blueshoes
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Location: Regional Dan-istan
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Post by blueshoes on May 13, 2021 14:23:06 GMT 10
Treechanging is loosely related to prepping because it's one of the biggest things any sane person does when things get bad... get out of dodge.
But, there's been a bit of griping around the forum about city people turning up out bush and being a bit painful.
Country folks, what do you wish you could tell the new city neighbour? (other than #### off...)
I gather from other threads, this list includes
* If you hear random gunshots next door, we're probably just dealing with foxes etc. You don't need to call the cops, it's normal.
* If you see a column of smoke, have a closer look and check someone isn't just burning off before you summon the CFA volunteers.
* Clean your #### gutters unless you'd like embers to burn your house down in bushfire season.
What else? Weeds?
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norseman
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Practical is Tactical!
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Post by norseman on May 13, 2021 15:30:12 GMT 10
What you do on your side of the boundary fence always affects what happens on our side of the boundary fence!
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Post by Joey on May 13, 2021 15:31:27 GMT 10
If they have dogs, keep them in the house paddock. If they have cats, get rid of them. The bush doesn't need any more cats roaming around. Don't try to change the way things are and have been for a long time in the area. Get involved in the local groups, CWA, RFS, Rotary, SES, Lions etc Don't be a stranger. Don't let your kids be feral. If you live far away from town, ask your neighbours if they need anything when you do go to town or if you're making a trip back to the big smoke.
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frostbite
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Post by frostbite on May 13, 2021 15:48:05 GMT 10
Funny thing is, when I bought rural property I found the 3rd generation farmers to be a pain in the arse. Always trying to stick their hands in my pocket, to get me to pay for fencing 100m on their side of the boundary, to keep their stock in (I don't have stock), trying to get me to pay for free labour (BlazeAid doesn't charge), but never willing to contribute to repairs to our shared private access road. Or thinking they own your land and can run stock or spotlight on it because their ancestors owned it 100 years ago.
Farmers can be bigger dikk$ than the tree changers.
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Beno
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Location: Northern Rivers
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Post by Beno on May 13, 2021 16:35:39 GMT 10
I reckon the biggest thing is just because you don’t like it, it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. That is the biggest attitude from mollycoddle land.
Farms produce so let farmers farm. If you don’t like it leave.
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malewithatail
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Location: Northern Rivers NSW
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Post by malewithatail on May 13, 2021 19:05:41 GMT 10
The sounds of unmuffled farm machinery, tractors and so on, generators and water pumps running for hours at a time is normal. During harvest, 24 hour header operation, with powerful lights is the norm, along with shotguns being let off after dark to shoot vermin and keep the animals safe. Gas guns to scare off birds from crops make noise, and smoke from a wood fired heater is no reason to call the RFS. Like has been mentioned, you'd better get involved in the local RFS unit, Lions Club or Progress Association, and your wife had better get busy cooking cakes for the local dances. Cant dance ? Learn quickly, its a great way to socialize and meet the locals. Dogs bark at night, especially if there are foxes and so on around. Get used to it, 'cause that's what dogs are for, to protect stock. Need something ? Just ask, but not whilst I'm ploughing to plant 400 acres of Adzuki beans. When a disaster threatens, floods, fire, we band together and share gear according to the threat. Don't be selfish. We have long memories of d..k heads. Your 5 acres sandwiched amongst our 500 acres, isn't ours to intrude on, nor is our 500 acres your private playground. We know stock gets through fences, once, fix the bloody fence so it doesn't happen again. If you can't, ask us and we will help you to repair the fence. My bees will visit your garden, get used to them. Firewood can be gathered from a National Park, get a permit, don't just assume you can take it. 'nough ranting for now.
Attention please, the normalcy express departs in five minutes.......
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Post by spinifex on May 13, 2021 19:32:13 GMT 10
My Rooster lives 10 metres from my bedroom and 300 metres from yours. Stop your B!tchin. If we can sleep through his natural antics ... you can too. If you don't like the smell of sprayseed ... live somewhere else and stop eating bread and cakes. Its a vital tool for producing wheat. Dust is normal here. Lots of dust is normal here. Get used to it. It is normal for cows with calves to look really skinny ... don't call the RSPCA. It isn't cruelty. Its nature. Take those f#cked up super knobbly tires off your 4wd and put something sensible on instead. They rough the Sh!t out of dirt roads and tracks and we only see a grader twice a year. Your need to look cool makes our driving way rougher than it needs to be.
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lonewolf
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Post by lonewolf on May 13, 2021 23:16:45 GMT 10
My Rooster lives 10 metres from my bedroom and 300 metres from yours. Stop your B!tchin. If we can sleep through his natural antics ... you can too. If you don't like the smell of sprayseed ... live somewhere else and stop eating bread and cakes. Its a vital tool for producing wheat. Dust is normal here. Lots of dust is normal here. Get used to it. It is normal for cows with calves to look really skinny ... don't call the RSPCA. It isn't cruelty. Its nature. Take those f#cked up super knobbly tires off your 4wd and put something sensible on instead. They rough the Sh!t out of dirt roads and tracks and we only see a grader twice a year. Your need to look cool makes our driving way rougher than it needs to be. I missed the sound of the rooster next door to my place, he was a good alarm for a few months. Bit annoying but its weird how used to them you can get.
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feralemma
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Post by feralemma on May 21, 2021 17:59:47 GMT 10
My advice is
Don't be a dick neighbour
Educate yourself about standard farming and production practices before mouthing off about your objections to them
Join in your local community and support local businesses where possible
And don't discount the farmers wives. Most of them are so much more than "just wives", and believe me they do not just fanny about and bake scones. A lot of them are farmers in their own right, as well as having a whole range of other education, qualifications and skills ranging from veterinary surgeons to jewellers to mechanics and agronomists.
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Post by Stealth on May 23, 2021 0:11:12 GMT 10
I've lived on both sides of the fence, and I reckon the biggest problem is that BOTH sides think that it's the other side that's a pain in the ass and should belt up . I've watched new people move into a tight-knit community and seen locals pissing and moaning that the 'cityslickers think they're too good for us' while intentionally turning their backs on them at the bar because they 'don't like your type here'. W.TA.F. How can you expect new people to understand the dynamic of a place if the only dynamic is them clearly being silently told to piss off? But after seeing new people come into a close knit community one of the biggest things that I've seen that helps is if the new family/person offers to help. Crops, gardens, watering, fencing, lambing season... Everything takes work. Communities know that and respond without thinking. City folks (often, not always) keep their nose on their side of the fence and don't get involved in other people's business. It's almost a survival mechanism. There's so many people around you that if you had a vested interest in everyone else's problems you'd never get a moment to clear your head. Hearing that your neighbour has had a major life change (births, deaths, financial difficulty loss of property etc) and just DOING things without asking like clearing their yard, stocking their woodpile, or making sure the troughs are filled. Leaving a fresh baked loaf of bread with condiments at their door so that they have something to snack on but they don't have to spend energy on doing themselves. These are things that city folks don't do simply because they're staying in their own lane. But most country folks would almost stab themselves in the foot with a star picket before they will admit they need help. Stubborn and prideful. They need to be, it's what gets them through really difficult and challenging times. A nicer thing to call it is 'resilient' haha. So you gotta work with them and make it something that they don't have a choice in. The gratitude is often even stronger, because you haven't forced them to put aside their values of self-reliance to get through a tough time. You just saw a gap and filled it. But if the locals won't talk to those new people they won't have the opportunity to do those things, so I guess communication and being willing to bring people in is probably the thing that I think helps the most for new folks.
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norseman
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Post by norseman on May 23, 2021 1:49:14 GMT 10
The most valuable thing tree changers can bring to a rural community is not money it's children! Kids keep the schools open, they keep the community connected through the various social and sporting groups (as small as they often are), they keep the Churches viable, they keep the local store alive, they help to open communication between families both old and new. The best way to meet the locals is to invite every kid in the class or school (all 12 of them) to your son or daughters birthday party you will soon meet the locals! Rural Communities without kids die very quickly, I know because I live in a once thriving rural community that is slowly turning into a retirement village for rich city folk!
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frostbite
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Post by frostbite on May 23, 2021 7:31:16 GMT 10
The most valuable thing tree changers can bring to a rural community is not money it's children! Kids keep the schools open, they keep the community connected through the various social and sporting groups (as small as they often are), they keep the Churches viable, they keep the local store alive, they help to open communication between families both old and new. The best way to meet the locals is to invite every kid in the class or school (all 12 of them) to your son or daughters birthday party you will soon meet the locals! Rural Communities without kids die very quickly, I know because I live in a once thriving rural community that is slowly turning into a retirement village for rich city folk! Same goes for a SHTF community. You gotta have a range of breeding age females, preferably with really good genes, to bear children and keep the community viable
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Post by johngalt on Aug 13, 2021 21:47:46 GMT 10
Since there are farmers in this thread maybe you can answer a question for me? I've got a bit of a hobby of retrieving crashed bureau of Meteorology weather balloons. It gets the trash out of the environment plus I get a cool electronics package and some lithium AA's and a fun day out. Anyway this time of year they get blown out east and end up in the wheatbelt and in some farmers field usually. What is the etiquette of getting access to the land? I'm assuming I can't just get on there without permission to retrieve the balloon and most of the time I can't even see a farm house nearby. These things land randomly so it's not like I can pre arrange anything.
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malewithatail
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Post by malewithatail on Aug 14, 2021 9:59:18 GMT 10
Good advice, invite all the kids in the class to yr kids birthday, and the mums and dads as well, put on a BBQ, it really is a great way to meet the newbies. You may even find someone who can supply a beast. Johngalt, get a uhf cb in yr ute, find out the local chat channel and call up asking if someone's around. Always ask, even if it takes time. Oh yes, a bottle of home brew is always a good opener !
Fahrvergnkie: (n) Sex in a Volkswagon
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feralemma
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Post by feralemma on Aug 18, 2021 10:22:27 GMT 10
Since there are farmers in this thread maybe you can answer a question for me? I've got a bit of a hobby of retrieving crashed bureau of Meteorology weather balloons. It gets the trash out of the environment plus I get a cool electronics package and some lithium AA's and a fun day out. Anyway this time of year they get blown out east and end up in the wheatbelt and in some farmers field usually. What is the etiquette of getting access to the land? I'm assuming I can't just get on there without permission to retrieve the balloon and most of the time I can't even see a farm house nearby. These things land randomly so it's not like I can pre arrange anything. ASK before entering someone elses land. Farm houses are not that hard to find, and if you're really struggling go to the shire and ask who owns x property on y road and how you would get in contact with them. Farmers don't appreciate strangers driving across their paddocks disrupting things, leaving gates open, trashing crops and potentially introducing weeds or a catastrophic biosecurity breach that can cost them their livelihood.
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