Is Electricity an essential service in Australia?

I think the people of Eyre Peninsula SA are now asking ourselves this question after the closure of the Port Augusta power station has seen our region left without enough power!

Regardless of stormy weather, the power has always randomly gone off at our place, even before Pt Augusta closed. But what we are experiencing now is totally different. Long periods without power. Power flicking on and off, yesterday evening ours flicked off and on 6 times in a period of 40 minutes. My oven blew up (mid-Pavlova!), which I can only assume was due to the constant power outages of the previous 24 hours. At least we still HAD power some of the time, the Western Coast of EP had none, and over the Christmas period at that!

Are we expecting too much that our Adelaide based politicians might include our region in their Electricity plans for the state? 

Was there a government analysis undertaken of the ramifications of Pt Augusta closing? Or were the Whetherill government too excited about boasting to their greeny mates about closing another coal power station?

Certainly, the word around EP was Pt Augusta's closure would affect our power supply...... and whadaya know... it has! Go figure!!

So instead of the usual praying for mobile signal, we are now praying for a reliable Electricity supply. Even Afghanistan has 3 hours of electricity per day.

Is it really too much to ask that a region that contributes several billion dollars to this state's economy each year in Agriculture, Aquaculture and Mining, is considered worthy enough to receive a reliable power supply?

Is Electricity an essential service for all Australians? It would appear not to the people of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.

We accept that bad weather can cause interruptions, we've always accepted that. We are always grateful to those technicians that help restore our power as quickly as they can. But this current arrangement is so unacceptable for a first world country and a region that is already isolated from the mainstream of the state.

You can no longer do business or even live on Eyre Peninsula unless you get yourself a generator, you just have to have one. So to all the greenies I say, 'suck it up sunshine', we are churning so much toxic fuel through those suckers it'd make your head spin, so Bravo people, what a great outcome for the ozone layer!!!

I'm not anti renewable's by any means, but what we work towards for the future health of the planet MUST be kept within 'sensible' parameters so as not to ruin our economy and the livelihoods and wellbeing of our communities.

Basically, I don't care who's fault this is, I don't care what is state or federal responsibility, I don't give a shit about the political blame game blah blah, I just want our elected government to get off their arse and fix it!

p.s. the power went off twice while trying to write this post!

Soil Throw with Cross Slot

Canola going in a couple of weeks ago

People often ask about Soil Throw with the Cross Slot.

 

Barley looks good

Our 1st year with a @crossslot seeder bar and we're happy with the result so far.
Its been a crappy season though with flooding in June/July and only 14.5mm over Aug/Sept & about 3mm in late Oct.

 

The Barley still has some greenery to it at this late stage. 

 

 

 

Barley looks quite heavy so fingers crossed it will yield well. 

 

We will finish windrowing our Canola tomorrow. Unfortunately the Canola is not very exciting this year with our odd seasonal factors and the possible presence of Beet Western Yellow Virus. So we are counting on the Barley to bring home the bacon! 

 

We didn't grow Wheat this year due to a Copper deficiency in our soil, but will have another go at it next year. Especially now that we have implemented our liquid trace elements system.

  

Machinery Height - do you actually know how close the Powerlines are?

I did some sums on the safe clearance distance for powerlines in my local area of Eyre Peninsula, SA.

A high number of the powerlines on Eyre Peninsula are attached to the older, shorter 9m poles. (many SWER lines, 19000v)

With areas on Eyre Peninsula getting into temperatures of 45-48 degrees or more at times, the powerlines droop in this extreme heat.

Currently, ETSA do not attend to this type of powerline unless it is drooping below 5.5m in height.

The illustration above is a calculation of our Header height, including tyres, aerials etc.

It shows clearly that we can easily exceed the safe clearance distance, especially in summer when the lines droop in the heat.

I guess the main thing to do is be aware of this scenario, especially when:

• Extending your auger to unload
• Travelling under powerlines with a  full box
• Parking the machine to get out
• And when purchasing new machinery

 It is surprising how close we actually come to this electricity risk. 

      Safe Clearance Distances as per the Electricity Regulations 2012:

Voltage	Clearance distance in all directions (in metres)
Under 11 000 volts	0.6
19 000 volts (SWER)	0.9
33 000 volts	0.9
66 000 volts	1.4
132 000 volts	2.4
275 000 volts	3.2
330 000 volts	4.6
500 000 volts	5.5

Quad Bikes

I've been doing some research into the Crush Protection Device that is now recommended for retrofit to quad bikes.

At first I wondered if the CPD (or Quadbar), would add another level of risk to the rider with this 'thing' sticking up from the back of the bike. 

So I read some more current research papers and looked at footage on YouTube of quad bikes with and without the crush protection device. 

The video footage actually sealed it for me as to the benefit of fitting a quadbar. If you have a look at the links below you will see that the quadbar actually changes the trajectory of the rolling quad bike. Of course, nothing is 'fail safe', but it does change the way in which the bike rolls and at times stops the bike from rolling altogether.

The majority of deaths on quad bikes are from what is called 'mechanical asphyxia': 

• bike rolls onto rider
• bike too heavy to push off
• rider can't breathe
• rider asphyxiates

Although the bar might protrude and 'maybe' add another element of minor injury risk, I think the benefits of the bar far outweigh this.


http://youtu.be/fbHunv6NNxI

http://youtu.be/ECzO_Z-X_mo


This is the website for the quadbar, the guy still runs a property in Queensland, his name is David Robertson. 

http://www.quadbar.com.au

I will now be ordering one for our kids quad bike, grandpa may take a little extra convincing, but we'll have a go!!!

Farmers - Get yourselves a quadbar, they're only $627, they were actually designed by a farmer - nuf said!

Quad Bike Crazy

 

Farm girl pretty in pink on the new quad bike at Christmas time

Farm boy very excited about the bike

Being the safety conscious fuddy duddy that I am, we have RULES that go with the bike! Only laps on a certain circuit, the speed has been significantly 'dialled' back on this bike, helmet, gloves, decent shoes and adult supervision is compulsory and we have hand signals for communication when they can't hear me! I'm also considering a crush protection device, but I'm not sure about them yet, we'll see.

Farm boy in his motorbike kit

 

So the kids got a quad and grandpa got a ride on mower.

No Power, No Shower!

My pet hate when the electricity goes off is the fact I can't have a shower. Our house runs on rain water so without power for the pump, we have to endure the dreaded 'pommy shower'.

After some very active lightening storms early this week, we saw ourselves without electricity for 19 hours. Which was better than the predicted outage time of 25 hours so thank you to those techies who got it fixed.

Due to the almost non-existent mobile phone service here, I dig out 'the old faithful' to keep contact with the outside world. Although, in our closest town, they didn't have power or telephone because the phone lines need repairs and when it rains the land lines don't work properly! Really great when I wanted to contact the primary school where my children were.

We have thought about getting a generator, but really, our power is never out too long and we have a car fridge and thump-er pack to put fridge items in to stop them from spoiling. It's just he shower thing that gets on my wick.


In October we visited some relatives on Glen Station at Cue. They had an impressive power setup with solar panels and battery packs.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Kerry & Morrie Seivwright and would love to have stayed longer. 

Stunning Scenery

I could have sat up here all day with a deckie and a scotch, it was truly beautiful and peaceful. My poor photography skills don't do it justice.

Cattle have replaced sheep due to the wild dog problem

RYAN family decendants

Roo's Loose in the Top Paddock!

Our local primary school recently requested a larger school bus to cater for some extra students.

The bus drivers are a local husband and wife team and do a great job of the bus run, of which, the duration is about 1 hour and 15 minutes ever morning and afternoon.

When they found out what type of bus the Education Department had allocated us, they refused to take delivery of it.

Apparently these buses have a automatic sliding door that will only open when the bus in on level ground!!! Hardly appropriate for rural roads, let alone dirt roads!!!
 

The sliding door also allows dust to get into the bus, so you can imagine what a mess that would make, especially during Harvest when the dirt roads turn to a fine powdery bull dust. Lovely!!!!


 
 
So, to the SA Education Department I would say - "Darling, in case you haven't ventured past Gepps Cross in your lifetime, many country school bus routes are on horse and cart style bitumen or dirt roads. There are no bus shelters to protect passengers from the rain, there is no sign to say 'bus stop', there is no set aside area to protect your polished shoes from the mud in winter, there is no pretty signage spelling out the bus timetable. Perhaps you should get out more before making decisions that are clearly made from a citycentric mind!"

 

  "Off you go now dear, back to the drawing board!"

I'd LOVE a Smartphone! - But, perhaps we'd need mobile phone service first? Do ya think??!!!

The continuing saga of lack of mobile service is an ever present thorn in my side!

At our house on the farm, (most of the time) we can receive text messages if we leave our phones sitting on the window sill of the back room of the house! 

I think maybe the clothesline in the background is acting as an aerial and that's why in this part of the house we have a level of signal. 

I can often hold a call on the mobile if I leave the phone in this window sill and talk to the caller on loudspeaker - hardly professional! 

The old faithful Nokia 6120 is our phone of choice. It's not even a country rated phone but does a much better job than Telstra's 'country rated' bricks!

Both our phones are old and in a derelict state and we need to upgrade - but to what? How on earth do you work out which mobile phone aerial to buy, some are illegal, some are not. Telstra offer one for $700, but if it's only as good as their country rated phones, they can keep it! Whatever you buy, will it even work? Who do you believe when trying to optimise the access your farming business has to digital technology?

Everyone calls the mobile these days, it's just become second nature for 'others', they always bypass the landline supplied and go straight to the mobile number. If we have the mobiles on 'vibrate', when someone calls, they fall out of the window sill onto the floor and immediately lose service (hence the blutack in the photo holding the phone in place!).

I don't like to whinge about what may seem a miniscule issue, but rural people are being left behind in the technology stakes. They are already behind before we even start. Over the 10 years I have lived here on the farm, I have been astounded at the lack of computer skills within my district. In a wealthy country like Australia, it's an absolute tragedy!

We recently swapped from our standard Satellite Internet to the NBN Satellite. While it's quite a bit cheaper and we have more download available to us, overall it's not any quicker than what we had previously! We still get 'rebuffering' when trying to watch Ag Machinery videos on uTube and listening to music on ITunes. Are we being led up the garden path here? Will it be quicker one day? How long will we have to wait?

For a 9 month period last year and early this year, we had trouble with our local landline exchange. We had 17 days over the 9 months where we had no landline, it was up/down/up/down. Some of my neighbours don't get any level of mobile signal so we had to resort to email contact via satellite internet to confer that all our phones were down again! So there I was, speaking to Telstra on loudspeaker in the window sill trying again and again to report the fault, repeating myself each time. 
When I tried to report my neighbours landline numbers that were also out, the Telstra person said "well they'll have to ring and report it themselves'! 
Well lady, they fu**in would if they could!!! 

After screaming like a banshee several times over that 9 month period, Telstra finally enabled their crew's to fix the fault. None of this stress was necessary, but the lack of understanding from Telstra phone operators only exacerbated the situation.

What do I want to see from our governments:

• Bring back the Liberal's Black Spot Program for mobile service
• Enlist the skills and expertise of a company able to communicate with farmers (and other rural folk), to advise and supply aerials and other advice on the best way for that particular family to have optimal access to technology
• Install a rebate for expensive Landline plans for those without access to any mobile service
• Actually start digital education, on mass, in rural/remote areas, not the closest town 2 hours away, localised lessons in layman's language
• Don't waste money on yet 'another study', the need is there in truckloads, accept it, stop procrastinating and do something about it

 Put that in yer pipe and smoke it Kev!

Farm Safety Venture

Have been a busy little beaver lately getting over Christmas, having a beach break from the farm at Venus Bay (was lovely!) and juggling kids and work, both paid and volunteer.

I'm beginning my 2nd year of a Diploma in OH&S via correspondence. Going really well and passing A okay.

I have started my own business assisting farmers to meet their OH&S obligations, or at least some of their obligations!

Farmers are a hard nut to crack when it comes to farm safety but I am only to pleased to work for those who have accepted the inevitable and request my assistance.

It's about finding a 'happy medium', which is not always easy when laws are written by bureaucrats in cushy offices.

Some recent work I've done has involved farmers and their trucks and the obligations they have under the Grain Carriers Code of Practice. I've created a recording system that is easy for them to manage. It's on word and excel so they can easily print it out each year to replenish their truck folders. I've also written them all an individual policy that is similar to one I wrote for our farm when we entered into the NHVAS (National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme)with our farm truck.


Anyway, it's keeping me very busy at the moment and I haven't even gone looking for work yet, it's just fallen in my lap.

                               Mt Camel Beach near Venus Bay

                                    The 'superhero' on his bike!