Crikey it’s wet

[pmccarthy]

We used to go fishing in an old steel flood boat. My dad would gun the outboard and jump it over logs that had fallen across the creek. Then muggins would have to change a shear pin on the prop.

[nomadpete]

There used to be a couple of flood boats sitting in the scrub out along where the highway crosses the Cooper in west Qld.

It looked so incongruous to see these rusting rivetted iron vessels just sitting in bushland hundreds of miles from water. I guess those boats are now sitting in some small town museum. Since then I have seen the Cooper when it is running, and it can be 30k wide.

[spacesailor]

I should sell my tinny ! , comes with two 9.9 hp mercury outboards. One for spares

dehavilland 12 footer.

But whats it worth ? .

spacesailor

[onetrack]

Spacey - A lot more than normal, right at present! Put her up for sale, it'll sell in a few days! The only problem might be, the buyer will want it delivered!  

[willedoo]

10 hours ago, nomadpete said:

There used to be a couple of flood boats sitting in the scrub out along where the highway crosses the Cooper in west Qld.

It looked so incongruous to see these rusting rivetted iron vessels just sitting in bushland hundreds of miles from water. I guess those boats are now sitting in some small town museum. Since then I have seen the Cooper when it is running, and it can be 30k wide.

The biggest pig I ever saw walked out of the lignum in the Cooper. It was a monster. It's hard to believe pigs could grow that big. I wouldn't want to be on foot and come face to face with a cranky one.

[facthunter]

I wouldn't have thought CLIVE could walk that far.  Nev

[Marty_d]

On 20/10/2022 at 10:21 AM, facthunter said:

I wouldn't have thought CLIVE could walk that far.  Nev

He didn't say it was a bore - sorry, boar - could've been Gina.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Picked this up of an instascam feed:

[willedoo]

Had a big system come through from the west last night. On the radar it looked like being an inch or two of rain but ended up being only 15mm. Brings it up to 2055mm (81") for the year so far.

[old man emu]

It has been just on a year now that this Big Wet has been dominating our lives. Leaving aside those of us who have actually had to deal personally with flooding, I wonder how living under cloudy skies day after day, month after month is affecting the mental health of the Nation.

 

I woke up about an hour ago and I could see the Sun rising. So I decided to do my laundry. Now the clouds are rolling in again. The load of washing just finished and I wonder if I should put it out to dry, or will have to use the drier.

 

Edited 5 minutes later:

Stuff it. I'll put the clothes in the drier and get the added benefit of the heat from the drier making the house a bit warmer.

[facthunter]

Good thinking but the sunshine sterilises your clothes as well when you can. Nev

[old man emu]

Where does all the fluff in the drier filter come from? 

 

We can accept a "Happy Stamp" for being environmentally friendly in Australia when it comes to drying our washing. We are the greated users of solar power for drying in the world.  Imagine the amount of electricity is used in the Northern Hemisphere for drying clothes becasue they don't have the atmospheric heat and low humidity, nor the space for a Hills Hoist.

[nomadpete]

5 hours ago, old man emu said:

living under cloudy skies day after day, month after month is affecting the mental health of the Nation.

It sure does affect people.

Down in these higher latitudes, some winters bring months of depressing grey, sunless skies and weeks of constant damp fog. Shoes and walls go mouldy and the population goes stir crazy. (or is it cabin fever from being cooped inside for so long?)

 

You mainlanders wouldn't understand unless you've done time in solitary.

[onetrack]

It's got a medical name - S.A.D. - Seasonal Affective Disorder. A lack of sunshine means low Vitamin D levels, and this leads to depression.

 

A mate told me when he was in hospital in Albany W.A. in 2017, the doc said to him that most people in the higher latitudes (and that included Albany (at 35° S) have low levels of Vitamin D, and they really need Vitamin D supplements.

 

I always try to ensure we go North for a month during the middle of Winter. It makes the Southern Winter more bearable. Unfortunately, we haven't done this for 3 years in a row, thanks to COVID restrictions and concerns. I got a bit fed up with this last long wet Winter. It's only just seemed like Spring is here in the last couple of days.

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by onetrack

[Old Koreelah]

Crickey, are you blokes being fair dinkum about Vitamin D deficiency?

Surely we paleskins get enough in this continent.

 

When our recent ancestors moved to higher latitudes they had to adapt:

 

[facthunter]

Older people have more issues with Vitamin D deficiency. A holiday doesn't do much. We cover up too much.  Dark people moving to high latitudes can have a lot of problems with it. Nev

[Marty_d]

Not great for MS sufferers either.  My wife's been advised to take vitamin D during winter down here, and we give it to the kids too.

[red750]

Remember the old GMC DUKW amphibious vehicles the army had? (Colloquially called Army Ducks) They were used in the Deni flood in 1956, and one visited the high school for the kids to see.

 

[nomadpete]

LARC's are still around. I saw these recently at the marina.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by nomadpete

[old man emu]

DUKW is a manufacturer's code based on D indicating the model year, 1942; U referring to the body style, utility (amphibious); K for all-wheel drive; and W for dual rear axles. The vehicle was designed by a partnership  of Sparkman & Stephens, naval architects and General Motors Corporation (GMC). Australia received 535 under Lend-Lease and kept them for years.

http://www.defence.gov.au/dmo/news/ontarget/nov06/rw.cfm

 

In June 2013 a World War 2 vintage amphibious passenger carrying vehicle, the DUKW Wacker Quacker 1, foundered in Salthouse Dock, Liverpool 

 

 

On 29th September 2013 there was an unfortunate incident on one of our DUKWs, featuring a fire on board the vehicle.   

 

https://www.gov.uk/maib-reports/sinking-and-abandonment-of-dukw-amphibious-passenger-vehicle-wacker-quacker-1-in-salthouse-dock-liverpool-england-and-fire-and-abandonment-of-dukw-amphibious-passenger-vehicle-cleopatra-on-the-river-thames-england

[facthunter]

I used to work onthe GMC 6X6 based ones. The salt water plays hell with  everything especially the brakes.The ARMY drowned  a few soldiers off Stockton  in the 50's my mates brother being one of them. Useless in the surf. Nev

[onetrack]

The DUKW's were built for WW2 utilising the entire drivetrain of the GMC CCKW model six-wheel-drive military truck - the designers just added a watertight hull and a prop.

As Nev says, salt water destroys anything submerged in it, that's not stainless steel - so the original DUKW drivetrain, which was never designed for salt water submersion, needed vast amounts of maintenance.

 

But the LARC was built in the 1950's as a specifically amphibious vehicle, and as a result is more durable. In fact, many LARC's survive to this day in good order - and the U.S. military rebuilt many LARC's in the early 2000's to extend their working life.

The rebuild consisted of replacing the original 300HP Cummins V8 diesel with a turbocharged John Deere engine, and replacing the original transmission with a hydraulic constant engine speed design.

[willedoo]

3 hours ago, old man emu said:

DUKW is a manufacturer's code based on D indicating the model year, 1942; U referring to the body style, utility (amphibious); K for all-wheel drive; and W for dual rear axles.

I always get a big kick out of military designations and acronyms. I looked up LARC and it's Lighter, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo.

 

Then you have other nicknames that have derived from the designation. As far as I know the Huey helicopter name comes from the phonetic pronunciation of the designation UH-1H.  U.S. Air Force helmets (the same ones we use) are prefixed HGU, which I think is Head Gear Universal. Their U.S. Navy counterparts were APH for Aircrew Protection Helmet. Someone could correct me if I'm wrong, but the helicopter helmets like the SPH-3, SPH-4 etc. are Sound Protection Helmet. I recon you could fill a huge book with military acronyms.

[old man emu]

You know it's pretty wet when the frogs start coming inside out of the rain.

[nomadpete]

54 minutes ago, old man emu said:

You know it's pretty wet when the frogs start coming inside out of the rain.

In a wet when you'd bog a duck!