Wednesday

BTW — If any reader knows a lot about fences and pillar and post retaining walls and is in Perth, I might have a paid job for you. Keen to get your advice too!  — Thanks Jo.

Please email me at joanne at this domain here.

 

 

 

9.4 out of 10 based on 17 ratings

66 comments to Wednesday

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    John Hultquist

    I’d love to help, but am 15,000 km away.

    The USA banned the best preservative for wood posts many years ago. Now we only get about a 20 year life for a wood post.
    Search: concrete tube forms, and also steel brackets for sonotubes
    One is sold with the name Sonotube; Company is Sunoco
    Metal brackets are set into the concrete and the post is bolted on.

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    CO2 Lover

    At last some sanity in the UK

    Rishi Sunak sets out plans to build gas power stations ‘to stop blackouts on cloudy, windless days’
    Around 42 per cent of the UK’s energy came from renewables last year

    Ministers will today unveil plans for a new generation of gas-fired power stations to avert the ‘genuine prospect of blackouts’ in the dash for net zero.

    In a move that will anger environmental campaigners, Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho will say Britain needs to be ‘realistic’, and insist new gas plants are needed to keep the lights on when output from renewable sources dips.

    Note: The cost of battery back-up would run into the Trillions of Pounds if there fossil fuels were to be completely eliminated

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13184837/Rishi-Sunak-sets-plans-build-gas-power-stations-stop-blackouts-cloudy-windless-days.html

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      CO2 Lover

      Campaign group Net Zero Watch is again calling for an inquiry into the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the Government’s official advisers on decarbonisation. The move follows revelations at the weekend that the CCC’s chief executive, Chris Stark, had tried to use obfuscation to “kill” questions over the adequacy of its energy system model, rather than addressing them directly. This behaviour put Stark in direct breach of the Nolan standards for public officeholders.

      There needs to be a similar inquiry in Australia and the adequacy of the modelling used by the CSIRO.

      https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/12/calls-for-inquiry-into-climate-change-committee/

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      Windless nights too. Cloudy is unnecessary, a true measure of the ignorance in charge?

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      OldOzzie

      Meanwhile in Australia – Insanity Reigns!

      Greens say price tag for emissions support is gas veto

      The Greens are vowing to back sight unseen Chris Bowen’s vehicle emissions reforms but only if Labor ditches laws to fast-track offshore gas approvals.

      The Greens are promising to pass Labor’s looming vehicle emissions reforms sight unseen so long as the government ditches proposed laws that would fast-track gas project approvals including Santos’ Barossa field off the Northern Territory.

      Greens leader Adam Bandt made the offer in a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen on Tuesday, saying the carbon-reduction benefits of the vehicle reforms would be more than extinguished by allowing Barossa to go ahead.

      The challenge comes as the nation’s peak motoring body joins calls for the government to temper its changes, with fresh analysis raising questions about whether New Vehicle Emissions Standard (NVES) would achieve Labor’s emissions reduction goals.

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      yarpos

      In the short term it has to be gas. Its available, it works, its not coal (to pacify the deranged) and will bridge the gap to nookalar.

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    eNvironment sceptic

    Interesting project Jo. Make of this what you will…some ideas that may or may not apply.

    My favourite method of digging deep holes with much less physical effort is to use a decent sized vacuum cleaner to get the dirt out of the hole after it has been loosened with an appropriate digging implement, especially if it is a deep hole for retaining walls. And, think like an ant, a small effort at a time moves mountains.

    It also depends a lot on soil structure and moisture content, so choosing the optimum time to dig is also paramount and must be considered depending on type of soil. sandy, clay, or other type of soil.

    Personally, for the DIYer, i enjoy the vacuum excavation method according to the soil structure and type in my area. In my area in Gippsland, if i try vacuum excavation in the summer, the clay is like concrete, and if it is too wet it is like quicksand and clogs my vacuum hose. and caves in, and so when to dig and how to dig is also important.

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      eNvironment sceptic

      If the soil is very sandy, a short form tube mentioned by John above my comment will be an enormous help in sandy digging conditions to prevent the sand from falling back into the hole around the edges until the sandy soil is found to be more compacted deeper down where the form tube is no longer needed. This will also save on a lot of concrete.

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      I use the wet method

      I start the hole with a steel star picket then fill with water and allow the water to soak in then use star picket to create mud which is then removed with a gloved hand. Repeat the process until the hole is deep enough.

      Takes time but required very little physical effort. Can work on multiple holes at the same time.

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        eNvironment sceptic

        Agreed CO2 Lover. Thumbed you up.

        Most of the work and especially the cost is in digging the holes. Lovingly curated and perfectly plumb holes are 90% of the cost. The average low quote trady usually dig shallow holes, and am sorry for being so critical and cynical, unless an engineer is standing over with multiple inspections. That is just my observation having spent considerable time in the construction industry.

        I agree that a shallow hole can be done via the wet method, however, retaining wall holes are usually a lot deeper than fence poles and even fence post holes are performed too shallow to my liking. All my fence posts (treated pine) are planted one meter into the ground, No chance of back breaking work with the Vac. Even the spacing between poles of a fence are way too wide IMO and in my fencing situation i doubled the number of poles and holes. And if you want my total opinion (now a rant), big smile, i even insist on the fence components all have to be painted before nailing any timber or planting any treated pine poles. Everything is painted first, especially in the case of treated pine components.

        So my fence is two meters high and can tie shade sails to the posts and it just opens up way more future possibilities without having to worry about the fence going all wobbly like fences with standard spacing’s and the typical shallow holes.

        It’s the Italian in me lol…or some kind of genetic mutation that has not been discovered yet.

        Also, a lot of rural supply stores often have treated pine posts that have a higher density and weight than those from the average building supply depots. It is well worth visiting a few places to find the posts with the highest density and thus weight. The light ones are not as good as the heavy ones. But in any case, doubling the number of poles supporting the fence and digging deeper holes is a must in my opinion. And accuracy.

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          eNvironment sceptic

          I continue to be sceptical about the fencing and retaining wall environment we exist in 🙂

          Also. to get the most out of expensive water based paint, dampen the wood before painting. This helps the paint penetrate more deeply and lubricates the paint brush so that way less effort is needed to get the fence components painted. Considerably reduces the amount of paint that is used

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        • #
          CO2 Lover

          Hardwood or Pine or Steel?

          Hardwood has a higher rating for in-ground durability and is recommended as the best timber for your fence posts for this reason. As an alternative to hardwood, H3-treated pine is suitable to use for your fence posts and rails due to the added durability and resistance the treatment provides.

          H section galvanised steel is often used for retaining walls with the timber or concrete beams just slotting into place

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      A lot of Perth is built on sand, effectively ancient beach sand, and mostly poor quality. So it’s very easy to dig holes into. (I’ve installed a few home irrigation systems in my time…)

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  • #
    CO2 Lover

    The Joys of a Cashless Society

    Commonwealth Bank app crashes leaving millions of Aussies unable to access their own money

    Time to consider buying some gold bars to put under the mattress – also a good inflation hedge.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13187153/Commonwealth-Bank-app-crashes.html

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  • #
    Lance

    How to build a concrete Panel & Post retaining wall, Aaron Hahn, Perth AU. Lots of good information.

    30 min video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw9Yldlgqhc

    Precast posts and wall sections WA / Perth: https://www.wonderwalls.net.au/

    Might be of interest.

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  • #
    Ted1.

    Banned preservatives. About that. It always looked to me like a practice run for the Three Great Scams that are causing us so much trouble today.

    When I was a kid we used to spray lighting kerosene indoors for flies and mosquitos, using a hand operated atomiser. It thinned them out a bit, and didn’t poison us. Then came the “chlorinated hydrocarbons”, in numbers. And they were good. And they were cheap. “Gammawash” for the fleas on the dogs, Dieldrin for the flies and lice on the sheep. Aldrin for the grasshoppers, DDT for just about everything els, and Chlordane, for termites and other ground dwelling household bugs.

    In Australia termites are a major problem. And Chlordane was very good for keeping them at bay. So a regulation was brought in that before a concrete slab was poured for a house, the ground underneath had to be sprayed with Chlordane, expecting to get at least 40 years protection.

    Then Rachel Carson wrote a book, “Silent Spring”, and from that the Greenies got chlorinated hydrocarbons banned world wide. Except Australia resisted for a while with Chlordane. They eventually caved in to the world government. That would have been 30 years ago.

    Lately we are at war with cockroaches. We haven’t been able to get rid of them A couple of years back I sprayed one with a pressure pak thing, and he didn’t die. So I put him in a jam jar, screwed the lid on and sat him on the kitchen window sill. Three or four months later he was still running around.

    So we called in the pros. THey thinned them out a bit, but didn’t eliminate them, using a chemical new to me. So I looked it up, including on wiki. There they had one of those illustrations invented long after I left school of a molecule, showing chlorine, hydrogen and carbon atoms.

    Which took me back to the Hole in the Ozone Layer. Same chemical, new patent registered.

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    • #
      Lance

      Powdered boric acid is good for ridding roaches. It gets on their legs and they take it back to their nest. The boron in it causes the exoskeleton to soften and they die. Kills the nest. Eggs, Queen and all. Cheap, too. Dust it where you see them and in /under cabinets. And they don’t / can’t develop a resistance to the boron.

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    CO2 Lover

    If you have ever wondered how the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time got started in Australia? Well, now you know.

    How a Band of Criminals, Shysters & Chancers Conjured Up the Wind Industry in Australia

    https://stopthesethings.com/2016/02/16/how-a-band-of-criminals-shysters-chancers-conjured-up-the-wind-industry-in-australia/

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    • #
      yarpos

      Glad to see stop these things is still alive, it had problems a while ago and then I was offline for a few months and lost track.

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    another ian

    FWIW – more CDC

    ““Audit the CDC,” Dr. McCullough Blows the Lid on the VAERS Cover-up and Bill Gates’s Scheme to Dupe You (VIDEO)”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/audit-cdc-dr-mccullough-blows-lid-vares-cover/

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  • #
    Scott

    Hi Jo,

    We recently finished our Gal steel post and concrete sleeper retaining wall. At its highest it was 2.4 meters high and the whole wall about 40 meters long. Each post had to be equal distance into the ground as out. So that meant proper drilling equipment, obviously smaller holes can be done with manual equipment and will also depend upon soil type as discussed elsewhere.

    There are lots of different facades in the concrete now that they don’t look like concrete any more. ie wood and stone.

    There are a number of regulations different in each state, that mention the maximum fall you can have before you need a retaining wall. You will also need to find out if due to its height, it needs to be engineered. Best of luck, yell of I can help

    40

  • #
    Ian George

    After the Moomba festival was cancelled due to ‘extreme temperatures” (Melbourne did’t reach the old 100F), here we go again.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-13/climate-change-impact-puts-sport-at-risk/103576014

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    • #
      KP

      “Of Australia’s 45 national sporting organisations, the report found 29 have undertaken no climate change or sustainability initiatives whatsoever,”

      Another load of crap from them! Talk about Aunty scolding some young kid for not doing what she told them! They should have been defunded for fake news already..

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      CO2 Lover

      The Chinese obviously agree with this assessment as they are permitting two new coal fired power stations every week and the Indians are playing catch up with the Chinese.

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    KP

    People suffer motion sickness in EVs, pets too…

    “The reality is our bodies react differently to the forces in an electric car than to those we feel in an ICE vehicle, with EVs often confusing the brain based on what we’re seeing, hearing and feeling…A key factor that needs to be considered is the lack of engine noise in EVs. Our bodies are accustomed to riding in internal combustion vehicles, so the lack of noise and vibration in an EV can actually throw your balance off. ”

    Nothing about sitting in a strong, varying EMF field, especially during regenerative braking.

    https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/motion-sickness-electric-cars/?utm_campaign=syndication&utm_source=smh.com.au&utm_content=article_1&utm_medium=partner

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  • #

    No drilling, no digging

    square version

    An idea to reflect about – there exist different dimensions and variants.

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  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    A variety of UK EV stories.

    Affordable Dacia EV, slower than a horse and cart and a likely realistic range under 100 miles.

    Virtually uninsurable Chinese EVs – unrepairable.

    Dealers hate second hand EVs as stock.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/electriccars/index.html

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Jo – try whirlpool forums on the topic.
    Post your query if you have an account with them and I guarantee lots of replies.

    Example:
    https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/3vyp0qk9

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Workshop Wally Wednesday

    https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_sa4neotLs21w5pr9j.mp4

    They’re out there and the numbers are growing.😆

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  • #
    nb

    Dear Australian airlines,
    After the sad death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, please advise which of your aircraft are manufactured by Boeing.
    Best regards,
    Regular flyer.

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      If your plane is 7 something 7 you can be sure it is a boeing.

      PS you can check before you book.

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    • #
      Ronin

      Not officially declared a suicide yet, sounds a bit suspicious.

      10

      • #
        KP

        “Not officially declared a suicide ”

        Yes, why would you? If you are concerned enough to take your fears public, surely you would be interested in seeing what action was taken to alleviate your concerns?

        Alternatively, if you were of a suicidal bent I don’t think whistle-blowing would be high on your priority list..

        Its a warning to others thinking of exposing corruption- Like keeping Assange in jail for life, or going after Kim Dotcom with everything the American Govt had.

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      • #

        Jeffrey Edward Epstein ..!

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  • #
    Uber

    My advice: watch them closely. Not a job you want to get wrong. Make sure the post holes are the correct depth and there’s plenty of concrete. Make sure they use drainage pipe and fill behind the wall with proper aggregate.

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      RickWill

      27C does not make the cut given the warmer water further north. There are low pressure regions off Qld and WA that could intensify.

      The water off the southern half of Australia are close to peak temperature or already past it by this time of year.

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    Kim

    The Silent Majority: A group of people who largely agree with each other and whom form the majority – us. Why silent? Because up until the Internet came along we didn’t much bother communicating among ourselves and were largely unaware of each other and of just how big and powerful we are. Now we are and that poses a problem for the powers-that-be hence why they are greatly trying to restrict our intercommunication. That will only continue and get worse which is why it is so important for us to maintain our own channels along with our freedom of thought, freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom to listen and freedom of communication. That way we maintain the Center Ground – the interplay point where the advantages and disadvantages of ideas are discussed and are progressed.

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    John Connor II

    New Study: Transgender Suicide Rates Double After Gender Surgery

    A groundbreaking study has brought to light alarming findings regarding the mental health of transgender individuals who have undergone genital surgery. The research, which investigated the rates of psychiatric emergencies and suicide attempts before and after gender-affirming surgery, has uncovered a disturbing trend that demands immediate attention and action. The study’s results shed light on the complex challenges faced by the transgender community and the urgent need for comprehensive mental health support throughout the transition process.

    One of the most shocking revelations from the study is the dramatic increase in suicide attempt rates following vaginoplasty. The research found that the overall rates of suicide attempts doubled from 1.5% to 3.3% (p=0.017) after this particular gender-affirming surgery. This finding highlights the immense psychological toll that the transition process can take on individuals and the critical importance of providing ongoing mental health support.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/new-study-transgender-suicide-rates-double-after-gender-surgery/ar-BB1jMREb

    How often does it have to be said?
    It’s a mental health issue.
    More blood on the hands of the corrupt medical profession.

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    John Connor II

    Biden’s blunders beggar belief

    https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1767617888947503588

    FBI – let’s raid Trump instead! 😆

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    another ian

    FWIW – if you are into weightlifting

    “Prostate cancer and gym rats”

    “Interestingly enough, the first MRI I had on Tuesday showed some suspicious lesions on my hip bones. The doc initially thought the cancer had spread.

    I did a second followup MRI (it was a long day) an hour after the first one. The doc now thinks that the marks on my hips are bone bruises caused by heavy squats and deadlifts. I don’t have any hip pain, but there is some temporary minor damage to my pelvis that shows up on MRI from my weight lifting. Something for you gym bros to remember if you ever get an MRI (or two).”

    https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/03/prostate-cancer-and-gym-rats.html

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    O Canada. Late night Sky. Canada is wanting to bring in laws to imprison people for life, for hate crimes – racial, age, gender…….all of them. People can get $20 000 for dobbing. Anonymous folk can complain about someone, who they think might in the future hate them, and a judge can direct where those people can go, and talk to. Just double down!!!!
    But England has banned puberty blockers for children! NSW parliament is discussing a law banning people challenging gender affirmation.
    Quite a night.

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