Nice to see the odd decent US colour.

Gerry: All gold is good! Never had any luck finding gold coins. On the bucket list though -

Sorry about the fumes guys. We couldn't think of anywhere else to send them 😉

Been using lipo cordless setups for years on GPX and QED. Only way to fly. Lightweight and very rapid vehicle recharge (10 minutes) with a balance charger. All available cheaply from Hobbyking or any RC shop. Prefer headphones (I work mainly in winter) so use Sennheiser RS160 or TDK setup but (as Dale says) works with most speaker transmitter systems. Go lightweight cordless, never look back.

With good rainfall currently underway over all the fire zones in SE Australia, and much more forecast, it's now safe to unofficially declare the emergency over. The transformation much of the country has undergone following the collapse of the catastrophically high IOD last month is truly breathtaking. Today's national radar image with progressive 24 hour rainfall totals (MM) in colour: As is usually the case, in some places we have exchanged a catastrophe for a problem, as flood rains wash huge quantities of charcoal, acidic ash and soil now rapidly eroding off burnt mountain ranges into river systems and water storage reservoirs. That's just the way it is after bushfires. Thank you Steve for tolerating this extremely off topic thread for so long. It acted as a much needed mental life raft when things got hot (Yep, intended!) likewise everybody else who lent their much needed moral support. I remain forever in your debt! With a lot more rain (hopefully) coming and the grass growing for hungry stock, I think I can see a chance to get back on the gold soon. For me that's always the greatest therapy of all. PS Madtuna: Hope that cyclone over there dumped some much needed wet stuff on your station -

I'm still here NE and so is the fire, burning much closer but slowly now against prevailing winds. The spot fire across the Towamba River is my main concern at this stage as a southerly could push it very close indeed. My house is circled blue: Overall, the fires in my district are much calmer this week and have lost momentum considerably. This is due to higher humidity, lower wind velocity and much lower temperatures. We have now received considerable backup from volunteer fire brigades from elsewhere, including some from Queensland and Tasmania. These act as a mobile strike force to reinforce local brigades where needed. There is a definite feeling of optimism in the air now, with rain forecast, but the actual arrival date is constantly being moved forward by the Bureau of Meteorology, with Sunday now the expected date for heavy rain to arrive. Yesterday they were forecasting Saturday. This moving of the goal posts has been going on for over a week, so I'm a bit skeptical now. I'll believe it when I see it: MN: Yes, the previous wet summers were a contributing factor to the fires. Bushfires require fuel, oxygen and hot dry conditions to thrive. The only factor we can directly control is the fuel load. Much more work needs to be done there to limit future disasters of this scale. Yes, even areas which had been reduction burnt can be over-run by fire, but almost nothing can stop a crown fire driven by hot winds, burning on an immense front. I didn't take many images during the last month, more important things to do and conditions generally were impossible - but on the afternoon the fire actually roared over the mountain at the back of my property ,I took one. You can just make out the puffs of smoke from spot fires igniting down the mountain in front of the main fire, as burning bark and leaves shower down from the ash cloud: All that forest where those spot fires started was fuel reduction burnt three years ago and they never really got momentum. They are still quietly burning in that area as I type. Bring on the rain! or, as we say in Oz "Send 'er down Huey!!!"

Thought I was a goner yesterday. Spurred on by temperatures in the 40's and strong hot northwesterly winds the Border fire woke up and finally reached the back of my property. As it came over the mountain it sounded like Ragnar Lothbrok and a million angry Vikings all beating their shields together. It rained burning debris down in front of it, which immediately started spotfires on the timbered hills surrounding my valley. Some small fires started in the paddocks but my brother quickly jumped them with the ute mounted fire fighting unit. Once again a minor miracle occurred. The wind suddenly swung to the east which prevented the fire burning downwards from the mountain onto the farmland, and swung the hot debris raining pyrocumulus ash cloud back to where the fire had come from. By evening we had all the hills behind us just quietly burning along, punctuated by the occasional enormous crash of falling timber. Today, by contrast, was cool with little wind. Consequently, the fire has made hardly any progress. That's expected to change tomorrow with afternoon strong cold SW winds blowing till midnight, just the direction we don't need. If we survive that, cool calm days follow until forecast very heavy rains finally arriving over the weekend. Heres hoping! Hotspot plus fire map showing Burragate and Rocky Hall sandwiched between the Border fire to the south of the Towamba valley and the Big Jack Mountain fire to the north. Tomorrows wind will probably combine these two fires: And a closer view of the property with approximate fire edge tonight:

Record high in $AU. Good Hunting.

OK! Great idea Simon!! - er, what if you croak???

Nothing like the fear of a decent global pandemic to push gold along. Hope I'm not too dead to cash in :)

At least we don't have camels - Dingoes probably prefer sheep to cattle here - easier meat. No calves targeted yet - touch wood. Good luck!

MT: Cattle and sheep are chewing through quite a few semi loads of big square bale canola down here lately. No freebies yet unfortunately. No doubt stirred up by the fires, the dingoes have started mauling sheep. Traps set and poison laid. Fires slowed considerably following 20mm of rain last week. Unfortunately, no follow up rain yet. New fire started last week near the Rocky Hall property but the farmland is eaten bare there, so should be managable when the predicted extreme fire weather arrives over the weekend.

MT: Luckily, some of the signals on that "golf course" weren't too faint :)

You blokes think you have tough detecting terrain? Some of the killer ground Reg and I have courageously struggled through over the years - - -

Like many Australians. the tragic news of the loss of a C130 fire bomber and its three American crew has brought personal feelings of profound sadness. Only last week they, and others, helped save my locality by effectively laying Phoschek lines in front of the advancing fire front. This letter, published in one of our daily newspapers, perhaps best illustrates how many Australians feel:

Charles Thatcher: "The Green New Chum" http://www.cobbersbushband.com/green_newchum.htm

Yeah NE, we got 18mm in ten minutes. I haven't posted before because the last week of favourable weather enabled the authorities to pretty much control the Border Fire. Not official yet, but the emergency is well and truly over with life returning to normal, with just the drought to deal with now. Piece of cake! :)

I let this 2 1/4 ozer sit in a paddock for two years once, thinking it was another of many shallow shotgun shells. I'll bet I've left a few more "junk" signals for someone else to find as well:

Useless Romans missed it - what have they ever done for us anyway? :) The Irony! This could start a reverse "rush" back to the mother country - or not - - -

The pink retardant line laid this afternoon on the mountain behind my farm. Courtesy RFS: