Trumped my king

Don't get me wrong - I think that it is awful that people lost their lives, homes, relatives, friends, pets, livestock et al in the terrible fires of this month. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

But we are running out of water. We've had the driest start to the year since Adam was a boy. Cattle prices have tanked. And noone gives a shit - 0thers have a better claim. Instead, we get whiney articles in The Age worrying about the fact that cattle fart. Let me tell you, move over to living on mung beans and cattle farts will be the least of their worries.

I read somewhere that the smoke currently hanging around is bad for you. Well, shit - what are we meant to do? Apparently, Melbourne is really worried. Who worried when the north east had 3 months of smoke in the 06/07 fires? There were times when visibility at home was 50m or less.

And lessons learnt? None - everyone was just lucky that the north-east fires in 06/07 didn't coincide with a bad north wind. You would have seen the same death tolls then. Instead, we still build houses in forest areas. Any council with half an ounce of legal sense would not issue a building permit for anyone with forest within 2 km of their planned back door.

I've concluded that the complaints about lack of burning off are misguided. I am sure that in the pre-white (and probably pre-human) times in Australia, there were wildfires (and obviously, no "controlled burns".) However, the fires that started on february 7th were effectively lit by humans. (Electrical fault is suggest for kilmore. Firebug/thrown cigarette butt for Murrindindi. Cigarette for Bendigo.) None were from lightning strikes. Really, we're all too cheap (lack of maintenance on power lines) and stupid (cigarettes) to be allowed out on fire risk days. The fires wouldn't have started in pre-human times, and hence fuel-reduction burns are only useful to protect us from ourselves.

Fires & weather

Hottest day yet. Stepping outside was like stepping into a fan-forced oven. Can't wait for the end of summer.

The fire situation is just awful. We're sort of safe, but the pissy change that came through is now pointing one of the major fires our way. (A few towns and kilometers to get through first though.)

Perhaps this, the 3rd serious fire season in 7 years might finally bully the government into doing something about things. Remember recently the case where a local council said "no you can't build on a block because of sea rises related to global warming"? Well, I reckon the councils should be considering saying "you can't build in the bush because of the risk of global-warming related wildfires."

Its a tragedy that people have lost their lives, that homes have been burnt and livestock and pets killed. But in some cases, they shouldn't have homes in the forest. I don't. Deliberately.

(It also appears some of the fires may be deliberately lit. Its depressing. Flogging is too good for the sort of scum who light a bushfire - especially on a day like today. I am sure they are mentally ill - nobody in their right mind would do it. But they need to be punished as well as stopped from ever doing it again.)

Do they think we are morons?

Watching the news tonight, there were comments about Melbourne's transport and power issues - how the current exceptional heat wave is causing widespread disruption. Some idiot commented that "we are unwilling to pay the cost" of setting up system that runs. So....

Last year and the year before, people were saying that the state power infrastructure has not kept pace with the growth of the state. Hey presto, this year it fails and "they" say ""Oh, we didn't know". Bollocks. Too damn macho keen on keeping the budget positive and bugger trying to actually develop the state.

Furthermore, what about the wonders of privatisation? Perhaps if we didn't take 5% out of the power companies as dividends to the private investors, but instead had kept it in public hands and reinvested the money in infrastructure, we would not be in the shit.

They are also saying that "the rails are buckling with the heat because of the wooden sleepers". Are they suych a new invention? What happened 100 years ago when the only choice was wooden sleepers? What about the Indian Pacific railway through the nullarbor? This was originally built on wooden sleepers, and regularly gets days over 40C. Argghh....

It was 40 again today, and projected 43 with north winds. Bad fire day. I think it is just a drought, but I wish the world would get its shit together on global warming and try to do something.

Monday - back to work

Not as hot (35c). It rained - 1mm - so then was humid. (I sometimes think this area will develop into the central victorian desert - rain north, rain south, but none here.)

I work off farm to help pay the way through drought. The off-farm work is with a local pump and irrigation supplier. Unfortunately, I have to deal with people with weekend holiday properties - "Oh, we are running out of water! Can you come out on the weekend and solve our problem?". Yeah, right. Just let your garden die like ours is. Darwinian survival - some plants, even nice ones, do make it. Sadly, my job brings out a cruel negativity that I did not realise I posessed. (Well, OK, I did realise, but thought it was just unhealthy cynicism.)

Well, my start into the world of blogging. If anyone ever sees this, I plan to make occasional commentaries on the ups and downs of farming, weather and life (so original.)

Its Sunday, it's hot (39C/102F) - too hot to do anything outside. It's also dry. Far too dry.

Some background. I live on a farm in North Eastern Victoria, Australia. We have just completed another year of drought and have had one of the driest Januaries on record. This is the 5th day over 100F and there is no end in sight.

Oh, and my pet hates are "Organic" beef and climate change greenies. Yes, climate change is occurring, but my problems are the drought, now.