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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Printing, Sheds and Slashing

Printing

We have now gone something like eight years without our own printer after our second hand laser died. If we wanted something printed Jean would take it to work to be done. Two years ago she stopped working and we stopped printing. The only thing that we needed to print was a flyer for our contract slashing service which we did at the local Post Office. For two years we have done everything electronically. And we haven't noticed the absence.

I remember when we had access to a printer we would print everything, articles found online, emails you name it. And what did we do with all that paper? File it never to be read again or fold it in half and use the blank back as note paper. What a waste of time and resources.

And I haven't mentioned all the photocopying. Reams of paper copies of recipes and sections of interesting books. What do we do now? Just scan it. And most of the time we can't be bothered plugging in the scanner. Talk about self regulation.

Sheds

Well really shed.

The garden shed that someone didn't want to keep and got me to dismantle has been sitting on a pallet in the hay shed for about 5 years. It was originally going to be carted down to the dam and assembled as a pump shed - one day. Well we have another use for it and I've brought all the pieces up to the workshop for assembly.

Only two problems. First problem all the screws were put in a bag and stored in a safe place. Two attempts and a couple of hours invested in finding this safe place have resulted in nothing. There are plenty of rivets in the workshop so failing laying hands on the screws means a riveting job.

The second problem was after five years it is difficult to remember how it all comes together. After laying out all the panels and fittings some of which had little labels with names like "roof". A rough idea of locations for various parts has been formed.



The next stage will be to finish preparing the site. So far it has been levelled. I'll need to lay down a solid base before assembling the shed.



But a start has been made.

Slashing

The paddock below our entry road where we have recently been whipper snipping has large patches of Blady grass. Having cleared a wide section along the road where no tractor could reach it was time to test out our new tractor on the very steep incline to see how much we could slash and how much would remain for whipper snipping.

Strapped into the seat with 4WD mode on in low gear, 3rd gear up, 1st gear reversing down. It took about two hours of crabbing across the slope to pretty much do the bulk of it. By bulk of it I'm referring to the Blady grass only. I've tried to avoid the other more edible grass leaving it for the cattle. Only a narrow strip remains just below the hand cleared section where there is a rock out crop and a gully section where all the gravity driven loose material has accumulated.




It certainly was dry. Both the tractor and driver were covered in fine vegetation dust. Fire hazard reduction program is another step forward and if we ever get some rain there should be some sweet regrowth for the cattle.

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