footrotflats

Revenge

2012-02-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

I experienced this first hand, Revenge. This is an amazing story of revenge that I wanted and want it I did. This is a emotion that I never want to experience again because it is negative and destructive. When these emotions take hold they sway reality to the extreme with great passion. My experience was a lesson that I was to experience to the enth degree.
This is how it happened and to my amazement it took hold in a split second, I was closing the door of the shed in the rain and this small piece of timber slid down the wall and wacked me on the toe. Instant pain took hold and the mind took me to want to kill the wood then to my astonishment my mind told me I was being stupid and the timber was already dead then I said im glad. What and where this came from I do not know but all in a micro second. .

New site with photos

2012-01-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

My sites have been attacked and the problems are happening faster than I can fix them so a new site has been opened at http://footrotflat.wordpress.com

Yowie , Kangaroo valley panther or imagination

2011-12-05T13:07:00.001-08:00

I was a scout leader and was camping with a group of cubs at Kangaroo valley south of Sydney. We decided to play a few tricks on the group of kids and we had a big claw made from steel on a long handle. There was also a large footprint made as well also on a long handle. While the other leader was doing camp inspections and breakfast duties with the group I made my way down to the river and on the way scratched the bark on various trees along the track at the river footprints were made in the sand while keeping up on the river bank. The scratchings were about twelve to fourteen feet from the ground and the footprints were spaced about five feet apart. I secretly put the tools of deception away. Then came the fun part, TRACKING, the group was told to look for tracks of the local wild animals. This was to get a badge. Then one of the more astute boys noticed the scratching in the tree and asked what could it be was asked. I reached up and they were about two feet out of my reach then came the punch line "it was the infamous kangaroo valley panther that no one had ever seen! Now the adrenalin was flowing. I lead them on down to the river and then stopped in my tracks and stood still they all followed suit. What are you looking at I was asked and the reply came quite!! The silence was deafening and there over there and I ran to the river bank followed by the group. Again one of the group saw the foot prints and pointed then out to the rest of them. The funny thing is from then on they never wanderered off on there own. Back to the foot prints I paced them out and the were about a foot longer in stride than I could make. This thing must have been huge about as big as a horse. The excitement grew with there imaginations getting the better of them enlarged the beast and the stories of men eating tigers and the like were spreading like a wild fire threw the group. That night we had finished tea and it was then stories around the camp fire. During one of those moments where all conversations seem to cease and silence is golden a cow in the field let out this almighty bellow MOOOOOO. Not expecting what was to follow this little guy jumps up from the other side of the ring of kids and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him and darts under my left arm and says you can look after me wont you sir!? Yes I says and the conversations went on into the night. Back a the scout hall a week later the leaders myself included were asked as to what went on at the camp as all the kids had night mares for the following week. We were forced to reveal our hand and the tools of deception and not one of those kids would admit that they were conned and all said they knew and were going along to keep the leaders happy.

National parks and the water authorities

2011-12-05T03:25:00.001-08:00

I was walking in the bush in a controlled area that is it is gated to stop the common trash entering the area. I walked deep into the area and low and behold trash dumped in the bush by whom you might ask.
If I was going to dump rubbish then I would have dumped it at the gate, not carry it two kilometers into the gated area and so would any normal person.
It appears to be the ones with the keys to the locks are dumping the rubbish. The custodians of the lands and the animals. We the people are being forced from the lands by greedy self serving officials with there own agenda. The question is what is really there agenda, the law states that persons squatting on the lands for more than twenty five years get to keep it. These payed positions are given to you guessed it politicians and there families and they will own the land and then there is nothing that can be done.
So the thing to do is enter these areas and keep the land in the public domain.

Protect your fairy doors and fairies

2011-11-22T12:15:00.000-08:00

It has come to my attention that Roosters will chase and eat fairies. Please make sure that they are fenced in to protect your fairies. This little roster was Soo protective of his owners and had to be sent on a long journey never to return home.
The little girl in the sacred forrest told me.

Fairy condimiumn

2011-11-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

This shows a fairy condomiumn near the house they only live in these for one year and then move out and go north for the winter and return the following year The goblins make them for the fairies.

Can anyone please tell me how to fix the stripes on the photos on blogger upload? cheers Iggle

If you left one of these comments do not read my blogs

2011-11-01T17:11:00.003-07:00

Forest Service Feedback

These quotations are actual comments left on Forest Service registration sheets and comment cards by hikers completing wilderness camping trips.

"Escalators would help on steep uphill sections."
"A small deer came into my camp and stole my bag of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed? Please call."
"Instead of a permit system or regulations, the Forest Service needs to reduce worldwide population growth to limit the number of visitors to wilderness."
"Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands."
"Ban walking sticks in wilderness. Hikers that use walking sticks are more likely to chase animals."
"All the mile markers are missing this year."
"Found a smoldering cigarette left by a horse."
"Trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill."
"Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness to rid the area of these pests."
"Please pave the trails so they can be plowed of snow in the winter."
"Chairlifts need to be in some places so that we can get to wonderful views without having to hike to them."
"The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying animals."
"Reflectors need to be placed on trees every 50 feet so people can hike at night with flashlights."
"A McDonald's would be nice at the trailhead."
"The places where trails do not exist are not well marked."
"Too many rocks in the mountains."
"Need more signs to keep area pristine."

boat mills

2011-10-17T04:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/11/boat-mills-bridge-mills-and-hanging-mills.html

November 16, 2010

Boat mills: water powered, floating factories

The waterwheel was seen as the most important power source in the world, from the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century. When smaller streams became saturated, medieval engineers turned their attention to larger rivers, eventually leading to the development of the hydropower dams that still exists today. Lesser known are the intermediate steps toward that technology: boat mills, bridge mills and hanging mills. Boat mills had already appeared in 6th century Italy and spread all over the world. Most of them remained in use up until the end of the 1800s, with some of them surviving well into the 1900s.

Picture above: Last ship mill on the Rhine, 1925

Until recently, "boat mills", also known as "ship mills" or "floating mills", were largely thought of as a curiosity, a mere footnote in the long history of water power technology. Today some historians think that they were almost as widespread as windmills - although it should be noted that windmills, contrary to popular belief, were less common than watermills. The first monographs of boat mills only appeared in 2003 and 2006 (see sources). They contain, among many other new facts, the discovery of three tiny ship mills on a famous medieval painting from 1435 ("Madonna of Chancellor Rodin" by the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck). Nobody had noted them before, or weren't cognisant of exactly what they were.

Boat mill, Encyclopédie Diderot, 1751

Granted, boat mills are curious things. Some look like paddle-wheel riverboats, but in fact they are exactly the opposite. A waterwheel can be used in two ways: to create energy from moving water, as is the case with the water mill, or to apply energy to water with the result of motion, as is the case with a paddle-wheel boat.

The boat mill has the outside appearance of the latter, but it works just like a water mill. Basically, a ship mill is a water mill (waterwheel + milling house) built on a floating platform, moored to the river bank or anchored in the stream. The flowing water turns the water wheel, which in its turn drives the milling machinery. Ship mills could be used as single units, or fastened together side by side.

Advantages of ship mills

Why build floating water mills when you can just as well construct a fixed water mill on the bank of a river? There were several good reasons. Although water is a much more reliable power source than wind, you cannot always count on it. Rivers rise and fall with the seasons and with the prevailing weather, while the axle of the water wheel remains at a fixed height. On smaller streams this variability could easily be mitigated by creating a small dam and sluice gates, forming a mill pond to even out natural flow conditions. An overshot wheel could also be used, especially in hilly regions. This wheel receives water from above via some kind of aqueduct and is more efficient (50 to 65%) than an undershot wheel (20 to 30%).

However, constructing dams and sluice gates would be much more difficult to achieve on a stream 100 metres wide and 10 metres deep. Overshot wheels could not be used. Since the water level in many large rivers could vary substantially, a fixed watermill on the bank of a river could thus easily end up with its blades above the water, rendering it useless. Conversely, rising water levels could partly or completely submerge the wheel, again rendering it useless (contrary to a modern turbine, which can operate fully submerged).

Ship mill on the Mura in Slovenia, source.

Even less extreme variations of the water level could seriously decrease the efficiency of a fixed water wheel. An undershot wheel derives its power entirely from the impulse of water, not complemented by gravity as is the case with an overshot wheel. In combination with a mill pond, the water could be directed at an optimal angle to the undershot wheel in order to obtain maximum efficiency. On a large river, where no mill pond was available, this was not possible - further decreasing the already limited efficiency of the undershot wheel.

Ship mills on the Seihun, Adana, Turkey, around 1920. Postcard collection Ton Meesters, Breda, the Netherlands

Floating watermills solved these problems. They simply followed the water level, keeping the undershot wheel always at a continuously ideal position. The result was a power source that was available 24 hours a day and 365 days per year (with the exception of extreme weather events). Furthermore, ship mills could be located at other parts of the stream where water velocity was higher than close to river banks, increasing their power output. Last but not least, ship mills also overcame the problem of overcrowded river banks, an especially important consideration for cities.

Two types of boat mills

Basically, there were two main types of boat mills. One type was composed of two hulls with a water wheel in between, while the other type consisted of one hull with two waterwheels on both sides (or, sometimes, one waterwheel on one side). The boat mill with two hulls, somewhat resembling a catamaran, was by far the most efficient and powerful of both models. The two hulls channelled the water onto the wheel, increasing the impulse. A boat mill with a single hull did exactly the opposite.

Furthermore, the floating mill with two hulls (illustration on the right, by Johann Matthias Beyer) could support much larger wheels than the type with one hull (illustrations on the left, from the "Encyclopédie Diderot"), again increasing the power output. Thirdly, the double hull allowed for a system of control gates to regulate the amount of water hitting the wheel, thereby making it possible to better control the speed of the machinery inside the milling house, or to stop the wheel altogether. This system also protected the wheel against driftwood. Finally, a boat mill with two hulls was also more stable.

Construction plan

One of the hulls was much wider than the other one. It housed the millling machinery (mill stones and gears), the grain to be ground, and - in the case of larger ship mills - the boat miller residence. In the case of smaller ship mills, this house stood on the bank of the river. The smaller pontoon only served to carry the axle. The main hull and the pontoon were connected at the front and the rear with strong beams. Balancing the floating mill was done by loading stones in the pontoon.

The large hull was always on the side of the river bank for easy accessibility - this meant that ship mills with two hulls were designed with a specific location in mind: the left or the right bank of the river (on the aforementioned painting by Jan Van Eyck, this fact was overlooked by the artist). If it was moored on the river bank, the mill was accessible by a stone or wood bridge or gangway. Sometimes pack animals were used to deliver the grain and to take away the flour. If the boat mill was located midstream, it was only accessible via small boats.

Diversity

Boat mills, which were built almost entirely out of wood, could be impressive structures. Generally, they were 10 to 15 metres long, while the longest ship mills described measured 20 metres and more. The large hull was usually 5 to 8 metres wide, the pontoon 2 to 3 metres. Both were mostly built in a rectangular form. A ship mill could be more than 6 metres tall and some had two or even three floors.

However, while some floating mills were huge and outstandingly crafted, others were rather small and sometimes very crude contraptions. The life expectancy of a boat mill could be between 30 and 50 years, with the wheel itself lasting for a decade. But some ship mills did not last even that long, rotting from the inside or simply falling apart.

Two boat mills - one with balcony - on the Elbe in Aachen, Germany, 1899. Postcard collection Ton Meesters, Breda, the Netherlands

Huge wheels

While conventional water mill wheels were seldom wider than 1 metre, the wheels of ship mills with two hulls could be up to 6 metres wide, with the axle up to 10 metres long. Medieval engineers explored the limits - wooden wheels could not be built larger than this if they were to retain their strength. The huge wheels had a diameter of about 5 metres and turned at 3 to 5 revolutions per minute, depending on the velocity of the stream. They delivered between 3 and 5 horse power at the shaft.

Ship mill on the Kur in Tiflis, Georgia, around 1900. Postcard collection Ton Meesters, Breda, the Netherlands

Ship mills with one hull could not support these wide wheels and delivered much less power. Among the lesser common types of boat mills were those with two water wheels in between the main hull and the pontoon, allowing them to operate two mills at the same time. They required very long axles, which were not always easy to find (illustration below). Placing the two wheels one after the other resolved this, at the expense of decreased efficiency.

Uses of boat mills

From the 15th century onwards, many conventional water mills started performing tasks other than milling grain, but most boat mills did not. Almost all of them were corn mills. There were a few exceptions. Karel Broes, the Flemish author of the 2003 monograph, lists a few floating paper mills, sawmills, fulling mills, oil mills, polishing mills, minting mills and cotton mills. Some of the more recent ship mills ended their life as an energy source for power generation.

In his standard work on the history of Chinese technology, Joseph Needham cites a 16th century Chinese writer who describes trip hammers mounted on boat mills to make paper:

"In Liang-chiang there were many ship mills, which work on the same principle as the water raising wheels, and are all anchored in the rushing water. The operations of grinding, pounding, and shifting (bolting) are all carried out by the use of water power. The boats make a noise 'ya-ya, ya-ya' incessantly".

Diderot described a stationary tugboat (below).

Origins

Few inventions from Antiquity can be dated as precisely as the ship mill. In 536 or 537 AD the Goths besieged Rome. In an attempt to starve the Romans, they cut the 14 aqueducts that delivered water to the city. This did not deprive the Romans of drinking water because the Tiber flowed through the walled city. But the aqueducts were the power source for the water mills that ground the grain for the whole city.

However, the Byzantyne general Belisarius, then in charge of defending the city, came up with the luminous idea of the boat mill. The event was accounted for in detail by the contemporary author Procopius:

"When the water was cut off and the mills stopped, and cattle could not grind, the city was deprived of food, and provision could hardly be found for the horses. But Belisarius, an ingenious man, devised a remedy for the distress. Below the bridge across the Tiber he extended ropes, well-fastened across the river from bank to bank. To these he affixed two boats of equal size, two feet apart, at a spot where the current flowed with the greatest velocity under the arches; and placing mill-stones in one of the boats, he suspended machines by which they turned in the water-space between them. He also contrived, at certain intervals on the river, other machines of the like kind, and these being put into motion by the force of the water, drove as many mills as were necessary to grind food for the city."

Boat mills on the Tiber, Italy

After that, the Roman empire did not last much longer - the Goths took Rome in 562 - but the ship mill would remain in use for another 1,400 years, with the last one only disappearing in the 1990s. Remarkably, during all those centuries, boat mills hardly changed. Those that could still be seen during the second half of the 20th century looked very similar to those illustrated in the Middle Ages (no earlier images of ship mills have survived).

Distribution of ship mills in Europe

After its initial success in Rome, the ship mill became a common sight on the Tiber and quickly caught on all over Europe. During the 6th century they also appeared in Switzerland (Geneva) and France (Paris and Dijon). During the 800s, boat mills showed up on the Rhine in Strasbourg (France) and Mainz (Germany). At the end of the tenth century, they were noted on the Kur in Georgia. They reached Venice and the Balkans in the 1000s and Spain in the 1100s.

Ship mills on the Rhine, detail from "Ansicht von Köln" by Anton Woensam, 1531

Toulouse (France) had at least 60 ship mills on the Garonne in the 12th century, milling all the grain for the city. Paris counted 70 to 80 boat mills on a one mile stretch of the Seine in the 1300s. In 1493 there were 17 floating mills on the Rhône at Lyons, growing to 20 by 1516 and to 27 by 1817. The Elbe, flowing through Germany and the Czech Republic, once counted 500 boat mills. There were also hundreds of ship mills on the Danube: 62 in Vienna (Austria), 88 in Budapest (Hungary) and a non-specified amount in Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. The Mur, a river that flows mainly through Austria and Slovenia, had over 90 boat mills. Ship mills can even be seen on 17th century city plans of Moscow.

Ship mills on the Kur in Tiflis, Georgia, around 1900 (postcard from the collection of Ton Meesters, Breda, the Netherlands)

In her 2006 monograph, Daniela Gräf could find proof of almost 700 specific locations, mainly on the Seine, Loire, Garonne, Rhône, Rhine, Weser, Elbe, Oder, Danube, Po and their tributaries, on which one or more boat mills have existed at one time or another. The total amount remains unknown for now. Floating mills did not show up everywhere, though. The Scandinavians and the English never warmed up to the idea. Attempts to build them on the Thames in London failed twice in the 16th century and again in the 18th century. The reasons for this are not well known. In Flanders and in the Netherlands, boat mills never really gained popularity - not more than a dozen were operated from the 15th to the end of the 17th century. In this case the cause is clear: the flow of the rivers in the Low Countries is too low and water power in general was of limited use. Because the region had much better wind conditions, it became an important center of windmill technology.

Distribution of ship mills outside Europe

Boat mills appeared in the Islamic world at the end of the 9th century, where they were employed along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These large floating mills were equipped with four stones and could each produce around 10 tonnes of flour per 24 hours. Each mill could grind grain for around 25,000 people, which means around 60 of them were needed to feed the then estimated 1.5 million people in the Baghdad. Nothing yielding this scale of mechanised corn milling was known in any European country at that time, notes Terry Reynolds in his book on the history of the vertical water wheel (see sources). In 1148, Ibn Jubayr described the ship mills across the river Khabur in Upper Mesopotamia "forming, as it were, a dam".

Picture above: a cotton ship mill in Japan (1880-1933). Source: "water mills in Japan", Kenjiro Kawakami, Transactions TIMS, V, 1982

Joseph Needham found references of ship mills in Chinese literature in 737 (when "Ordinances of the Thang department of waterways forbid shipmills on the river and streams near Loyang as if they were something very well known"), 1170, 1313, 1570, 1628 and 1637. In 1848, traveller Robert Fortune found a whole colony of ship mills near Yenchow in northern Fukien. Here is his description:

"The stream was very rapid in many parts, so much that it is used for turning the waterwheels which grind and husk rice and other kinds of grain. At first I thought it was a steamboat, and was greatly surprised. A large barge or boat was firmly moored by stem and stern near the side of the river, in a part where the stream ran most rapidly. Two wheels, not unlike the paddles of a steamer, were placed at the sides of the boat, and connected with an axle which passed through it. The boat was tatched over to afford protection from the rain. As we got further up the river, we found that machines of this description were very common."

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Worcester made detailed engineering drawings of the ship mills still in action around the Chinese city of Fouchow. These carried four waterwheels on two axles - see the plan on the left.

Tide mills

Boat mills also opened up the possibility of generating power from coastal areas and estuaries, because they could be used as tide mills. The first one was described in 960 AD and was located on a canal of Basra in Southern Iraq. It could be that the early ship mills in Venice were tide mills, too, though nobody knows for sure. When a boat mill was used as a tide mill, its wheels would be pushed in one direction when the tide came in, and in the other direction when the tide went out. They could not be used for more than 10 hours per day. Very few of them were built - dams and tidal reservoirs were more common options to harvest tidal energy.

Bridge mills

Medieval millers quickly learned that the output of boat mills could be increased when they were anchored or moored close to islands, sand banks or man-made structures - most notably bridges. The wide piers and short arch spans of medieval bridges greatly increased the velocity of the stream at these locations. Positioning a ship mill underneath the arches of a bridge or just downstream from it became very popular practice during the Middle Ages. Reynolds notes that when the "Grand Pont", a masonry bridge in Paris under which more than a dozen ship mills were located, was destroyed at the end of the 13th century, it was the owners of the mills who quickly built another (wooden) bridge to facilitate the operation of their boat mills.

From this practice came the evolution of the bridge mill, which probably appeared in the 12th century (the first description comes from Cordoba, Spain). Bridge mills did not float - they were built as part of a bridge with the milling machinery built on top of the bridge itself. Unlike boat mills, they required some mechanism to alter the position of the wheel as the water level changed.

In most cases the mill was suspended from the bridge by chains which could be adjusted by a capstan arrangement (as described by Zonca, illustration on the left) or a treadmill. Bridge mills had sluice gates to control the flow of water and to protect the wheel against driftwood. From the 16th century onwards, quite a few ship mills were replaced by bridge mills.

Reconstruction drawing of the bridge mills at the Pont-Aux-Meuniers, Paris, 16th century. Source: "Paris à gré d'eau", Beaudoin Francois

Hydropower dams

The bridge mill was an intermediate step in the process of adapting the waterwheel to large rivers, culminating in the hydropower dam that we know today, as described by Terry Reynolds in his study on the history of the vertical water wheel (see sources):

"The hydropower dam and its adjunct, the power canal, presumably evolved from the boat mill and the bridge mill. The boat mill had been an attempt to adapt the vertical wheel to the natural flow of streams. The bridge mill had been a further step in that direction, but it had also demonstrated that natural conditions of flow could be significantly improved by human artifices. In one sense, the medieval river bridge, when combined with either boat or bridge mill, was a primitive form of hydropower dam, an intermediate step between the unassisted boat mill and the full-scale hydropower dam. Intentionally designed hydropower dams and the power canals frequently associated with them, however, went a step further. The boat mill and, to a lesser extent, the bridge mill had adapted the water wheel to natural stream conditions. The hydropower dam did the reverse. It adapted the stream to the water wheel."

Hanging mills

A variant of the bridge mill was the "hanging mill" or "suspended mill", which was not suspended from a bridge but from a specially designed structure (bridge mills are sometimes called hanging or suspended mills, too). It worked in a similar manner but did not offer all the advantages of the bridge mill - capital costs were higher and boats were required to access them. Their commonality was their relatively high power output, since they could support multiple waterwheels and could be built much larger than boat mills.

Less is known about these suspended mills, and most of the available data is limited to France (the "moulin pendant" above was located at Châtres and was still working in 1910). Three large hanging mills were built in Paris on the Seine during the 17th century. They took care of the water supply for the city, pumping water from the river.

The "Pompe du Samaritaine" was built in 1608 and the "Pompe du Pont Notre Dame" - which actually consisted of two suspended mills with a water tower in between - was built in 1670, following a severe water shortage. They had a power output of respectively 8.7 and 18.6 HP. The Pompe du Pont Notre Dame, which was demolished in the second half of the 19th century, is pictured above on a 1756 painting by J.B. Raguenet - note the floating mill just behind the bridge.

Large suspended mills (of a different type) were also built outside of France, notably in Germany (where they were called "Panstermühlen") from the 16th century onwards. Beyer describes one with multiple wheels that was 27 metres long, 15 metres wide and 18 metres high - see the illustration below. It was built on the river bank, but contrary to a conventional fixed water mill the wheels could be moved up and down. In the 19th century, yet another type of hanging mill appeared in Romania and Poland (the "Alvan").

Hanging mills were also built in the Far East from the 15th century onwards. In the Japanese mill below, which appears in Broes' monograph, the water axle was lifted by means of a lever construction.

Accidents waiting to happen

Bridge mills and hanging mills had another important advantage over floating mills: safety. Right from the beginning, ship mills caused problems. During heavy floods or storms their moorings often broke. The mills were carried away - sometimes with the people still inside - and smashed into boats, docks, bridges or other ship mills. They could get stuck in the arch of a bridge, damming the river and thus causing the waters to rise even higher. Floating ice could have similar consequences. Ship mills were not built with any means of proper navigation, so when they broke loose they were out of control. They could only navigate in calm weather.

Even under normal weather conditions boat mills formed a threat, especially for navigation. A floating mill required very secure anchoring, in order to avoid the accidents described above. Usually the method used was to hammer heavy wooden posts into the riverbed - often angled upstream - on which to fix their chains. These posts were a hazard to other boats, especially when the ship mill had been moved to another location in the meantime.

Bridge mills and hanging mills did not pose these risks. Furthermore, their wheels could be taken out of the water when there were floods or ice, preventing damage to the mill. They were also more stable - another drawback to ship mills was that they sometimes delivered a product of inferior quality, due to the instability of the water. This might explain why most ship mills were only used to grind grain. Finally, bridge mills and hanging mills were also easier to maintain than boat mills.

The demise of the ship mill

In some regions boat mills were discontinued rather quickly. The 60 floating mills that were installed in Toulouse in the 12th century had disappeared less than a century later. They were replaced by three dams on which 43 fixed watermills were erected. The largest of these was the 400 metres long diagonal Bazacle dam, which was in operation by 1177 and remained the largest hydropower plant for quite some time.

The last ship mill on the Elbe in the Czech Republic

However, this drastic and early transition seems to have been an exception rather than the norm. Many more hydropower dams were built, and more boat mills were replaced by bridge mills or hanging mills, but in most European countries and in the near East ship mills remained in use well into the 1800s.

The majority of boat mills were discontinued between 1770 and 1870, which is no coincidence. Around 1780, the first steam river boats appeared and river navigation became ever more important. The use of ship mills was restricted by law in Austria in 1770 and in Paris in 1787. The construction of new ship mills was outlawed on the Rhine in 1868. In response to strict regulations in Slovakia at the end of the 19th century some boat mills were converted to fixed water mills on stilts - yet another variation (picture below, by Leo van der Drift).

In Paris, only 4 ship mills were left in 1800. The last boat mills on the Seine, the Loire and the Rhône disappeared respectively in 1840, 1842 and 1894. The last ship mill in Cologne was discontinued in 1847. At the beginning of the 1800s, there were still about 20 ship mills active on the Tiber, milling grain for a population of 158,000. At the end of the century, the last one disappeared. On the other hand, Vienna (Austria) still had 55 ship mills in 1870. In China they were used up to the end of the 19th century.

Boat mills in the 20th century

On some rivers boat mills could still be seen in the 1900s. During the first half of the century, working boat mills could be found in Georgia (Tiflis, 9 mills operating in 1909), Czech Republic (Lovosice, 1911), France (on the river Doubs, 3 mills operating in 1914), Iraq (Tekhrit, where they were used at least until 1917), Italy (10 boat mills in Verona in 1914, the last one stopped working in 1929), Turkey (1920), Germany (several locations, until 1926), Japan (1933), Slovakia (1937), Hungary (Tiszán, 1940) and Austria (Misseldorf, until 1945).

Bosnia had 27 mills left in 1950 with the last one disappeared in 1966. In Romania, 35 ship mills were still in use in 1957, and 8 of these were still working in 1968. Finally, the French historian Claude Rivet found a working ship mill on the Morava at Kuklijn (Serbia) in 1990, which was discontinued shortly afterwards. This seems to have been one of the last working authentic boat mills (check out this interesting video). Since then, around a dozen reconstructions have been built.

Kris De Decker (edited by Shameez Joubert)

Ship mill in Serbia, 1990. Picture by Claude Rivals.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources (in order of importance):

"Over schipmolens en andere onderslagmolens met in hoogte verstelbare wateras", Karel Broes, Molenecho's, Vlaams tijdschrift voor Molinologie, July - September 2003. There seems to be only one (more or less) publicly accessible copy of this issue, in a library in Antwerp, Belgium.
"Stronger than a Hundred Men: A History of the Vertical Water Wheel (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology) ", Terry S. Reynolds, 1983. Here's where I got the idea. There is no detailed information to be found on boat mills, but Reynolds puts the technology in its context.
"Boat mills in Europe from early medieval to modern times", Daniela Gräf, 2006. I could not obtain a copy of this book yet, so I relied on some reviews and the table of contents. It is based on a thesis written in 2003, and must be a valuable addition to the sources mentioned above.
"Wheels ex-aqueous and ad-aqueous; ship-mill and paddle-boat in east and west", in "Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 4: Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3: Civil Engineering and Nautics", Joseph Needham, 1971. Ship mills in Asia.
"Theatrum Machinarum Molarium, Oder Schau-Platz der Mühlen-Bau-Kunst", Johann Matthias Beyer, 1735.
"Vollständige Mühlen-Baukunst", Leonhard Christoph Sturm, 1718.
"Die Kölner Rheinmühlen I & II", Horst Kranz, 1991-1993. There is also a website.
"Studies in Ancient technology", R.J Forbes, 1965
"L'Encyclopédie", Diderot et Alembert, 1751
"Histoire d'une technique. Le dernier moulin à nef", Claude Rivals, L'Histoire, nr.153, 1992
"Le moulin et le meunier. Mille ans de meunerie en France et en l'Europe", Claude Rivals (2000).
"Paris à gré d'eau", Beaudoin Francois, 1993
"Schiffmühle", wikipedia.
"Wind, Water, Work: Ancient And Medieval Milling Technology (Technology and Change in History)", Adam Lucas, 2005
"A survey of water mills in Japan", Kenjiro Kawakami, 1982

Related articles:

Wind powered factories: history (and future) of the industrial windmill
Medieval smokestacks: fossil fuels in pre-industrial times
The bright future of solar powered factories: we need a renewable source of heat energy
Human powered cranes and lifting devices: the sky is the limit
Water powered cable trains
The optical telegraph: email in the 18th century
The treadwheel fan: grinding the wind
Ropes and knots: lost knowledge
All articles on obsolete technology
All short posts on obsolete technology

Main page.

Stick shed

2011-10-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

The Mighty Murtoa Stick Shed

Gday. Leigh Hammerton from Murtoa here.

I am standing inside what is probably the most interesting and unusual building in Australia, bar none! It is certainly unique in the world, being the only one of its type left, although there were many others erected around Southern and Western Australia during WW2 when they were used as temporary storage for wheat, which could not be exported at the time.

It is BIG. In Imperial terms it is nearly 900ft long, 200ft wide and about 60ft high in the centre, with the entire roof supported on slender mountain ash poles straight from the bush. There are an incredible 560 poles inside, so you can appreciated the adopted name of this building – the Murtoa Stick Shed.

This shed, built in 1941, is the largest rustically-built structure in the world. It is currently under protection from Heritage Victoria (since 1992), and is noted in the Australian heritage listings for many, and varied, excellent reasons. Principally, its construction method is unique to Australia, and it also represents a huge leap forward in the handling of harvested crops, with the monumental change from bags to bulk handling. How the poor farmers must have enjoyed that! It employed trucks, elevators, conveyor belts and other ‘modern’ machinery to move wheat. However, the practical structural aspects pale into significance compared to its aesthetics! Its interior presents a fabulous experience, which, once viewed, is never forgotten. A massive forest of trees with a soaring overhead, vaulted canopy produces subdued natural lighting, and gives the impression of a huge empty natural space, with considerable religious overtones. The sheer volume of the structure is certainly impressive, and the two and one half acres of under-cover concrete floor is expansive in the extreme. It is both HUGE and peacefully QUIET, with wonderful acoustics! An amazing and indeed, unique experience, akin to some European cathedrals, but with so much more ethereal and natural characteristics - and MUCH larger!
The whole building however, is flexible in design to allow for the varying stresses of being filled gradually with wheat, using the in-built conveyer belt inside its highest point. The entire roof structure is tied to the vertical poles using only metal straps, which allows considerable movement. This is never more obvious than being inside during high winds - the whole building creaks and groans like a living thing. A total lack of maintenance over the last 20 years has unfortunately resulted in much damage, both internal and external, with two very large holes in the roof at present, many broken or damaged poles and other roof misalignments. All repairable of course.

The Stick Shed was the first one of its type built, and survived largely due to its concrete floor, which allowed it to remain in service long after other sheds, as they had tin floors which were prone to infestations of vermin and other wheat diseases. It was last used to hold wheat in 1989-90. It holds around 100,000 tons of wheat. The roofline is sloped to the same angle a pile of wheat forms naturally, and the shed was filled almost completely up to the roof when full. It is attached at one end to a massive concrete structure which houses the elevator. This elevator raised the wheat to the level of the top conveyor belt which ran the full length of the roof peak and dropped the wheat off the sides. It was emptied in reverse largely, with side conveyor belts. The mail Melbourne-Adelaide rail is adjacent the elevator, which allowed both emptying and filling from this source, although in recent years most wheat is trucked away via the nearby Wimmera Highway, which also runs through Murtoa.
The Stick Shed has featured on the 1994 Heritage Victoria poster/calendar and in countless articles about Australia’s heritage since then. It is probably better known and appreciated outside the immediate area, where there has been a long history of rejection, mainly due to its location within a major wheat handling facility - the largest inland one in Australia.

I see it as the potential saviour of Tourism in the whole Wimmera area, as this building alone has the ability to not only put itself on the Victorian Heritage list, but the Australian one too. It has endless possibilities for usage due to its enormous undercover area, and the interest by many others to simply view and experience its amazing interior. It should become an icon for the farming community who built and used it during a time when few male farmers were still on the land. It has served the people well and can do so in an entirely different way for many years to come.

I think the pictures say it all... the first 3 are recent, the others from the 1990s.

If you are as impressed as I am with this building, let me know, as support for it locally is surprisingly limited, and our small group of supporters would love to hear from you. The main part of the building is currently ‘owned’ by the Victorian Government Property Group, part of DSE. There is supposed to be restoration work taking place this year, but nothing has as yet happened. It could easily languish forever and finally become irrepairable eventually.

Leigh Hammerton
PO 77 Murtoa 3390
Ph 03 53852422
Email: murtoan@bigpond.net.au

Cave art in Australia Part of the come sail with me series

2011-10-12T02:03:00.000-07:00

The below photo was taken in a sandstone cave and the predominant colour was white. The photo makes the images look three dimensional which they were not. They were huge and foreboding but I felt at ease with them it.

Bush entry

2011-09-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

I am afraid that the come walk with me series has come to an end as I have been told not to go into the bush by certain people. I have never seen these people in the bush and will likely never will. I have always felt at home in the bush and never destroyed any art work . It seems to me that there is some sort of control being asserted and the use of comedy and video is not to be aloud. I will no longer be able to work from the bush but will visit the bush from the water as there is no control in this medium. So a new series of come sail with me will start as my boat is ready to be launched. Yes the drug sub will be launched in the coming week. Small tributaries are not to be entered by water from thee main river here by boat so a canoe will be used. The laws that stop the use of the bush are unconscionable and hit at a fair go for all.

zero

2011-09-19T22:35:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOMbySJTKpg

Come walk with me series Stewart"s hut

2011-09-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

I just love to be alone in the bush and meditate on the noises heard and unheard. Yes unheard can sometimes be more enjoyable than the noise of this busy world we live in. Some where in the high country,,,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkAB1QLZFyU

Come walk with me series Bad Preperation

2011-09-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

Complacency is a big problem. I went for a short walk and was overcome with heat and the lack of water. I was in no danger but was made uncomfortable. I was in Gundagai a few years ago and came across a bloke with a baby on a bush track not far from town. He had no water and the baby was thirsty and he was lucky I came bye. I hooked him up and towed him home and when we got there his wife was about to go looking for him. That would have been an hour in 120 degree temperatures. Turns out he was a dog chiropractor and in return he did some work on me and I thank him to this day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip4HPE9uXEg

Australian Bush part of the come walk with me series

2011-09-15T04:18:00.000-07:00

Getting lost is hard to do if you take some precautions. Bush craft was taught to me by my late uncle Tiny who was trained in the art of tracking. I remember as a child of about seven when the little boy got lost up at Ebor and the song was written " Little boy lost"..My dad and Tiny and heaps of the blokes in the area went out and searched for him. No mean feat in those mountains in the dark and on a cold winter night. Men came to Ebor from hundreds of miles around. My dad was no tracker but was a good man
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdiEJ8gSbFI

Here is the song..www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPjisfbL8_E

Bush fire safety part of the come walk with me series

2011-09-15T03:38:00.000-07:00

I will give some small videos on safety in the bush and this is the first of them . It is best not to get into a situation in the first place ...Some years ago there was a fire in the bush in the forests on the east coast of Tasmania The story goes that a bushy who worked all his life in the bush on bulldozers made a clearing with the doser and these officials from Hobart were there controlling the situation as a roaring fire descended on them . The officials wanted the go ahead to start a fire to protect all the people there to be given from Hobart. The fire was on the top of the next ridge and coming towards them and the old fellah pushed the official over and The burning torch set the bush alight and all were saved ..There was an enquiry into the incident and the dozer driver was fined for destroying the bush with his dozer and also with setting the bush alight. It didn't matter that he saved everyone's life that was there as well as his own...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoCfxiLmS1o

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

Back at kakadu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7akuUityZs

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T18:11:00.001-07:00

Free Gass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Zsq4inpo8

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T17:28:00.001-07:00

Franklin River 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_SRc5-grzI

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

Made a wrong turn to the Franklin River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqEfbZemCYk

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

Stone henge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU7mn7j_BiU

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T16:38:00.003-07:00

Just is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTptzxbYLRM

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

white mans cave part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxOYZwPo378

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T16:06:00.001-07:00

White mans cave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKwnAxdpjo8

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

roseshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvtwLMiCFsA

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T07:49:00.001-07:00

Contempory midden or housing project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzNMnylbat4

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T07:08:00.001-07:00

Arrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmFRdMh7lCQ

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T06:29:00.002-07:00

hats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roEpTicezuA

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq0HDM2tewY

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T05:48:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIa_M_IvYBQ

Come walk with me series

2011-09-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM-ZzPeK-sk

Come walk with me series 5 Oprah

2011-09-02T04:46:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing tree trying to hold onto life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSBAOM8bDi8

Come walk with me series

2011-09-01T03:41:00.000-07:00

kakadu national park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxl6VaSfuTo

Come walk with me series

2011-09-01T00:43:00.000-07:00

Kackadu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmkmbkmPEkk

Come walk with me series

2011-09-01T00:32:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJQkl5ccEUk

Come walk with me series

2011-09-01T00:27:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQXRwCVLfHg

Come walk with me series

2011-09-01T00:06:00.000-07:00

At the river
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ-gkvXaDY4

Come walk with me series

2011-08-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

We stopped under a port Jackson fig tree
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GJQgyA_cK0

Aboriginal art

2011-08-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

Found in a bush cave a rare picture of a gadichie man with its haunting eyes.

Come walk with me series

2011-08-29T04:42:00.000-07:00

The pommie giving praise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch2YCRRF2jE

Come walk with me series

2011-08-29T03:54:00.001-07:00

No echidnas hurt in this vidieo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtwVVO5CPsc

Come walk with me series

2011-08-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

We came across a abandoned house that was just built for underprivilaged people for a couple of million dallars!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQO1FVvbBnY

Come walk with me series

2011-08-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

The lepricorn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtnV7APEEqA

Come walk with me series

2011-08-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Graham goes missing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHlO0I0ksQk

The fall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ypuRbJi5OQ

Found him after a quick climb down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc8y7S1pAOA

Come walk with me series

2011-08-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

The TIFF. (adult themes) Children under 18 not to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN5fRLmGwI8

Come walk with me series

2011-08-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

Mystical place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGGxmxfvwXA

Come walk with me series

2011-08-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

He just dont stop winging.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bdzWNaAwtI

Come walk with me series

2011-08-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

I have been out with my pommie brother in law and he dont like the food I have been giving him...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxM2PF4wJGw

Come walk with me series

2011-08-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8aY1xuQ5E
My brother inlaw is here from Pommie land and I took him into the bush for a couple of days. The below photo shows a aboriginal drawing of a sail boat. It looks like a broken mast or sail...

This shows when the whiteman hunted aborigines for sport, My old mate Donny told me of such things.

Come walk with me series

2011-08-25T01:06:00.000-07:00

My mate Graham

Come walk with me series

2011-08-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

"What are you doing in my part of the woods Mr?"

Come walk with me

2011-08-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

All the Come Walk With Me Series were made in China as we didnt have a licence to do photography and commedy in Australia.

Aboriginal cave art.

The photo says it all

Bush walk

2011-08-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

The below photo inside a cave on this walk, The little girl is my grandaughter she is learning the ways of the bush. Note my right arm is missing in the photo Strange things happen.

The little girl owns the cave its her heritage.

If you are comming to Australia and want to go on this bush walk please place a comment which will not be posted, I am a tracker and guide. There are fees which are reasonable, limited numbers to protect the wilderness you will be taken too. I will post more photos in the next posts. Photo by Graham Thomas.
Wild flowers five minutes from my home

Just coming into flower in the last few days. More will be written about these and wildeness land in the next few posts. Sorry for the quality of the photos as blogger is playing up.

My all time best ever u tube video

2011-08-22T16:24:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdLyYvytutA

2011-08-14T21:58:00.001-07:00

Friday, April 2, 2010

rodents

Well I have spoken before about rats and mice and about the brown snake in the roof space. Now this snake not being one you can talk to decided to move into the house and sleep on the bed in the spare room, I had this mate come to stay and he slept in the room on the bed and you wouldn't frigging believe it the snake objected and bit him on the frigging elbow. War has now been declared on snakes and mice.I will concentrate on the rodents as they are more dangerous to my health. The mate lived threw the ordeal and his wife now don't trust me.
I don't know why it wasn't me who bit him...

This brings me to the problem of food storage and the elimination of waste. I have bought some stainless steel cans for rice and dog food. I also got a second fridge to put food in but it don't work but the mice can not get in. You can here them gnawing the bottom of the fridge....Waste plastic and paper are removed from the area, mice can get threw a HOLE as big as the word hole so you have to be diligent when constructing your abode....

2011-08-14T21:54:00.001-07:00

waste busting

It is easier not to produce the waste in the first place. To do this quality articles must be produced in the first place. Articles that have life spans of hundreds of years. Cars that are componentised that is one part might fail and a new one is easily put in its place. That is a motor is removed in minutes and a new one replaced in its position. The old engine can then be fixed and put on shelf til it is required. Monopolies should be stopped in favor of local car manufactures. That is the local car company who builds say four cars a year. This is then sent to the local upholsterer to be finished. These are just my crazy thoughts on these things, I have had them for a long time and needed to get them out. So here it is.

I have a blog on rubbish but no one reads it so I will post them all here.

2011-08-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

rubbish
It is about time that scavengers were allowed onto the garbage tips as they do a better job than professionals who get paid regardless. I have personally seen what they leave behind when I was dumping rubbish on a very rare occasion. When it is ex my place it is phucked even worse than ex government. It was a shame as I could have taken away hundreds of dollars worth in just one visit. The powers to be think that there is a fortune to be made from rubbish and there is if you know what you are doing, They don't! It is a skill to know the difference between rubbish and RUBBISH...I am not that good at it but I have seen others who were experts at it. It is a site to behold like you are watching a performance on the live stage of life. I went with a mate who spotted sites on a road for rubbish and in one load I got over five hundred dollars worth of use able building materials. Fools for throwing it away, Yes fools! I am talking about good very clean materials, NEW yes NEW. I would have bought it on ebay for twice the price....! Think I should start a recycling site on the net for the scavengers but where do I store the materials for free ?

A funny little video

2011-08-14T18:13:00.001-07:00

http://storyofstuff.org/cosmetics/

Professor Iggle

2011-08-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

Parasites in medicine

Psychiatrists believe that they can change the way people think with large amounts of Psychotic drugs and long term incarceration in mental institutions they can even add some electric shock as well. Little do they know that such persons are able to evaluate the situation and change there ways to get what they want through manipulation of the Psychiatrist. If the answer is black on red they change through teaching that the answer is black on red and now they are on the right track to freedom. The patients talk to each other and tell new comers if they want to get out agree and freedom is sooner than later. There is an old saying "A person changed against there will is of the same opinion still" and how true are those words. Then they talk about patients having thoughts of grand delusions. I was told this once after going to a company seminar and was in an exercise was made the boss in roll playing, the other employees said they would rather deal with the real boss than me, grand delusions? They come in all forms and are started by simple mind games. The trouble is when someone has power over someone else and then there self importance kicks in and then they suffer from grand delusions as in the case of psychiarists. Years ago my I suffered at the hands of a child professor lets call him say Brent Waters. Well Brent was charging 130 dollars a visit when the wage was 80 dollars a week, I had to find this money every month and in the end I asked for a written report and everything that I had suggested was written into that report as being the best way to deal with the situation. What a load of parasitic hogwash I never did go back to that charlatan Brent again. Mental illness is best treated with hard physical work to the point of exhaustion. Its that simple. So now I can be called professor Iggle see how it works. All names are fictitious and if any names that may be real then it is just a coincidence.

Would you eat this

2011-07-31T04:46:00.000-07:00

The Devastating Side Effects!
As we have seen, side effects age your skin, depress your immune system and is the preferred fuel of cancer cells. Dr. Nancy Appleton lists 76 ways it can ruin your health. I’m not going to list all 76 but let me highlight the top 10 that stood out to me:

1. It feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, lung, gallbladder and stomach.

2. It can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.

3. It greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida yeast infections.

4. It can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.

5. It can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.

6. It can increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

7. It can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.

8. Your body changes it into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.

9. It has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.

10. It upsets the mineral relationships in your body causing chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
Sugar is the culprit!!! Read the full story here, http://www.smoothie-handbook.com/sugar-side-effects.html

Looking out to sea or dumped in the surf

2011-07-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

I was down at the bay and thought some art was appropriate for the area so I constructed this as a reminder we are all kids at heart.

The tin canoe

2011-07-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

As the heading implys this is about the tin canoe we built, there was a large sheet of tin washed down the creek behind the house after some heavy rain and this was retreaved and all the dints were knocked out. This wasn't the new type of corrigated iron but the old soft stuff that when you were on the roof you had to walk on the rafters or you might fall threw. The sheet after about an hour was straight so to speek with the hammer marks of a fine craftsman and then there was the bullet holes and nail holes to fill in. Silicon would do a fine job of those but for the fact that it had'nt been invented. It was hot and the tar was melting on the road and with a stick this was scraped up to fill the holes. The two corners were bought together and nailed to a vertical upright that was cut from the front fence at the end corner of the fence so no one would miss it.The only real tool we had was a fine little hatchet which was used for a hammer and everything else we could think of using it for and it was as sharp as a gellette razor. Then the stern had the same proceedure done to it. Now came the tricky bit the canoe was proped up against the fence and mud was rammed into the end and covered with the tar from the road. This was heated in a jam tin on a fire made in the yard. No fire banns in those days and we could play with matches in this special area denuded of all vegitation.

What a fine craft it was after putting in a spreader bar to hold the sides out, many a voyage was performed in that fine ship, modifications were an outrigger and a sail made from a sheet taken from Mrs Willets clothes line shes long gone now god bless her soul. We used the left over tar to paint the sheet after disolving it in petrol, like all good sails there was an attempt at the skull and cross bones, well it looked good to us.

Imagination

2011-07-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

As a child of eight I was fortunate to live on the edge of the world at mountain top at the top of the Dorrigo mountain. My play ground was the rain forests and farm lands in the immediate area. The water that fell from the mountain top and rained to the valley below was cool and clean with moss covered rocks and ground in the imediate area of the stream. The hues of green was imense and the white of the clouds that drifted in from the valley below. It was a fairy land in reality and with an inteligent fertile mind I was able to get the best from the experience. As I have stated before in other post we were poor beyond belief but the fairyland of my mind made me the wealthiest person in the world. Dragon flies became helicopters leaves became boats and ants became horses, and throwen into this was blocks of wood which became cars and trucks, Happiness was my whole world and was never shared to this day. When I watch the dumb box (TV) I am taken from my chair to the ends of the world in my own mind. Many years later I was to work as a pearl diver and was taken back to those early days. To drop a hammer it would go straight to the bottom and a wooden wedge would go to the surface and this was to amuse me the first time it happened, Then to lift ten tons of steel on air bags tied to the steel was amazing. I, with the released air from my lungs was able to lift such massive weights. I have been blessed with a wonderful working life and great friends but to go back to my childhood in my mind is a blessing that I cherish. I feel so sorry for people who have had electric shock treatment to loose those thoughts forever, I am truly blessed.

mining

2011-07-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

If the western coal fields in NSW are mined and degassafied then the australian contental plate will be at risk of awaking dorment volcanic activity. There is a fault running threw the centre of NSW and going into Queensland and if restraint of the mining industry is not carried out then there will be consiquences for the unbourn generations. This is not a scare tactic it is a fact. The largest underground mine in the world has problems with local earth quakes so why would it not happen here in Australia. Look at the billions of tons of wool beef iron ore and other minerals and coal taken from the country over the last two hundred years, then something is going to break and it will be the continental plate it self. With the associated earth quakes and volcanoes forming.

Fashion

2011-07-22T03:40:00.000-07:00

The photos show manican models used in the fashion industry and on close inspection shows that they are masively out of proportion. If the model was in the full it would be eight feet tall I an five eight,I havnt ever seen a eight foot woman yet.

Now on close inspection you will notice the hudge bend in the fema leg bone and the result would be new knee joints and painfull operations and like a small dog the legs would break because they are too thin. they do this to get the thin waist which would suit a seven year old child. Notice how high the knee is! This is to show that the fashion industry is into impossible dreams......

Horse and dray

2011-06-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Living in the Dorrigo district in the 1950's was some what exciting as a child even though there was no money. Going into Dorrigo was a big event in my life. My old man had a Hudson Terra plane car and it had leather upholstery. Dad had two trucks both Bedfords and later a Ferguson te20 tractor. I remember steam was used in the bush and the sawmills. When you cannot afford wheels for a farm trailer a sled was fashioned out of bush poles to either be towed by the tractor or horses. We used to get the sled and tow it to the top of a hill and let it loose with us on board for a quick ride down the hill. How we survived those times I don't know. Then another game was to climb small trees and they would not be able to hold the weight and would bend over and we would let go some times they broke and we came crashing down. Riding small calves was a good past time as well, many a bruise would appear, if you were to have that many bruises today you parent would be accused of child abuse. There was a big timber dray at the front of the house was there for many years the wheels would have been six feet in diameter or more. Latter on in years I worked with pit ponies underground till they decided that it was too cruel for the horses but they truly loved the work. If you put on three skips the horse would hear the second chain rattle as it took the load and it would not pull it, when the third skip was unhooked they would pull the load. They could work in the dark as if they could see, it was amazing and they were treated with kindness anyone who miss treated them would be sacked.

Scouts

2011-06-19T03:43:00.000-07:00

When I was a scout leader I got to take the scouts on outings to different places like the usual fire station and police station so some ingenuity into where to take them next. My mate had this lolly shop and made boiled lollies. He agreed to let us visit and he meet the group at the door and laid down the law do not touch the lollies and he said it with solemn face and all the seriousness he could prevail. He mixed up a batch on the tables with all the colours of the rainbow and drew it threw the dies and into the cutting machine and the lollies came out at about a thousand a minute. He then mixed up a batch in the groups colours all the time with questions coming quick and fast. When they cooled down with a glint in his eye said they were so good and showed restraint and they could help them selves to what was on the table, all bedlam was let loose in those next few seconds. The rumble was over in short of a minute. Then he said he would make a lolly pop on a stick for the leader ME it wasn't the usual lolly pop cause he used a broom handle for the stick and the lolly was over a meter on diameter. Huge it was But what do you do with a lolly pop that big. The following week I had a game at the hall and there was a special surprise for the winner of the game. The game was won and out came the big lolly pop and a hammer. The lolly pop was put on the floor and struck with the hammer and even to my surprise it shattered into a million bits and there was a scramble that followed. They were fun times......

ANIMAL SLAUGHTER

2011-05-30T04:19:00.001-07:00

I just watched Four corners tonight and what I saw was totally unexceptionable even for me as an ex-slaughterman.

Stories

2011-05-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

I had this amazing chat with this lady on a dating web site. It seams to me that there is some stories that need to be told and I am offering to publish your stories here if you like, just send them in please check out my starshipchurch.blogspot.com site.

In the hardware store

2011-05-27T21:34:00.001-07:00

My wife was heard saying " I take my husband every where twice" then went on to say " once to apologize"!

Heard at Wagga

2011-05-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

Whilst coming out of the rules club in Wagga, there was this really old codger coming out of the club with his walking frame. Now this on its own wouldn't even mention a comment, But he was with this even older woman in a wheel chair.
Nothing out of the usual so far, then the old woman said to the old fella, "come on we haven't got all day" !!! You see the old fella was pushing the wheel chair and there in lies the funny side. It was so lovely, this old fella really loved the woman and you could see it. Every one should have that experience. Thats what I dream of.....true love. I guess I am just a romantic at heart.

2011-05-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

I love my wife

I have made this to show how hot my love for my Pamela is ....My wife is still not home and looks like it will never happen.

Fixed problem

2011-05-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

I was having trouble with new posts not loading and I went to settings and at the bottom of the page I selected old editing, and wolla I am back.....

Home invasion

2011-04-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

I went to see a couple of mates the other day and left my house locked and in the charge of my wife and the dogs. It was late when I got home that is it was dark at 7.00 pm....When I came in the drive way I could hear the dogs going ballistic in the back yard. Thinking that they were overly happy to hear me coming in. I got out of the car and yelled at them to shut up because of the noise. It seemed funny that the house was in darkness as the wife used to leave the lights on. I went to open the door and you wouldn't believe the friggen door was open. I turned on the lights and called out and silence was the reply. Thinken where is the cook I went to all the rooms and blow me down she wasn't there and the back door was open. Being tired I want to bed and in the morning I was reinforced she wasnt there. I fed the dogs and wondered where she was. Thinking the cars still there and all her things are there and her hand bag was gone.
I rang my mate and said that the wife was gone along with about two hundred dollars in change, him being a funny bastard said lucky bastard whats the problem. I said Im serious she aint here, The reply came, that's why you came over here to get an allaby yesterday, Now I was being serious and he was friggen joking. Then it dawned on me I could be in serious trouble if she didn't turn up and I told him so and that I didn't do her in. He said to ring the local hospital so I did after finally finding the number in the telephone book. (See previous post) I gets on to this shela called Karen and she said she would ring me back after checking. well she didn't ring me she rang the police and informed them. Im struggling to find the police number in the phone book and they ring me and asked if my wife was there. I said to them how did you know as I was trying to find the police number in the phone book. They said the hospital rang them Karen must have known how hard it was to find the number and did it for me.
I had to file a missing persons report which I did. I rang my son who is a copper and he said he hoped they found her as I was number one suspect. Thinking to earlier times when she was put in hospital and in a lapse of sanity she told them I was conspiring to kill her with this other woman and the Sargent of the local police came out to arrest me, I was lucky that me old mate Donny spoke up for me.
Seven days went by and the police finally rang and said she was in hospital.
What a relief I was off the hook.
Turns out the mental health came and took her away, left the house open and in darkness. I went in and made several complaints as to what had happened and how it happened.
The next day I get a phone call from mental health and they were concerned that I said that they took the money....................................................................................
After a long silence..........................I said "what".......................another long silence..................... THEY REPEATED THAT THEY DIDN'T TAKE THE MONEY................. Then I said I don't give a fuck about the money and I wasnt going to proceed down this line and that this matter was over. They hung up and didn't let me know where or how my wife was. Strange bastards they should book them selves into the hospital and inject themselves with those stranger drugs... Talk about nut cases they take the cake...I have now been declared single by the government and can see what my mate meant. Whats your problem??
Whats your problem?

pain

2011-04-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

Sickness in small doses is good for the soul, it makes the good times feel better. Try this next time you are sick laugh smile tell jokes and the like. Why do I tell you these things? My son was one of those kids that feels pain and he wanted attention from the doctors and the result was the same long wait and no result. thinking how I deal with these situations I took him to my mate Rodney, Now Rodney was a genuinely funny character what you would call a comedian. So instead of turning to go to the hospital I turned to go to Rodney's place and the patient wanted to know where we were going and I said to this new doctor I found. We arrived at Rodney's place and the patient wouldn't get out of the car. I tooted the horn and out came Rodney with in three minutes Rodney had the patient in fits of laughter. I asked how much he charged for the consultation and he said it was free the best medical diognosis and a good result best doctor or should I say quack I have ever been to. Rodney called the patient his mister fix it man and my son made friends with Rodney. I first meet Rodney at a garage sale I was having and he stayed and we laughed constantly for an hour and I finally asked Rodney what he did for a living and he said he was a comedian. So I asks what name did he go under and he said Rodney Rude. I haven't seen Rodney for years so if you read this drop me a line. Do a google search and you should find him....

Recycled wall

2011-04-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

The above wall was made with broken footpaths that were laid like bricks.

Heavy weather and high water from flooding has distroyed the wall.

There is large concrete slabs in the water.

The wall was broken from the back by water washing in from behind. The other thing that also added to the destruction was it was too straight.

The longest time to build a house in the world

2011-04-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

This house was started in the 1990s and this is as far as it got before red tape intervened. This is from the city of innervation "Wollongong" the street is Arter ave. It holds the worlds record for the time to build a house to lock up in the world..

The above photo shows the main sewer pipe that was broken and a diversion was put down the next block of land. The house behind lost its back yard when the hill slid away,Red tape stopped the work and gravity took hold with the help of heavy rain.

The photo above shows the foot path out the front.

Makes me smile as to the incompetence of the powers to be.

Vivid imagination

2011-04-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

I was in the bush near here and I came across some rubbish thrown out and it was all toys. I gathered up a bundle of them and took them home and placed them out the front of my house with a sign saying free. Well strike me down they lasted about five minutes and they even took the sign. What do you do with knowledge of more toys still left in the bush after a weeks rain. My granddaughter came down the following day and it was perfect weather and good weather for a treasure hunt. We drove out to the area and left the car and after priming her up for about and hour about treasure hunt we were off. Following behind and walking slow to increase the suspense she stumbled onto the toys in the bush.....The smiles and the fun she had looking at all the toys still there she was aloud to take five toys as there were other children that might like to find toys as well. She chose wisely and several small figures and a pirate ship were chosen to be left at grandpas house for when she visited.

I want to grow young!!!!

2011-03-15T02:58:00.000-07:00

I rang my old mate Leslie today, he is in his eighties. His new project is a music machine that you wind up. Recons it will take him fifteen years to complete and he wants that letter from the queen the queen in England that is. Yes he will make it. He is doing art and one day a week goes and paints the nudes. He is the proverbial Alf Garnet from the show Step Toe and Son, good English humor. He is a laugh a minute and a great man to boot. He started off in a auction house on day and they had a chair for $1 and he thought that would be OK and placed his bid, and it was knocked down to him, Little did he know he just bought 400 of them for a dollar. He managed to load them onto his small truck and sold them for five dollars each by going to the local businesses in Botany on the way home. He arrived home with $1995 and one chair.
I did the same with a Bob cat bucket Bought it for nine dollars cause that's all I had and had it loaded it onto my little truck and went home for lunch and was abused for bringing rubbish home. I had lunch and had it sold for three hundred dollars with in the hour. Her royal hind arse wanted the money. I bought the truck and drove it home and was abused for buying "a heap of shit" for a grand. The first job was the transportation of explosives (fire works) over state lines with out a permit and earned several thousand dollars for eight hours work. Then there was the lawn mower I bought for 100 bucks and made five grand with it.
Being a bit arty I enrolled in sign writing and my first job was painting a sign for Aussie Motors It had a kangaroo on the sign done in yellow with a blue roo, When I draughted the image on the sign it was facing away from the car yard well Aussie complained that the Kangaroo was bounding away from his yard and could I change it so it would be bounding toward his yard. He sold over a hundred cars while I was painting that sign and said he wanted me to stay there to change the sign every day to keep the customers coming in. Wouldn't you believe it I also spelt his name flaming wrong and he never complained re do it he said I was there for over a week and he paid me well.

Li-po battery explosion

2011-03-06T20:02:00.000-08:00

These batteries can explode when mistreated, Do not over charge or charge at more than the recommended rate. cause they can and will explode. If the core temperature goes higher than recommended they will explode. One of my friends who uses these batteries got third degree burns to his hands stomach and fore head as the result of an explosion. These batteries are used in mobile phones, lap tops, high speed electric boats, power tools and can over heat if they are insulated and the devices core overheats they will explode. Do not leave unattended when charging. Dispose of correctly do not throw in rubbish bins as they can cause fires in a rubbish tip. Do not leave in the sun.
If used correctly they are safe.....

Hot dog

2011-03-06T16:12:00.000-08:00

Is he the coolest hot dog ever!!!!!!!!! Yes he is still alive and no he wasn't cooked

feeding stingrays

2011-03-01T05:23:00.000-08:00

These are bullrays and are unpredictable they shouldn't be approached as I am doing here in the video. It was a smaller ray that killed Steve Irwin. Believe it that these creatures know when harm is about and are not to be fooled with. They can attack in a split second, If you are scared or wary do not touch them. This was the first time for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=a8bdMDC4od4

boxes

2011-02-25T20:34:00.000-08:00

I read with great admiration about these great little houses. The authorities will twig to what is going on and legislate them and you will have to employ the local inspector.
Now if you call it a box then they come in many forms so the question is how do you legislate a box or a boat. Build a big boat and cut a hole in the side to work threw, No inspectors until you put it on the water.then the inspectors arrive in there droves.
In some places you need approval for painting or fencing, When the man arrives with a big stick to fine you for your mistakes of PAINTING tell him you don't like the colour and it will be over painted as this is just the undercoat. Just don't use there terminology a verandah is a patio is a what ever you can think of, and remember it is temporary. Just one more thing the roof is a lid.

help

2011-02-12T16:37:00.000-08:00

When I left my home in Wollongong and moved into a shack at Junee I had nothing. I did find help and it was from myself no one else. I learnt as I went along and was guided by the local hardware man, Peter and his son. I asked for his ideas and then did it my way any way. He often laughs and has told my son that he needn't bothered as I would do it my way. Yes but the advise was listened to with great admiration from whom it was given. I learnt a lot and I see where the cyclone victims are in dire straights. They don't have tickets for rubbish removal or cleaning tickets building or plumbing but then I didn't either. God didn't help me nor did the council as I once read "someone helps those who helps themselves".
I have been amused that the houses after Katrina are not rebuilt even today...Some times people have disasters in there lives and if it is not a natural disaster or a mine blowing up then you are on your own as I was. It was still a disaster, just as big as these are today but the difference is you are totally on your own no support to turn too..Yes help yourselves you will come threw it and be a stronger person for it....

Things you need to KNOW

2011-02-10T14:07:00.000-08:00

I have six things that serve me well
They everything I know;
They are What, Where, When,Why,How and Who.
Ask and you will receive.
It doesn't take much but can be destroyed by,
Must, should, could, would, can't and insurance
and the proverbial know it all.
This last one comes in the form of a little man with little power and a big stick.

Examples are inspectors of all types.
That is ( ) inspector, insert your own word.
Then there is the tried and true and comes in one form
Knowledge.
Knowledge beats all inspectors.
Have a pen and paper handy and ask them to write down there mathematical equation and put in the relevant figures and prove you are wrong.
This is called the bluff and is guaranteed to work.
You don't have to know the equations all you have to do is check his figures.
Another fact all building have equations,
tension sheer torsional speed horsepower and the list goes on.
All things have a equations its up to the ( ) inspector to know this.
Remember that's his job

I have just started a new blog

2011-02-08T01:12:00.000-08:00

This new blog is about politics and is called http://aust-government.blogspot.com/ so have a look and let me know what you think.

My old mate Alex sent me this years ago

2011-02-03T15:38:00.000-08:00

This was done by 6 year olds , they were given the first half of the proverb and asked to fill in the second half.

1. Strike while the .................................... bug is close.
2. It's always darkest before ...................... Daylight Saving
Time.
3. Never underestimate the power of ........ termites.
4. You can lead a horse to the water but ... how?
5. Don't bite the hand that ......................... looks dirty.
6. No news ................................................ impossible.
7. A miss is as good as a ............................ Mr.
8. You can't teach an old dog new ............. math.
9. If you lie down with dogs, you'll ........... stink in the morning.
10. Love all, trust ........................................ me.
11. The pen is mightier than the .................. pigs.
12. An idle mind is ...................................... the best way
to relax.
13. Where there's smoke there's ................... pollution.
14. Happy the bride who ............................. gets all the
presents.
15. A cent saved is ....................................... not much.
16. Two's company, three's .......................... the Musketeers.
17. Don't put off till tomorrow what ........... you put on to go to
bed.
18. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and ... you have to
blow your nose.
19. There are none so blind as .................... Stevie Wonder.
20. Children should be seen and not ........... spanked or grounded.
21. If at first you don't succeed ................... get new batteries.
22. You get out of something only what you ... see on the picture of the
TV.
23. When the blind lead the blind ............... get out of the way.
24. And the WINNER and last one!
Better late than ....................................pregnant.

Qualifications

2011-01-31T14:46:00.000-08:00

I have engineering certificates and tickets for forklifts bobcat excavators etc. Now if I don't pay the government then they deem them to be unfit. If you haven't worked in your trade this is taken away as well. Now the below certificate is three years old and the recipient would be 8 years old now is this certificate null and void as well. As we all who are over 18 passed threw kindergarten we all should have one of these and as a result should be able to teach kindergarten. This certificate is worth more than all the other Qualification that anyone can ever have, and just about as useless.

Why did the Accc and the doctors fight so hard?

2011-01-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

Jail for contempt over contraceptive sales

Justice Conti of the Federal Court has ordered that Mr David Hughes be imprisoned for contempt for a total period of six months. The orders follow Australian Competition and Consumer Commission action.
Mr Hughes will serve two months immediately and the remaining four months was suspended. The four months would be served if Mr Hughes again breaches the previous orders.
Justice Conti also ordered that Mr Hughes transfer his website to the ACCC. The ACCC will then post a consumer notice on the site, advising consumers of the illegalities under the Trade Practices Act 1974 of the conduct.
The ACCC brought the contempt proceedings against Mr Hughes alleging he breached orders of the Federal Court made on 18 March 2002.
Then, Justice Allsop held that Mr Hughes had misled or deceived by:

not telling consumers that it was illegal to supply or acquire oral contraceptives without a prescription in Australia and the US
failing to tell consumers of significant health risks involved for some people in taking some oral contraceptives
failing to tell consumers that within Australia free medical assistance is available to Australian citizens and permanent residents contemplating using oral contraceptives and
failing to tell consumers that it is significantly cheaper in Australia to get oral contraceptives from a pharmacy.

Justice Allsop made the following orders:

that Mr Hughes be restrained from supplying oral contraceptives in Australia without disclosing in any promotional medium, including any internet site, that:

it is illegal to supply the specified oral contraceptives to persons in Australia without prescription
it is illegal for a person to acquire the specified oral contraceptives without prescription
that there are significant health risks in taking some oral contraceptives without obtaining medical advice about the suitability of those medications for use by the particular individual
that within Australia free medical assistance, including where appropriate the issuing of a prescription, is available to Australian citizens and permanent residents who are contemplating using oral contraceptives
that it is significantly less expensive to obtain oral contraceptives upon prescription from a pharmacy in Australia than it is to buy them from his group, Crowded Planet.

that Mr Hughes be restrained from supplying the specified oral contraceptives to persons in the United States of America
that Mr Hughes pay the ACCC's costs.

The ACCC alleged that Mr Hughes had set up a new website and offered contraceptives to persons in Australia and the United States in violation of those orders.
The ACCC had assistance from the US Food and Drug Administration which bought contraceptives from a website run by Mr Hughes. Mr Hughes also sold contraceptives to an officer of the ACCC without the warnings being on the website.
The court agreed that Mr Hughes had engaged in the contempt and that it necessarily followed that there had to be a term of incarceration.
Justice Conti took into account Mr Hughes personal circumstances in setting the time for imprisonment.
"The ACCC could not simply allow persons to disregard orders of the court", ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today. "The ACCC does not take any court action lightly and expects respondents to abide by any orders awarded by the courts".

Here's the maths just for Australia if all the people bought on the internet.
there is approximately 22 million Australians Half are female =11million say 25% are sexually active that = 2.75 million . Now they go to get the pill for one months supply at $40 per visit times the number of visits by 12 months thats 40x12=480dollars times that by the number of people going to get the pill which is $480x 2,700,000=$1296000000
$1296000000 just a poor pittance the doctors would loose if all transactions occurred on the internet.. It wasn't health issues it was dollars and that's just in Australia.

If they were to buy over the counter at the chemist how much would the Government save in health costs?
The American market is 300 million half women 150 million etc. Yes just a small pittance......
Its funny that mechanics do mechanical work electricians do electrical work and doctors practice! I would be upset if mechanics electricians and plumbers practiced, but that's the way it is.

Look don't get me wrong there are good doctors out there and there are bad mechanics electricians and plumbers.

Injuries

2011-01-07T19:18:00.000-08:00

I was lucky to be injured in a coal mine and put off due to injuries. I thought my life was over, But how far from the truth was that thought. It was a blessing in disguise. Could you imagine working in water up to your arm pits in an underground cavern or mud up to your knees. I was nearly killed on many occasions and was finally hurt in 1998 and put out to pasture. What a life since then Motor home living, living in three towns and working on the river,camping in the bush in the Australian high country. Then finally moving to the coast and living near the Shoalhaven river, I have been blessed....And then to have this blog and others to keep the mind busy, Yes I am blessed. It is great to here from the comments when they do come, Yes blessed am I.

Sticks holes and balls

2010-11-21T16:19:00.000-08:00

The male of the human species has a thing about these two particular items, Balls and Sticks. They have clubs (sticks) that they join to talk about balls. Some examples of these is Foot ball, Golf , Billiards,Tennis. Tennis is where you belt this ball around an area with a racket (stick), and score points with an opponent, they use terms like love. Golf they belt a ball with a club (stick) and try to sink it into a hole. Just some times they get a hole in one this is the term for a good shot. Then with foot ball they kick the ball to score a try, which is what all men do try to score.
Now the gentleman's game is Billiards and they also hit the ball with a stick called a Que (stick) into a hole. They like different coloured balls and the black being the most rewarding one. People who are not good at these games are called spectators spec being eye (ball) tater being a spud (Potato) shaped like a (ball). Pocket billiards is played by young males and there is no need to go into that any further into that other than say it involves balls and sticks and no hole.
Russian roulette is also played sticks balls and holes and scoring, there is no trys and the result is an unwanted pregnancy.

platypus-australia

2010-10-11T04:27:00.000-07:00

platypus-australia

australian security and intrigue

2010-10-11T03:29:00.000-07:00

Just a follow up on a previous story of the same title, my little joke. The photos in the previous post are of the Wollongong rubbish tip where they spent 37 million dollars to protect rubbish and this is from the council who has as its motto The City Of Innovation. Holey crap there is another job for the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The concrete barriers are protecting a dead end road to nowhere. The poisoned trees were poisoned by the water authority or the national parks and wild life.

Shame on you Julia Gillard and Kristina Kennearly..... Shame on you Wollongong city council.....

Laughable Australian marriages

2010-10-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

So Labor and the Greens are to make homosexual marriages legal.MMMM....Here it is two blokes who share a flat to reduce costs between them. They are on the rock n roll, They now are deemed to be in a defacto relationship. Both have there payments reduced by 200 dollars each because of this deeming. Happens to women as well. This is the rules for straight marriages as well. What a savings for the government.Phuck you Julia,Phuck you bob in you case with a stick.

O for a carbon tax

2010-09-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

The cost is big
the returns are small
the people will pay
til they hit the wall
lies a told by politicians all
as the cost goes up on everything
then you pay down the mall
thoughts a thought is very small
'O' for a carbon tax for all

A special thanks to Julia Gillard for this wonderful tax that will not be saved to be used on climate change issues, But gobbled up by the greedy people for there own issues and to fill the coffers of the bankrupt government.Bankrupt in all areas of the spectrum of government. This money would not be given to the CSIRO,maybe just to close it.

poetry

2010-09-15T00:40:00.000-07:00

When I think I know everything I know nothing
Because I know more now than I did before.

Declaring war on our friends China

2010-09-09T02:18:00.000-07:00

We have a TV channel tcn 9 that has a show called 60 minutes and they have said that China is our enemy. What a load of shit that a TV station can declare who is Australia's enemy. I would like to apologize to China for there inept and treasonous story. Our common enemy is the likes of the major polluters of the planet. These stories are not told and who made the problems Haliberton and Bp . Then there is child abuse. These are the enemy of our societies. There is also the crimes against humanity and people like George Bush who should be bought to justice.

Australian security and intregue

2010-08-31T05:17:00.000-07:00

The above photo shows the security of an unnamed non military public establishment in Australia, The whereabouts of the establishment must remain secret as to the delicate nature of the material inside. The photo was taken to show Australia means business and even the politicians are unaware of its existence and its vital role it plays in the Australian society. Then there is the vehicle traps behind the establishment, miles of them to stop vehicle egress. What an amazing place and the material behind these gates?

Then there is the deceptive signs hundreds of them with there threats to keep people out. Note the dead trees hundreds of them as well. What is it all for?

New material has come to light that there was over a million dollars spent in this establishment in the last couple of years and that there is no accounting for the public tax money!!!!!!

worldwide electricity net work

2010-06-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

Population growth can be curbed with a net work of electricity spreading the globe. With this network comes wealth for all who live with the net work. Global wealth and zero poverty. With wealth and knowledge comes peace and freedom. Country boundaries will disappear and then there will be zero war. If the leaders want to fight they are each given a gun to use or they will have to provide a solution to the problem or they become the problem.
So simple only the ones who want good would apply for the top jobs, it would become status.
How to fund this just take the defense budgets of the war monger countries and companies for a year.
How would it work ALL the power would come from the sun threw wind solar hydro electric wave power and the water currents and geothermal. There would be no burning of fuels or atomic energy to produce the power.

In the good old days

2010-06-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

Years ago I had a friend David Hughes who ran a web site called Crowded Planet.com and he advocated the reduction of the worlds population. He changed his name to Zero Population Growth by deed poll and ran in the political elections of the day. He ended up in jail I think for calling Allan Fells from the AAAC a pseudo professor. He did six years again I think. He did so for a very good reason, it saddens me to see what is happening to the environment all caused by population growth, With population comes competition for all the resources that are left. There is destruction on a wide scale which is sometimes avoidable, I have just been given a pamphlet on the rare and threatened orchid species in the Shoalhaven region. The number is thirteen two of which are considered to be extinct and there is on species down to one thousand plants on three sites. and one is down to three plants in total. And if you know of any let affine@tpg.com.au know and keep it to your self. I told national parks of a colony of Spotted Quoll and what happened? The land owner put the bulldozer threw the land with rippers and destroyed the lot. "Damned if you do damned if you do." this is a quote from me.....If you are out there David drop me a line. Cheers Stewart