onetrack

Not sure what he did, rgm - but I would expect he checked all those load-bearing capacities and sizes, and he seems to be a pretty switched-on bloke who understands the loads that sheds have to withstand.

I got some plans drawn up for a shed, using a modified shed frame I already had. I contacted the gent via email, we corresponded via email as regards what I wanted. But I had to sketch out dimensions of what I had, and what I wanted done. Then I had to scan my sketches and email them to him. He then visited me in person to make our acquaintance, and have a general "shed engineering" discussion. He then went home and drew up the plans, and emailed them to me. But then he delivered plans on paper with his signature and company stamp on them - which is what councils require to be supplied to them, when making application for a building permit!

I believe a vast amount of Chinese businesses and sales are supported with Govt largesse, it's all about dominating the manufacturing industry. Just look at their car production, the word is the Chinese Govt spent $350B in automotive manufacturer subsidies to ensure that Chinese cars become dominant around the globe. In most cases, the Chinese purchases are a no-brainer. I wanted a new radiator for my little Cat traxcavator, the genuine Cat radiator was around $7000. It took me ages to find a local radiator repairer who would recondition my radiator - they wanted $5,500 to do the job, and it would take weeks. I got a new radiator off a Chinese supplier, it was $2000 landed at my door. It's a properly made radiator - copper fins, brass tubes, and a stainless steel heat exchanger for transmission oil cooling, located in the bottom tank. It's not an exact copy of the original, the Chinese modified and improved the design.

That's a classic photo of Australian rural mailboxes, Octave. You must have been living "out beyond the Black Stump"? 😄

I don't know if anyone else has much dealings with Amazon, but I don't deal with them much, and now I think I know why. I cancelled my account with them a few years ago due to their scammy behaviour, signing me up to Amazon Prime without asking. So then I started an account with them again in 2023, after I sighted an item that was good value (a Chinese Greenworks 24V Li-ion electric drill - which I bought, and which has been good). Then, earlier in Dec 2025, I wanted a couple of sets of Whitco window friction slides. The Big Green Shed wanted $34 for them, but the seller was offering them on Amazon for $14 - so I bought 2 sets. Paid for them, and received them in late December, and I'm quite happy with them - genuine product, exactly as described. Then today, I get an email from Amazon saying the sale has been cancelled by the seller, and I wasn't charged for it! WTF?? I've got the slides and the money is recorded as being paid? I don't know what's going on here, maybe the seller suddenly realised that price was 5 years old, and they never changed it to keep up with the current price? - so now they're trying to can the deal?? I can't make head nor tail of this. The order record has disappeared from my Amazon account.

Oh, incidentally, the Chinese Year in 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse - also known as the Year of the Golden Horse! I hope that means galloping wealth gain! 😄

Letter delivery services in most civilised countries were obliged to deliver letters at low cost when they started up. It was called the USO - Universal Service Obligation. This started with Britains Penny Post in 1840 and the system developed along similar lines in many other countries. When letter-writing ruled supreme and all documents were on paper, the system worked well. But when the electronic messaging system started to take over from the start of this century, and letter deliveries started dropping in sizeable volumes, the costs of keeping up the USO became unsustainable. The USPS incurred horrendous debts with continuing losses over many years, and they had to up their charges and revamp their delivery system. The problem is the number of older people in particular who can't accept the demise of letters and who aren't computer literate. My 94 yr old neighbour checks his letterbox about 5 times a day, a habit he can't break. He reckons computers are evil, the people with them have all the power, just like the Catholic Church did when he was a child! He said, if you didn't keep in with the priest when he was young, you didn't get a job! So now he reckon computers have taken over from the Catholic Church, because all the information is now held secret from you, on computers! Maybe he's right! 😄

Here's wishing everyone a great year in 2026. I had a good year in 2025, but it ended with a rash of bad news from friends. The wife of a good mate and former employee, has been found to have major breast cancer, and is going to undergo a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction at the end of January. She's about 64 I think, and mate is 67. If that wasn't enough, his sister had a 30 yr old son killed in a car crash on Dec 9th. She had 4 boys. The sad part is, the 30 yr old was getting driven home by a workmate, a 25 yr old woman. The woman must have gone a bit crazy at the wheel, she sped up like a mad thing down a suburban street in Kalgoorlie, lost control on a slight bend and hit a solid tree, tearing her little Honda into 3 pieces. The crash killed them both. Oddly enough, mates sister was always terrified this son was going to kill himself on a big bike, he had two very large and powerful Jap bikes - but he was simply taken out by another idiot driver. Then, I got news another long time former employees wife had a heart attack at 60. So it was a month of bad news, hopefully 2026 will start off a bit brighter. The good news is, myself and SWMBO are doing just fine, and looking forward to a great year.

Good God, that song is absolutely antique! I'd never heard of it before now.

There goes all my Danish penfriends!! 😄

That bolt has already been cracked from overload stress, for an extended period. Plus, the bolt shank corrosion is severe. So, it was bound to break. I have had to deal with more broken bolts and studs, than I've had hot breakfasts. They certainly test you.

A local crop-duster and farmer by the name of Gerald Repacholi pulled that stunt here in W.A. and had his pilots licence suspended. He took off from a moving trailer at Jandakot with a floatplane, after seeing it done in the U.S. Repacholi then became the subject of a CASA programme designed to force him out of the industry, and his fights with CASA are legendary. He went to jail for a couple of years for perjury. He managed to keep flying and crop dusting, but ended up having a serious crash that effectively ended his flying career. He also went bankrupt with his farming operations, expanding in a period, where several bad seasons occurred. See "the evidence of Gerald Repacholi" heading, in the court case in the link below. https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/AATA/2006/578.html?context=1;query=Repacholi;mask_path= https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/wa-pilot-survives-air-crash-and-blaze-ng-ya-336974 Gerald Repacholi died in 2017 at age 70, but his "cowboy" record in aviation still lingers on. I'm fairly sure he died from cancer, possibly initiated by numerous factors in his rough and tumble life. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/gerald-repacholi-obituary?pid=187224835

The HQ Holdens had the fuel filler right in the centre of the back bumper, under the hinged number plate! - so you could pull in anywhere and the hose would reach! I seem to recall some American cars had the fuel filler hidden behind a taillight that swung out.

Multiple hundreds of artesian bores are still uncapped. But the Qld Govt has introduced the Great Artesian Basin and Other Regional Aquifers (GABORA) Water Plan 2017, which requires all artesian stock and domestic bores to have watertight delivery systems by 2032. I cannot believe the mindlessness of so many, so-called intelligent rural people, in leaving thousands of artesian bores uncapped, and wasting billions of litres of precious water, annually. Even more so, I cannot believe that someone hasn't harnessed the massive available heat from the artesian bore water, to produce energy.

Every crow I see is checking out the rubbish! - especially the wrappers around humans food! 😄 But I've yet to see one drop stuff in a bin - the converse is the case, they'll empty bins every chance they get!