“The jungle is neutral” is the title of a book I read umm…. shall we say about 50 years ago.  It was about soldiers fighting the Japanese in 1944 in the jungles of Burma.  A terrifying place to fight.  There was the discomfort and strange flora and fauna, a lot of the latter wanting to take a piece of you.  But the scariest thing of course was the Japanese wanting to take more than a piece of you, and the fact you can only see a few meters and the danger of an ambush is ever present.  The author gradually came to the conclusion that the Japanese were definitely scary, but the jungle was not.  It did not favour anyone.  Every single organism was doing its own thing with little heed of the strange new visitors.    The same terrors were repeated in Vietnam and many a ‘vet’ permanently changed.

Guests come to Possum Valley with a variety of experience and attitudes.  Most have at least a little experience, and put up with the rain and leeches with whatever good grace they can muster, and realise that in an Australian rainforest at least, they themselves are the scariest creatures in the jungle.  By far the biggest, strongest, most adaptable pack animal to be found in the forest that day.  Others seem quite intimidated and ask nervously about the plethora of lurking dangers.  I answer very matter-of-fact that if you see a snake, keep a separation distance of at least 1m, and pick and flick the leeches, resisting the temptation to wind them up with stories of drop bears.  Though come to think of it, tree kangaroos could fit the description quite nicely and they do have long wicked claws.   Still, a few people exit the forest in haste or even screaming at the sight of a leech.  They must have brought these fears with them.  Children very easily pick up on the fears of their parents.  If the parents freak out, the kids are sure to follow.  Here is a guy having a face-to-face interaction, heroically defending his valuables, and appointing himself alpha male.

The problem is of course the separation of the modern lifestyle from any effective interaction with the natural environment.  For the first decade of a kid’s life, the major interaction with fauna may just be pigeons crapping on statues, and cockroaches and mice trying to invade the house.  Maybe fling a few crumbs to the former and exterminate the latter.  Those households with pets at least give a kid some connection with an animal, however artificial the environment.  Zoos serve some function, though the animals are plucked from their environment to be conveniently arrayed in ours.   Australia, with its vast space and low population, offers much more opportunities than most places for people to take themselves out of the human constructed environment and put themselves into a wilderness where nothing is crafted for human comfort or convenience.  Alas, many take every convenience with them.  I always did like minimalist camping.  A decent swag and a blackened billy doesn’t put up too many walls around you.

A rainforest is a very active environment and I can’t stop critters from invading my house or the cottages.   I do deal with situations as they arise, like removing a snake from the bathroom or the roof, catching mice, wrangling possums etc, but I can’t guarantee a sterile environment.  If you like sterile….. don’t come to a rainforest.   The Belgian family who left this morning were most co-operative.  I told them on arrival that there was a problem of a family of melomys in the cottage.  Halfway in size between a mouse and a rat, a rainforest native, only distantly related to either, rare,  quite cute and a protected species.  They had been pillaging the guest’s food, frightening the faint-hearted who thought they were rats, and the worst crime was ripping up my sheets and chewing holes in walls and doors.  Just a few days ago I had found a mouse trap of brilliant design that I though might catch them.  I had for years tried various commercial designs, and even built a custom design of a commercial trap tailored to their size.  Without success.  Wily little buggers.  I had success on the first night, and they have been happily re-located to deep in the rainforest.  Well, I am happy at least.  Another guest recently was confronted with a centipede.  I call them wood centipedes as they often inhabit rotten  logs.  They are about 15 cm long by 2 cm wide when grown up.  Sort of yellowy-green and and cruise briskly along like a train on their substantial rippling legs.   I can tell you, if you get one down your gum boot, you’ll dance the jig.  If you think you may be the sensitive type, not open to confronting experiences with nature, you might want to give Possum Valley a miss and try the Cairns Hilton where they diligently ensure such experiences are kept to a minimum.

Here is a girl here last week, open to new experience, who may remember this for the rest of her life.

As I gradually come to in the morning and cock an eye to gauge the weather, I usually review what I might do in the day.  Ah yes, going shopping today and an appointment in Atherton at 10 am.  A few more press-ups with the eyelids then stumble out of bed and totter off to the shower.  No alarm clock and no hurry in my daily rituals, as if I have something I must do, it is generally in the middle of the day.  Part of my ritual is checking the rain gauge in between an orange juice and some cereal.  Only 11 mm, just a dribble.  Then as I pass the power system  control cabinet, I notice a slight flickering of a light bulb.  An old incandescent bulb specially kept from ancient times to indicate how much surplus power I have and where it is going.  From experience, there are 3 reasons it might flicker.

1) Slow rhythmic flicker probably the generator drive belts a bit slack and flopping about.  Ignore.

2) Fast rhythmic flicker might be the governor ‘hunting’, and a slight twist of a knob to alter the volts just a bit will fix that.

3) Fast irregular flicker probably the brushes on the generator sparking on the slip rings.  This requires immediate attention as the sparks will quickly erode the slip rings into pits.

Oh bugger!  Its an number 3!  Scramble to the workshop and pack a bag of tools and off into the rain down to the generator at the bottom of the waterfall.  Off with the cover and yes, No 1 pair of brushes lit up like a christmas tree so I shut off the water to the turbine and it goes all quiet … and dark.  On a rainy day at the bottom of a waterfall in a rainforest, it is too dark to see what you are doing.  Out with the LED headlight to look at the wreckage.  Ah yes, the stainless steel springs that provide the right pressure for the brushes onto the slip ring have broken, making insufficient contact, making sparks, making erosion pits in the slip ring.  Of course it is the pair of brushes most difficult to get at that require fixing.

 

So here I am, in the wet, in the dark, working in a space about the size of a mouse’s ear-hole, being eaten by leeches and absolutely assured that if I drop any tool or part into the rushing creek below, it will never be seen again.  I’d complain to the engineer’s union, except I’m self employed.  The first job is a lathe job to remove the pits in the slip rings.  I pull all the brushes off the slip rings and start the turbine to use a scraper tool to eliminate the pits.  The generator transformer is a handy tool post.

I manage to rebend the spring ends and reconnect and fit new brushes and fire it up again.  Still a bit of sparking, maybe I can poke it to the right place with this screwdriver.  Wham, bam, flash!!!  The system short circuits and goes into over-speed  as the load goes off and I frantically shut off the water.  The moral of the story is don’t poke live wires and thank goodness for plastic screwdriver handles.

The brushes and callipers I have been repairing have been blown up and require more TLC than I though.  About this time I rescheduled my 10 am appointment.

The generator in the picture has been working 24/7 for more than  30 years.  It does have a few age-related problems.  I am possibly thinking of contacting the makers of this machine with field test feedback.  I find it satisfactory.

I managed to fit new springs, new brushes where required, and now expect another 10 years of trouble-free operation.

I made my appointment by 11 am.

To have your own power system is to feel empowered, literally, to feel independent. To feel confident  and in charge of the things you require.  That is the up side.  The down side is that there is no one to phone and demand they come and fix it.  It’s up to you.

 

 

 

 

 

After a very hesitant start, the wet season has finally come to Possum Valley in the last week.  Before that was only fitfull little showers of no more that 58mm in a day.  In much of Australia farmers would rush onto the tractor and plant a crop on the strength of that, but up here in the wet tropics it passes pretty well unnoticed.  But this last week a genuine monsoon trough has been squatting on the top of Oz.  A couple of weak cyclones have been been dodging back and forth along the trough without doing much damage.

Down here on the fungus farm of Possum Valley, it meant that the hydro system went from half power from lack of water in the creek, to having no power as there was too much water in the creek.  Down at the hydro at the bottom of a water fall, the tail-waters rise, and the turbine trying to do 450 RPM gets bogged.  I don’t have to do anything, it just shuts itself down.  And I don’t have to do anything to start it up again.  As the water level drops, it just starts producing power again.  There is a battery bank that does the heavy lifting when there is no power input and I think it would last a few days with zero input, but I have never put it to the test.  So the guests enjoy uninterrupted electrical service even though the input is off and on. When there is a monsoon trough , the solar panels are doing nothing under the heavy clouds.  They can’t even remember why they were invented or what the sun looks like.  I can always patch in a stand-by generator if all else fails.  The power system here is more reliable than the mains, because of the hybrid system and the alternative options available.

Being at the top of the catchment, the floods come and go very quickly with the creek level dropping down an hour or two after the downpour.

Heavy rain also carves channels in the roads and washes the gravel off.  That requires money and labour to fix.  An inconvenience and an expense.  But the other extreme of no rain and no water is so much more devastating as it grinds huge areas of Australia and the world to dust.  The middle east, northern China, much of Africa, western America and other places will attest to the fact that drought is the curse, and rain the blessing.

I am fortunate that my guests who arrived today, having to wade through the creek to test the depth for driving through, seem to agree with me and are making the best of this very wet moment.

The above picture was taken within a couple of months of arriving at Possum Valley.  I bought the place as ‘tenants in common’ with Mike Cheshire who took this picture and kindly sent it to me a couple of days ago.  We had just set up camp by dragging a few sheets of tin through the rainforest and fixing to a few spindly bush poles.  There was no track in.  This shed had 2 walls and and a roof with 2m headroom where I am sitting and just over a metre at the other end.  A few metres to my left I have a little faded 2-man tent.  The shed was right at the bottom of the valley looking over towards where Blackbean Cottage now stands.

After the shed was the job of finding some 4WD access for our ancient clanking 1962 Landcruiser.  Using our skills from exploration work, we bought stereo high-resolution photos of the area.  With stereo, we could see the slopes.  In fact there is about 10x vertical exaggeration.  The way we found started many kilometres from the present track and came through an adjacent farm and 7 gates.  My neighbour kindly allowed us to go through his property for the next  12 or so years.  The old ‘Crown’ stove and chimney would have arrived on the back of that Landcruiser.  I think I still have the chair I am sitting on.  I think I got some idea of the conditions the early settlers laboured under, and the isolation from the rest of the world.  When it was really wet, not an infrequent occurrence, even the Landcruiser couldn’t get out and we would hike to the road and hitch-hike to town and back-pack the supplies back to PV in the rain.  It didn’t seem like hardship back then, more of an adventure.

Next job was to build a house.  Nothing flash as we didn’t have much money at all, just labour and enthusiasm.  For the previous 2 years we had been working out bush in remote parts of WA and QLD with just a swag roll and blackened billy as we saved money to buy PV.  No tent required, it only rained once in those 2 years.

Blackbean was constructed entirely from timber outside and inside.  It was the first building on the property and constructed entirely with hand tools before the power system was built.  It was started in 1976 without benefit of plans, knowledge, building approval, or money.  Completion time was about 11 months at a cost (1976 dollars) of about $1,400 complete with doors, windows, plumbing, wood stove etc.  A third of the cost was the tin on the roof.  Building approval was obtained 25 years later.  Originally, there was a porch and wood store where the entrance corridor and bathroom now are.  The ‘bathroom’ was a long drop on the other side of the creek and 50m up the hill.  When my wife was heavily pregnant, especially on wet windy nights, I was told in no uncertain terms that an upgrade was required.

All the materials for the present buildings were brought to PV by that old Landcruiser and it was our sole means of transport for about 15 years.  We bought it at 15 years old for $750 and sold it for $750 when it was 30 years old.

Mike and I both got married, and while a couple of blokes can get along in a small house, it is not suitable long-term for 2 couples.  So we both built a new house.  Mike built Maple Cottage, and I built the Homestead and we soon had kids.   Then Mike’s wife wanted to move to Brisbane where her family was, and with considerable help from my mother, I bought out Mike’s share.

I now had 3 houses and a couple of sheds.  It seemed the obvious thing to do B&B.  There has been no master plan for my life, I just went with the flow. I don’t regret any of it, except perhaps the failure of relationships but that’s another story.  I am rapidly approaching the traditional retiring age of 65.  I have worked for wages for perhaps 5 of those years, probably less.  I have enjoyed the freedom of having my time to myself and paid the penalty of having little money all my life.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

Possum Valley has been having the hottest temperatures for several years this last week, reaching 31C .  The highest temp ever recorded at PV in the last 38 years is 33C.  I know, I know that is nothing in Oz where 50C is not unknown and a place like Darwin exceeds 31C just about every day even in the ‘winter’ and right now Brisbane is 10C hotter at 41C, but I do find it a tad uncomfortable.  Even more disconcerting is there is no sign of the Wet season.  No storms, no monsoon troughs, not even a shower.

It is great for my guests, who can go for walks in the shady, naturally air-conditioned rainforest without being molested by leaches which retreat and sulk in damp places in the dry weather, but it is not good for the rainforest in general.  I walked under some trees today and it was continuously raining leaves.  Wild ginger leaves have curled up to conserve water and many others are limp and sad.  There will be many other plants and animals suffering from heat and lack of water normally expected in copious amounts at this time of year.  Personally, I have the minor inconvenience of the hydro power being down to 1/3 or 1/4 of full power as the creek dwindles away.  No matter, the 30 solar panels are doing the heavy lifting.  Once again I am glad I am not a farmer helpless in the grip of Australia’s famously erratic weather.  I believe weather variability has been compiled and reduced to a number representing deviations from the normal climate.  Australia stars on this index.  Global climate change will likely make that index climb to destructive levels.  Generally expected in most models, is that the tropics will stay as wet or a bit wetter and most of the country south, already dry, will get dryer.  Not a good prospect.  And now we have a government that wants to put its head in the sand concerning global climate change.  Well, at least they’ll have plenty of sand to go round as the deserts expand.

Happy New Year to one and all and I hope you had a great festive period.  I certainly did as my daughters with 1 grandchild and 1 partner came to stay for a few days.  Between them they had trekked 7000km to be here.  Also for a feast designated as Xmas, to which my wife and her partner came bearing gifts and garden produce.  Modern families get complicated don’t they, but I’m glad to say that ours is without animosity and can get together and have a warm and loving occasion.  The feast above was early because of work commitments, which allowed me to have 2 extra Xmases with other friends.  One was in perhaps one of the most beautiful places imaginable at a high farm at Tarzali with a great view over the rolling Tablelands to the distant mountains.  Dinner was ‘al fresco’ under the shade of a spreading African tree which bears huge red flowers in season.  The weather was superb, the meal delicious, the wine excellent, the company friendly and humorous, the animals around wanting a piece of the action amusing, and the environment as the sun went down was stunning.  Best meal ever served off a pallet covered with an elegant tablecloth.  You just had to be careful where you put your wine down.

In the foreground is Maple Cottage which has a view down to the largest dam on the left.  Next up towards the horizon is the games room.  Next up and to the left is Blackbean Cottage down in the valley and nearest the horizon is the Homestead, the rambling mansion of Paul the host, manager, cleaner, repair man, receptionist etc.  Most of the picture is on the property of Possum Valley with World Heritage forest rolling over the hills for several kilometres.  Just cut off to the right is a dam where the sauna is located.

In the distance Queensland’s highest mountains.

This Xmas and this environment has reminded me how lucky I am.  In all of human history, few have enjoyed the simple luxuries of good and dependable food, a pleasant uncontaminated environment, a long life supported by a competent medical system, a stable society, unprecedented access to information and entertainment, freedom from violence and repression, a loving and lovable family, clean water that is hot and cold as I desire, and the list of luxuries goes on.  All this achieved with little money and a lot of luck.  Only in a couple of years in the 1970’s I think, did I have to pay tax.  Thereafter my income was too meagre to attract tax.  My advice is to go directly to your goals without going through the mediating medium of money.  By your own efforts create the lifestyle you desire.  By directing your own labour to your own goals, you can bypass the legions of 10%ers, or in the case of government the 30%ers, who want to profit from your labour.  Along the way, you may avoid being ripped off by the banks who increase the pain with interest.  Come to think of it, perhaps you can also avoid the veracious parasite called insurance.  Just bearing the consequences that fickle fate can bring, may be better than paying regular amounts for dubious outcomes.  I leave you with this seditious propaganda and hope you have a great new year.