Ozwitch

Weekend in the Grampians

Last weekend was such fun I thought I'd share it a bit.

John and I went up to the Grampians for the weekend for rabbit and other pest extermination activities. We have access to 3 adjoining farms which comprise 5,000 acres approximately. It's hilly, fairly steep grades but not mountainous. At this time of year the grass is still short, and fairly green, and it's a delight to hike around. The countryside is quite soft and gentle in colour, not in the least like those pictures of Australia you see in outback magazines. In a month or so it will be scorching hot, windy and dry, the flies will be appalling and the prickles will stab you in a hundred places when you lie down, but not now. Mid-to late spring is best.

Vegetation is a mix of pine forest, gum trees, fodder and grassland.

Not-very-well-merged photo of our area of operations below:

I'm back

Weekend was a blast (literally!) More later when I get home from work. 170 rabbits!

George is not looking good with 203 and only small vote states left.

UPDATE: I'm wrong I think. Bush has 210 and Kerry 199 at present. If Bush takes Ohio, Wisconsin, Fla, Colorado and NM he's in, at least that's my reading. I guess the keys are Fla and OH with their large numbers of votes (27 and 20 resp.)

Fingers crossed.

UPDATE 2: Yahoo site seems to be all over the place. They've called Washington with only 1% of the vote counted. So that's 11 votes still up in the air. C-SPAN says Bush 204, Kerry 188.

Florida and Calif are now called by C-Span. Bush 237 Kerry 206.

UPDATE 3: I know I'm too late but congratulations to George Bush. And Thank God.

Kangaroo culling in the limelight again

There is a column in the Herald Sun today about the commercial possibilities of safari hunting in Victoria. Recently the Federal Government released a report recommending that areas of Australia be opened up to commercial hunting of feral pests and overabundant animals - kangaroos, wild pigs, deer, horses, buffalo and camel.

The Sun suitably sensationalises the article with the headline "National Emblem could be in the cross-hairs" and illustrates it with words like 'slaughter' and pictures of roos and horses with gunsights squarely on their heads. At least they got that part right. Head shots for large herbivores, chest shots for pigs. That's the humane and correct way to kill them.

No doubt there will be outrage and much gnashing of teeth in organizations such as PETA over this latest example of Aussie cruelty, barbarity and delight in killing defenceless animals. PETA have managed to pressure Abercrombie, an importer of Australian wool products, into cancelling the garment lines in their stores due to the 'barbarity' of our treatment of sheep in Victoria.

I think I'll keep this gun

This is a Remington 22/250 VSSF which we bought secondhand but it only had a couple of hundred rounds fired on it when we bought it.

First time I fired it today - not bad eh? Of course, when you're load developing, it's all about the load, not about me.

But I'm pretty proud of that group.

There's a story behind this rifle:

I'm a threat to children, apparently

Aargh. Once again the daily rag can't help pandering to the wowsers:

Parents fight gun shop plan

A PLAN to open a gun shop opposite a children's playground in West Melbourne has families up in arms.

Victorian Arms wants to relocate its business to tiny Adderley St -- within metres of a popular kids' park with slides, swings and climbing equipment.
The business -- near Victoria Market -- has applied to Melbourne City Council for a planning permit for the Adderley St site.

(emphasis mine.)