Training Log Archive: Mess Engineer

Event 1 at King Edward Park. 28 Controls. Distance copied from others logs.
Came 18th of 68. So happy enough.

Usual mad dash with average of 1 minute between controls so little time to read map more than 1 control ahead.

Made mistakes at Control 5 (went too far north, ended up at road, bush bashed back), Control 6 (looking on S side of track rather than N) and Finish (like many others ... ran past it towards desk).

Lots of hills today meaning lots of sweat. Since the rogaine got the start of a sniffly nose so felt efforts a bit more than I would otherwise.

Similar comments to last event held here back in March 2011
http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_6743/p...

But according to splits took out the honors in (the supposedly untimed ... but maximum of 1 minute) crossing the road from 2 to 3 in the fastest time of 16 seconds! Whoopee.

Day seemed to go OK organisationally with a few learnings for next week. Had to wait for Control collection so I would be ready for next weeks event. Finally left at 8 pm. So no competing for me next week.

This morning got up at 4:45 am and unpacked car of gear, sorted out the 30 locks, sorted controls into bunches of 6 for progressive distribution next week, and made up 6 'minimaps' for control placement / collection.

Need to make up / distribute a mud map for layout of the start so may drive in today via Boomerang Park.

Long - Splits

Been fighting something like a cold since the rogaine so headachey and sweaty this morning. Most annoying thing is I have woken up with something irritating my right eye so all weepy and half closed. Hopefully resolve prior to drive home.

Eye improved but still annoying. Stopped at Chemist on way home to get eye wash which made it better for about 20 minutes.

C • Eye better? 3

Approx 4:35 pm - 5:15 pm with interuptions

Partner just lit Fire Pit as I pulled in the drive (Fire Permit until end of month ... just have to check each day in advance for permission).
Wanted to get this done as meant to rain up to 80 mm a day over the next 4 days.
So spent time loading on all the 2 poly trailers of clearings.
Going to have to nick name paperbarks as "petrol bush".

Only pulled them out on Sunday so not remotely dried up but all the leaves burnt like rocket fuel. Had to wait between loadings due to flame height.

The logs, full of moisture, charcoaled around the bark layer and I thought that would be all but I cut / broke them up short enough so they sat together at the bottom of the pile and by 7 pm they were almost all gone.

So thats downhill downhill Neighbours pile gone now too.

6 pm - 7 pm

In downhill downhill Neighbours tackling multiple large lantana bushes by the back boundary to finally get across the entire 75 m width.

Lantana is incredibly easy to pull out of the ground. However all the light weight branches interlock and make it a pain to transport to remove. Downhill downhill Neighbours yard in infested with it .... think it is related to the creek that runs through the property. So may just leave what I pulled out in a heap down there ... just clear of the fence. At my last house pulled out 8 TONNES of lantana (thats not an estimate ... that was the total of all the dump weighbridge measurements) but all you could do was keep it back ... never eliminate it. It was in a valley so was too steep to get down the bottom so it just kept growing back up the hill.

Also aborted attempt to dig out the last remaining paperbark stump. Not budging, and top too flexible/weak for chainblock and slings so I think I will just chainsaw off below ground level and bury it. Task for another day.

4:25 pm - 4:50 pm
Shovelled 5 wheelbarrows of ash out of the Fire Pit to clear it out for next burn.

From Wallalong Fire Pit

4:50 pm - 5:35 pm
Moved 2 poly trailers of clearing pile (from yesterday) to Fire Pit.
First load tipped backwards and spilled everywhere when I was in the process of tying it up ready for transport so had to restack it again.

My Park Event Course for next week is now finished and emailed to Geoff Todkill for printing.
No more changes now!

Very happy with the end result.

C • Glad you are 3

10:35 am - 12:10 pm
Continued pushing over paperbarks in downhill downhill (150 m from my block) Neighbours.
Also use of mattock to dig some out.

Then progressively threw them over downhill neighbours fence.
Then went in downhill neighbours and dragged them 75 m over to my boundary fence. Then cut into 2 m lengths ready for loading into poly trailer to haul down to fire pit for another burn off next weekend.

Pile only about 1/4 to 1/3 of previous one for downhill neighbours as nowhere near as much regrowth.

From Wallalong Gardening Part 4

Another 2 hrs of playing with Boomerang Park map.
rockman provided updated basemap after yesterdays review and had spent similar time overnight.

We both spent large quantities of time coming up with every concievable combination of sequencing the controls to try and make course as readable as possible but also with some decent flow.

So after all this any complaints on the day of the event will not be well received. For a mental break need to get back outside for some gardening therapy!

2 pm - 4:30 pm
Downhill downhill Neighbours continued.

Before shot ... lots of scrubby grass

From Wallalong Gardening Part 4

After shot ... after multiple brushcuttings, raking hay, then final whippersnip to clear up and final rake.
Partner helped with some raking.
Still have to do the OTHER side of the fenceline as well!

From Wallalong Gardening Part 4

In far distance of the fenceline is a mammoth shrub of lantana which I haven't tackled yet. So only about 60 m along his 75 m rear boundary. Also got to dig out the paperbark stump at the front of the shot.

Raked it all into a big pile of grass taller than me. Will either let this rot or work out some other way to dispose of. Will be annoying to carry over two sets of fencelines if have to take to my fire pit.

From Wallalong Gardening Part 4

8:05 am - 8:40 am
Walking the fence boundary track with a 2.4 m piece of wood on the wheelbarrow and pulling out very small seedlings within this distance of fence.

8:40 am - 9:20 am
Continuing yesterdays unfinished whippersnipping.

Distance a guess.

2 hrs walking around Boomerang Park with rockman discussing my selected control sites for Park-O in 2 weeks.

Some extra map detail to be included at a few of the controls to make navigation easier.
Some changes to some controls and the sequence between controls.
Council had taken a tractor through some of the previously semi-cleared areas so it was now more open than last week!

Mosquitos were prolific and didn't care at all about the protective sprays that rockman and I applied!

Went over to downhill downhill Neighbour (who I hadn't talked to in 2 weeks since my proposal to clear his back boundary) and asked again about my request to do clearing of the back boundary.
He had looked at what I had done on downhill Neighbours and therefore agreed for me to do the same.

7:30 pm - 8:00 pm
I went down for a "look" which turned into a working bee in the fading daylight pushing over paperbarks using brute force and body weight.

I found in a hollow stump an orange fuzzy creature. After taking lots of flash photos it decided to rapidly exit the stump and run up a tree. After googling orange phascogale (a protected creature supposedly in our area) and orange possum it looks like it is a juvenile possum as (a) it was pretty skinny almost like a weasel (b) phascogales have fuzzy tails.

From Wallalong Wildlife 2

From Wallalong Wildlife 2

From Wallalong Wildlife 2

From Wallalong Wildlife 2

Instructor added a new weird looking exercise to the mix.
Get in pushup position with toes on a weight disc on the wooden floor.
Then use hands to drag your 'paralysed' back end across the room.
Worked abs and arms incredibly hard.
I was almost wrecked half way through the return leg.

4:20 pm - 6:00 pm
Under 2 weeks since last mowed and grass growing madly but I didn't want to leave it to get as thick as last time which previously meant I had to slow the mower.

Raced around all lawn areas tonight prior to the potential rain making the ground / grass wet.
Since ground dry I could drive around at top speed and not worry about the turn radius too much without digging up ruts. Zero turn mowers turning circle allows great donuts!

Hour meter finally clocked up 20 hrs after more than 1 year.

6:45 pm - 7:30 pm.
Whippersnipping around trees / council strip / spoon drains after dinner.
Ran out of daylight .... more tomorrow depending on rain.

Also going to meet up with rockman to 'vet' my Boomerang Park event at Raymond Terrace.

Went to work prior to 6 am so I could leave early and get this last burn done prior to potential rain on the weekend.

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Loading all the piles onto Fire Pit. It was all on (but as a total mess overhanging the sides as many of them were about 3 m long) within 30 minutes.

3:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Waiting for it to burn down sufficiently so I could get the long overhanging front and back ends (once the middle bit burnt away) and chuck them back into the central inferno. Hot and sweaty and kept having to swap which side of my body faced the fire so I got toasted evenly.

Break for drink.

4:05 pm - 5:05 pm
Went into downhill Neighbours to fill the last 2 large poly trailers of cleared trees, haul them back and burn them off.

Break for dinner.

5:35 pm - 6:05 pm
One last wheelbarrow of rakings from downhill Neighbour to completely finish off backlog and tidy up.

So all the 'evidence' of clearing downhill and uphill neighbours is now up in smoke (unless I start on downhill downhill neighbours too).

Will leave fire to burn down and continue to monitor prior to bed.