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...

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...

Nothing creates better mental health than a trip outside.  If you're a miner or a speculator , be  a steer  for a day .  You WILL see things differently away from the moving coloured  screens that fake the real world and trick those who spend too much time in front of them . If we have a spare dollar out here , we put it where it pays reliable dividends . We don't have enough spare dollars to gamble with them either .We are all blessed here, not because we are better by nature,  but just by being here and taking in the bounty Steers go a bit mad at this time of year;  running around the boundaries and looking for amusement . They are prepared to gamble . To run at a fence or run at a whim. They lose what spare energy they have in games Driving across the huge expanse of western plains yesterday ( takes a whole day to go across it) we noted how the sheep and cattle were largely looking after...

I guess with hindsight its correct to say that "we" have sometimes pushed some country too far .But I am not convinced we haven't done some good ; and with our better understanding our kids will do better. In a dry and precarious land we all shower and live together pretty well. Its not as though we are exactly "in charge "either. Kangaroos love jumping our fences and camels ignoring them , There are millions more of the jumpers than ever before because of the food and water we provide on cleared land next to their official homes (for example, if you go to the Grampians you won't find any kangaroos at the official old sighting spot at Zumsteins. The kangaroos around the Grampians live on our land - not the National Park . YHIFOB How generous should we farmers be? We hardly make a living anywhere in the world providing cheap food for so many. Which is why its nice to go spot lighting occassionally. Now some overseas observers have finally noticed our ca...

Now you may say "takes one to know one " You'd be right,  and that's the point . We all live with uncertainty and that can scare us . Here though , you see a few cycles more than most and you worry less and predict more. Be wise to be open to learn . Ya see , with people who worry about our territory  is they they don't experience it ....so they just don't know . And lookin at how they talk themselves into a panic over it , the woories  and wooriers have grown to the point that even I can see their perspective is completely outta wack. Ya see,  first of all they don't live here and therfore they don't know the situation well enough to know about the reliability and context of that thing they say we have --resilience What I really don't like and why I am saying so today is to see the unecessary negative effect of all this misapplied worry on children- e it reduces our children's faith in science and technology and our abilit...

The community I grew up in had a few great sayings . One of  the best was 'takes one to know one ". Which means if you think you know the motivation of another , be careful you didn't source it from your own mind . Something about logs in your own eye there ?

Polys wonder why we don't trust them . What I don't get is this idea they have at the moment that "We Must We Should , We Have to - trust them " . "Climate change" - whatever that means . How come,  all of a sudden, we should not only change speed ,  but change tack with  these dictator( they know what's best - not us ) .  Somehow now you have become so well intentioned AND so capable - even though you can only talk about tax and not what you would do with it . I wouldn't let any door salesman get away with such wishful thinking ! What do they think we are ? fools ? I mean they said we were going to run outa water but look what happened after they built these white elephant ( desal plants ) that our kids must pay for.    Now they say we are going to run outa fuel . But ones recyclable and ones not . Seems like they got the order and the importance mixed up a  bit . Any fool farmer can tell them they wouldn't know what water conse...

You bet . Most of us on the farm wait too long to find one. So , it's not easy to find a woman for this unique and tough  job .The farmers wife has to be someone very, very special. I was 42 before I introduced wonderwoman  from the big smoke to a world even she could not always cope with. You see,  for starters there was always something EXTRA to add to the days work ;  It's as true today,  as it was over 15 years ago .  We are not like the city folks who get all worried when something a bit different from yesterday  happens - a mere flood or a drought comes along - The greens think they are telling us all about nature , but we have to work with it every day or we are just "outa here"  . Didn't those kids listen when Banjo was being read at school .We love the country -do the Greens love it better from a distance ?  After 15years  she's still a wonder and still a wondering - more work than any family has ever put up with ever - ...