Leaderboard

Definitely agree with the good neighbours thing. We're lucky enough to live on 5 acres, 20 minutes from Hobart, and can't see any neighbours from our place. Mind you, we get on really well with our neighbours - about 5 other families we've known over 10 years, our kids caught the same bus to school together, and we still get together a few times a year for parties. If someone needs something they put it on the group chat and usually within 5 minutes someone is offering to help.

The simple, over-riding feature of getting older is that the old body starts playing up, and needs regular repair and maintenance. And if you're 50 or 100 kms from medical care, docs, specialists, even ambulances - life gets a lot harder than it need be. I lived all through the wheatbelt of W.A. and the W.A. Goldfields all my working life, living in everything from rented farmhouses to dongas to caravans, and even old railway fettlers huts. I've never actually owned a house in my own name, I didn't place enough importance on that feature of life - much to my regret. I have no ability to purchase a house today. I part-owned various industrial properties, a mining lease, a farm, and a couple of houses, that I never ever lived in much, because they were largely occupied by my brother and his wife, while I was out in the boonies, working. But when I got together with SWMBO in my early 40's, she owned a house! - and she lets me live in it, and shares it with me - because she loves me, she likes looking after me - and because I fix anything to do with the house, or the car, or whatever else requires attention. We live in the city only about 5 kays from the CBD in a nice leafy, sought-after, quiet suburb - and we're close to 3 shopping centres, a number of major arterial roads, heaps of docs, dentists, medical centres and medical facilities, all within a few kays - and we've been here since 1990, and we don't look like moving until we get really fragile with age, or the bikies move in next door (highly unlikely). I could easily live anywhere in the country again, but SWMBO is a city girl and likes shops and theatres, and being close to where her daughter lives. Generally, most people select their living location according to how far away, or how close, they want to live to relatives (including children). Most parents want to live within a reasonable distance of children, but some don't want them close at all. Not having any children myself, and getting on O.K. with SWMBO's girl and boy from her previous marriage, makes any living area decision, easier. Of course, if we won lotto, we'd move to a nice mansion by the coast, but that's only a dream. I don't think I'd ever move into a high-rise apartment, even though that's the result for people many today - simply because I don't like living above other people, and not knowing what they're getting up to - by way of drugs, starting fires, and other aggravating risks. Good neighbours generally make people stay where they live. No neighbours often suits a lot of people.

My entire point was that the Euro's have been constantly calling the USA warmongers for the past 50 years, but they are always the first ones to call the US President whenever there is a situation in the world that might affect their economies. They have been been neglecting their own militaries knowing that the Americans are stupid enough to keep bailing them out. The Euro's had a royal meltdown when Trump called them out for not keeping their pledge of committing a few percentage points of their GDP to military spending. The EU should be its own power. There are 29 countries in the EU and there is no excuse for them not making a joint effort to protect their economies and sovereignties. The US has done 75% of the heavy lifting in keeping the Persian Gulf open to world trade while Europeans and many other countries reap the benefits. Then the Europeans turn right around and bash Americans to appease their left wing voters. As far as my fellow Americans go, we should not be trusted any longer because there there is no continuity in foreign policy from one election cycle to the next. On top of it all, we are in a non shooting civil war right now. Might sound crazy to some but it's very true. We used to be country first.........but now days we are party first.

I got a black eye from trying to slide on a G-string.

I'm guilty of this myself as a retired Navy guy. A very large percentage of other retired military from my era are of the same mindset. The hostage situation happened during my second year mark. Four years later, I was stationed in Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico when the Marine Barracks blew up. The civilian secretary in my office came in one morning crying because CNN had just broadcasted that the Marine Barracks in Lebanon had just blown up. Her husband was a Lieutenant Navy/Marine Liaison living on the second floor of the barracks at the time. Luckily, he wasn't inside when the explosion occurred, but It took 4 days for the poor lady to find out that he was OK due to the confusion. I lost a good friend on the USS Cole. Engineman 2nd Class Marc I. Nieto He always called me "Dr. Diesel" and was constantly pestering me about technical issues with his gear. Great kid! So yeah, I'm still bitter.

Old German joke: a man goes to a newsstand every day and looks at just the front pages of all the newspapers. The guy behind the stand asks him what he's looking for. "An obituary". "But Herr Mien, obituaries aren't on the front page!" "The one I'm looking for will be.""

Getting rid of Trump would be a massive improvement

Flight Radar 24 is free to use. There is a paid version but I use the free version.

Yeah ... Predicting the death of a 96 year old. Amazing!

Doesn't seem like much of a prophet. He allows himself plenty of wriggle room to adjust his prophesies to match what actually happens.

You like Facts and Truth? Try using them then. Your Idol, Trump, doesn't either. Nev

Typical house and land prices in Perth have gone through the roof. Up around 40-50% in just the last 2-3 years. I was talking to a real estate agent last week. He sold a house near mine for $1.1m about 18 months ago. He said he would list it today at $1.5m. One of my daughters is renting and there’s no way she can afford to buy now. Three years ago she could probably have managed a mortgage but not now. Our other kids are reasonably secure but I worry about her. Once a parent, always a parent!

Probably the same reason I joined ... to provide some opposition to the excessive far-left viewpoints that distort facts and truth.

I think only Noddy and Big Ears would believe the world could happily tick along without major power dominance. Back to what I said earlier, the three choices to be dominated by are Russia, China and the U.S. Every power has it's pros and cons, but I'd still prefer to be under the domination of the U.S. than the other two. The Americans have their faults, but Putin and Xi don't really demonstrate any sort of society I'd like to live under. The Europeans will never get their act together to compete with the top three for power, not in your dreams.

Mrs and I bought in Central Vic 30 years ago, 40 acres. It was good until I got crook and couldn't look after the olive trees and sheep. Now living in "town" with a pub and post office, 20 minutes from the shops. Its good because she likes going to town most days. On my own I would probably starve.

The US and the Shah were quite close. When you look at a map you can easily see the strategic importance of Iran to the US and understand why they've always regretted it's loss to the Islamic regime. Resources aside, the biggest importance is it geographical location and it's boundaries. It controls the straights, acts as a huge buffer zone, shares a boundary with Turkey, a major US ally, and is just across the ditch from several of their Middle East allies. It also shares the Caspian Sea with Russia who has a naval force there, and while the regime runs Iran, Russia has free use of their airspace for launching cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea fleet. That's the path Russian missiles were taking during the Syrian conflict. It's not all about oil.

I had a feeling you're from the US.. And ex-Navy, too.. I know a few ex US Navy people; I worked for a company that was founded by one of them. Best job I had and best company I worked for, by far.

Yes but... As usual, the USA has not proposed any plan, or perthway to a regime change. As usual, the old regime has a sucession plan to continue power. As usual, USA has no plan for what to do next. Just go in all gunz blazing and expect the locals to miraculously unite their mobs and create a whole new system of government. Never worked before, unlikely to now. P.S. With the present state of amazing intel, and amazing precision strike capability, why did they destroy a school full of kids?

Well, if the girl trap is successful, you'll be told what to do. Problem solved!

Trump will fix everything Ha Ha. It would have to be by accident. Nev

I live on the highway that runs to Warren. From my front gate it is about 70 kms away. Warren is on the Macquaie River. Although the Macquarie River doesn't have the deep gouge in the landscape that we associate with a "valley", the rain clouds seem to follow its course and that means it diverts away from my place. I drove into Dubbo yesterday for shopping. Dubbo is about 60 kms south from Gilgandra. As I got to about 20 kms from Dubbo I noticed that the paddocks were greening up. About 25 kms south of Gilgandra there seems to be a boundary between the catchments of the Macquarie and Castlereagh Rivers. This seems to split the path of storms. The radar often shows the storm cells tracking to the south of this divide, so the storms avoid the Castlereagh catchment. Since farming around here involves the growing of winter grain crops, most of the ground cover in summer is just dried standing straw. About the only greenery is the grass at the edge of the road that has been watered by the run off from small storms.

-I've been with AGL for a few years. We got a smart meter at least 6 years ago, way before my wife passed. The meter is read remotely. I can log onto my account, see the current accruing cost and an estimate of what the bill will be in X number of days. These figures are constantly updated. This helps my budgeting. I wish they could do the same with gas.

Dafuq?? Do you really think Trump gives a flying f**k about the welfare of anyone who isn't Donald J Trump? Especially foreigners. Once again the stupid bastard is being led by the nose by Netanyahu, who needs yet another war to keep in power and out of court. Peace prize my arse. The only prize the orange clown deserves is "Worst President Ever", possibly upgraded to "Person who has had the most negative impact on humanity 2016-2020, and 2024 to impeachment"

Good job GON. Even if you only save a small amount, it is good take action and feel that you have some control.

Had a good laugh about the latest American, "shoot 'em up, and ask questions later", mentality. It seems that U.S. Customs and Border control were running a drone looking for illegal immigrants near the Mexican border, and they strayed into a U.S. military area. The Pentagon ordered their latest laser drone-killer into action, to defend against the "military threat", and blasted the Customs drone out of the sky, no questions asked! 😄 Naturally, Customs is furious, and is raging about everyone doing their own thing with no consultation (led by the White House, of course) - and even the FAA is getting dragged into it, with their over-arching control of airspace, and no reference to any other Govt authority. What a typical, complete CF, of American gung-ho adventurism!! https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/26/us/pentagon-shoots-down-cbp-drone

I know that this quote comes from yers ago, but it is a good lead-in to my post. On Wednesday, 91 Octane petrol at my servo was $1.69 per litre. On Thursday it was $1.79 per litre. Today, Friday, it is $2.17 per litre. I don't think thesero got a delivery yesterday from the bulk depot less than a kilometre away. We all expect to be ripped off by the oil companies, but the only reason thedo it this week is because Trump started a war to soothe his ego, or was it to deflect attention from the Epstein files.

Two candidates put themselves up for election and one of them received more votes than the other.

Joining a site like this is like joining any other group of people that have known each other a while. You've got existing cliques, well known stances on various issues, a bit of background on most people, and the occasional mad uncle (you know who you are). The point is, you show a bit of restraint and respect until you're established and part of the group. After 2 days, starting a post with "You're full of it." And ending with "...keep running off at the mouth with a half assed understanding" shows neither respect not restraint.

And thanks to the others too not only really helpful hearing about the different situations and what's working for different people as in relation to to my situation here now , but really interesting to. Been browsing property over a very wide net of a few 100km last few wks just to see if l even have a choice and of what but can say one thing. Not that l think l'd even be able to get finance now prettyyyyy doubtful anyway but l'd sure as hell be needing some to get anything better than here. Prices are madness, too late in the day to be taking those on now can say that for sure.

Another quandry well man, you've come to the right place 🙃. Thanks for the post to Jerry was really interesting. Don't really know anyone in this town as yet bar one bloke across the way met a few wks back. Classic of a guy we get along well but the funniest thing was though found out more about the town with him in 20mins last time than l could in 20yrs living here. Comes in handy ha ha. But l can say one thing so far, relating to all those villages over there for you and the different people, people here do seem very lay back and just have a kinda casual peace about them. Been noticing it a lot so at least that's pretty cool anyway. Well apart from old mate cross the way he's a lively cracker 😀 , good bloke though.

Well they haven't said anything that isn't true. Unlike the prick in the pic

We're lucky here, too. Our first foray into regional life was not the best. We took 12.75 acres between a hamlet and a village. I don't think I ever saw anyone from the hamlet in the 3 years we were there. Through the kids school, we knew and got on well with the patriarchal farming family in the village, but somehow never felt welcome or fit in. So we sold uo to a large farmer from West Sussex who was looking to downgrade in retirement. They lasted the same amount of time and despite putting a lot into the community (they were retired, after all), also felt they were not welcome. As it turns out these small inter-generational farming villages are social fortresses and newbies take a very long time before the are welcomed. Our next move to rural village life was between the village my partner mostly grew up in - a tight knit intergenerational farming village, and where we are now. We visited the village occasionally after we moved here and SWMBO caught up with old friends. We looked at a property there ready made (i.e. not a bit of work needed) and this one, which we are still finishing. I noticed that while those that were left in the village (a lot moved out and visited for festivals and gatherings) were friendly enough, they weren't warm in ther welcomes. They were more interested in catching up to compare lives than rekindling any serious friendships. We selected this village, which although about the same size, is not an intergenerational farming village, and has a good mix of local and newbies. We also knew two families from the kids schools and we got on with them well. The day we moved the furniture in, we were stuffed and had dinner at the village pub. The villagers were warm. welcoming and basically said they are very happy for us to be there and intergrate with the village or live our own lives. We chose the former and it has been an excellent experience. Yep, there is the village politics, which can be downright entertaining, and despite there being some grudges between people, it is generally an excellent vibe. It is also a good mix of young families and retirees. I am in a real quandry. We are getting closer to selling and moving on.. I am not sure I want to sell, as it owuld be good to have a long distance bolt hole. Or, if for some reason, Australia doesn't pan out.

The inmates have been running the asylum since 2016, with a 4 year break

America gives them plenty of reasons to call Death to America. Look at it from their point of view.. Nev

The biggest problem is, typical of American adventurism with their finest military equipment, there appears to be little proper planning for a desirable outcome in operation Epic Fury. It's like losing your temper with something that's not working properly, and hitting it with a hammer. You might feel good about assuaging your frustration in the short term, but the item become completely buggered with the hammering, and it has to be replaced with a new one, simply because you became furious with it, and attacked it without any thought for the outcome. Neither Trump, nor Hegseth, nor any of the MAGA mob running the show, can clearly articulate their long-term plan and satisfactory outcome for Iran. The messages they're sending are confused and confusing. Hegseth says his plan is not to carry out regime change. So, if the attacks are not about regime change, what are they about? Epic Fury is quite likely to become Epic Failure, if Iranian civilian casualties continue to mount, American deaths continue to mount, and world opinion - and especially Middle-Eastern opinion (from those Middle-Eastern countries who are sitting on the fence, or initially U.S.-friendly), turns adverse towards America. The Americans are very good at starting wars with a total lack of vision and planning, as regards the long-term outcome. It appears to me, they just feel the need to "kill a lot Muzzies, 'cos they hate us".

You can be just as lonely renting somewhere else. If everything is pretty good where you are now, apart from the distance to a larger town, maybe it's being on your own too much that's the main problem?

Your sarcasm aside, you are being overly simplistic. The war powers act states that the president is required to inform congress within 48 hours of military action, and he is limited to 60 days without a congressional vote. Congress must vote to declare/fund military actions that go past 60 days. Obama could have been impeached for his 2011 Libya bombing actions by continuing the bombing beyond the 60 day limit. Congress could have cared less.

I saw some footage of one rescued pilot being looked after by Kuwaitis. It said he was in an F-15 but don't know if that was accurate or not. If they are Airforce they would be F-15s, F-18s Marine Corps or Navy. Martin Baker seats in the F-18s, ACES II in the F-15.

I'm no expert, but I think sometimes when it's really hard to decide, it's better to do nothing immediately and see how the thinking is later on. A lot of people sell up and regret it at a later date. I was nearly one of them. In 2021, I was selling up and moving interstate. I was at the stage of dealing with agents and almost ready to list the place when some medical issues came along and changed the whole plan. Now a bit over four years later, I'm still here and there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be, so I'm glad I didn't go through with the original plan. I'll never be rich living here but what it has to offer regarding lifestyle is worth it many times over. On the other side of the coin, a mate of mine sold up that same year and moved to a small country town in NSW and he's as happy as a pig in a poke. He doesn't miss his former home of 40+ years at all.

It's an " ILL wind that Blows nobody any good" But Trump is mostly wind and is definitely Mentally ILL. Nev

This is a bit off topic, but I suppose it's slightly related to a previous discussion we had about noisy Harleys with straight through pipes. A mate received his new Verex slash cut drag pipes in the mail on Friday to fit to his two month old Bonneville Speedmaster. They make them in brushed, polished (bright chrome) and black ceramic finishes. He went for the polished finish as it will fit in with the existing chrome on the bike. I think they will get fitted on Monday. The photos show the drag pipes unpacked and the bike with the standard Triumph mufflers. It will be interesting to hear how loud it is; with the Triumph mufflers it sounds like a sewing machine. It's been a long journey. Me and the mate started out making mud pies and playing with plastic toy soldiers, graduated on to slot cars and now we all have bigger toys. Maybe we'll finish off with wheelchair races in the nursing home.

Wars in the Middle East will never be finished. There is too much long-held tribal hatreds there, that have festered for centuries, and which hatreds they will never let go of. Plus, their "gun culture" puts the U.S. to shame.

He and Netanyahu are more interested in triggering regime change than getting some kind of agreement on nuclear development. In his statement justifying the attack Trump listed all the Iranian attacks on US interests snd personnel going back decades. Putin won’t be happy because he may not get some of the drones he needs.

Trump's mantra is to prevent the Iranians from ever having nuclear weapons. He says they have been given opportunities to come to the table to negotiate but have failed to do so, therefore he is determined to raze their nuclear processing facilities to the ground.

Hmm.. thinking about it, if he succeds and restores a government that is democratic and/or representative of the people, maybe he should get a peace prize. For some debate on the amount killed over a month, it has ranged from the official 3,000 purely civilian population, to up to 30,000: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead That article is a month old; Wikipedia quotes different sources with wildly different estimates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran_massacres So I think 15,000 a month is not unreasonable. To put it in perspective, if it were to continue, it would equal the number of Palestinians claimed to have been killed by Hamas (currently around 76,000) after 2 years in 5 months. Also, there is the veil if not reality that Israel is targeting th emilitary that hide behind its civilians, and Hamass has not yet differentiate the number of cilvilians and mitilarty/terrorist personnel killed. But, for the sake of the argument, let's assume they were all civilians and Hamas doesn't release its military killings. Given most Iranians are Persian and not islamic, and the definition of Genocide (at least according to Google AI is: "Genocide is the deliberate, systematic destruction—or intent to destroy—in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group... " and incl;udes destruction, which is not necessarily killing... would it not seem that the Iranian regime is on that path against anyone who doesn't give the pretence of converted to Islam, or wants their own self-determination? I have no idea of Chump's objectives, but if an unintended consequence is the re-impostiion of a government represntative of the people, preferably democratic, and disollution of state sponsored terrorism, then, well, it does deserve a peace prize, does it not?

The bore water at my place must be very low in minerals. It does not leave crusts on the end of taps and seems to lather satisfactoritly. It may not actually be bore water, but just creek water since the bore is not too far from a major creek.

USA is a Joke in front of the entire world. Choose your Leader wisely next time. IF there IS a Next time. Nev

I do understand your comments Nev, and appreciate them. One thing with this project is that it's about the journey, not the destination. In regard to adding to challenges, I do a lot of that on purpose. It's the challenge of projects that attracts me, not so much the end result. Yes, there's easier way of doing things and if I just wanted the end product I'd go out and buy it and save myself a lot of time. But that's not what this project is about. All good advice from you Nev, and starting off with something good would suit some. In this case, I'm neither starting with something good, nor am I resurrecting a pile of junk. It's a scratch build; I'm building a pile of junk from scratch. That's the basic idea of it at ths stage. It will be a good challenge. I've done a lot of restoration work, but always restoring something to original condition. There's a lot more freedom in this project.