Cloudburn

G'day.

2 weeks since I last scratched together some text, and would you believe, things haven't progressed very far. You may recall a certain easy task we had to carry out, and it turned out to be a bit of a drama? Well, that is still ongoing. At least there is some light appearing through the tunnel! It appears we might actually be able to get this job done once and for all this week... I've finally completed enough paperwork to sink a battleship, covered every possible scenario from snake bite to earthquake, and managed to fly a man up from Brisbane to drive our cherry picker as none of us are "authorised" to use one one site. If it goes pear shaped again this time, Mr Safety really will be scraping the barrel for excuses to stop us. I am hopeful that we might have some success this time, even though all too often, that light at the end of the tunnel is actually the headlamp of an oncoming freight train...

The last couple of weeks have been pretty interesting, most of last week I spent designing and building up a new repeater system for a mine out west. It's a bit of an ongoing project, and I suspect some of the other techs are starting to tire of me having repeaters and the like spread out over a few of the work benches, but I am slowly achieving what I require.

Last Tuesday a few of us attended an "Elevated Work Platform" training course for the day. There was a huge paper exam that seemed to go on forever, but we got to have a bit of a play in a cherry picker so that made up for it. Now I've just got to log 40 hours of use and then I can apply for my ticket.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty interesting, Dan and I headed to a job in the Byfield forest, just out of Yeppoon. We were installing a remote control camera on top of a mast in the middle of the forest, so they can control it from the ranger station and look for smoke and fires. In the time we were up the tower fitting it, we spotted two, so I imagine that the camera will get quite some use. The fireys went to one of them, but the other was just an old burn off flaring up again. We got the camera end and the wireless control link installed on the Wednesday, then drove back down the road toward Yeppoon to locate our accommodation. We decided to stay at a resort which was close to our work site, but for the money, it probably wasn't worth it. At the reception we asked for two separate beds, and the nice lady behind the counter assured us this was so. (You don't go to a flash resort just to end up top 'n' tailing of course).

We took delivery of our keys and went up to the allocated room. The first thing that became apparent, was that there were no light switches. After finally turning on a bedside lamp, we discovered that there was indeed no lights fitted to the room anyhow. Even with all the mini lamps turned on, the apartment was still as dark as the inside of a cow. The next thing that rapidly became apparent, was the fact there appeared to be only one bed in the place. We hunted high and low, even checked in the room safe, but no bed was to be found. In the end Dan called the reception:

"Hello, Reception"
"G'day, Dan here"
"Oh hello! Did you find your room alright?"
"Yes yes, certainly did!"
"OK then! Is everything to your satisfaction?"
"Well, not quiet. We're short of a bed."
"You asked for two didn't you?"
"Yes"
"And is there not two in that room?"
"No, only the one. Hence that's why I'm calling you and telling you we are missing one."
"I wonder where it's gone. I'll send the porter up!"
"OK then, than.. *CLUNK* ks then... what a rude lady... she hung up on me!"

Anyhow, the porter duely arrived to take us to our next room. We had to go down a level, but at least there were two beds. Luckily the restaurant was still open, so we went to get some dinner. There was sign up saying "bookings essential!" so we went up and asked if we could make a booking. "When for?" they asked... "Well, right now, actually!" As it turned out, it's the off season anyhow, so there were plenty of tables. I tried to talk the waitress into going for a swim with me, but she chicken out, citing that it was too cold. Australians....

Next day, back to the forest, and Dan rigged the tower at the office so we could get the wireless data link going to control the camera. Fortunately they had a nice tall tower there to mount it on. Unfortunately, there were even taller trees right in the link path, and we weren't getting any signal through them. We suspected that it might have been the end of that idea, as usually getting trees cut down in a national park can be quite difficult. They must of been fairly keen to get this camera going though, because half an hour later a fellow arrives with a chainsaw. We marked out the two offending trees, and after performing a risk assessment of course, old mate started hacking away at the wood. Unfortunately one tree in particular wanted to fall exactly the opposite direction to what we wanted it to, so he had to be pretty careful and spent about 15 minutes with the wedges and sledge hammer before she finally came down right on target.

Second tree was already half leaning over, so he just took a big bite out of it and she came down piece of cake. Surprisingly enough, the moment the tree hit the ground the picture sprung to life on the monitor. Hooray, another successful mission for team kiwi.

Anyhow, not much else to report really, I shall leave you with some more photographs.

TTFN!