Hanrahan

  So clever they think they are . Masters of economic destiny - with our money and our productivity to give them opportunity to do what they like . Hanrahan  The BIG news this week is that the Princes of more darkness in our soils are going to pay us try and keep it there . I didn't think we were that rich , Glascow 2021   Friend      More money than sense -- and the interigy that goes with getting a honest buck, not a quick buck Hanrahan   The last week of the ever leering jet setters on climate conference  ,,aftre reinstating really  old technology and new taxes are going to spend the last week of the latest conference on their newly discovered saviour :  HOW to get us to buy in over soil sequestration . Friend  Have to give them credit ( Ha!) that is surely the simplest  case EVER  of buy in . Pay you to do something  Friend 2     Do they realise they are insulting us by suggetsing that we are...

  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 relentle ss 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 o...

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 an...

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 b ut 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 ...

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 su...

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 Au...

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 ...

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."