Why you need a 4x4 (and other environmental problems).

I took the Pajero in to Queanbeyan today to get the passenger air bag replaced under a recall due to some Japanese mob building them so that could explode.  That was done so that to quote the fixer "You can do a few ram-raids now.".  My response was that it was more like I won't get killed if I hit a roo.

When I got home Frances reported that a willow had fallen across Whiskers Creek.  Yes, good eyes that woman!

After a bit of chainsaw reconstruction (see below) I shortened the trunk a bit and positioned the Pajero.  With my trusty rope (found at the Captains Flat tip many years ago) I channelled my inner Boy Scout and remembered how to do a clove hitch.

Actually I have just recalled that the official Boy Scout  knot for dragging timber is a round turn and two half hitches.  Whatever  - I did a clove hitch.

In fact I did two: one around the log and the other around the towbar.

 In case you wonder about the spiffy shirt it came from Aldi.  Hi-vis is all the go out here.  As the area I ad driven on was pretty much a layer of silt, low-range 4WD was engaged and out popped the trunk.

 The chain saw was then wielded ..

 .. with the third member of the household looking from the back window.

You'll notice the bar on the chainsaw looks new.  That is because it is.  I was doing some work yesterday and discovered some fencing wire in an Acacia.  The bar didn't like that: as the guy at the Stihl shop in Fyshwick said "That bar has gone to a better place." It was commented that he'd once found a star picket in the middle of a tree: buggered the bar and shed bits if chain here and there..  Whatever:this went very well.

 All of this activity was going on under a pall of smoke coming from Kowen Forest in the ACT.  How unusual for hot air and smuts to be coming from the ACT!

It was a controlled burn  of windrows after forestry operations.  Of course this didn't appear on the NSW fire alert website as it was in the ACT!  Fortunately the Captain of the local brigade advised the community of what was going on.

 Here are a couple of shots from the Kings Highway.

The Hoskinstown plain was pretty much full of smoke as a consequence.  As indeed was the highway - at least they had warning signs up there.