Where’s Lancpudin?

[Digger]

Another day of smoke filled air. As of last evening at 7:00 pm the fire had grown to 7600 acres with 1% containment. Don't ask me how they compute that.

It's burning on National Forest lands where there are fewer structures and to the best of my knowledge none have been consumed yet but it's not far from housing.

It's moved farther north and now the main body of the fire is due west of us about 10 miles or so but on the other side of the Hogback Ridge which will act as a natural block for this area.

Oh mate I hate fires! Be careful not to breathe too much of that smoke in Paul as it alone can bugger your lungs if you get too much of it!

 

[Digger]

We met a group of 12 people for lunch yesterday in town. The art society treasurer is retiring so we had a lovely social time seeing him off. It’s interesting to see how things have changed these days in so much as hardly anyone had any alcohol, and if they did it was only one.

I was on the verge of buying a new iPad, the 13” Pro but a chat with my son in law Grant put me off as he said they are too thin and too big to cart around. He bought one a while ago and was a handy reference. Plan B is to put a new battery in my 3 year old Series 9.

Now my savings is back to burning a hole in my pocket! Maybe and upgrade my Apple watch to an Ultra Series 2? I need some retail therapy! It used to be guitars but now I'd rather get rid of them than buy new ones.

Sad hey?

 

[soulman969]

Oh mate I hate fires! Be careful not to breathe too much of that smoke in Paul as it alone can bugger your lungs if you get too much of it!

Folks here are staying inside as much as possible. Fortunately the way it's burning the smoke tends to rise above us if only because we're so close. It's worse when I get 5-6 miles east and then to the south where there are two more smaller fires burning near Boulder and Lyons.

So we have three going on at once but the one nearest here is over 9200 acres now and by far the largest of the three. So far property damage has been minimal as they've managed to keep the burn confined to the forested lands but hundreds have been displaced.

 

[Digger]

It was a nice, if cool day yeterday, so I jumped on the tractor and did some slashing. TIdying up, nothing really dramatic. I’ll put the cows in to clean up the freshly cut stuff today. This time of year we get a lot of onion grass which they won't eat, so a tidy up is required.

I’ve used so much wood this very cold winter that yesterday I finished all that I’d put aside, so have had to start on next years supply. The good news is that it burns OK even though leaving it another few months would have been better. I have some from the same trees that are as yet needing to be split, so that will replace what I use of next years. Now I need to drop a couple of trees to start on wood for season 2026.

Lots oif noise from Joes cows next door last night so maybe one was having trouble calving?

 

[soulman969]

The fires are still burning but this was the clearest day we've had since they began earlier this week. Very little smoke in our area. I suspect higher wind velocity and coming more from the north.

 

[Lancpudn]

It was a mass laundry day yesterday as this weekend is half price electricity, eight hours per day I think I've made a rod for my own back with this malarkey but it does save a lot of dosh over the months.
They credit your British Gas account with the savings which will help with the heavy Winter heating bills. This new government have just cancelled the pensioners Winter fuel allowance of £250 so it will be needed even more now.
I'll be mowing the front lawns today & harvesting some salad potatoes.

 

[Digger]

Moved cattle around and did some tinkering yesterday.

 

[Lancpudn]

I got the front lawns mowed & harvested some big tomatoes for my brother yesterday, They've done well this year after a slow start to the season & taste superb.
I'll order some more of these Big Mama F1 seeds, I'd save the seeds from these but you won't get the same exact variety again from F1 tomatoes.

 

[Digger]

Yesterday the Australian govt, raised the threat of terrorism to “probably”

In this usually peaceful country that is a first and speaks something about the world we live in today.

 

[soulman969]

Nothing much to report from here other than the fires being mostly contained now and the sky has cleared of the smoke. Between the fire here and the one near Lyons there were 50 buildings destroyed, one death, and three serious injuries. Total acreage burned 9800 acres.

 

[Lancpudn]

It's time to put my old camera out to pasture, The lens has a big build up of dust inside & it's not worth the cost of repairing it. I've been watching ebay auctions for a newer model of mine & I won the auction last night The chap had lost the lithium battery charger for it, but it's the same as my old one, so I grabbed a bargain.
Nothing on today apart from the online shopping being delivered.

 

[Digger]

I spent the morning with the “boys” splitting some firewood yesterday. Son Greg and paid helper Shawn were on the machine and I fed them with huge slabs of heavy hardwood. Got about 3 weeks worth of wood done and ended up with a sore back (again). Whilst I didn’t lift any of it, some bits were too heavy for me to even lift onto the side and roll into the bucket....but I did anyway.

So a quieter day today and I might just fill in a few dozen of small Wombat digs on the banks behind us so he doesn’t get the idea of enlarging them. Cute little buggers bur sooooo naughty!

Took Greg out to our best pub for tea last night and I have the seafood pie for the 4th time in a row. I cant describe how delectable the seafood was!

 

[soulman969]

Had an appt with the Orthopedic doc today and learned my back is not as bad off as I thought it might have been. He suggested some physical therapy and some home exercising for now and an evaluation in a few months before we consider other treatments.

Other than that roomie Steve and I finished up the last of the info needed for the application for a new place. Since it's a complex built using tax credits to offset lower rents the amount of financial and income info they ask for is quite a bit more than usual.

Now as with most things the government has a hand in it's hurry up and wait. Meanwhile we've stayed put where we are for the month of August asking only that the current management accept that in writing. They've had 7 days to do it and so far it's been crickets.

We're already a couple days past the due date for rent which they will not get before they acknowledge the one month extension of our lease so I guess we'll find out soon enough what their next move will be. I have zero trust in the property manager any longer so I expect anything.

 

[Lancpudn]

Had an appt with the Orthopedic doc today and learned my back is not as bad off as I thought it might have been. He suggested some physical therapy and some home exercising for now and an evaluation in a few months before we consider other treatments.

Other than that roomie Steve and I finished up the last of the info needed for the application for a new place. Since it's a complex built using tax credits to offset lower rents the amount of financial and income info they ask for is quite a bit more than usual.

Now as with most things the government has a hand in it's hurry up and wait. Meanwhile we've stayed put where we are for the month of August asking only that the current management accept that in writing. They've had 7 days to do it and so far it's been crickets.

We're already a couple days past the due date for rent which they will not get before they acknowledge the one month extension of our lease so I guess we'll find out soon enough what their next move will be. I have zero trust in the property manager any longer so I expect anything.

Good to hear your back is holding out better than expected Paul, What a scoundrel that property manager is & wouldn't help you & your roomy out. You just hope what goes around comes around to these people.

Missus wants to change the borders in the front garden so we went shopping for weed membrane & bags of Cotswold stone chips to cover it, I wasn't keen on the idea at first, but it means less weeding & hoeing for me.

 

[soulman969]

Good to hear your back is holding out better than expected Paul, What a scoundrel that property manager is & wouldn't help you & your roomy out. You just hope what goes around comes around to these people.

Missus wants to change the borders in the front garden so we went shopping for weed membrane & bags of Cotswold stone chips to cover it, I wasn't keen on the idea at first, but it means less weeding & hoeing for me.

The back pain can still be uncomfortable some days Ian but at now I know what's causing it and a path to dealing with it. Unfortunately that would mean using some medications and injections I'd rather avoid for now so I'll see how much some physical therapy can help for starters.

As for the property manager she's young and I think older guys who know their legal rights both anger and intimidate her because that's her usual method of dealing with things. She didn't like some of the edicts of hers I questioned when she came on board and this is retaliation.

She posts a notice saying we should be gone by August 3rd and yet that came and went last Saturday and we're still here having informed her in writing of our plans and progress. It's been crickets ever since. This issue is very easy to resolve by just agreeing to the extension.

 

[Digger]

I pottered yesterday and it was gorgeous being outside! (for winter). I filled in a couple of dozen attempted wombat burrows and found one that was a full on go. I filled it with heavy chunks of granite and soil. Hopefully that will thwart his attempt to go to China???

Tidying up pieces of firewood that were split the day before I chucked a big heavy piece up to the top of the pile only to have it roll back down and smash onto my forearm.The spiky bits gouged around where I
had already gashed myself working on a trailer the day before.

The neighbours were treated to a very loud expeletive!

Brought another load of wood over under cover but it didn’t take much to wake my freshly insulted back up from exertions the day before. I had planned on a quiet day???

Son Greg went home yesterday, 2 granddaughters coming today.

 

[soulman969]

Well now I know why we've heard nothing back regarding our rental situation. The onsite property manager quit giving no notice at all so we have yet another temporary manager whose in the dark about it all.

This will be the sixth one in a year. Doesn't sound to me like these ladies enjoy working for this outfit very much and I can see why.

 

[Lancpudn]

Blimey! Paul, What a mess on their part it's turning out to be.


Well the hullabaloo on the Train Sim World forum is still going strong, It's over 115 pages now & still not a single response from men in suits running the show, That says a lot in itself if they can't be arsed to reply to the people buying their Sim games.

We're not yet a year into the TSW4 core game where they jacked the prices up, Now they're releasing TSW5 with a purported price of £50 , The core game used to be free & you paid for the routes & locomotives you wanted, Now the price of routes & loco's have almost doubled, robbing barstewards.

Lots of gamers saying shove the new releases & only buying when it's heavily discounted in a sale, I do the same.

 

[soulman969]

Blimey! Paul, What a mess on their part it's turning out to be.

Oh and that's not all. Her last email to me included an offer to renew our lease. Can you believe it?

I have to wonder if both our last property manager and the one from earlier in the year whose been a major PIA and who I'm sure has been behind all of the friction we've experienced have left or been fired.

According to this new person who seems to have come from a higher ranking it's not their policy to threaten to evict anyone when a lease ends and the tenant stays on. They simply consider it a month to month lease and charge more for it. $250 or 15% more in our case which is just one reason why we won't be staying. That 3x more than what a reasonable increase should be.

Since the state statues require that tenants be offered an opportunity to renew it would seem our nemesis was in violation of that law and also in violation of company policy and the rights of quiet enjoyment which is part of every lease. It sets the boundaries for what a landlord can do or ask for from a tenant and enjoins the landlord from "harassing" a tenant in an attempt to get them to move.

Illegally posting a threat to evict a hold over tenant would surely come under the heading of harassment by itself to say nothing of the conduct of our nemesis attempting to conduct an inspection of the premises without first notifying us of this in advance. She created her opportunity to do it under false pretenses and refused to leave when asked. At that point she was trespassing which I've pointed to the owners.

As much as we may have preferred to stay and avoided the expense and hassle of another move it's too late for apologies and offers to renew now. The time for this ended several weeks ago when we were finally told under no uncertain terms would management renew our lease. Now we find that seems to have been a lie and more like simple retaliation from a person who didn't like me very much.

Retaliation is also illegal. Maybe the owners and their management company are trying to extricate themselves from a mess made by a rogue employee. I have some leverage I've yet to use that will be saved for any possible issue with not returning my security deposit as the nemesis did when I moved from my 1 BR place into this 2 BR with Steve. This will play out over the next couple of months.

It's very annoying to be singled out and discriminated against because we're smokers simply because that person is opposed to any smoking on the property period even though the lease permits it. There was previous harassment over that and it was at the root of the issues with the return of my previous security deposit.

To put it plainly the nemesis flat out lied about reports of smoke odor and over charged for repairs she claimed were needed in my previous unit. Others have had a similar experience and unless my deposits are refunded to me I will report all of it to the State AG who has set up a task force to prosecute companies who do this.

The company who ended up managing the property Steve and I were in for 12 years down in Englewood settled a $1 million dollar judgement against them for having done the same thing this outfit is doing. Instead of returning a security deposit they send the tenant a bill for repairs that's 3x to 4x the amount of the deposit so the tenant will simply walk away without collecting it. They threaten to report you to a credit bureau if you don't pay but never do. It's a complete scam to keep the money.

 

[Digger]

I went into town with the idea of getting my iPad a new battery. Leave it with us, it will take 2 weeks!

Nope I might need to rethink this somewhat.

Over to our main Telco showroom, and any iPad that is an improvement on my current one is close to $2k.
B/S Apple!

Walked out of there too. Maybe back to plan B?

I’ve been looking for new slippers for years! I prefer moccasins but local chain stores just offer Chinese garbage that I wouldn’t wipe my bum on! Whilst I was in looking at iPads Gael looked in the only real shoe shop we have in town and bugger me, she found me the perfect moccies! I’d tried about 6 pairs of Chinese garbage on earlier and none fit me, sizes were ridiculous too! These were a bit dearer, like double, but cheap doesn’t mean anything of you cant wear them. Made in a suburb close to Melbourne my feet are finally happy!

2 of our granddaughters arrived here last night and we’re taking them to the Metung Pub for lunch.
It’s a bit upmarket but is situated right on the shores of the Gippsland lakes. Always good food!