Many years ago I had the good fortune to commence working in a senior role at a business which was going through the aftermath of a fraud. Various people at the business had to work themselves through the stages of grief. Fingers were half heartedly pointed, lessons were learned. Before long, recoveries were made. The emotions drained away, and then they all had to get on with the day to day running of the business.
Being new to the business, there was little emotional investment in the previous goings-on. It was weird, and that was the extent of my concern. The disorder of the aftermath, that was another issue which had to be dealt to. A new Sheriff was in town. Within the first day, a head was rolled. Occasionally a firm example needs to be set. Order was soon restored and things were set to rights. Getting on with the job was what mattered.
There are times where I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’ll give it the good Aussie go. Nothing really prepares a person for a senior role, managing staff, or juggling mind bending and complicated problems. It’s not like you can take a course on how to do any of that stuff! Mostly, you show up and give it a go. The thing to remember though, is to keep the day to day stuff ticking along.
Long term readers will recall that a few years ago the old house batteries had to be replaced. They were failing, and a few times during winter, the lights even went out. Turns out, four of the twenty-four old house batteries had cases which had formed cracks. There’s a story behind how those cracks came to be, however in this instance it serves no purpose to point fingers and lay blame. We’d discovered the damage long after the incident, and the initiative had been lost. There were more pressing day to day issues requiring our energy, so we let it go.
The old house batteries were retired to the shed, and despite the damage, they’ve continued to serve us well. Inspecting the four damaged batteries today has convinced me that those four batteries need to be put out of service and sent to the scrap metal recyclers. Despite what you may have heard, old lead acid batteries are a product where a very high percentage of the materials get recycled. The remaining twenty batteries will be kept in service, and why not? They’ve still got a job to do and years of life left in them.
The problem is, I don’t really know whether to replace those four batteries with new ones. It’s a lot of expense if it doesn’t work out. And there’s no way to discover the answer, until I’ve given it a go, and committed to the expense. I’m disinclined to spend the mad cash, as that stuff is needed for other work which needs doing.
So many issues are like that. There’s no clear way to resolve the issue, and honestly sometimes a person doesn’t know what they’re doing because it may well be a new experience and/or situation. Doing nothing is always an option I guess, but that doesn’t tend to get much work done. All we can fall back on is gut feeling and lessons learned from the past.
We’re happy to dismantle infrastructure, recover the materials and do something else with them. Reusing the old house batteries in the shed is proof enough of that. But there are times when infrastructure fails like those four damaged batteries, and they can’t be re-used or repaired, and that’s when they have to be recycled. And that second last option of recycling, is what’s going to happen to them.
Over the past year, we’ve been busy dismantling infrastructure and putting the materials to a better use. We’ve learned a lot from living here, and many of those lessons are getting put to good use and making the property easier to maintain, whilst also making it more productive.
Some citrus fruit trees grow quite well here, however those are the exceptions. Many of those variety of fruit trees were planted in conditions which were either too wet, or too shaded. This week we moved another six trees to the sunniest spot on the property. An area will be fenced off for them and the tomatoes.
Citrus trees don’t grow tall enough here to escape the vandalism of the wallabies (a slightly smaller forest kangaroo), and so they have to be grown in a fenced off area. The trees will get one more chance to grow and produce under improved conditions. Or else.
Whilst relocating the trees, we also pulled up a few rocks which had surfaced in the paddock. The rocks are hard on various machines cutting blades, so it is worth the effort to remove them. Some of the rocks are quite large.
All of the rocks will be put to use depending upon their size. Some end up in the steel rock gabion cages. Mid sized rocks are used for lining paths. The largest rocks are perfect for retaining soil in garden beds. But all rocks have a use.
Another item of infrastructure which is in the process of being dismantled is the raspberry enclosure. The first few years with those plants was very productive. However maintaining the plants – and raspberries produce fruit on second year canes – requires more space and an entirely different system.
About sixty plants were moved to another location where they should be easier to maintain. Time will tell whether the new arrangements work better for those plants.
All five of the garden terraces have now been cleared of weeds.
The winter weather is slowly but gradually warming up, and I thought that readers might be interested to see the strawberry and red mustard plants in the greenhouse. The soil temperature in the greenhouse has now reached 10’C / 50’F, whilst the air temperature is a few degrees warmer than that during the daytime.
The weather has been rather variable this week. It’s to be expected at this time of year. One morning there was a frost.
There was even a thunderstorm which produced a striking sunset.
Spring is certainly on its way. A Sambar deer stag left its calling card on a Douglas Fir where it had scratched its antlers. Ollie was intrigued by the smell.
A few of the very early deciduous trees have decided that the conditions are right to begin producing flowers and leaves.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10.00am is 7’C (44’F). So far this year there has been 633.2mm (24.9 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 612.8mm (24.1 inches)