farri

Good girls are good, bad girls are better!!! Frank.

That`s terrible! Poor guy. Snake bite is not a joke! Check this out. http://www.whatsnakeisthat.com.au/ Frank. Edit: Not saying you were joking,Nev.

I feel so sorry also! I am so grateful that our children, grandchildren and now our two great granddaughters, to date, have not shown any adverse effects from being immunised, even more grateful, that my wife, Frances and I, don`t have to make that decision anymore. We now have 5 granddaughters and two grandsons who are yet to have families of their own, they may never have children but if the do, our advice will be to immunise. As a child I got Mumps and Measles, I thought that was it, until a couple of years ago, I was diagnosed with Shingles on my face,the doctor asked if I`d had chickenpox as a child, to my knowledge I hadn`t, he said , you have! because Shingles is a virus that remains in the body from chickenpox, fortunately! I received treatment early enough, because I could have been blinded. None of our children have had any of those illnesses and it`s not due to luck! Frank.

We get the world we create. Frank.

Fortunately for us here in Far North Queensland, Cyclone Marcia passed us by as a low pressure system,not so lucky are those in the ST Lawrence/Yepoon area! at the moment, Marcia is a category 4 and could increase to cat 5 which will make it an extremely destructive Cyclone! it is expected to cross the coast in that area. For anyone interested, Marcia can be tracked at the 'Tropical Cyclone Forecast Track Map Page'. http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml Frank.

Thanks Doug. No Woodstock. Fran and I have had plans for next weekend,for a while now. We`ll meet up one of these days. Frank.

O K, I love it. Frank.

Cyclone Ita gone. No big deal for us here at home. The Drifter was securely tied down on the home strip. I took these photos yesterday afternoon. Later I took up one of my neighbors who wanted some photos. Main strip. [ATTACH]47435._xfImport[/ATTACH] Home Strip. [ATTACH]47436._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]47437._xfImport[/ATTACH] Frank.

My rain gauge tells me we`ve had 228 mm since 9 am today and it continues to rain. Ita is now a category 1 system! still strong enough to cause severe damage,especially to the Banana industry. Here at home we`ll get the full force of it overnight, then it`s expected to go back out to sea tomorrow morning, around Innisfail then track south,not far off the coast. The latest tracking map has Ita remaining at category 1 and traveling down as far as Rockhampton. Frank.

Exactly what I think,Doug. Frank.

Thank you Kaz! I love it. All the best to you also. Come to think of it! Can`t be too many old Auster pilots left either. I`ve just checked the latest BOM cyclone tracking map and at this stage Ita will hit Cape Flattery at category 5, then Cooktown at 1 am Saturday as a category 4 . Cyclone Yasi was cat 4 so there will be extreme damage. Once it makes landfall it`s expected to travel south, inland close to the east coast, as a cat 1 then go back out to sea somewhere south of Innisfail and track south parallel to the coast, so like it or not! we`re going to get a good shaking as well as plenty of fresh water. Fran has just told me the predicted rainfall will be aproximately 200mls every 6 hours. Nah! Too much trouble getting up into the seat for a short ass like me. Frank

Yeah! but it doesn`t happen every other day or I wouldn`t be here. Love one! I flew a Drifter on floats many years ago but I have more use for wheels. Short answer is No! End of March is supposed to be the end of cyclone season but there has been cyclones in April before. Nah! Just need to move it to higher ground early enough. Just finished doing that and it`s well secured, just going to get wet for a while. Been raining here heavy this morning but the real rain will come when Ita crosses the coast. There`s going to be some severe flooding in many areas, I`m excepting the main strip to flood and I`ll probably be flooded in for a while but that`s no big problem, I`ve had to deal with that many times in the 40 years we`ve been here. Our granddaughter and her partner Sam live here on the property in the house that was my parents. Alison has a 3 day old baby (second great grandaughter to Fran and I ) They and Fran will be getting of the property and I`m going to stay and mind the fort. Frank.

Hi O K, About 1 meter at the lowest point of the property. The main strip is not the lowest point but this is what happened a few years back when we didn`t take the situation seriously enough! It flooded overnight. Nex day I was able to get the Drifter to higher ground but the owner of the Zenith decided to turn it around and waite for the water to go down. Bad move! It continued to rise and Zenith couldn` be moved. The water peaked about 6 inches above the bottom surface of the wing. The owner wasn`t a bit woried! A couple of new gauges and a good dry out and it was ready to fly again. I flew quite a few hours in it. At the moment, it`s being reported that Cyclone Ita has wind gusts to 300 kph. It looks like it may be the strongest cyclone recorded. [ATTACH]47433._xfImport[/ATTACH] Frank.

Bob,What a good idea! That I will do. Frank.

The link is correct! Cyclone Ita has been upgraded to category 5, with tidal surge of 2 to 3 meters. Even at category 4 it will be as devistating as cyclone Yasi. Cooktown is in for a bad time. We will most likely cop some wind here at Deeral also. At the moment, just a waite and see situation here. Frank.

Bugger!!! Severe tropical cyclone 'Ita' is heading towards the far North Queensland coast. At this stage it`s expected to cross as a category 4, north of Cooktown, on Friday at 10pm....Having lived through many Cyclones, I know it`s still anybodies gues where it will finaly cross but if it crosses over a populated area ( not a lot of the Queensland coast not populated) at catogary 4, it`s going to cause a hell of a lot of damage. The last Cyclone to hit north Queensland was Yasi. It crossed around Mission beach as a category 4 and the result was devastating. At the moment, for us here at home, it`s life as usual and hoping for the best. This link will take you to the latest BOM Cyclone tracking map. http://www.weatherzone.com.au/httpdata_r/images/synoptic/wz_tc_track_qld_640x480.jpg Frank.

There it is Russ! The biger $$$ come in from export to those countries. The fishermen get paid far more to send their catches to those countries than they would get here in Aus! If they were to receive the same prices for their product here the retail price to the public would be such that none or very little product would be sold. Up here in Cairns a kg of local ocean Coral Trout or Red Emperor can cost around $50...You wont get a kg of top quality ocean caught prawns under $30! So why do we import fish and prawns?..Put simply! The imported fish and prawns retail much cheaper than the Aus product. Here`s something to think about! As a recreational reef fisherman, my bag limit is a combined limit of 7 in total of all Coral Trout species... I`m not sure of the exact figures but the catch of live Coral Trout from our Great Barrier Reef, by professional fishermen, is in the thousands of tons per year, the majority of which goes to feed other countries and I have it on good authority that a proportion of the fishing boats are owned by foreign interests. I`m glad to read it isn`t hurting you but I reckon those in SE QLD who received the 400 + mls, that was reported will not be happy. The weather isn`t realy hurting me either excep that it`s been stinking hot again today and it hasn`t cooled of. I got to fly last weekend and this aftnoon I took my mate and neighbor,John, the Ausi Pom, with me. Nice and cool up there! Frank.

G`Day Russ, amazingly! the rain has stoped and the wind is reasonable. I have enough high ground to get off with the Drifter, so I will go for a fly this arvo. Looked at the BOM site this morning and it should be raining. Expecting heavy rain all week but fairly light wind. What a country of extremes we have. An enormous amount of fresh water, that we don`t need, going into the ocean here, while so much of the country is in drought. Is it time to seriously consider taking action? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradfield_Scheme Frank.

G`Day Bob, , looking at my, new, you beaut, electronic rain and temperature gague, it tells me we have 26 degrees outside and 26.3 inside. That`s cool for here. Last Sunday my son Michael turned up here at 4am to get his boat and go reef fishing. Later he told me it was 18 degrees at that time. A couple of weeks ago, Greg from the local boat yard told me there`s been a big crock about 4.5 metres long, sitting on the sand where our property fronts the Mulgrave river. There`s been one in that area for many years, never been a problem, just grown bigger. When Pud and his mates were here, they were camped about 75 metres from the spot. It wasn`t a problem for them! Our crocks are fussy about what they eat.. The day Pud and his friends set camp, I was asked about snakes. I told them, of course there could be snakes but I hadn`t seen one in years. Next morning I went down to see how they were getting on. No crocks! but over night a big snake had come into their camp area. I`m sure the snake would have gone in a different direction had it known what woud happen to it at Puds camp site. Frank.

Unfortunately! A fact of life. South East Queensland has far more violent storms than the Cairns area but our premiums go up accordingly. A couple of months ago I was talking to a guy who lives in the Gordonvale area. He`s well above any flooding that occurs in the local area but his home insurance more than doubled. Fran and I were insured with the same company for 40 years and had only made one small claim in all that time. After Cyclone Yasi, even though we didn`t need to make any claimes, we were refused furthur insurance ( others were also ), we had to find another company who would insure us at much higer poremiums.As I`ve said! "Fact of life." Frank.

Here at Deeral Nth Qld, we measure the rainfall in metres. Yesterday we toped 3 metres, for a total of 79 days this year. It`s raining as I type and there`s a big storm approaching from the south. The forcast is for the rain to continue to the end of this month! of course it won`t be the end of it for this year but fortunately we havn`t had a Cyclone or any major flooding so far, however, the Cyclone season doesn`t end officially until the end of March. The ground is saturated but on the positive side, the temperature is cool and comfortable, the rain keeps everything green and freash and I`m not farming anymore ..... The wind has dropped to a reasonable level so I`ll probably do some flying between showers, over the weekend. How`s the weather affecting you at your place? Frank.

Crap!!! Frank.

This man will set you straight. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/01/18/3672325.htm Frank.

Dazza, Maybe not! I came across this in a motor cycle magazine I was reading today and it said the bikes are custom made to the regulations of the country they are being exported to. Aparrently they are exported all over the place. Frank.

I came across this today! http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/firstrides/122_1111_derringer_cycle_scoot/ Frank.