Post something Weird or Random

[grommet]

I’ll have to look around for the Venetian blind cord. The go-to rope here for canoeing is paracord.

Handspun yarn can be strong depending on what it is made of and how tightly it was spun. It’s Australia so she must have been spinning wool. So you remember what type of wheel it was? And did she knit little sweaters for you when you were young?

Someday I’d like to hear your cyclone experiences in the bush.

I have pre-cut sections of paracord in the left pocket of every pair of pants. This is so I do not forget and leave home without it. To measure, I stretch my arms as wide as I can then add a little to that and each cord is that length. I use a wheelchair so I use cord quite a lot to hold packages on my lap.

On thing I do is go around the package then take each end of cord through a belt loop and tie them together. I make it snug and the package will not fall off even with bumps. I have carried some large and awkward packages. When the cereal I used to eat was on sale I would carry a stack of boxes on my lap. I had to use more cord but it worked very well. I know many knots and how to use them (not the same thing) and I can do handy things with cord. I think I would be hijacking this thread if I talked too much more about it.

 

[Outdated]

I wonder if it is expensive.

That 100 metre roll cost me Au$20 (US$12) so not exactly cheap but not overly expensive either. Well worth it's price.

So you remember what type of wheel it was?

She had a couple of different wheels, one large and quite ornamental one for spinning at home and an easily foldable one that she took to fairs and competitions.

And did she knit little sweaters for you when you were young?

Yes, she was spinning wool, Australia's got a lot of sheep. And yes she used to knit me jumpers as well as selling them on consignment in a few touristy type shops under her own label. The trouble is that all the jumpers she knitted me were too pretty for a man to wear, women loved them though and I got told off for giving them away.

One time as a stress relief mechanism I started crocheting, and I had a whole heap of jumpers that I was never going to wear so I used the wool to crochet. Not having too much imagination half a dozen jumpers turned into a lovely oval shaped floor rug about 5 feet by 3 feet. Mum loved it and claimed it back from me, it ended up in her lounge room.

She finally stopped knitting me jumpers after she moved up to Darwin. It was much more difficult to get wool up there and no spinning clubs that she could join.

 

[Outdated]

Peanut butter bacon balls could be the best hope for these tiny endangered marsupials

 

[tree]

 

[Mary Terry]

View attachment 135519

That's cheap for brains. I know some folks whom I'd like to gift with some.

 

[Outdated]

That's cheap for brains. I know some folks whom I'd like to gift with some.

That probably would have seemed funnier to me if I didn't grow up watching my mother eat brains. She crumbed them and fried them whole and she'd sit there carving out bits of brain with a teaspoon and eating them. Kind of disturbing to watch as a little kid.

 

[Forest Cat]

That probably would have seemed funnier to me if I didn't grow up watching my mother eat brains. She crumbed them and fried them whole and she'd sit there carving out bits of brain with a teaspoon and eating them. Kind of disturbing to watch as a little kid.

Is this a normal thing for Australian children to witness? The eating of the brain? Australia is fascinating, I have to visit it sometime.

 

[Outdated]

Is this a normal thing for Australian children to witness?

My mother was.... a bit different. She always ate lots of things that we wouldn't dream of. Part of her bush upbringing I think. It makes financial sense when you think about it, there's a lot of animal parts you can buy cheap because most people won't eat them.

She also loved seafood but she'd never buy it in a shop or order it in a restaurant, instead she'd walk along the beach in shallow water bent over double, scratching things out of the sand and stuffing them in her mouth.

 

[tree]

That probably would have seemed funnier to me if I didn't grow up watching my mother eat brains. She crumbed them and fried them whole and she'd sit there carving out bits of brain with a teaspoon and eating them.

What kind?

 

[Outdated]

What kind?

Sheep's brains.

 

[Forest Cat]

My mother was.... a bit different. She always ate lots of things that we wouldn't dream of. Part of her bush upbringing I think. It makes financial sense when you think about it, there's a lot of animal parts you can buy cheap because most people won't eat them.

She also loved seafood but she'd never buy it in a shop or order it in a restaurant, instead she'd walk along the beach in shallow water bent over double, scratching things out of the sand and stuffing them in her mouth.

I see. Yes, that does make sense.

 

[Outdated]

Australia is fascinating, I have to visit it sometime.

I think you'd have a great time here and you'd really enjoy it. But for most people in your part of the world the expense isn't as off-putting as the thought of a 28 hour flight.

 

[Mary Terry]

That probably would have seemed funnier to me if I didn't grow up watching my mother eat brains. She crumbed them and fried them whole and she'd sit there carving out bits of brain with a teaspoon and eating them. Kind of disturbing to watch as a little kid.

My grandmother-in-law, dead for 30 years now, loved to eat squirrels. She'd gut, skin and braise them, then fish out the skulls and crack them open to eat the brains.

 

[Outdated]

My grandmother-in-law, dead for 30 years now, loved to eat squirrels. She'd gut, skin and braise them, then fish out the skulls and crack them open to eat the brains.

Her and my mother would have got along together just fine.

 

[Outdated]

I had an old friend up in Darwin that lived on a 5 acre property full of mango trees. Every year he'd get hundreds of magpie geese in his yard eating fallen mangos and it frustrated him because magpie goose was one of his favourite foods but he wasn't allowed to use his gun in a built up area.

I suggested a play on one of my grandfather's tricks, using a fishing rod as a simple snare. When a goose stepped inside the snare he could rip the line back to catch a goose and then simply reel it in, making it do Michael Jackson's moonwalk all the way back to his front porch.

He loved that, it combined his favourite sport with his favourite food. He cooked me a few meals using magpie goose, it looks a bit funny because the meat is black but they taste great. He never plucked them, he skinned them and boned them out like you would do with a mammal. He said skinning's a lot easier than plucking and he had high cholesterol and wasn't supposed to eat the skin anyway.

 

[Forest Cat]

I think you'd have a great time here and you'd really enjoy it. But for most people in your part of the world the expense isn't as off-putting as the thought of a 28 hour flight.

I think so too. I think it would be great. As long as I don't accidentally upset the locals and they use me as croc bait. The length of the flight doesn't bother me, just imagine how luxurious and relaxing that is compared to rowing.

 

[Outdated]

I think so too. I think it would be great. As long as I don't accidentally upset the locals and they use me as croc bait. The length of the flight doesn't bother me, just imagine how luxurious and relaxing that is compared to rowing.

I think you'd fit right in and feel at home here.

 

[tree]

Sheep's brains.

Thanks.

Had an acquaintance who'd been in jail in the south
(USA, Georgia, maybe. )
And the sheriff's wife was the cook for the inmates.

Pig brains were very cheap.

The inmates got pig brains, pretty much every day.

He was not a fan.

 

[Outdated]

The inmates got pig brains, pretty much every day.

Cruel and unjust punishment in my view.

 

[Shevek]

I think that Dyneema is made with continuous fibers. So, it does not need spinning except to avoid getting too sleazy, and to let occasional broken fibers remain effective for most of their length. In paracord, as in bungee cord, the load-bearing fibers run straight down the middle, protected by a woven cover.
I recently helped a tree surgeon, and his climbing ropes were a revelation, very thick, but also extremely flexible.