Foxbat down yesterday at my Base Airfeld

[Thruster88]

Bags were 80 lbs if you rammed them

 

There are 12 bags to a ton in NSW.?

 

 

[derekliston]

Amazing how often thread drift moves totally away from original topic! Not a complaint, just an observation, I am probably just as guilty as anyone else!

 

 

[onetrack]

I think Turbo has omitted a "1" from his bag figures. Bags of wheat were 180 lbs when I was young and keen - and 180 lbs is nearly 82 kgs! You had to have a strong back and a weak mind, to manhandle lots of bags of wheat!

 

It's pretty eye-opening watching blokes pile bags of wheat in a stack - particularly when those stacks rose several metres high.

 

Here's some great film footage of bagged wheat handling in S.A. in the late 1950's, judging by the fairly new "D" series Bedford truck. No grossly-obese workers in this era!

 

I'm surprised that S.A. was still handling wheat in bags in the late 1950's - W.A. was the first to introduce bulk wheat handling in Australia, in 1934, at Yelbeni and Wyalkatchem, W.A.

 

Peter, 10 bags to acre is just over 2 tonnes to the hectare today. Elders put out a pretty good agricultural quick reference, with ready-reckoner containing metric-imperial conversions.

 

https://eldersrural.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/08/Cropping_Quick_Reference_Guide.pdf

 

 

 

 

[turboplanner]

20 minutes ago, onetrack said:

 

I think Turbo has omitted a "1" from his bag figures. Bags of wheat were 180 lbs when I was young and keen - and 180 lbs is nearly 82 kgs! You had to have a strong back and a weak mind, to manhandle lots of bags of wheat!

 

It's pretty eye-opening watching blokes pile bags of wheat in a stack - particularly when those stacks rose several metres high.

 

Here's some great film footage of bagged wheat handling in S.A. in the late 1950's, judging by the fairly new "D" series Bedford truck. No grossly-obese workers in this era!

 

I'm surprised that S.A. was still handling wheat in bags in the late 1950's - W.A. was the first to introduce bulk wheat handling in Australia, in 1934, at Yelbeni and Wyalkatchem, W.A.

 

Peter, 10 bags to acre is just over 2 tonnes to the hectare today. Elders put out a pretty good agricultural quick reference, with ready-reckoner containing metric-imperial conversions.

 

https://eldersrural.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/08/Cropping_Quick_Reference_Guide.pdf

 

I think you’re right, but we used to lift them and my uncle used to throw them down on to my back from the top of the truck. He had to aim accurately and my hands had to catch the bottom ears and the legs had to bend.

 

 

[onetrack]

Turbo, you were a lot younger and keener, and a lot fitter, back then! I am amazed now, at the weight of stuff we used to manhandle around when we were young.

 

Heavy dozer components that demand a forklift today, were simply manhandled, when we were younger.

I picked up a big copper tube/steel frame Cat Marine engine intercooler yesterday. It weighs 62 kgs, and it nearly killed me, to manhandle it around! I must be getting old! (70 last month). 

 

 

[pmccarthy]

I remember sewing bags in the paddock as a young fella. Just a visitor helping out fortunately, my cousin did it for real.

 

 

[Yenn]

We put wheat into coom, or was it cwm bags on the border of wales and England in the fifties. My party trick was to pick one up onto my back and walk away with it. Normally it was a two man job to handle them. They weighed 2.25 cwt or 114kg today. I weighed about ten stone then 63 kg. Because the bags were tall I could stand one up, stick my knees into the middle of it, lean back and roll it over my knees onto my shoulder. Now at 93 I m flat out lifting a 25kg fertiliser bag onto my shoulder. I must admit it only ever did that party trick on very rare occasions.

 

 

[spacesailor]

When I was young !, at 7st7lb, I could throw a full sized oxygen bottle onto my shoulder, to take to the welder.

 

Like Yenn rolled it over the knees to get momentum, then up & over , (silly bas  ard ) probably ruined my hip, if not other bits.

 

spacesailor 

 

 

[turboplanner]

We put wheat into coom, or was it cwm bags on the border of wales and England in the fifties. My party trick was to pick one up onto my back and walk away with it. Normally it was a two man job to handle them. They weighed 2.25 cwt or 114kg today. I weighed about ten stone then 63 kg. Because the bags were tall I could stand one up, stick my knees into the middle of it, lean back and roll it over my knees onto my shoulder. Now at 93 I m flat out lifting a 25kg fertiliser bag onto my shoulder. I must admit it only ever did that party trick on very rare occasions.

 

With each of those farm jobs there was always a knack that had to be learnt first, which was usually getting momentum into the thing, or creating leverages.

 

 

[spacesailor]

The Big sods were a lot too thick to use their heads, & do it the easy way !.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[biggles]

We put wheat into coom, or was it cwm bags on the border of wales and England in the fifties. My party trick was to pick one up onto my back and walk away with it. Normally it was a two man job to handle them. They weighed 2.25 cwt or 114kg today. I weighed about ten stone then 63 kg. Because the bags were tall I could stand one up, stick my knees into the middle of it, lean back and roll it over my knees onto my shoulder. Now at 93 I m flat out lifting a 25kg fertiliser bag onto my shoulder. I must admit it only ever did that party trick on very rare occasions.

 

 

 

            ‘93’  Yenn ? 

 

 

[kasper]

83 or 93 what’s 10 years?

 

 

[facthunter]

Becomes a lot as you get older.. Most of your friends DIE.. Nev

 

 

[onetrack]

He made a typo, he actually meant to type 103. 

 

 

[biggles]

      He’s a bit slower than usual to take the bait, so hope the old fellow is OK ..... Bob 

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Another skill that had to be leaned was standing up 8 foot 10x10 inch salmon gum legs in a mine, then fitting them in place. My back still hurts thinking about it. 

 

 

[spacesailor]

"Another skill that had to be leaned was standing up 8 foot 10x10 inch salmon gum legs in a mine, "

 

Pit-Props

 

.

 

My elder brother had a funny job one day.

 

To close a mine-shaft he dynamited the pit-props, so caving in the roof, of an unsafe shaft. Fire-in-the-hole !.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[onetrack]

Talking about mine shaft timbers reminds me of the amazing sight that used to greet you if you inspected the "Wealth of Nations" gold mine, 50kms NW of Coolgardie, W.A.

 

The mine workers had utilised local Gimlet hardwood for the props to support the roof - and had installed very sizeable, 75mm thick slices of Salmon Gum slabs, simply sliced off the nearby big Salmon Gum trees, as load-spreading plates, top and bottom of the Gimlet props.

 

But the rock pressure on the props was so great, it had punched the Gimlet uprights clean through the Salmon Gum slabs - leaving the remnant Salmon Gum to hang around the Gimlet uprights, like oversize washers!

 

 

[kaz3g]

Bags were 80 lbs if you rammed them

 

No, they were 80 kilos which is 180 lbs and bloody heavy.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

European crops look glorious, Pom's especially. Looks like you could drive on top of them they are that dense. Sprising that the French produce more wheat than Australia.

 

A major factor: at that latitude the crop gets very long hours of daylight during the growing season.

 

 

[planedriver]

And for further good advice, there's always Graham Ross's Gardening Show on Radio 2GB 873am on Saturday mornings. 

 

 

[Thruster88]

And for further good advice, there's always Graham Ross's Gardening Show on Radio 2GB 873am on Saturday mornings. 

 

Well there is only so much one can say about a high performance stol aircraft failing to take off and the thread drift has been interesting, but gardening that's a bit to extreme.? 

 

 

[Phil Perry]

It’s probably fortunate it was wheat and not a Canola crop . If it was Canola in full bloom the Foxbat would never have been spotted .

 

I have never heard of Oilseed Rape described as 'CANOLA' in my life mte,. . I'll have to ask farmers !

 

My younger Brother Ray had n incident where he got overcome with a crosswind gust in our Trike, and he ended up in a rape field semi inverted with the ballast cotiner resting on his back.

 

Te prop was still rotating at idle when I crawled underneath the wing and cut the ignition switch.   Bro couldn't reach around far enough to switch it off himself due to the weight of the ballast leaning on his back.   Th crop was strong enough to save the wing from damage and allow us to flip the machine upright and taxi it to safe storage.

 

( I flew Bro home in the 3 axis machine that I was demonstrating earlier that day, we were flying in formation enroute to home base. ).

 

Regrettably, Brother lost his nerve after that incident, and has never flown as P1 since.

 

 

[turboplanner]

I have never heard of Oilseed Rape described as 'CANOLA' in my life mte,. . I'll have to ask farmers !

 

English farmers may not know.

 

If you ever decide to come to Australia again, let us know; one of us will need to escort you around Melbourne at all times. Most Australians don't drink beer any more, and the men could be identifying as females at any time, the most brutal football games are in the AFL Womens' teams and you certainly can't afford to stand up in a train to give a woman your seat or she may kick you in the balls.

 

The only way we can sell meat is to insinuate it grew from trees, egg farms are attacked for their "brutal" treatment of sleeping chickens, Stock semis are blockaged from taking cattle to agistment from drought affected areas, and several Councils are busy changing millions of documents to delete and sexual reference to the thing you see around Council areas like manholes (which while being an undeucated amateur at this game, I THINK are being called "service holes".

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Near here, local place names including Jim Crow Creek, Blackjack Road and Blackfellows Gate Road are subject to name- changing petitions. Councils will probably concede. The names are at least 170 years old.