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!

Aussie Harvest Video by Charlie, aged 14

Anna Binna Pty Ltd 2013 Harvest: http://youtu.be/5R5W8LtRgIs

Great video of Harvest near Ardrossan on Yorke Peninsula, South Australia, well done Charlie, great footage.

Tap Water Tastes Like Crap!

***Bring back rainwater in schools*** 

I'm really pissed off (polite version) that SA schools are now banned from drinking rain water! I've never heard of anything so ridiculous in all my life!

Fact - Tap water takes like shit!

Our local school have recently sent this note home in the school newsletter:


Drinking Water—In line with all DECD schools we have now had our rainwater taps switched to mains water. It might be a good idea to pack your child an extra water bottle filled with water from home, as many of the children will not drink mains water.

What are the Dept of Education thinking, this is absolute rubbish! Our whole house runs on rain water, we drink it, we shower in it, we cook with it, the only thing we don't do it s**t in it.

I am formally rejecting this ruling and will be supplying MY CHILDREN (please note 'my children') with extra rainwater filled, clear coloured, healthy bottles of rain water for school.

p.s. sorry about the 'potty mouth', but at least you can tell how angry I am!

 
 

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.

Harvest is draggin' the chain!

OMG! We are still reaping Barley and we won't finish until a couple of days after New Years.

You would think this is a good complaint; that we have a huge crop; but no, it's just an average crop but we've had several weather interruptions.

Thunder storms this year have meant several breaks of several days to a week where we couldn't reap. When you deliver grain to the silo's, it must be a certain moisture level (which varies for each grain/legume), so when we have rain, we can't reap the crop until it's dry enough.

Our Barley yield this harvest has been very good, but the quality of the grain has not, we've been delivering Feed 2 and Feed 3 (F2 & F3), but the price hasn't been much lower than the Feed 1 grade, so it's not all bad.

Dust coming up over the hill. This is how I know where hubby is working, from the dust

Windrowed Barley on the ground takes longer to dry out after rain than standing crop

 Header box is almost full, you can see the gold coloured grain up on top

Always make sure you stand on the right side of the wind, otherwise you will be covered in grain dust, which is quite itchy, especially Buloke Barley - that's some itchy shit!!!

The 'pick up' is attached to the front of the header. It's like a conveyor belt that picks up the rows of Barley and feeds them into the header.

 If you look closely, you'll see 'Farmer 5' in the cab with Dad

 'Farmer 5' learning his '3 points of contact' while disembarking

 'Farmer 5' has had enough for today, lunchbox is empty too

Hubby nearly stepped on this snake when he got out of the header. Luckily Farmer 5 was not there then. It swiftly met with a shovel and went to greener pastures.

Apparently Tourists Are More Important Than Farmers!

We recently had a wonderful family holiday to Western Australia, it was great. But I couldn't help noticing that while we were doing the 'tourist/rubber neck' thing, that mobile phone coverage was - well - pretty darn good!

 

So this is our view crossing the Nullarbor. It's a beautiful place, not barren nothingness like some people waffle on about.

While crossing the Nullarbor my trusty Nokia 6120 had FULL mobile coverage! Go figure!!!

And the majority of the southern areas of WA also had good mobile coverage, it was great, I didn't know myself. We even had quick internet courtesy of a prepaid dongle thingy and the great mobile service.

Trouble is - now I really know what some of us are missing out on!

I came to the conclusion that tourists are obviously more important to Australian society than farmers.

So I looked up some stats:

Tourism is 5.3% of Australia's GDP

Agriculture contributes 3% of Australia's GDP

While there is not a great deal of difference in these figures, there seems to be a huge gap in the equity of services delivered and sustained in rural areas, especially those that don't attract the tourist dollar.

Bit of a Novelty

We've had another 23mm of rain over the last week or so which has been great for our crops. Prior to that we had received about 22mm over the end of May, beginning of June.

As we are broadacre dryland croppers, we don't irrigate in any way, we have to rely on mother nature to water and grow our crops.

With the extra rain comes puddles. And man does the farm boy love puddles!