Bridge Repair

The bridge that crosses our creek, and is part of the private road that gives access to the seven properties in our valley, occasionally needs repair.

The planks that form the decking tend to rot out over time and need replacing.

It’s not an easy job.

First the rotting planks need to be removed. They are attached by long spikes.

One of the residents normally uses the front end loader on a tractor to lift them one at a time and place them aside.

The good parts of these planks make excellent seasoned firewood.

A new plank is then lifted into place and the necessary holes drilled.

Then new galvanised bridge spikes are driven through the planks and into the bearers.

And so the process moves across the bridge.

Native Australian hardwood timber species such as Spotted Gum, Ironbark and Blackbutt and other class 1 and 2 timber species of native Australian hardwood timber conform to all the requirements of Australian standards for bridge construction.

All done.

Wine Cork Taint / Removal by Cling Wrap (Saran/Glad)

It’s really annoying to open long-cellared bottle only to find that it’s “corked”.
The term is short for cork-tainted, the chief culprit being a chemical chlorine compound called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), although there are others.
TCA imparts an unpleasant, musty smell and taste.
It can infect cork through a number of pathways.
Cleaning chemicals and disinfectants used in a winery or cork forest are possible causes.
But it’s not always the cork that carries the TCA.
It can be in the staves of a barrel or even the timber in the winery.
A single, tainted barrel can ruin an entire batch if its contents are carelessly blended.

But rumour has it that cling wrap eg. Saran/Glad can come to the rescue.
The idea is that you put cling wrap in the wine by either pouring the wine into a jug and letting it soak with it for a while or push some cling wrap into the bottle.
Nope….doesn’t work!
The Australian Wine Research Institute’s senior oenologist, Adrian Coulter, confirms that cling wrap doesn’t remove cork taint and published scientific work backs this up.
Polythene or polyethylene (PE), the world’s most manufactured plastic, does, in fact, remove cork taint from wine, but it has to be 100 per cent pure, food-grade PE.
Cling wrap contains various polymers other than PE.
Pure food-grade PE can only be obtained from manufacturers and is not generally available to the average Joe.
The best insurance against wine taint is simply buy screw-capped bottles. 

Mud Dauber Wasps and Air Conditioner Units

Mud dauber wasps are a group of solitary insects known for building mud nests. 

Found across Australia in various habitats including urban environments such as around buildings, gardens, woodlands, and wetlands, these wasps play a significant role in controlling populations of harmful pests such as spiders and caterpillars.

One of the most remarkable skills of mud dauber wasps is their nest-building ability.

Females carefully construct nests using mud, hence the name “mud dauber.” The nests are typically composed of several cylindrical chambers stacked together, with each chamber housing a single egg and a paralyzed prey item for the developing larva to feed on. 

The daubers employ a unique technique where they gather mud from moist areas, which they mix with their saliva to create a pliable substance for constructing the nest.

As solitary insects, mud dauber wasps do not form colonies. However, it is not unusual to see multiple nests built by different individuals in close proximity to one another. Male mud daubers often establish territories near these nests, exhibiting territorial behavior to attract females for mating.

We have these nests all over our house, mainly on the brickwork. There’s no real reason to get rid of them. The wasps are not aggressive  and they keep our insect population down.

The only problem we’ve had in the past is their building of nests in our air conditioning units’ drain hoses. Easily fixed by inserting fly screen wire.

A week or so ago, the outdoor unit of one of our split aircons started vibrating quite violently.

We call the service man who began taking it to pieces.

And what did he find?

The mud dauber wasps had made nests on the inside rear cavity of the plastic exhaust fan causing it to be unbalanced.

Who would have thought that?

He didn’t. 

He’s used to snakes, rats and mice causing aircon problems in this area.

Anyway, all fixed.

For great service call Jake at Kings Point Air Conditioning Pty Ltd.

A Weekend Away / Sydney & Central Coast

We decided to have a weekend away, mainly because the co driver wanted to go to a piano concert in Sydney with some friends at the Opera House.

After our last rail travel experience to/from Sydney, we decided to do it again.

We left early Saturday morning for Berry, stopping at Nowra’s Spotlight fabric store on the way. At Berry we were surprised to find out it was their annual 2 day agricultural show over the weekend. And the show ground is adjacent to the station where we were going to park! 

But we were early enough to get a spot on a suburban street a few blocks away. So after a coffee in town, we got the motor rail to Kiama and transferred to the train to Sydney’s Central Station.

There the co driver and I parted ways and I caught another train around 2 hours north to Woy Woy.

It’s scenic trip through rugged bushland and across the very wide Hawkesbury River.

Some of the stations on the way are very small. You have to be on a certain carriage of the train to get off. One was so small you had to go to the rear of the train and tell the guard you wanted to get off there. No one did…going or coming back.

My friend of 55 years was at the station waiting to pick me up and drive me to his relatively new town house.

I hadn’t been there before as he usually visits us.

That night we had a nice bbq steak and two bottles of very good wine over a few hours.

On Sunday after breakfast he took me to his favourite coffee shop and then we walked along the beach front. It was turning out to be a very hot humid day so we continued the ‘tour’ by car. 

It was nice to revisit the area. Hadn’t been there for years. The view over Broken Bay from the lookout was pretty spectacular despite the heat haze.

Then a butterflied leg of lamb on the bbq with more good wine for dinner before a 50 over game of cricket between Australia and the West Indies on TV.

Next morning we had breakfast and another cafe coffee before he dropped me off at the station for my trip back to Sydney.

The co driver had a great time by all reports.

She said the Ludovico concert at the opera house was amazing.

She also attended the Banksy Exhibition at Sydney Town Hall and went to the Elvis Jukebox musical at the beautiful old heritage listed State Theatre.

I met up with her at Central Station and we had lunch at a small cafe nearby which I’d found on Google and which was excellent proving all the reviews correct.

Then we caught to train to Kiama connecting immediately with the motor rail back to Berry to pick up the car for the hour and a bit drive home. Video of return trip here.

A very pleasant long weekend but, as always, good to get home. 

Australia Day 2024

Today commemorates the day a British fleet of 11 sailing ships landed in Sydney Cove in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) in 1788 under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip to establish a penal colony.

It is considered to be the day of the foundation of modern Australia.

But it’s a controversial date.

Many find it difficult to celebrate when the people already living here, for at least 65,000 years, witnessed the start of the dispossession of their land and were subsequently treated in the most appalling ways…..even to this day.

Debate continues on what would be a more suitable and uniting day for the country.

Currently there seems little agreement.

For me it would be the date of the declaration of an Australian republic but that looks to be well into the future.

The co driver and I do not participate in any related activities today.

Some Summer Colour to Welcome 2024

Our minimalist garden has suddenly sprung into life after two months of rain and some summer warmth.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from Australia

             Compliments of the season to all my readers

A Summer Storm

When we saw the radar map we knew we were in for a bit of ‘fun’.

And down it came.

Extended video here.

So that’s another 70mm of rain here over the last 24 hours.

Where are you El Niño?

No, we’re still not complaining.
The Cairns area in north eastern tropical Australia was just recently impacted by cyclone Jasper.

Some places had +1.3m of rain over 7 days. That’s over 50inches.
The flooding has been devastating.

COVID-19 / Our Experience

Both of us had avoided Covid for nearly four years despite two overseas trips in the last two.
We had taken the necessary precautions during and post pandemic and our vaccinations, six, were up to date.
I had come home from the USA in early November with some sort of flu thing.
Regular Covid tests during this period were all negative. I had passed this virus onto the co driver and were both coming out the other end of that not feeling too bad.
So it was a bit of a surprise in early December to suddenly not be feeling well again.
A very sore throat made us suspicious that this was something new.

And Covid RAT tests proved positive.

Where we picked this up who knows.
We don’t go out in public much.
Anyway we were both feeling pretty awful presenting with most of the typical symptoms.

A call to our local medical clinic organised prescriptions, after tele consultations, for the Pfizer antivirals *Paxlovid™ which were duly picked up from our local pharmacy within hours of our initial call.
Here’s where we are glad the Australian socialised medicine scheme kicked into action.
Original cost for the tablets according to the pharmacy details on the package was $A1114.
Our cost $A0.

I had experienced the cost of medical treatment recently in the USA where I needed antibiotics for cellulitis of the foot. Not the best diagnosis for a diabetic.
There was no doubt the service was exceptional but that hour at the local hospital ER cost the equivalent of 30 GP visits here.
Thank goodness for Travel Insurance.
Anyway, we are coming out of the covid phase which was quite unpleasant for the initial few days.
The ongoing problems are sudden onset of fatigue and loss of taste and smell.

How long this will last is anyone’s guess.

Everyone’s experience with that seems to be different.

*How does Paxlovid work in the body?
It's used to treat early COVID-19 infection and help to prevent more severe symptoms. Paxlovid is a combination of 2 medicines called nirmatrelvir and ritonavir. Nirmatrelvir stops the virus from growing and spreading, and ritonavir helps nirmatrelvir from being broken down in your body long enough to do its job.

Our Drought is Over / For Now

Very little rain from April caused dams to begin drying up and our water tanks to empty.

Thankfully being away in the USA for six weeks had helped our situation a little.

But by the last weeks of November we had put ourselves on strict rationing and were making tentative enquires about getting a water delivery if we had to start using our domestic water supply for the cattle.

Even more concerning was that the bush around us had really dried out, especially the understorey, and, with a hotter than normal summer (El Niño) predicted, bushfires were going to be a possibility.

But all that changed on Wednesday.

225mm (9inches) rain fell in just over 24 hours.

Our tanks filled,

Our dams filled.

Our creek flooded.

So we are good to go now until at least January.

More rain is predicted over the next few days.

It’s very soggy and there was a little fence damage but who cares!

Our 2023 USA Visit / Part 7 / Homeward Bound

After six weeks away it was time to head home.

Flight transfers and a couple of hour’s layover each in Denver and San Francisco.

Change of terminal in Denver from one of the furthest B gates to one of the furthest A gates but, hey, we were walk fit by this stage.

Both flights to SFO from Sioux Falls were packed.

I had checked the United App and was surprised to see our flight from SFO to Sydney was virtually empty.

Must be a glitch I thought. That flight is normally pretty full.

What I didn’t realise was there was a flight three hours earlier.

Indeed our flight on a 777-300ER had only around 100 passengers and most of them were ‘upfront’

Our economy section had 10 passengers.

As a result we could stretch out on the four middle seats and sleep a lot of the way during the 14 hour Pacific Ocean crossing.

In between times I watched four movies and read a little.

It was the most comfortable economy flight ever.

How United would economically maintain this scheduling is anyone’s guess.

Maybe it’s freight based.

We arrived in Sydney 45 minutes early.

The pic above is us actually landing. It’s a screen shot from the Sydney Airport Live website.

Immigration is all automated for citizens and ETA holders now and is quick. 

Baggage took a while but it all arrived safely.

We have AirTags in our bags to keep track but United’s tracking system on their App is pretty good as well.

I declared some pistachio nuts I had brought in and all our bags had to go through X-ray at quarantine.

Why? I don’t know but we had plenty of time.

Then we caught three trains back to Nowra where our lovely neighbour was waiting on the platform with coffee and muffins.

It was a bit of a hairy drive south with torrential rain a lot of the way.

Unfortunately that petered out the nearer we got to home.

We are still in drought conditions here. Very little rain while we were away.

Jet lag took over for 4 to 5 days but nothing we couldn’t handle. Going to bed at 7pm and waking up at 2-3 am is the name of the game.

So that was our 2023 trip.

Tentative plans are to do it all again in 2025.

Our 2023 USA Visit / Part 6 / The Black Hills of SD

From Brookings, the I90 west across SD to the Black Hills is a speed track.

There are other more relaxing but, time wise, longer routes eg. State Highway 14 through Huron, the state capital Pierre meeting up with the interstate at Wall for the final leg into Rapid City.

The scenery, basically prairie, is the same.

We had tried this last year but were thwarted by bad weather and diverted to the interstate directly south of the capital.

This time the 14 was enveloped in fog the whole way to Pierre and we saw nothing but the taillights of the cars/trucks in front of us.

Thankfully the capital is home to one of the best steakhouses, The Cattleman’s Club, and again it didn’t disappoint.

Next morning the weather forecast didn’t look good so we (again!) abandoned our Route 14 trip and headed for the interstate.

All was fine for a while, then the temperature dropped to -8°C and our surroundings turned white.

Ice!

And the road became a skating rink. We were down to speed of under 60kmh on a road with a speed limit of 130kmh.

There were county trucks already dumping salt and gravel but on the passing lane only and there were jackknifed transports in the ditches both sides of the road.

Video here.

Was a sweaty back drive to Wall and a relief to have a break, gas up and consume a buffalo burger at Wall Drug.

Then it was another slow careful drive through an icy landscape to our family accommodation at Edelweiss Mountain via Rapid City.

That evening it snowed.

After two days relaxing there we moved onto to Custer via Hill City.

Family had ‘borrowed’ a friend’s nice cabin just out of town and we took the opportunity of exploring the town, visiting Custer State Park (absolutely stunning) and the Mammoth Site (extremely interesting) at Hot Springs.

Tatanka is the Lakota word for bison 

The animal is essential part of their culture.

My YouTube video here.

Being there out of season avoided the crowds but we faced closed businesses and restaurants. Thinking back, this didn’t affect us a whole lot.

Then after a few days it was back along the I90 and across the Missouri in perfect weather to the Sioux Falls area.

A great week away.