So I finally got the 'businesses' letter drafted and the first lucky recipient is Clive at Fullers - I have offered the option of being removed from our mailing list just in case. My creative juices dried up yesterday so the draft newspaper article was very dull. It is better now as I awoke inspired and ran it off fairly rapidly. Too many facts and figures in the first - this one is a bit more jolly (or as jolly as the subject allows). Still to do the draft media release, but there are only so many things a girl can do with a nice sunny day outdoors. Drove into Oatlands to pick up the lawnmower and the dog insisted on coming too. He is getting cabin fever from being stuck indoors while I do all this composing. So we stopped off along the side of the lake and went for a walk. THere are two bunds across Lake Dulverton, put in to retain water. There is a bit of story to this as some elements of the community simply wanted to dig the lake a bit bigger and some wanted the bunds. The proponent for the bunds installed them one Christmas when all the opponents were out of town. Those who wanted the lake deeper simply dug a trench alongside the edge of the lake to provide a deep-water channel. The channel retained water all through the drought .... ah the joys of country living. Bulldozers at dawn!! lol. So anyway, the dog and I decided to walk out along the second of these bunds which I always assumed connected to St Mary's Island. But it doesn't so I will have to wait for a dry spell to get out there (not too soon please). But the dog had a lovely time sniffing among the reeds and went for a very short paddle when we got to the other end (there are signs warning all manner of terrible punishments for dogs in the water). A fisherman told me there were trout in the water but he had nothing to show for his theory, so I will reserve judgement on that one. Then home with the lawnmower and some extensive procrastination before it was lifted out of the back of the ute and fired up. And then a fairly rapid loss of interest on my part once the area around the house was cleared. I will have another go tomorrow before I head into Oatlands for the market and to meet someone so I can brief them on the Shale Gas issue.

It's bad enough my signal is slowed due to me exceeding my download limit for the month, but the weather today has conspired to refuse me access to the internet at all (without serious contortions to get to the one minute band of signal wafting and wandering across the kitchen table from time to time. Luckily the meeting kept me out of trouble and has provided me with some work to keep busy with. This includes drafting an article for the Tasmanian country, Weekly Times and Stock and Land newspapers highlighting the issue and the meeting next month, drafting an outline press release for after the meeting (with most of the words there apart from numbers, key phrases from speakers and comments on the proportion of farmers, a list of farmers of my own to contact (the ones I know) and encourage along to the meeting with brochures and promises of supper, and additional names for my major mailing list (Peter Cundall Bob Brown and others). Also letters to Councils, and the ABC to contact for transripts, old school tie connections with Chris Wisbey and other little matters. Of course in the absence of a computer signal and phone signal was just too much to hope for, so apart from the keyboard stuff, the rest will have to wait for next week. And anything involving the internet will require both good weather and a refreshment of my allowance which will not happen until the 6th. Best pick up the mower tomorrow if it ready and take advantage of the terrifyingly warm weather forecast for Sunday ...

It's bad enough my signal is slowed due to me exceeding my download limit for the month, but the weather today has conspired to refuse me access to the internet at all (without serious contortions to get to the one minute band of signal wafting and wandering across the kitchen table from time to time. Luckily the meeting kept me out of trouble and has provided me with some work to keep busy with. This includes drafting an article for the Tasmanian country, Weekly Times and Stock and Land newspapers highlighting the issue and the meeting next month, drafting an outline press release for after the meeting (with most of the words there apart from numbers, key phrases from speakers and comments on the proportion of farmers, a list of farmers of my own to contact (the ones I know) and encourage along to the meeting with brochures and promises of supper, and additional names for my major mailing list (Peter Cundall Bob Brown and others). Also letters to Councils, and the ABC to contact for transripts, old school tie connections with Chris Wisbey and other little matters. Of course in the absence of a computer signal and phone signal was just too much to hope for, so apart from the keyboard stuff, the rest will have to wait for next week. And anything involving the internet will require both good weather and a refreshment of my allowance which will not happen until the 6th. Best pick up the mower tomorrow if it ready and take advantage of the terrifyingly warm weather forecast for Sunday ...

Not much happening here today - they promised us warmth and sunshine and all we got was temperate overcast with the odd speckle of a shower. Too warm to comfortably light the fire, too cool and damp not to so it is lit and my dinner (a meatloaf) is chuntering away in the oven. When/if it gets cooked it will be served with mash and some peas. A meeting is now scheduled for tomorrow and we are planning to establish an interim committee so we can get things moving (instead of sitting around talking about what needs to be done). Difficult with one person only having two days free a week due to small children, another with small children and elderly relatives to ferry about, a third living a surprisingly high-flying lifestyle for a farmer and so forth. still, we will get there in the end I assume.

I lost my political virginity today. I went to Parliament House to watch a 'debate' on the motion by Greens member Tim Morris. Now I don't know about you, but my past experience of debating (albeit very limited) would suggest that the question at issue should be addressed. Apparently not in Parliament. The motion was a very moderate one under the circumstances - given the applicant is telling us they do not intend to frack during the first three years of exploration. It was that a moratorium be established on fracking for a period of two years. That exploration for resources that would require fracking be under the same moratorium. It was careful to exclude coal and other resources currently being exploited in the State. The argument was that there is no driving need for additional energy resources here at present and that there were serious science-based concerns about the impacts of fracking. So that was the motion. The Labor response was that we are all a bunch of scaremongering NIMBYs and that the farmers were singing a different song when they wanted economic support (well, no, they were arguing for the resources (irrigation water) required to allow them to intensify their productivity and it remains to be demonstrated what economic benefit might derive from an interstate come-and-go company might offer us (other than a couple of truck-driving jobs). Further it was posited that the moratorium was not on this limited field but on all mineral exploration, that this would damage us overseas etc etc. Then the Libs ponderously rose to their feet (which they have not seen for some time) and launched a tirade about banning the mining industry and what had happened to the forestry industry... Now I may not have been paying much attention over the last few years, but I do know that the forestry industry was given the heads up 40 years ago that they were on a short rope. They argued then that it would take at least 30 years to get plantations going. The government encouraged their intransigence and continued to do so for the next 40 years. OK, they started plantation planting when was it? say 20 years ago if I am being generous? Then they decided to build a pulp mill which again the government encouraged them to believe they would get away with despite the electorate saying no ... so how is it that caution is causing our international standing to be damaged?I would say it is the illadvised determination of our elected members which has caused this. An exploration permit encourages the applicant to spend money looking for a resource that we WILL NOT ALLOW TO BE EXTRACTED!!! So surely discouraging them at this point until we can get some facts (instead of the platitudes our representatives offer) would be sensible. Then we, as a community, can form a view as to whether we want to eat or keep warm, and everyone will know where they stand. Idiocy and 1950s bullying tactics inherited from their fathers who stood in parliament before them in my view ... Anyway I otherwise had a nice day. Lunch was a pumpkin and goats cheese open pie from Daci and Daci washed down with a bottle of Lucaston park apple juice in the company of a nice young seagull with impeccable manners on the docks. Then a wander over to The shop of two names that I can not recall where i indulged in eye candy and the wonderful odour of chocolate (on Salamanca, you know the one) and so back to the House for the debacle of the vote (predictable outcome but the more disappointing since neither of the other parties bothered to address the question. Following that i darted over to Spice World and now have a stockpile of Kaffir lime leaves for the pantry and so home. Fire is lit though barely necessary as it was a lovely day and the house is fairly cosy, but just in case ...

A lovely start to the day today:

With 609 Likes now we are bolting ahead. I have been contacted by a rep of another lobby group wanting to form a political party for our next State election - I politely declined, this is quite enough work for us to deal with at present. The naming saga went on last night, with the votes in, a name decided, some discussion about the wisdom of the word fracking in our title (voted out) and posted on the email group, our little friend then pursued a campaign of additional name suggestions, confused discussion and other such things. I just asked to have my name removed from the discussion (before I got in the ute, drove to her place and decked her). So we now have a name - phew. Now we need an interim committee (until we are incorporated and can hold an election. So I am acting Secretary since i have been doing the job since we started. Strangely, no-one has nominated our friend yet. Can't imagine why. At least I am not the only person who is so 'over' her. Today was a lovely still day (albeit overcast) so I finally got the Roundup out and wandered around hitting clumping grasses, hoarhound, incipient thistles and other such unwelcome visitors and also around structures, fencelines etc to keep the really difficult to control stuff down. Once that was done I watered the red currant cuttings (now all sporting leaves) and the various other potted stuff I have cluttering up the back garden in case the delays since the last rain had caused them distress. While spraying in the orchard I noted that most of the trees are still fully dormant, so I may yet get some pruning done, but if not, it can wait till summer when I can do some shaping with no real difficulty. They should all be able to fruit properly next year, but this year i will continue culling excess growths. The four sticks of grapevine given to me a month or so back which have been sitting in a tumbler of glass on the kitchen counter showed signs of life the other day which is now burgeoning into fully fledged leaf buds. No sign of roots yet though, so I have no idea how successful they will be - may add some seasol to the water once the leaves commence unfurling. Not having ever actually attempted grape cuttings before I am flying blind. So apart from an article for the Colebrook Newsletter, an email to various farmers to alert them to Tim Morris having tabled a motion for a moratorium on Fracking and to invite them to the public gallery for private members debates tomorrow, I have not really achieved much. Oh, the lawnmower is finally in at the service station to be given its spring clean up and new blades, but apart from that ... not much. Smidgen continues to suffer from 'sharing' issues:

Well the good news is we have 596 likes now - nearly up to 600 people like us - though one has to assume some of them don't actually like us, they just want to know what we are talking about. Our current audience is closer to 6100 people - that is individuals, not just the number of accesses to the site. On the down side the naming saga continues and despite lengthy discussion, followed by a vote, we are now back to the discussion phase. It would have been easier if we had simply gone with my preferred option (dictatorship suits me), but no, they all chose the one name that is now in contention due to the wording... gargh! !I am not temperamentally suited to this sort of scatterbrained dithering... It's like trying to expect logic from hyperactive toddlers. It's interesting to note that Clive Palmer is more politically responsive than the major parties - he has decided to come out against CSG ... still, he is a business man and so probably better attuned to 'what the customer wants' than our more established politicians. Our own local rep who is performing very poorly in the polls has just sent around a letter to us all that sounds, frankly, a little needy - a separate sheet lists his achievements while in office (not many given he has had a couple of terms now). Meanwhile it has been a simply glorious day here - only 12 degrees but toasty warm, little wind and loads of sunshine.