Hanrahan

The three amigos ( Sinclair, Anthony and Nixon   )  featured on a wonderful  reflection on the history of the Country Party in Australia this week. They were found , not reveling in their achievements or bemoaning their lack of influence,  but back in the garden ;their farms . Heather Ewart's series should be shown around the world -----its that good and such good therapy about the things that matter .Its a long way from the shallow pedant ridden world of political games and rhetoric. There is something magical about the opportunity to manage the land .The rewards are there despite the external contradictions . The most potent part of that wonder is the fact that even though these three ( and their constituency) did much to keep us on track and in the black , they still accept a pittance for payment . Yes the rats can love the treadmill of the modern economic machine to death,,, but somethings missing . we have lots of things and are ,in that numbers sense,...

Cool dude in a nice new RCV is held up by the sheep on the road . Intrigued,  as are all city people by the paradoxes of the scene ( low technology , doing same old same old  dirty work for nothing , still smiling )  he offers to help the poor peasant using the mass of technology in his car...... and do some trading ( as is the way of the world in the city ) " If I guess correctly tell you how many sheep you have ......will you let me have one?  He gets out his computer dials up Google Earth , zooms in  using a app , does some triangulation and wow there is the number  "215"  in the mob . "Wow"  the shepherd says   "thats right" and things move on If I guess correctly what you do for a living ,  can we do another trade ?   shepherd says Straight up the shepherd says " Consultant -----" . "How did you work that out?   Firstly , you think you know what i need , second you tell me something I already know , Thirdly ...

I t's true - modern city concerns often make us feel bad..... really bad but we can't talk about it  It seems you get it off the TV and that's dangerous.You should be more wary of the media and what it does with your mind . People , it now seems , would rather talk about you than talk to you..esp when you are mad like we often are ........inside at least . Yet we talk and care about land animals all the time , every single day ; they even stop us from having holidays . This "about you " kind of talk means that a lot of that talk is suspect even if it sounds " caring " . Reasonable rational face to face would help us see where we are wrong , but frankly you no longer support services that used to do that and FRANKLY we haven't got time for most of the worries generated in the hype media . (Sometimes we are angry and in no talk because we are so busy -- unlike you , it seems who seem to have time for FB and internet ?) Where this divorce is m...

( soil vs metal) The industrial revolution has hit hard in soft old agriculture .The mellow and soft edge of life on the land have changed forever .With our new knowledge of how to save time in making both biology and metallurgy  work for us . Maybe one day in the future  someone will say , as they do now ( see the B on the new conservatives - the greens ) , the past is better , lets go back there .but even further back than they want s to go .  Lucky noone takes the Greens ( incl themselves ) too seriously because this nostalgia for the past is a nostalgia for a past world  is for a world that no longer works. In fact in all our idealogical haste to redeem our confusion about where to go to next we are denying ourselves the opportunity to celebrate both what we have learned and what we can do with the future B this is the ideal - enjoy the new challenge ) What's holding me back then? Some bad habits with rusty metal . My dad amzed me one day when after i painted t...

I can go on about professors and what the don't know but I also know that observers can often see things we can't . Take the whole issue of industrialization of agriculture . See previous blog about steel wheeled tractor an how I serviced it kept it going and so on . Got parts and lost parts . It turned out to be a Lost cause should call me John of lost causes;  The man who invested in lost causes . The media too are happy to invest in lost causes ..........but they don't have to pay for them .Warn them ,,,,,its too easy to talk .

re My love hate relationship with Landline ABCTV  and lesser extent Quantum and even now RN rural ( sad to say!) While they,  like the ABC generally ( as real lifelines for rural people) do some good reporting, they ONLY do it  when they stick to reporting ( recording real authors). Embedding is for those who live with and in and beside -who know their land as well or better than the farmers  do ;  quote them and quote them carefully . More importantly make sure they exist in Country towns . Find them----- they are as rare as real farmers These competent people don't have to be psychologists ;  I have listed their qualifications above , If Greenies were to embed themselves the shallowness and disrespect for the diversity and depth of land and ecology understanding wouldn't be so evident to those on the ground.Many farmers are in no talk land and it isn't because they don't have people to talk to - because those that do talk, talk carelessly ( seeTel...