willedoo

I've got a few motors to get running so plenty to do. There's a 2H motor, a side valve Howard L motor, a couple of Honda pump motors and a Honda compressor motor to work on as well as this Lister.

Get it off the back of the ute for a start. Then clean it up, put some parts on it and see if it's going to be a motor or a boat anchor. If it's ok, I might put an alternator on it for a backup.

It doesn't seem that long ago that a V8 was $800, but I think it's up around the thousand now.

That's probably a similar rego cost for a four cylinder here in Qld.. All up somewhere in the 800 range; I pay 600 and something with the pension discount. I'd be lot better off if it was a pay per mileage charge as I often only drive on the road once or twice a week, and not very far at that. A tank usually lasts a couple of weeks or three.

Picked up this little air cooled 7.75 hp Lister SR1 today for bugger all. Most of it is there except for the fuel tank, air cleaner, fuel filter and some missing fuel lines. It's the clockwise running version. The 7.75 hp is the rating at full revs, 2,500rpm. At 1,000rpm I think they make 4 or 5. Hopefully it won't take too much to make it a runner. There's a place about 100 klm away that sells unaffordable genuine parts and reasonably priced non genuine parts. Everything is still available for them.

My grandfather used to grow red pontiac potatoes and he would bed them down in straw on the floor of the laundry outbuilding to keep them a long time. That was in a cool climate though. I don't know how he kept the rats away from them. I guess I'm an embarrassment to my Irish ancestors, not being a potato eater.

Grumpy, what's a greenslip?

They talk all the time about the projection of hard power in regard to foreign policy.

onetrack, I'm a bit confused by your post and think you've misunderstood that. By hard power thay are not referring to Europe relying on US energy. The hard power refers to American military power, not America supplying energy. Hard power is a term the Americans use often to describe their military capability and the exercising of it's influence. I think he's saying that Europe relies on American protection but doesn't help finance it or respect it.

Jerry, you dared critisise a Labor government. Go and wash your mouth out.

Idaho is a beautiful state. I know people in Idaho as one of my best mates was from there. He was out here last year visiting and we got to catch up after a lot of years, but sadly he died suddenly three weeks after he went home. When he left here we were discussing his next trip back here in a couple of years time and the possibility of me going over there for a visit in the interim, as I haven't been there since the mid 80's. It's a very scenic place with the mountains and rivers and a nice slow, relaxed lifestyle a bit like we had here several decades ago. Not a big popuation, the capital has only 235,000 people. According to the mate, it hasn't changed much since I was there 40 years ago. His family live on the Snake River; attached is one of his photos of a canyon near their place.

Time will tell. The Victorian election later in the year will be the test of how lasting the swing is. If they do well there it will get the peanut gallery well and truly hyperventilating.

The Liberal Party ended up with five lower house seats so they will retain their opposition status.

One Nation won the recount today on the last undecided lower house seat. The narrow win by less than sixty votes over the Liberal candidate brings their election seat tally to seven; four lower house seats and three upper house seats.

There's only one seat left not officially called, the seat of Narungga which is a very close result between the Liberals and One Nation, formerely held by an independent. Preferences have been distributed and One Nation has won the seat by 77 votes, so the AEC is doing a recount today due to the closeness of the result.

There's some variation in charts. The two that I have saved on my computer both rate stage 1 hypertension as starting at 140/90. Below that, one chart says high normal/prehypertension starts at 130/85 and the other says prehypertension starts at 120/80.

Peter, is your daughter going to be towing with it? I remember a few years back (about 25 years) a couple of blokes I worked for had Ford F-250's. One had an extended chassis, custom dual cab and lazy axle and was used as a supply run truck. The other one was stock standard with a well back like a typical yank pickup truck style. It had the 7 litre diesel with the 6 speed manual transmission, and the owner used it as a combination work ute and personal vehicle. It had a lot of power and when I asked him about fuel consumption he told me he got around 15 mpg whether he was empty or towing a big van, it didn't make any difference. That's about the same mileage I used to get from petrol 4 litre Patrols and Landcruisers back in the day. Those F-250's from twenty years ago look small in comparison to some of the big trucks we see getting around these days.

Good to hear a voice of reason. Some of the comments here are starting to get a bit rabid.

Depends on your viewpoint. From where I see it, the ALP is already spanning centre left to centre right. They can't go any further left without bumping into the Greens, but they've broadened a bit to take up some slack left by the Liberals. Liberal and ALP always did overlap somewhat. Regarding the opinion polls, the SA election showed them to be fairly accurate this time.

Current AEC primary vote percentages statewide for the lower house, four leading parties, are Labor 37.6%, One Nation 22.5%. Liberal 19.4%, Greens 10.0%. Upper house percentages are Labor 36.9%, One Nation 24.3%, Liberal 17.6%, Greens 10.3%. Fairly consistent across both houses.

It will be a big hit to the Grey Nomad economy. The Nomads are parking up at a time when they would normally be starting to get on the move. Also the Easter bookings are way down. Cat and dog boarding kennels have plenty of extra space if you want to book Fido in. They'd normally be booked up this time of year.

The ABC is calling the lower house seat of MacKillop for One Nation, bringing their numbers to three in the lower house. I don't know the details of how they make that call. The candidate is on 51.2%, so maybe he's more votes ahead than there is remaining voters on the roll to be counted. The remaining possible seat for One Nation, Narungga, will go down to the wire. The candidate there at last count was twenty five votes ahead with the postals and absentee votes yet to be counted. Traditionally they would favour the Liberal candidate. The seat was previously held by an independent.

Too many things could go wrong with a system like that. You could end up with a mullet.

Counting in the upper house is still going on but the ABC has only one seat listed as still in doubt, a sitting Labor member likely to be returned. Half the upper house was up for election, eleven seats, and of those, five changed hands.The Liberals lost two, SA Best lost one, Better Community lost one and an Independant lost one. Those who gained new seats were Labor 1, Greens 1 and One Nation 3.

Apart from the two seats where One Nation is slightly ahead, it looks like only another two are undecided. Both Labor/Liberal contests with one likely to Labor and one to the Liberals.