Hanrahan

But its not where you think it is -- the worst of it is in Canberra. They aren't prepared for anything . Its been three years since I last posted. Been mighty dry out here in New South Wales for the last two years . I am not worried by the dry really . What I  hate is For all the taxes spent, there is no protection --only knee jerk firefighting   For all the politicking,  the parties know nothing .They are NOT eco experts but they pretend to be . With itching ears,  the incumbents  employ only people who agree with them. If the ABCTV had done its job in One2 One interviews ( instead of going 4 popular and known ) it would have discovered there are a large number of nobodies ( former Public servants for eg  )out there who know stuff and would have directed the debate away from the kindergarten and burnt offerins.  eg Water prices in the MD approaching $1000 a Ml .and the MD in tatters --Fancy the Libs thinking market policies for water were the...

Last night at the Candidates meeting I saw exactly why no true farmer would ever vote for THE GREENS    Tell you why at the end A bit of history The age of the advisory agent   Characteristics-   Respect +need for understanding  Like most blokes from the bush,  we've  listened and listened to conservationists talking to us , Some of them have enough education to know  a few things - about small things we have overlooked as owners in the bush around  us - really helpful ,Family members we need to know about Yes , we  are more than listening,  we are and were still very interested in real conservation expertise . Yes , we are more than  interested , we are committed  we didn't clear it all generally . We mostly have our bitta bush ( 20%  of our old place ) , native grassland or wetland on the place and we are interested in managing it better , It costs us to look after it,  but we don't care - our habita...

RE Qld Labor want more rules about Treeclearing As a rangeland ecologist,  I have a few ideas about how better to use them.  I am not going to say here . U have to ask me because I don't trust wannabes The ignorant forget that trees do rot and get eaten by ants .The Greens and some greens in their ignorance believe in more CO2  By trying to preserve them, they forget the season for growth and the season for decomposition . The Greens live in a world where there is no death - what an unsustainable utopia  when  we too love and enjoy the life of trees ants and fuel use. Our children are mistaken to follow this badge , even though the causes they talk about have merit , Better to study those issue properly and challenge the culture more deeply . The greatest evil is done in the name of the best intention More on the tragic unnecessary death of Mr Turnbull here.

The sky is always falling in the city. Not out here . We have enough worries without all that sort of crap. The USA and AUS  Now have one the richest self made men tell us why we aren't rich .We don't need their crap either and wonder why you -- the supposedly clever ones, seem to think they know HOW.Their methodology is not for everyone and yet you seem to think so.  We happen to be smart enough to realize why such persons are rich. From experience and listening to our parents we too know,  even in more detail , about the danger of l iving near the margins - real tough real world margins .Not the 25-50%  margins you insist on 2 survive . Agriculture the world over survives on less than 5% , so get real you market mad merchants.  Yes we do face droughts and really difficult seasons but we have to switch off when your reporters convince emselves " its the hottest period on record and the storms are the worst ever" .After all we have a good year and the margin...

Got to hand it to Barnaby Joyce .He's hit the nail on the head about the wandering rich kids and their stupid parents  who believe and practice- " doing JUST what they feel like," PARENT "Why aren't you happy? You've got lots of money   "post modern materialist parents ask .   "I've gots lots of money and I'm happy "  . they mouth CHILD "When you weren't dithering over my clear self centered self justified greed and actions ,you told me morality is bunk -it was all mind construct . Well maybe not yours" Now you want to punish people " punishment  - for what ? CONSEQUENCE Throw up The hypocrisy is enough to make thinking young people leave home - the hypocrisy is enough for them to dump all values and play Pirate -- "seems to the funnest game out there".    Pirates who want to be pirates and live off the rest of us   Vidme 's  video .  ·  "Going off like a frog in a so...

Our crops are dying and for the second year in a row .( North western Victoria mid  Sep  2015)  We haven't had much to go on for years Having newcomers come to town is the best thing for a country town . Our greatest fear is that you may leave again cause its tough out here . If you have just come from Syria, Iraq  or the Sudan chances are some of you may be able to cope well with our testing environment . If you are refugees not just economic migrants especially . We have seen your people come and go . The tragedy is that DHS just issue your young people with a cheque too big to imagine ans say go away . The Parliament needs to get out more - might learn something .....outside cities, mere accountancy and leveraged licences to call themselves the richest person in the cemetery . I don't need their god - he doesn't deliver on his promises. Some of us know what you newcomers need .You are like us-- you value community - each other .  Just a tiny bit...

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...

Meet Ishmael Having grown up just outside New York City, he barely knew a cow from an ear of corn. Until, that is, he married a small town Ohio girl. "While I was in seminary school, I had a temporary assignment at a church in a rural community. The day of my first sermon, I tried very hard to fit in. Maybe too hard. With my wife sitting in the first pew, I began my discourse, "I never saw a cow until I met my wife."

I may have been to University twice,,  but I am still a country hick and proud of it.  We know things even if we can't always convince you we are quite smart as far as real ecosystem management and understanding goes .Our kids have 20years head start on your when it comes to a real education in the environment . We can, for example , tell when the wannabes are desperate ; when their gurus have to have "Emeritus and Professor " in front of them.The left might hate deferring to "the USA"  but when they want to "outside experts " are better than any we have .Our intellectuals are limiting themselves . ABC were again at this week with Guru Suzuki supporting Guru Flannery . While Suzuki spoke as though he was thinking outside the square ,there was little evidence in his answers and his careless support of all Flannery's careless unrecanted outbursts. Suzuki even dared to give Flannerys fear about water to be "given time to prove " even thou...

Hi - thanks for listening mate ! Many of us have known for a long time that we can't  just keep complainin  - besides you have your complaints  too... eh!   . We do it, but we kick oursleves ( picture) for doing it -besides we try too hard sometimes . We know it , you know it .  It hurts though ! OUCH We won't get any relief from some of our suffering by just complaining - or by getting others to complain for us .You don't know how  many of the above falls are self imposed - us pushing the animal or the pnats too hard . One of the main reasons we can't rely on the voices of others is this : Those who would speak for us , people who really know our deep dilemmas,who are close to us , are getting less and less . ( Over 90% of Aussies live in cities and eat very cheap food . see how Vic govt are demolishing advisory services of merit right now. The loss of regional services of merit is something governments in their ignorance have engineered .  Soc...

As one who always leaves plenty of natural habitat  for wildlife on my place, I was keen to see what the big worry was this week on Four  Corners. Was good to get a bit of background on the problems in Victoria but , overall,  I found  myself  totally confused about what the problem is supposed to be  and where it is . If there was a cause the ABC didn't state it clearly . It was like going out to shoot a fox when the visitor couldn't  remember which paddock they saw it in.  Was the limited gene pool issue an ongoing problem , or just developers on the Gold Coast ? Some dumb Council ?  Or is the really big danger that of climate change? I would have thought that Gunnedah could be on the outside range of the animals normal habitat. Lots of animals died in the profoundly long drought ending in 2009 everywhere .  I would have thought that developers, like me, when I change things and work with nature , or remove some old habitat woul...

Straight talking is no problem here . Call me what you like as long as you don't call me late for dinner. Meathead ! Good isn't it .

I don't about You but sometimes  a really wet paddock looks more beautiful than anything else in the world . Others may see only the bogging , the seed and fuel costs ---but we see the harvest:The potential harvest .It may not come ,  It could all be ruined though you know , by a frost , not enough spring rain or hail or mice ......or  nematodes WE don't need leactures on leadership . If we didn't get out there and take risks everyday ,noone would be fed ! YET We see the problem of WEAK LEADERSHIP in Europe today and everyday . Breakthrough means we have a"new " look but its the "old look"( talking tough like good household leadership ) Good news for the moment is all the press concern themselves with . Faith in progress per se is now outdated simply because change for changes sake  doesn't work ( its suits retailers and the ad indsutry but what thinking person believes them ?) . What works is hope based on knowledge ( not on fear like the citi...

We don't watch the ABC --- they scare us too much .....and then run a shocking night of shocking humor Wednesdays .Doesn't work mate .  Rather watch Bruce Parry on SBS. His great Series on The Arctic He hangs around long enough to really get a feel for what's really happening and is not afraid to let the people speak. Beats so many who are out to point fingers and poke them into windmills Should get Bruce Parry down into the Riverina?- He might tell us something we don't already think we know

The best bit about not being taken seriously by the media is that you don't waste time chasing quickfix and hype; We are not trapped in a false comfort zone created  by living in a cave ; a self righteous self centred comfort zone where you can cocoon yourself constantly and deal directly with the one direction criticism that manages to force its way down the entrance. ( Symbolized by Woolworth's chairman recently celebrating "the 16% " -the cut.  I don't begrudge these often effective people the comfort ( We rest too ) , but I do begrudge them their ignorance and arrogance about big picture politics .I accept their efficiency but  reject their right to rule on behalf of the world ! Worse , wannabes who think they should Some of the drip feeders think they do it tough,  but they don't know what tough is. We in the bush,  and always on the sharp edge of a profit margin ( below it or above it ) , know how to invest well ( its true...