Rabbits stew

When I was eight my father decided that he had enough with share farming and would go to the big smoke and work.
My mum and my brothers stayed behind til dad found a place to live.
One of the chores was to empty the night soil and to do this we had to dig a hole and bury the stuff. Well the ground was as tough as nails and as dry as a bucket full of sand. It just had to be done.
On this one memorable occasion while carrying the pan full of goodies to the hole my oldest brother on one end of a pole and me and my other brother were on the other end. It was heavy and my oldest brother was backing up and he fell into a rabbit burrow and all the glorious contents went over him. You could have heard the hollows and screaming on the other side of hell.
There was a lesson learned that day ("he who bashes his brother gets covered in shit"). No more digging holes as the rabbits dug them for us.
On the next occasion of the great pan dump, (that's where the term I'm going to have a dump came from.) We scouted around for a suitable rabbit burrow and the contents of the pan were dumped down the hole with the thumping of ground from under foot as the rabbits made there escape. I don't know which the bunnies were running from the smell or the thought of being buried alive. But us being pretty pore had that covered as well and had nets draped over the exits. The rabbits came out of those burrows at a hundred miles an hour straight into the nets. When mum cooked tea for us that night it was rabbit stew and it went down a treat. From that day forth we never dug a hole for the pans contents again. We also new that there was a good feed that night as well. So if you live in the Dorrigo area of NSW, you now know why the rabbits are so big it was all that food we gave them. cheers Stewart

Recycling master craftsman

Recycling master craftsman.
I hear about people recycling and the like. But how many really do recycle not many.
So here it is, to become a Recycling master craftsman.
You will have to send into this blog a project you have done with recycled materials and describe how and where you got the materials.
You will need to show photos of the construction and them viewers of this blog will make comment.
You will need six good comments from recyclers written in the comments section of this blog then you will become a RECYCLING MASTER CRAFTSMAN.
Is it worth it.I was given a bobcat excavator forklift and front end loader tickets many years ago and said they were for life. I still have my card with no expiry date, see photo below, and now they say that it has expired (They have the documentation to say it expired) and my ticket is invalid they are also saying because I haven't worked in my trade it is not valid either. They are doing this to grab money for the government coffers. The acclimation you get on this site is world wide and it is for your entire life.
Is it worth it,Yes. Because we are being overrun by bureaucrats with no qualifications telling us how to do what we do. I went in a recyclers garden competition run by the local council and showed off my talents good an bad and nearly ended up on the wrong side of the law. Not only that they stole my ideas and claimed them as there own. Having your stuff here to let the world know, you can challenge anyone who tries to steal your ideas.
So to be the first I submit my whole blog imagineering-engineering.blogspot.com to this date as my entry..
cheers Stewart

"W" strap rail trolley

small railway used underground. When I was working underground I improvised by making things to do my work easier,I made a railway trolley to carry logs and bricks on and the track was the "W" straps laid on the ground, I could do heaps of work by myself and do ten times the work in half the time as a team of men. I suggested they make some more trolleys and was refused and the reason given was if they started using my trolley they wouldn't go back and carry them on there shoulders if the trolley was unavailable. I also used a push bike that I modified and it was used on uneven ground. All the equipment I made was taken home when I left as I had made it at home.

Minesmobile and swimming

A minesmobile is a tractor with interchangeable parts, crane frontend loader or forklift. I was asked to take a pallet of bricks into an area to set up a stopping (stopping is a brick wall to direct air flow down tunnels to provide ventilation). The job required to go threw water up to the seat on the machine leave the bricks and return with the minesmoblle to the train tracks end. Well the trip in was uneventful water up to my waste. On the return we didnt have the bricks to protect the machine and in to the water we went pushing the water ahead and the water getting deeper and finally the water had no where to go and it started to return and it got deeper and deeper and finally the machine stopped, and the water came back down the tunnel and swamped the engine and when the water stopped the headlights was all that could be seen sticking out of the water. The undermanager came in and asked who was driving the machine? My mates as they always did dobbed me in. He then turned to me and asked what do you have to say for yourself? Well he had this friend who couldnt do wrong, so thinking fast I said John (names changed to protect there identity) couldnt get it in that far! Well he said John would get it out, so I was given the job of getting it out. So in I went with wire rope and shackle in hand and dived under the water holding my breath to shackle the machine up so as to tow it out. I got the machine out and I was lucky it was the end of the shift and we left and went out it was very cold ....cheers Stewart

Runnaway train

The mine I worked at was old and was serviced by rail way line. While in the mine I worked an overtime shift as a shunter taking a shuttle car frontend loader bucket and other supplies into the mine. A shunter is the bloke who changes the points. In the mine the train tracks follow the terrain, that is the coal seam. At some time in the past they went from the Bulli seam down to the Wongawilli seam. Down a drift which was about half a mile long and down an angle of about thirty degrees. While descending the drift the driver lost control of the train which weighed about 60 tons gross, Well at the bottom of the drift we were doing about 50 miles per hour , with the brakes on the loco and carriages skidded over two kilometers before it came to a rest. The shuttle car hit the roof and roof supports showering the loco with rocks and dust. When I got out of the loco I couldn't stand up, I fell over and had to sit on the ground til the adrenalin had subsided.The stupid thing is the loco has a dump system on it and in an emergency like the one I just described the driver should have dumped the loco on rubber shoes and it would have stopped in 10 feet. This incident flattened the wheels on the loco with a pronounced banging as the wheels turned. I will tell more stories as I can remember them as I think people should know about them...cheers Stewart

writing

Being the quiet achiever takes time and your own thoughts, Put your writings on paper and then read the article several times, If it sounds right it probably is. I use a text aloud programme to write my articles for my blog and use this to read back what I have written. It corrects punctuation and spelling and proof reading all at once. It is quick and easy and as one of my sons said you have written one tenth of a book in two months". pretty cool ! I guess that's where I will head from here.

water saving

As seen in the photo there is not enough water to wash clothes in...
I bought a water saving washing machine. I would have been better buying a water tank and pump and saved the water that way, As the new washing machine doesn't wash clothes. A normal washing machine and a water tank would save more water over time and the clothes would have been cleaner. The waste water can then be used to water the garden. cheers Stewart
LOOKS LIKE I'M GETTING A REFUND FROM THE WASHING MACHINE MANUFACTURER. I will buy a water tank and use that water and then water the garden.......cheers Stewart

diving

Being a diver requires training and I did it before training days, over the years I was required to do all sorts of work as a diver, the best work was diving as a pearl diver on the barrier reef in Queensland being in amongst all sorts of sea creatures some of them deadly (cone shell). If you get stung by these its more than likely curtains. Then there were the killer wales so beautiful and Manta rays probably 20 feet in diameter with there graceful wings. The worst was diving in mud 60 feet below the surface with electric oxy lance cutting of steel using 300 amps of current, all you could do was feel where to cut and set it going. At the end of an hour I came to the surface with one of the worst headaches you could imagine all for $10 per hour. I have dived in Sydney's prospect reservoir down a pipe about 200 meters and floated out steel plates with air bags. Picked up huge boulders from the bottom of Pt. Kembla harbour where the silt made it impossible to see what I was to lift. I got the bends twice and was put in a hyper Barack unit on straight oxygen . Life has smiled on me . Would I do it all again ? Yes. also check out imagineering-engineering.blogspot.com..cheers Stewart

solitary confinement

I worked in the mines in NSW for many years doing roof support on a contract basis with a company called Delta control. We used expanding foam glue to glue the strata together, similar to the glue I use on boat building.
The object is to glue in the keystone and all the rest will stay put and it worked . Some of the places we worked in with the coal mine employees were extremely dangerous. There was the time that the roof was held up with 65 lb.steel rail way line stacked to the roof to hold it up and was crushed to the point the steel squeezed into itself.
Another job we sealed water coming into a coal mine in Lithgow It was coming in at 3,000 gallons a minute and sealed it up with the expanding foam a week later the area was totally dry and dusty. Yet another job was methane gas coming in from the next mining lease and we sealed that as well.
I worked with BHP collieries in a area that holed into old workings, and water came rushing in. Several of us stayed back on a second shift to retrieve the equipment and were aloud to go home on full pay if we got all the stuff out. I chose to go into the water and the rest of the miners moved the stuff from waters edge. I went in up to my neck and floated things out with 20 litre drums. It was better than trying to carry the stuff all the equipment was retrieved and I got 8 hours pay for two hours work.
On another occasion I was working alone and 200 tons of coal slumped from the underground bin and buried me to my chest and I had to dig myself out as there was no one near me to help.
In the end I was clobbered and knocked unconscious and when I was found I was taken out on a stretcher and then to hospital, and was sacked at the end of 18 months without one cent of compensation. I have seen fires underground and they called them heatings. I fought one myself and was criticised for wrong doing. The majority of my time in the later part of my work was working by myself on the mines conveyor belts , I was in solitary confinement for three years, I worked sum times up to 16 hours straight with out seeing anyone, It was work and home and sleep and back to work, all I had was my own company. I enjoyed it all, I am not bitter about losing my job? but it did take some time to adjust as I went a bit (lot) crazy.I will say don't trust those lawyers barristers or queens councilors. I am now over this and was left with back injuries which I have learned to live with. I guess the irony is the blokes I worked with are still in that mine working up to there knees in mud and I now am able to go boating and bush walking and enjoy what is on offer. What would I say to those blokes now ? Nothing.If you have any questions leave a comment and I will try to help.cheers Stewart

You are who you are

One of the earliest times I can remember in life at about four years was that we were low on the money tree that is we were poor. I remember mum telling me that there was gold at the end of a rainbow and she described the riches there. The next day there was a rainbow over a swamp and I decided to go and get all that gold I waded into the swamp in mud up to my neck to get the gold and was in that swamp for about three hours and the end of the rainbow kept moving and in the end I had to give up on the conquest. There was I in this swamp as the light was fading covered in leaches cold and tired. I found my way home and got a belting for going swimming alone. Some times life can be harder than expected don't expect thanks for anything as you do because you wont get it. I felt more at home with animals than people and I used to go into a dry creek bed and played with baby brown snakes until my father saw me and he killed all those little friends I had. I went on to befriend a wild bull that came out of the bush to the house to make friends with the cows, my dad once caught me out in the paddock sleeping on the bull and the bull didn't move when my father came to get me . It was about then that I realised I had a gift with wild animals. My uncle Tiny was a bushman and was trainer as a black tracker by the local aborigines, and he used to teach me the ways of the blacks and of the bush I have never forgotten those things and those fantastic times. Only just recently he told me that I was part aboriginal and how it happened I was left in a quandary as to who I was and I went searching for answers. I went and saw an aboriginal woman who was full blood and she gave me this advise. "You are who you are". How simple is that! For all those people who have some sort of dilemma about who you are this is the answer. I will repeat it again . "You are who you are". cheers Stewart

Gundagai's original old fashoned shack from the peom

This is the famous old fashioned shack at Gundagai. Under the outer covers is the original building still intact in great condition worthy of restoration. The gable roof is the original roof on the original house The awning to the right of the top photo was where the original veranda is..In the shed I found a old home made radiator for a car and put it in a Suzuki and the Suzuki boiled. (the radiator's hissing and half the parts were missing) I guess that's where it was used and why it boiled. It didn't have enough cooling area.The solar panel is new...Cheers Stewart

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