Fulla shit

 SAMMYJ ,Isolation is nothing new for those of us who live and work in the country , In recent years we have given up hope of being properly being represented , We don't even write letters to our own papers anymore.

http://thiselection.blogspot.com , We are largely patronised and played with by the media and the other wannabes
We want our ABC to be the best, but decades of drivel drive us nuts and we are happy to have SKY News to give us a decent rest from the relentless patronising and presumption that is the city  telling us about our environment and what it needs ,
Many Melbourne 774 radio presenters/producers over the last few decades have just played with us, and it stinks
A few of us went to Torquay last election to remind the sea changers that they had over 400 shiny arses in the Shire who wouldn't do a thing to keep some credibility in their West . Epstein refused to consider coming to Corangamite proper to get to know how people really feel about the numbers of smart arses running the Country - or trying to .
What a relief this week to hear this mans work and suddenly find some sanity about the wannabes and what they are really up to,

Panic merchants

Grief over loss is soon got over on the farm as you grow up there.
  Your favorite animals die,  the  crops get waterlogged or hail damaged , or you just get no decent rain for years .You get over it .You have to get over it or die yourself.
Facts are fine if you are bored but we aren't - most of us are busy thinking in our risk prone places. We all have our own thresholds regarding whats useful information at the time when it comes to risk.   Adults, even when alert , don't appreciate facts that have no experience to add the necessary weight to a situation of risk.    .
Our soil is chokers with dangerous spores and bacteria but  we happily have it under our fingernails .( Have the stores been drained of nailbrushes yet ?)
 My good friend who went to the best Microbiology school in Australia tells me that the age old Uni prac tests show unwashed hands support less bacterial growth than washed hands.
You have to know what you are doing and if you are going to tell me when i manage three fluids in the dairy that you know better save it till you can demonstrate it .

In the country there is no panic 
But you wouldn't know it at the moment in the city with all the panic about coronavirus.

Whatever the risk,  its clear the city is in a panic mode and have been for a while about many things .They have gone fanatical.
 The media , desperate to try and stay relevant perhaps,  gave voice  and pictures to those who called Australia burning before Christmas .
Why?  The early summer fires on eastern edge were nowhere near catastrophic - just extensive.
My earth science  friend says the cities just don't understand anything dynamic about the earth.

The smoke of those early summer fires is due to high humidity just as the high February rain across Victoria is .
Just because they can't see it the uneducated  forget that the air has lots of water in it and it only takes a little force feeding from elevation or evaporation off the wet surface to set it off again .

I am going back to sleep and listen to the rain on the roof'  glad that my world is not like the city:
All  at sea with the waves ( and the vision ), Why are they so worried , despite that fact that the earth is 80% covered with water that they have to make it  their own way ( thanks but no thanks Bracks ) and they do it in complete ignorance of natures way .

Plato accused Diogenes of pride and Diogenes accused Plato of pride . Neither of them enjoyed the idea that their Creator could bless them if they both admitted it and got on with better understanding and acceptance .

You smart arse you

George  You  would make a good leader . You know stuff and admit what you don't know . You listen . You are rare but good . Why aren't you in politics?

Han thanks mate . What a lot of us mere plebs do not realize is that people who assume Authority over us often don't actually know what to do . They do it for reasons other than real wisdom .
.I would be joining them,  but they would soon vote me out again  ref The Boyer lectures on The limits of government by John  Passmore 1978

George but you gotta be serious about changing the world ? .
Han Yes true . You have to find a way . however small.... that works . It maybe one step forward and two steps back,    but you have done your bit for your kids ambition and your own  satisfaction.
George is that  enough though ??
Han never enoug,    but finding a simple way that works is like  believing the world is still a wonderful place where we can all still work - A few wins , its enough.
Its the only antidote I  know to the cynicism that acts like cancer on the minds of most -metanoia about how we tried last time and failed? .


 Let me tell you about two real men who changed the world , partly by reminding us how poor learners we are.

Most importantly they set us on the road ;like Jesus did , to the local first and your very own Authorship abilities  to see change second  JB Peterson in our own age reminds us of the same .

 ELLUL was a brilliant practical student of people issues,  and by coining "think locally "he set the scene for  a sound ecological way of thinking ( your situation is unique)

BONHOEFFER taught his students in USA about authority while he was trying to convince the world how and in what way Hitler was dangerous . Neither Britain or America  took him seriously ( As a pastor he got the bad label -"a religious nutter "?)so he went back home to work and be killed by Hitler locally .Forget the label - he did but most people don't - they go looking for one

Bonhoeffer's point  to the students was ( a point completely  lost on many people in power  - who take authority) is that everyone is an author (authority derived word ) therefore everyone has authority, 

Go use it people !.Be a smart arse,but be ready to really listen and learn from anyone you meet . 

And whats all this business about the smoke ?

I asked George about all the smoke haze
George You can’t have it both ways.The scaremongers are so desperate to prove their point about the world getting warmer that they clearly can’t see the bushfires through the smoke and mirrors of their own climate change campaign,

This latest attempt to prove to the public that the place is warming up will prove only that these people are desperate enough to ignore even basic truths. The truths of really serious and very dangerous catastrophic fires in our history.

Those of us who still think about fires know that smoke and haze are products of incomplete combustion and high humidity .Its not enough to just have high air temperatures ; you have to have the right speed and water content in the wind and the fuel. The earths air is full of moisture - trouble is we can't always see it. You don't , as Minister for Emergencies said, need 200 mm of actual rain to stop fires.

The claim that the fires in Eastern Australia this early summer are clear evidence of catastrophic drying and warming is simply unsustainable.

Real catastrophic fires in Australia are driven by high speed, low humidity winds . Over the last month mostly what we have seen is high humidity and low speed winds that have caused the incomplete combustion we are seeing everywhere. .

While outrageously huge fires have been shown leaping from ABCTV desks over the last few weeks, the reality is that most of the recent bush fires are not extreme enough to create crown fires, or fires which consume the forest ; leaving smoke to choke those in its wake .

A really catastrophic fire has to drive the water product and unburnt hydrocarbons away.

If you took our news services seriously, you would wake up each day for the last month thinking you could be consumed by high winds and high fire danger every day: There is time, even in summer, to contain such fires.

As the Federal government commission will find, it is State government incompetence in containing forest fires that will be the main reason for the most extensive forest fires in Australia in living memory. Link This is the result of a real catastrophic fire

Tell me mate. what keeps us all from just burning up

Han  You know this cooling thing. We all know the ABCTV news desk is on fire with overheated rhetoric about high temperatures,   but how does the world keep cool anyway .
Given most peoples limited time to endulge I think we need to simplify the answer to our global warming scenario.
So I ask this. In natural terms. What is the planets most effective air conditioning cooling systems.?

George  The local environmental planner (who is still studying physics and chemistry out here with us )
TYPE  1
Evaporative Air Conditioning  EAC is definitely the rule across the world near sea level.
This is because 80 % of the earth surface is a wet surface and it makes high humidity in the air the norm for most of the earth .( even over land ) .
When that moist air runs across very vast areas of dry land ( its normally hot dry land as the sun makes it that way) such as the land to the NW of us in central Australia ) the EAC runs out of water and we in SW Australia get that rare low humidity northerly wind which will combust just about anything in seconds .
Really catastrophic burning winds are therefore rare and site controlled , requiring specific land /sea and wind direction and speed combinations.
Take the fire here in 1983

Han so that fire was very quick and because of low humidity  it burnt nearly everything in its path ?

George   We here in Western Victoria live in pretty well the most extreme risk area in Australia because of the low humidity high winds which come from inland from the NW ,

We are therefore at significantly higher risk than the east coast and east Gippsland , Because high humidity will return even in summer ( say with a wind change) we just have to take those really really bad days of the week super seriously and stay away( if your house is less than 30 metres from Eucalyptus forest.) Remember though, that the days in between are days to do stuff , if you have too.

No you don't need or want 200 mm to put the fire out Ms Minister for doing nothing on the ground but wait and hope.

Han    So the real problem with public perception is that much of what is happening is invisible-  water vapor ?
George   Absolutely Yes.     People who trust only what they can see,  have a problem
We are trying to share understanding about two forces that are not only invisible( gases and radiation) of which one in a mixture which rushes all  over the earth in a highly turbulent 3D way..
The surfaces with which those gases interact make for very complex forms in each part of the land .
Radiation on the other hand, has this amazing power to get through this mixture--- most of the time .
Han    Fascinating  Love it
George   Wait until I get to my favorite , Water , The truly wonderful properties of that amazing creation called water .Its so made that in a variety of states it does at least three quite different things --- that help moderate climate . and like its amigos O2 , CO2  and  CH......... its so reliable .

ITEM 2   The Pump air conditioner . It may be popular but its not the best . Our systems are not very efficient but getting better . we will come back to it .

ITEM 3  The fan 
No discussion on air con would be complete without mentioning the most efficient cooling method of all . The fan . moving the air ourselves over a wet surface - us .

Far too much is made by some about the very high temperature . Its the wind, humidity and fuel ( type and height of forest ) that must be considered . High air temperature is rare in the shade because you are away from surfaces and there is a breeze there to evaporate.and move air away from much the much hotter surfaces nearby . The roof near you may be 90 degrees or more. Just one tree maybe enough- wind moves faster underneath it.
The right tree in the right place is a most beautiful thing . Staying anywhere near some eucaltpus trees on a dangerous day is the wrong thing to do , Great to hear that rather than "the earlier "messages which confuse risk in different areas. The ABC should not pretend it can act local while it doesn't.

We have enough catastrophes around here to not get distracted by yours

John  So glad we have finally got some alternative to listen to besides our ABC on real news  SKYNEWS

Geoff  Yes the ABC They  worry about everything and know nothing

George Worse,  they spend their weeks doing fact checks on their favorite theories. How can they be telling OUR stories  when they keep reproducing their own ,



Fred  Did you hear the report that 75% of fires are deliberate

 George   No but you can often tell they are , because of where they start  , The ABC  never talk about that on The ABC , Imagine them asking a question they don't already know the answer to.


Geoff   Can't say I listen much anymore to ABC news.
Skynews is a great relief ; They  haven''t got the same resources to be nice,  but at least they don't insult us by implying we are all laggards.
 John Well Richard 111 was nice , subtle sly and bloody ,   But to give him his due ---he really knew things
And he was smart enough to dismiss the sentimental -- as Orwell eventually did too Hurray !
Geoff And ABC thinking our mayors represent wisdom . Dear old Auntie have no idea . The wisdom present in out regional governance agencies is like the cities -a terrible tragedy of ignorance and arrogance.

Retired Conservation officer . Yes none of us would have ever expected the blatant ignorance of regenerative ecology to last so long, let alone become entrenched in the dumbing down of government. Timber is just one resource they have stuffed up. How much did Lisa Neville's use of our $10 go to filling up our reservoirs? How far has our $150 fire levy gone in decreasing damage and discouraging high risk takers?
Wise use of our resources now comes last to appeasing the false guilt of consumers.and covering up the dumb decisions. Instead of wisdom we get waste and the misdirected empty headed arrogance of wannabes
The great jobs your children might have had making sure truly scientific safe sustainable decisions were made each week ( in the sensitive, but resilient world) , are now lost to big nobs playing horrendously expensive games with helicopters.

They all laugh ........ for a moment

Yes we have a serious drought -

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

1. For all the taxes spent, there is no protection --only knee jerk firefighting 
2. 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 way to manage a community resource . Rich will pay , therefore rich should get
   --Fancy Green labor not asking what an environmental flow is ( ie one that has a productive effect that is known might be a start )
3. All the patronizing and shallow talk of what WE need . No need to feel sorry for us.We have chosen to live here, and it takes a lot of skill to look after ourselves, the plant growth , the soils, let alone the animals . We have sold off and culled a lot of stock and if you see one of us without any hay in the shed, yes we are running close to empty.
   True Conservationists learn to do that you know. My long term neighbours are used to drought and we don't need dumb and smart arse comments.We sure as hell don't need the stupid city sentimentality your lot can pour on us sometimes. 
4. How City sentimentality can drive us into depression , For all their education, the  Smart A  progressives don't get that not listening to a person is a key to " no talk .
    I mean there has never been a more shallow campaign than the caring that ends with one question. " RU  OK " If you have ever worked with depressed people you would know they won't tell you much until you HANG AROUND . There is a known ( to those who really care ) set of phenomenon here . 1. "Talk" is a good sign- keep talking
   2. "No talk" is a bad  sign . so serious that just a few words will go nowhere -its often too late and plain dangerous to be trite . Oh yeah -you will get conversation and niceness and  all that but if you are really in "no talk" mode you have SEEN how crap is most conversation ( when you have a problem) and you hate it . The very trite T shirt on Todd Sampson is enough to make you spew up.  
5. The waste produced by incompetence in conservation   We out here all know the MD study needs major review .  But we won't call for a review because of the way WE KNOW Canberra works - Canberra could just waste another 18 billion--- Canberra MUST change the way it does things 
   The Murray Darling Plan  was one of those post Christian ideas where the good doesn't come from the truth and fair play,  but comes from everybody giving everybody what they want ---even if its just a bit;  the quiet ones miss out on what they need ;
   The latest piddling into the Barham forest is a clear example . A really deep flood with ( silty ) bed load is best ; saving up the dams to piddle when a dry period is nearing its end,  makes no long term sense - for the red gums, the forest or the farmers . 
6. Help us to help ourselves , Help us to buy the right machinery barns and sheds so we can store the surplus when it comes . Thistles make great silage 
7. If we have to live with councils  and departments make sure they know what they are talking about esp on environement - no flyin and outs . CUT RED TAPE what experience does HO have really ????
   The fact that it took till last year to get a reasonable way of culling the starving wildlife in NSW is a disgrace . Before that, I had to drive for hours into town for a permit to kill only a few. Noone knows why anyone still tries to farm in Victoria with the Spring street edicts on everything beyond what they know nothing about.   (Read GKC  on Shaw and his contempt for the Sentimentalists )
8. Do something useful if you work around Canberra or the Capitals .
   You wouldn't accept fly in fly out  with doctors , why us ? Give apprenticeships to country kids to study the environment and DO IT NOW!
9. FOR  Media . Cut any media hype about OUR poor care of animals - If we do it badly its our lookout ,  just as it is yours in the city and those hobby farmers who own but don't husband .
   
   
   Canberra is living a dreamworld and this must stop  . When token efforts at conservation ( like the MD) SATISFY the wide range of conservation  zealots - left and right , the people and the protesters ( good on em)  should know to use the word TOKEN in relation to their plans .
   
   If the West keeps going EAST it will fall into a hole- it is already in one . " Frayed " ABCTV
   When  the concept of eco and household is "where the children are in charge" -this is - anything but a functioning ecosystem - its the city that has the problem .
   
   
   There is a serious drought
    A drought of deep thinking and a place where we are just nice and agreeable on the surface s about what " the other bloke needs " 

Why no genuine farmer would ever vote for the GREENS

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 habitat is a habitat for the neighbours as well, We learn to share things out here. Its about family Biodiversity  where each works in diiferent places  to achieve all sorts of ends .We are usually grateful for a fence to fence off something if we haven't one already,  Infact it used to be fun  to talk and learn about these things together , sharing .


The age of the biblebashers       Characteristics-   distrust  +need for control 

Greenlabor  suspicions / perceptions of carelessness in Industry lead them to try and regulate. They are so incompetent with legislative tools YET their very dumb retention clauses and administrative approach to community development  and decisionmaking are still with us .
Bad legislation can and does cause disease and death. Its a pox on both houses that they have not the courage to deal with it.
. There is now a lot of righteous anger out here ( the legislation and the effect it has on biodiversity management is all wrong) . Planners can get killed.  There is nothing more dangerous for a persons mental health than not being understood:  to be treated as if you don't knowplus  don't care plus don;t understand  ( when its the other person's problem - the one that wrote the book-the utopia employee

The  anger too is against those who write the books the kids have to read out to us - lists ,numbers and legal process . Being told what to do with your own land.   No longer about negotiating but legislating . Its no longer t about listening  but just telling you what you need to know
The reason why this evil has come upon us is so complex that I have tried to deal with it elsewhere

Like a typical Biblebasher they hold you up ( and the whole Senate ) , using a  whole lot of jargon words and talk a lot about denial ( your need to deny yourself) ;In the end even though the rhetoric is about big picture the focus in on one thing  salvation . Saving the world The church of Salvation by not breathing .Why don't they buy the land if they want to manage it

The age of taxing us to death 
In her ignorance,  this young priest  happily tells us that  THE GREENS are  going to give over 1 billion dollars to restore the mental health of regional people '   Richard Di Natalie announced it today

She's got no idea that if she sat down and shutted up,  the problem of mental illness in the audience would be solved right way .  Lateral thinking and high cost benefit is what we do out here.

Those wattles in Queenland

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.