Posts by Joe Wylie
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to Gudrun Gisela,
PAS electric bike discussion from around 12 months ago - interesting contributions fron Stephanie & Ben Wilson.
1000 cycle lithium ion batteries currently priced at just under $600, with 3-5 years claimed useful life. Some bike models offer one third off your first battery replacement as part of warranty.
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What Jackson & Lilith said. Stunning stuff.
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to Jos,
the old burial tree
Thanks very much Jos. That's definitely the one I recall visiting in 1985, following the instructions in the Mobil Guide, which I'm pretty sure gave its age as around 900 years.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Farmer Green,
Whatever the Saudis pay their dairy workers, they're unlikely to be doing it for much longer.
Saudi large-scale agriculture is a doomed extractive industry. In the mid-90s local wheat production, watered by deep-drilled aquifers in the desert, was so far in excess of their claimed goal of self-sufficiency that a shipload turned up in Australia. Since then the dream has evaporated, although it hasn't stopped the tendency of economists to interfere in areas beyond their competence.
As we know from local conditions in areas like Canterbury, dairying is vastly more demanding of water resources than wheat growing. All the Saudis are doing with dairying is replacing one unsustainable scheme with an even more unrealistic one. Hopefully we won't be importing their destructive fantasies along with their trained workforce.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Farmer Green,
A South Waikato farmer, who asked not to be named, said staff with Saudi experience were particularly sought after as they were familiar with working on huge operations using modern machinery and world-class standards.
As Saudi Arabia has a much greater reliance than NZ on foreign labour to perform 'menial' jobs, those with sought-after Saudi experience are unlikely to be Saudis.
Additionally, there was the pull of "earning $14 per hour as opposed to $14 per day"
Is $14 per day the going rate in Saudi?
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
We have had my mother's Hoya growing in our porch since she died 7 or so years ago. It thrives on inattention (unlike my mother!).
Seems to be true - hoyas flourish and flower in conditions that would leave other houseplants hopelessly rootbound. IMHE they take several seasons to regain their previous happy state after overgenerous repotting.
BTW the Cuningham House conservatory in the Chch Botanic Gardens - fortunately recovered from the quakes - has a great hoya collection, with strikingly unusual varieties.
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Capture: The Castle, in reply to Jos,
Some photos from the Opotiki rodeo...
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Serious wood - and wasps.
The giant Moreton Bay fig at Pahi on the North arm of the Kaipara, about 3 weeks ago.
2013 marks the 20th anniversary of the first recorded appearance of this Australian banyan's unique pollinator wasp in NZ. After 120-plus years of decorative sterility these vegetable elephants are producing viable offspring and colonising the Northern forest canopy. And they're possum-proof.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Will Canterbury become a Cannery Row, too ?
Interesting that Steinbeck's cannery went upmarket after the sardine fishery collapsed from overexploitation. Interesting too that NZ - and Canterbury's - two most common exotic trees, the Monterey pine and Monterey cypress, are both endemic to the Monterey area.
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Season's Greets and thanks to all..
Best seasonal pic so far.
