Hi Guys. Another Story. At the ripe old age of 15 I put my age up so I could join the Bush Fire Brigade. Now known locally as the Rural Fire Service. In those days we did things that today would be illegal under the Occupational Health and Safety legislation. In 1958 from memory we had some pretty bad fires in the Blue Mountains which are situated just behind Sydney. I had a Knapsack spray on my back for three days solid. At one stage I had just filled the Knapsack from a half dry creek using my cotton base ball cap as a scoop Just as I returned to the fire line we had a wind come up the valley causing the fire to jump our fire break. Well it was every man for himself as we ran for our lives. I took off and in the smoke tripped over an old log and went face first into the mud in the creek bed only to have someone else land on top of me. Then as I disentangled myself and started to run I dumped the water from the Knapsack so I could run faster. I was about to ditch the Knapsack also but we were so short of equipment two guys came along each side and grabbed an arm each and pulled me along behind them. A couple of minutes later we reached the safety of Blackheath Golf Course and as we looked back the fire brought down a set of 66 kV power lines. Talk about Sh__ and cinders, as the lines hit the ground they made a sound like a rolling artillery barrage and sent clouds of ash and lightening skywards. It was most spectacular and a little frightening especially as we were so close. Things settled down on the Monday and so we had a bit of R&R and did maintenance. We had ageing WWII GMC Blitz wagons for tankers and they were never designed to carry the weight of water we put in the tanks and so they needed a lot of TLC. But they were bloody marvellous, in low range four wheel drive they would go up a vertical wall if gravity did not pull them off. We would go up the highway flat out at about 35 MPH with lights flashing but we never turned the siren on because it was too embarrassing as all the traffic streamed past at a prodigious rate. In retrospect it was just as well they did not go faster as there was no crew cab so we had to stand on something akin to a running board down the side of the tank and hang on to a hand rail. But when you were too buggered to pull a hose off a reel you could sit on top of the tank hosing down the fire as the truck was driven through the bush, Anything that got in the way was just pushed over and rolled flat. On the Tuesday we were called down to a lovely small township called Leura. When we got there the fire had gotten into the township and there were a number of buildings alight. We managed to save a number by going into the roof space and fighting the fire under the roof. The roof timbers were so hot most of us ended up with blisters on our hands and knees where we crawled across the timbers. Today you would not be allowed to do that. After about four hours we were urgently called back to Base at Blackheath as the fire was then threatening our own township. That was a black day in the history of Leura. One in three buildings were lost including the Presbyterian church in the middle of town. On another occasion I was down in the Jamison Valley near the Three Sisters (See following link. http://www.bluemts.com.au/tourist/thingsToDo/threeSisters.asp ) where there had been a fire which we managed to keep in the valley. Now the valley where we were consisted of Sand stone cliffs around several hundred feet high while the valley floor was a "V" shape which was about 150 feet deep with a creek in the bottom. About half way up one side of the "V" there was a walking trail and we had managed to keep the fire between the trail and the cliff face. I was down there with a Chain Saw mopping up after the fire when I was asked to take down a hollow tree about 2 Ft in diameter and thirty feet tall and which was alight up the middle. A bit like a fire cracker streaming sparks and stuff out the top. I wanted to drop the thing lengthwise with the valley so if it rolled down it would get caught on a rock, stump or tree trunk which would arrest it. But the Fire captain wanted it dropped up hill and he won the argument. So I had a young guy with a knapsack keep a stream of water on the chain bar and blade to keep them cool as I cut through the burning log and I got stuck into it. Well I dropped the thing exactly where he wanted it but as it bounced it took off lengthwise across the walking trail and down the valley where it had not been burnt, just like a run away freight train trailing behind it a stream of flames and sparks. In some ways you could say, it was a bit like a wingless FA18 with the afterburners going full blast. Well all hell broke loose the two way radios went into overdrive with everyone shouting over each other and people came running from miles away. Fortunately they managed to put the fire out below the walking trail pretty quickly and then rolled the log into the creek to put the fire out that was burning inside it. Being involved it was pretty serious, but I later met some sight sears who had observed the whole thing from a look out at the top of the valley and they thought it was hilarious. As one guy said I dont know why you guys needed walkie talkies we could hear you yelling at each other up here without them. By the way The saw was a McCulloch Farm Boss. And they were a damed good saw. Pitty they don't still make them.

Composting considering 'green'? Why not? The peelings and cores and spoiled fruit/vegetables and the like would be produced anyway; why not put them to good use by returning them to the Earth the same way nature would? PV solar panels to charge a deep cycle battery for electrical 12v useage 'green'? Here is where it starts to get slippery. Admittedly, I haven't spent much time lately keeping up on advances in PV technology. What I know from earlier study is that many of the chemicals used to manufacture PV panels are highly toxic and have essentially no half-life. And, of course, there is the energy and material used in manufacturing the panels. There should be a way to determine the carbon footprint of manufacturing PV panels and to compare that to the carbon saved by using them. Hybrid cars that don't last much over 4 years on average unless you spend 4 or 5 thousand bucks to replace the batteries considered 'green'? Which brings the question, hybrid cars that can't payback the more expensive price in gas savings considered 'green'? Speaking personally, I believe hybrid-drive auto technology as it exists now will be a blip in automotive history. It just does not make sense to me, on a carbon-footprint basis, to equip a fairly-short-lived item with two motors and the extra weight brought on by systems like regenerative brakes -- and to continue to burn a non-renewable resource anyway. Many people buying hybrids now are doing so to have a recognized sign of their commitment to visibly-green living. Many of those people would be just as well off in a small modern turbodiesel or even in a gasoline-engine mileage champ, like a Toyota Corolla (41 mpg highway). I'm not sure where your estimate of 4-5 years comes from. Just about any car purchased today should be good for at least ten years if it receives the recommended care. Toyota and Honda hybrids have been on the road for more than 4-5 years now, without reports of massive battery failures. And Toyota warrants the batteries in their hybrids for ten years. That said, however, there will come a time when the battery in a hybrid needs to be replaced. Perhaps at that point storage technology will have advanced to permit the use of something longer-lasting. Or perhaps people will remove the battery pack and modify the engine computer to allow use of the car as an underpowered gasoline-only vehicle. Or people will spend thousands of dollars and joules replacing battery packs and/or reconditioning them. It could be a real mess. But I think it's really a bit early to tell. The high price of 'water' storage containers if you don't have access to used or free ones considered 'green'? How does a rain barrel make sense if the container is a couple hundred dollars vs a smaller container for free? Maybe it doesn't make economic sense, but, then, as things are accounted for now, some "green" activities just don't. Sometimes they're just the right thing to do. However, I can't understand why someone wouldn't just wait until low-cost or free containers were available.

Belle, your pond is wonderful. What a great project and I love the little knome sitting there with his feet kicked up. Where does it feed from? I love to garden so this picture is right up my alley so to speak. It reminds me of our cabin, can't imagine having something like that in my yard. Woohoo Please post more pictures of it and the rest of your yard thoughout the year. Our son is putting in an indoor foutain in his new home he's building. If I was you and wanted to paint on a rock I'd grab some of them and paint away. Like Luvs was saying the different animals would be phenomenal as accents. Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping, painter Anj? Did you get any painting done? I sure hope so. I just figured out why I'm not getting as much painting done. I'm spending to much time yaking on here.ha ha Have you been able to catch up on a little sleep this weekend? I can't believe how I never want to get up Mon-Fri and Sat and Sun my feet can't hit the floor fast enough in the mornings. Not sure if it's the painting or shopping that gets me racing. Paintgirl, I live in Montana. I was born in Gillette, WY and moved with family to MT where I started 1st grade. DH and family are from here and he's never wanted to venture away so we'll retire here and spend the rest of our lives. I have a DH of 35 years and he cuts all my wood for painting projects. I have a son who is 31 and a daughter who is 29. They both own their own cell phone business. DS has a son (7) and DD has a daughter (3) so I'm Nana to 2 special GC. It will be years before I will be a great grandmother but congrats to you, honey. Not everyone accomplishes that in a life time. I am so thankful for all my blessings in life. Life is what we make it. Luvs, I'll think on something about a mess for your DH. It could be fun as long as we don't upset him. How's his sense of humor? Mine is not a messy person but he doesn't clean. Maybe I only had the 2 little pigs living with me all those years.LOL Can't wait to see your tray. I have no desire to go out and paint a tray so I think they will be on hold for a couple of months. The sun has peeked out the last couple of days but it must not of liked what it saw cuz it's hiding most of the day. Soon it will be nice enough to go out and play. GD wanted me to go jump on the trampoline with her yesterday and I said NO WAY that wind was frigid. What are you and GD playing? Does she like your painted projects? Mine will come in and pick from my finished ones and ask if she can take it home. Guess you know she's never been told no. DD wants the blue stocking and GD wants the mulicolored one so don't know who'll win on that but for now it's still here. GTG Punk

Chris, thanks for the link. Steven Pinker is an excellent man! Vee, I will wager that you have heard or read different than, but perhaps it didn't register. 'Course, there's no way I can prove it. :-) Here are a few examples from well-known writers, cited in the OED: She, too, had one day hoped for a different lot than to be wedded to a little gentleman who rapped his teeth. -- William Makepeace Thackeray, Pendennis Oliver Goldsmith used different than. 18th century ...and when Helen handed it to me, I said, "I thought these things were different than they used to be." -- James Thurber, letter, 31 July 1952 I'm no different than you. -- Frank Shorter, quoted in Springfield (Mass.) Daily News, 3 June 1986 Different than isn't always wrong -- even to pedants. 'Than' is sanctioned when a comparison is made with a full clause following; e.g., The town is different than it was in my youth. It can be argued that it is the more economical, less clumsy construction. To say the same thing with from: The town is different from how it was in my youth. Whichever sounds better to you is the way you should say it, but with the awareness that a person who says it the other way is not wrong, though that person may be willing to say that you are! Different than follows the same model as 'other than' and 'rather than.' The different from/to/than controversy began in the late nineteenth century (1897), according to the OED. All three forms had been used prior -- as far back as Shakespeare -- but the pedants got together to impose their exalted opinions on all the common speakers, and it's been hell ever since. ;-)