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!

Harvest is underway

Well I haven't 'flogged the blog' for a long time! It has been severely neglected over the past 2 years. Basically, the internet was so slow I just lost interest, it was too hard!

The new NBN satellite is much quicker, not perfect and still not enough download for what we want to spend, but still, things are better.

Harvest is cruising along, it took ages to get going due to spring rains that left the crop green and not ready for reaping at the usual time- which is a good complaint!

Wheat in pictures below is still to be harvested but we'll get there!

So our input costs are more than last year, but the price we get for our grain this year is significantly less than the prices over the past few years. 

It's quite disheartening when you have some good yielding crops for a change, but the price is such that our gross income will be down due to world grain prices. #farmers are #gamblers

Cross Slot Conference 2015

#crossslot #epag Almost 2 months since the 2015 Cross Slot Farm Tour and I haven't 'flogged my blog' with the photos from the tour on Eyre Peninsula.

It was an interesting, informative event and hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone, thanks for visiting this part of the world Cross Slot owners. We'll see you in the UK next year with any luck!

Modra Seeds, Ungarra

 

Lunch at local Clubs - this one is the Ungarra Sports Club

 

At our place, Garry talking about our liquid setup

Tuna Steak cook off at the Boston Bay Winery, Port Lincoln

Visiting Bruce Morgan, Board member of SANTFA

Scott & Cassie Siviour's place at Wangary

Farewell Dinner at Port Lincoln Hotel, Me with John Baker

The Kiwi's love the Karaoke!!!

Spreading

Once the Canola is sown, we set about spreading snail bait to try and keep on top of the little critters.

It's a pretty basic operation, pour the snail bait pellets into the little spreader bucket and drive around. It spins and spreads them out over the ground.

 

Hopefully the little buggers come across a pellet of bait and eat it. Apparently they are not exactly attracted to the bait, they just randomly come across it and chew!

 

 

Little green pellets are snail bait 

Soil Throw with Cross Slot

Canola going in a couple of weeks ago

People often ask about Soil Throw with the Cross Slot.

 

Baines Brothers of Eyre Peninsula #epag

Sadly we lost our first Baines brother on Saturday, Ivan.

Ivan was the 2nd eldest of the 5 boys who are the children of Herbert Baines and Stella Glover, Yeelanna.

A hard working family, Ivan's father, Herbert, came to Eyre Peninsula at age 16 from York, England in 1922 as part of the Barwell Boys Farm Apprentices scheme. He undertook a 3 year apprenticeship with Amos Skipworth of Yeelanna.

In 1927, Herbert bought Section 33, Hundred of Shannon which is still farmed today by 2 of his sons and their families.

Over the years, Herbert, Stella and their 5 boys all worked together to buy a farming property for each brother in their own right.  1 son at Ungarra, 2 sons at Lock and the younger 2 of the 5 remained on and around Section 33 near Karkoo.

Late last year I asked them to sit for a group photo. They automatically sat in order of age, I didn't realise until after I'd taken the shots.

All into their 70's now, they are all still actively involved with farming.

So it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Ivan who was always the life of the party. A jovial, active man who loved nothing better than travelling back up to Lock to help his son, who now runs the farm. 

I will miss him dearly, his banter at the dinner table and stories of their adventures as 5 rascally farm boys. Their poor mother, what a handful they would have been, but she did an amazing job raising 5 hard working, resilient sons who I am privileged to know.

RIP dear Ivan. xxx

Old Smokey

Our old bulldozer is worth its weight in Gold. 

Although it is possibly contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer, its hard to calculate the number of dollars we have saved by doing the job ourselves.

 This is hubby leveling the pad for our new 80x80 machinery shed

 

The bulldozer was purchased for a pittance after it was retired from dredging out a new marina on Eyre Peninsula.

Shed pad ready for shed

Its also good for knocking down scrubber pine trees

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!

Waterlogged Barley

Water damaged Barley crop seems to be ticking along nicely now with a bit of sunshine over the last 2 days.

Bald patches where water sat

Natural water course that I had never seen so full, some seed did survive the flooding and has come up

There are several bald patches across the farm like this