From 2019 I am living a more relaxed life. After 35 years I am retired from engineering practice.
You can expect me to mention retirement projects, travel and of course the beloved.
My hobbies may include nature, camping, repair, and reading.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Tree Removal
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Banned Authors
Monday, August 24, 2020
Nest Boxes
I have built over 40 nest boxes in the past 3 years. They are erected in local environmental areas. Many Australian birds, bats and marsupials need tree hollows to breed and to hide. The local government is very cautious and they remove hollow trees. So the animals must rely on boxes attached to sound trees.
With practice I have become very efficient producing 3 or 4 at a time. The designs are still improving with experience - my early efforts were very attractive to European Honey Bees.
Sunday, August 23, 2020
Sleepers Wake!
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Street Library
Back in June I installed a Street Library at the front of my house.
There is reasonable passing foot traffic with a lots of services nearby schools, buses, a craft brewery, a playground, and a dog park.
I had lots of good books that I wasn't going to read again. A library seemed a good way to send the books out to new readers. It has become self sustaining with others contributing their own books. When I returned from a 5 week holiday the library was full of books and very tidy.
Children's books are popular and are claimed quickly. In my opinion there are too many thick romance and action novels and if I did not cull them they would choke out other interesting books. When I cull the books, they are given to the Lifeline second-hand shop. If I find a religious or a fad diet book it goes into the rubbish - there is no need to spread lies.
Designing and building the library was a challenge. I arranged the shelves to accept the largest books in my own collection. It is designed to resist sun, rain and vermin. I had to reinforce the fence behind to make a proper mounting. The structure is marine ply with 5 coats of polyurethane varnish. The window is shatterproof, UV-proof polycarbonate. The latch is stainless steel.
To find out more refer to https://streetlibrary.org.au/
Friday, August 21, 2020
Holiday Home
This was our home for five weeks. The walls and roof fold to make a trailer. We think of it as a luxury tent.
Garage length - 5200mm
Interior Length - 3615mm
Interior width - 2000mm
Maximum gross mass - 1205kg
To correctly calculate the tyre pressure for a caravan see - https://www.gnschassis.com.au/tyre-pressure-calculator/
Services - water tank, cooktop, microwave, fridge/freezer, hot water, air conditioning, water pump, radio/CD player, 240V socket, outlets, 12V socket outlets, lighting.
Energy sources -
1) 240V 15 amp mains power for everything except cooktop
2) Photovoltaic panel and battery - for water pump, radio/CD player, 240V socket, outlets, 12V socket outlets, lighting
3) LPG (2x4kg) - for cooktop, fridge/freezer, hot water.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Mold or cast
Gas Lighting
Gas lighting was nominated as word of the year yesterday by Mirrium-Webster. When I look it up, the source of the term is nomin...
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I advocate reading the Betoota Advocate - https://www.betootaadvocate.com/ They do it with humour.
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Gas lighting was nominated as word of the year yesterday by Mirrium-Webster. When I look it up, the source of the term is nomin...
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I wrote with a ballpoint pen for many years. My favourite is the Uniball Eye fine (=0.7mm) permanent and waterproof. My favourite colour is ...