This is not a spam from an Indian pharmaceutical firm, this is how to erect a power pole. They are long. They are heavy. Even half a dozen strong men can’t lift them as you can’t push past the centre of gravity so the pole has all the leverage. So this is about how to get the pole in the hole without serious physical injury. Something I am sure everybody needs to know. So the pole is 7.5m long and weighs 250-300 kg. I need to move it 25m away and replant, having been smashed to the ground by a falling tree. I offer you a picture of my mobile crane.
Dangling pole
The mobile bit is because it is mounted on the back of my superbly rusted 1982 Toyota Hilux. The crane bit is because I can lift it off the ground into the vertical position with a few bit of pipes, rope and other assorted junk. On my own, in perfect control every step of the way. The horizontal pipe at the back of the tray is a bit of broken pipe from the ram pump. The A-frame steel pipe is left over from the shed construction. The handle of the windlass is spare plumbing parts. Equally sophisticated is the the stop mechanism which is a stick that can slide in and out on the tray support beams. At the top of the A-frame is a pulley for a rope turned from a small offcut of red stringy. Superbly strong wood. The A-frame is tied back to the bull bar by a stainless steel wire I can barely see.
This close up shows the windlass pipe in cradles and hold-down loops of stainless steel recycled from a defunct water pump I think.
The feet of the A-frame sit on bolts sticking through the tray. Total cost of this contraption:- zero. Total utility of this contraption, well, I didn’t have any other way.
While I was on my way down from pole erection, I ran across this little critter which I reckon has to be a legless lizard.
What’s this?
I haven’t seen anything like it before in my decades at Possum Valley. It seems to have a bit of a neck, not seen in snakes and is only 30 cm long. It seemed to have a head like a skink, with a slight neck between the head and body. It was very docile and obligingly remained for the several minutes it took me to go for my camera. Grey on top, banded yellow and black underneath.
I would welcome advice from anybody who knows what it is.
>What is this?<
Hey, how are you doing friend?
Your unidentified reptile looks like a member of legless lizards to me – zoologists call them Pygopodidae… I'm not sure about the exact species…
Would you allow to share this picture to ask some specialists?
Cheers,
Danny
Hi Danny, you are most welcome to share or use the picture however you like. I might at some time be tempted to use your picture of a red-bellied black snake sometime, because it is the best that I have. You took it just outside the sauna hut. Winter has just started today with sunshine and 25C.