Links to satellite views of our weather

These are real time satellite views of aspects of weather systems in our area:

 This link shows weather systems in Australia and nearby seas.

This link takes you to rainfall happening in Australia and seas to the east.

And this one takes you to a lightning strikes and weather events in Queensland.

The links should open in a new tab or a new window - the first two might take a while to load, they contain a lot of image information. I tried to put these under the "Links" heading in the column to the right, with our weather forecast links, but for some reason they don't work there.

Camera Trap Results

We have been using the camera trap for a couple of years now, and have caught a range of targets, including foxes, birds and (mostly) wallabies (and occasionally some unsuspecting visitors).

I set the camera on a tree near the sandy bend in the track a couple of weeks ago because I kept seeing deer, pig and fox signs there.  Just retrieved it today and at least the deer were cooperative.

The trap uses an infra-red flash when it is triggered at night.  Here are two deer (well, one and a half) moving down the track.

Apart from this one night time shot, they seem to be on the track in the early morning and early evening.

Is the one below the same as the one above?  Hard to tell because of the different angle and the different lighting, but I think it's probably the same one.

In the shot below (taken this morning) there's another deer off to the left of the track, just above the left ear of the one on the track.  That one looks to me to be larger than any of the ones photogaphed on the track, so maybe at least three different animals.

I'll reset the trap in the morning in much the same place and see what comes along.

Climate Change - Should We Take Action or Not?

Check this video.  This guy has a really clear way of presenting the options.  His first video on climate change has had 7,200,000 viewings until now, and this one which has only been around for a short time has already had over one million viewings.

No matter what your opinion on climate change, it is worth watching.



Please pass the link on to others to help them to make up their own minds on what their postion is going to be [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg&feature=player_embedded#! ]

Current State of the House

Here are some shots of the outside of the house in its present stage of construction - not much more to do on the outside, and most of it will be unnoticeable, i.e. it won't look much different to this.

Here's the view of the north side - note the large windows extending down quite low and the wide eaves (one metre), both features that contribute to the passive solar design.

The gravel around the base of the walls fulfills two functions: discourgages termites (under the gravel is a layer of compacted crusher dust, topped with black plastic); prevents vegetation growing near the walls and windows (for fire hazard reduction and to deter termites).

The western side is toward the workshop and two of the tanks.

That's the evacuated tube solar hot water system on the roof.  Running on only 13 of its 24 tubes because that's all it needs in summer.  The tanks are stainless steel, with 22,500 litre capacity in each.

Here's a view from the south, with the workshop to the west of the house - providing some protection from westerly winds in winter and from radiant heat from bushfires.

No views of the interior yet - it is currently in chaos as I'm working simultaneously on window architraves, skirting, and the splashback for the kitchen benches.  The workshop is similarly in chaos, with painted timber drying everywhere.

One day it will all be finished.

The Creek Crossing Revisited

Took a walk down to the creek crossing this afternoon - what an amazing change from six days ago (see the video two posts back).  But it isn't pretty, and I won't be driving across it any time soon.

Here's what it was like on the 11th of January:

and here's what it's like today:

If it helps, the photos are taken from opposite sides of the crossing.  In the last one, the track to the house is in the middle left of the photo.  In the earlier one, the track to the road is in the middle top of the photo.

Clearly a huge amount of rock has been eroded away, though it is impressive that so much of the foundation of the crossing remains, even in the gully carved into the crossing against the far bank.  Bernie (our earth-works magician) did a great job on this crossing.

Parts of the rest of the track were a bit knocked around too.  Here's the section that I repaired so painstakingly back after Christmas - the rocks in the erosion gullies represent about seven hours' work with a wheelbarrow.

The flowing water has scoured out around the repair on the right.  But what isn't so evident is that the erosion gullies have been extended several metres at the top of the photo.  Living on a hill has its advantages (e.g. no floods) and it's disadvantages (e.g. needs a cross-country access track that has to be maintained).  Oh well....

TALENT!

I'm experimenting with the format of this blog (if anyone out there is watching or cares) so just be patient while I exercise my limited artistic and layout skills and try to learn how this "blogger" thingy works.

And while I'm at it I may as well experiment a bit with content too (see below), and add a new link to our weather (see in Links below right ) that not only gives the forecast but also the current conditions and details of past weather.  I've also added a link to our local weather radar.

I'm indebted to Grumpy Old Ken for the following example of Talent with a capital T.  What an amazing person this artist is - and what an amazing art medium and performance technology.  Enjoy!

It's WET here.

 Well, it is nearly a year since the last posting on this blog.  For a blog that was supposed to keep family and friends informed of what we have been up to it has not been very successful.  That is my fault - too many other things getting priority.

Right now, though, I just want to share with you the flood situation here.

We, of course don't have a flood, being on top of a hill, though there is so much rain that the water can't get away fast enough and is often running in shallow sheets across the ground.  But nothing like other people in the Lockyer Valley and Toowoomba, who have experienced the worst, most destructive floods on record on this area - and some of the most destructive, if not the most destructive, in Australian history.

Here we have had 321mm of rain in the first 11 days of January, which is 71% of the highest January rainfall ever recorded in Gatton since records began in 1897, so it looks like we might be breaking some records again this month (December was the wettest December on record here, and 2010 was the wettest year (by more than 200mm).  Of course our rainfall might be different to the rainfall recorded down in the valley where the official weather station is, but I'm pretty sure that they broke all records there too.

Our front and back creek crossings are currently under water; the back one has been under water more often than not since early December.  There is no way out until the water goes down, however right now that doesn't matter - if I got out onto the road there would be nowhere to go.  All the bridges between us and the rest of the world (Gatton, Brisbbane, Toowoomba) are flooded and impassable.

At present that isn't a problem.  I have about a month's supply of food, and of course we are self-sufficient in electricity and water, so it is no great hardship to just stay here and potter along with jobs to finish the house (those jobs that can be done while it is bucketing down raining).

Here's what our back creek crossing looked like at about 1430 this afternoon.

All for now.