onetrack

Ahh, but it used to be common to relate surnames to character! My old man did it, it was an old English thing, I believe. "Fox by name, Fox by nature!"

I'm always amazed at the large amounts of salt and spices thrown into food being cooked on TV cooking shows, I only use small amounts. I quite often see recipes calling for a teaspoon of salt, I'd never use more than about 1/4 teaspoon.

It is a REAL problem, when you look at the average middle-aged male in Australia! It's not common to see a fat dedicated cyclist though, most seem to be lean and wiry. But there's a few local blokes who pedal around the local blocks, who definitely look like the above. Got to give them credit for getting out and on their bike, though.

What are you on about?? He's doing an excellent job of holding up that wonky roadside barrier, until the proper repair is put in place! Be respectful! This is a Roads Scholar we're talking about!

The rain is not stopping now in W.A., it just keeps coming, cold front after cold front. It must be making up the average for the 7 month drought we had in Spring and Summer and Autumn. Yesterday, the Northern Wheatbelt got a great rain band that stretched from Geraldton to South of Kellerberrin. It gave most places over 25mm, a real kingmaker for the crops out there. The W.A. grains output forecast is bound to get a big boost with the next monthly report. The forecast for early July was a slightly below average total, it will go to above average now, especially with the next lot of big fronts coming on Wednesday and Thursday. I wouldn't mind betting we'll hit 20M tonnes of grains this season. Late rains (August-Sept) make for a big jump in crop yields. Interestingly, I see where Northern parts of the U.S. grainbelt and Canada are looking at a record crop as well - while the Russian crop is down, due to excessive heat and dryness. https://www.giwa.org.au/wa-crop-reports/2024-season/giwa-crop-report-july-2024/

I thought they would've been oak? Was the oak running out when the house was built?

"Bait-layers!", not "cooks"!

Barack Obama has refused to endorse Kamala, and with good reason, I would suspect. It's reported that he was appalled that Joe appointed her as the Presidential candidate without a shred of consultation with anyone. Obama says the Presidential candidate should have rightfully been selected from a group of nominees, by Democratic Party senior leaders. Joe has effectively thumbed his nose at his Party leaders. I suspect that Obama has strong reservations about Kamala's abilities on the world stage, especially when it comes to walking the tightrope of international relations with many other powerful countries and their leaders. I believe may also have some deep knowledge of Kamala's lack of leadership ability in other important fields as well. And at the end of the day, when has America ever voted in a woman to lead them? - and a "coloured" woman at that? It's too big a jump for many Americans, who still harbour a deep dislike of anyone who isn't from the "Anglo-Saxon founding class of America".

What kind of finish are you putting on those boards, Jerry? We had our some of our boards (Jarrah) polished many years ago, and the blokes used a potent, solvent-based 2-pack sealer, that contained a volatile ingredient, that I'm sure was an isocyanate. They used no breathing protection, and I'm sure they should have. We couldn't sleep in the house the day they finished, we started having wild nightmares, from the fumes! We moved out of the house for 3 days, until the sealer dried, and the fumes were all dissipated! The next lot of boards we polished, we got the sanders to use an organic-base sealer, and we had no trouble with potent solvent fumes! The finish on the organic sealer was just as good as the solvent-based sealer.

Ray Lawler, the playwright who wrote "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" in 1953 has died at age 103! Ray Lawler was the former artistic director of the Melbourne Theatre Company, and a renowned playwright. He was awarded an OBE in 1980 and an OA in 2023. Just squeaking in an OA at age 102 must be some kind of record! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-28/playwright-ray-lawler-dies-aged-103/104152548

He's playing the BS accordion, it only produces hot air.

That's a good name for some Parliaments!

I've been struck by a flying chip of steel dislodged from a hammer head. It was the equivalent of taking a bullet. It went straight through my chest wall, bounced off a rib and lodged against the wall of my lung. I only felt a light level of pain - but the blood squirting out of my chest in spurts in front of me, from a severed artery, was a good indication I was injured! I managed to stop the blood spurting with pressure - but a short while later, the swelling created by the bruising in my chest region started to make it painful to breathe, and I was gasping with short breaths. Luckily, my brother was with me and he drove me to hospital, some 40kms away. I must've really alarmed him, laying back in the corner of the cabin, taking gasping breaths! Of course, I had to ask, "can't you go any faster?" - and his reply was, "I'm sitting on 160kmh", I've got nothing left!" 😮 We got to the hospital and not long after arrival, the swelling started to subside and the breathing became easier. They sent me to another hospital about 135kms away to get an X-ray, because the small hospital we initially went to, had no X-ray facilities. They did the X-ray and kept me in overnight for observation. The next day, the doc came around and said, "You're one lucky bloke, a little bit either way and you'd be dead". "The steel chip is lodged against your lung wall and will have to stay there, because it's the equivalent of open-heart surgery to remove it! It will almost certainly pose no major problem, because the body will build some scar tissue around it, and that will likely prevent any movement of it". He was right in one respect, it's been there over 50 years and it has never affected me. But when I got an ultrasound recently, they told me there was no scar tissue buildup around it, it was just sitting there. I can't have an MRI because they're afraid the strong magnetism will pull the steel chip through the wall of my lung.

Yes, the soils are pretty marginal and so is the rain - but they take every opportunity to use every drop of moisture and use every trick in the book to keep the soil productive. Alkalinity and thin topsoil are the main problems there. In the heavy clay country (mostly the flats) where the big trees grow (or grew), soil packing is their enemy - and in the lighter scrubby soils, it used to be trace element deficiency, which meant crops were extremely poor when the country was first cleared and they weren't aware of the extent of the problem. The old timers just regarded the "light country" as useless and avoided clearing it. But it took a clever W.A. University researcher and a few wise farmers to figure out that the lighter sandy soils were deficient in trace elements, which made the crops unable to take up nutrients. Once trace elements were applied to the light soils (it only took small amounts), the lighter soils produced cropping yields on a par with the heavy soils. https://www.science.org.au/fellowship/fellows/biographical-memoirs/eric-john-underwood-1905-1980

Joes lost it, his age deterioration has started, and there's no going back. I wouldn't be in the least surprised to see him diagnosed shortly with some disease that is affecting his mental acuity.

I'm thoroughly sick of the chilli fad that has started to pervade nearly every item of cooked food you buy. I can understand people wanting to hide the flavour of something pretty ordinary with a dose of chilli - but to use chilli to flavour everything, including tasty fish types, is idiocy. All chilli does, is overwhelm the original taste, and I'm sure the Mexicans added it to all their food simply because they've no idea of what spices are supposed to do to food - enhance the flavour. Then the Americans, whose food tastes are abominable, have taken chilli to extremes, and overwhelmed our cooking offerings and styles with it. I can handle a tiny amount of chilli, but SWMBO can't have any at all (along with all the nightshade family plants), because chilli makes her arthritis flare up to unbearable pain levels. I've made my own curry powder that doesn't contain chilli, and it was a very nice curry, and SWMBO could eat it without painful results. Time after time, we've asked the waitperson if a particular dish contains chilli, and they say, "Oh no, no chilli in it!" - and as soon as we order it, we find it's laced with chilli - either via curry powder or some other added sauce that contains chilli!!

Well, things must be a bit slow in the Northern Wheatbelt of W.A. - because a couple of blokes in the tiny town of Wyalkatchem (Wy-al-katch-em) have built a beer can boat out of 8,500 beer cans - and built it specifically to take part in the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the Darwin Lions, Beer can Regatta! To do so, they have to transport the boat 3,700kms overland to Darwin! 😮 I trust they have a lot of cushioning sorted out to sit the boat on, on it's trailer - because 3,700kms of roads is surely going to test the strength of those beercans!! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-24/darwin-beer-can-regatta-ss-wyalkatchem-boat-wa/104102708

Yep - and now it sits at Liverpools John Lennon Airport! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Submarine_(sculpture)#:~:text=It was retired from public,we have the Yellow Submarine'.

Sandy Posey, the singer, has passed away at age 80. She had been suffering from dementia for at least 7 years. Her hits included "Born a Woman", "What a Woman in Love Won't Do", "Single Girl", "Bring Him Home Safely to Me", and "I Take it Back". https://www.tmz.com/2024/07/22/sandy-posey-dead-dies-single-girl-singer-dementia-battle/

Fixing windmills is a dying art today, and parts are no longer available for many models. Solar pumps have been killing the windmills off. Plus, hanging off a tiny platform 6, 8 or 10 metres off the ground, whilst trying to repair windmill components, is not a lot of fun, especially as you get older.

The bottom line with American elections is the result is based almost entirely on how many people actually vote. When the candidates are pretty ordinary, the % of voters who actually turn out to vote, reaches new lows.

I can only recall Stamina trousers collectable cards - Men of Stamina! - heroes in various fields, that we were supposed to worship! https://www.carters.com.au/index.cfm/index/5836-stamina-clothes-trading-cards/

She won't cut it as Presidential material, I'm telling you now - even though she might have been a reasonably successful prosecutor. Good prosecutors are not necessarily premium Presidential material. We've had some pretty deadbeat prosecutors here, and no doubt, a lot more of them in the U.S. Lloyd Rayney comes to mind here, he's a total scumbag, lower than a snakes belly. Joe selected Harris as VP, because he saw it as vitally important to have a "coloured" VP - and he brags about him being the only President who has selected a female VP of colour.

We got a hiding, just for talking in class!! Two cuts of the cane! Extreme provocation, such as indulging in something smutty, got you six cuts of the cane! The teachers of the 1950's were nothing short of child abusers! I cannot remember a period of any more than a couple days in primary school, where I wasn't being caned!

I don't recall threepenny chocolates, and I never knew Nestle Sky Cards existed. I do recall threepenny icecream cones, but they went out of existence not long after I started school (1955). The basic icecream cone then cost sixpence, a right bloody fortune!! I only got two shillings a week pocket money, and I don't think I started getting pocket money until I was about 9 or 10.