Aussie Summer Harvest - the brag thread

[Grub]

I saw the terrible winds and fire on the news... evil weather.

Sorry to read about the tank, but obviously it was empty. Every container outside here is full of water, bugs and more.

Hopefully you get rain soon.

Hope is here... http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...l?from=mostpop

[cosmicgardener]

My god Spatz, you'd better get some water into that tank! Is your Mum back in Oz? Night noises are bad enough without things going walkabout. Take great care, we need our gnomes. We had a wild day all day yesterday - easterly weather is a total mess up for my garden as it brings the salt. Today my peach, Lady in the snow apple and plums have brown leaves, what's left of them, and look disgusting. It's turned westerly now and look what we are going to get today. I'm going to concrete my garden when it stops.........
Grub, batten down the hatches - it's going to get worse........

[Grub]

Nice rain Cosi.... to quote a few passages from the above link...


As Adelaide sweltered through a 37C day that sparked bushfires across the state, the eastern states continued to enjoy good rainfall. One-in-20-year storms bucketed parts of Sydney and Wollongong yesterday, with 70mm falling in an hour in several suburbs.

Current conditions 'classic La Nina'

National Climate Centre head of climate analysis David Jones said the current event was a "classic La Nina", with warm, humid conditions and plenty of moisture in the atmosphere.

The southern oscillation index - the standard indicator of pressure systems in the Pacific region - stands at plus 10, indicating a return to wetter conditions.

Across the eastern half of Australia, a La Nina event became better established as sea surface temperatures dropped in the eastern Pacific and waters off Java became warmer than normal.

The wettest conditions in a decade in western Queensland have put a spring in the step of locals and raised hopes that the Murray-Darling is in for a reprieve. The Bulloo Highway west of the township of Eulo has been cut for a week by the flooded Paroo River.

'Best rain in years'

"We moved out here from Brisbane three years and we haven't seen anything like this before," said 11-year-old Samuel Baker as he played in the flood waters with classmates.

"This is the best rain we've had in years," said Eulo General Store owner Gary Berghoefer.

"The Paroo has been three or four kilometres wide in places. The rain will allow restocking on properties that have been hurting."

Murweh Shire Council chief executive Chris Blanch said Charleville had 160mm of rain over the past month.

"Years of dust is being washed off everything. Plants and trees are sprouting new growth all over the place. It's a godsend," Mr Blanch said.

Warm water promotes convection and stronger westerly trade winds brought by La Nina blow moisture towards Australia, promising a return to good rainfall.

The La Nina is expected to remain until about April.

But Dr Jones warned that long-term rainfall deficiencies, especially around Melbourne, the Murray-Darling, Adelaide and southwest Western Australia, meant a return to full dams was "difficult to imagine".

[cosmicgardener]

Bloody typical, Tasmania doesn't even rate a mention you'd think we didn't exist until people want to move here to escape the mainland weather cos they don't get any information.

[Spatzbear]

At the moment we can only dream of rain. Enjoy it while you can, Grub.

Cosmic, sorry to hear your garden is suffering in this wind. Let's hope everything will recover quickly.

Yes, mum is back and it was just so lucky that the tank was stopped by the pergola. She had a room with a view of a tank this morning. We've already moved it and tried to assess the damage.
There are more pictures on the blog if anyone is interested.

[Grub]

Well, judging by the Cosi Report, it's sounding like a bumper season in the Apple Isle. But I wouldn't be taking a skinny dip just yet... http://www.cmar.csiro.au/remotesensi...ob/latest.html

[mcsee]

Grub - What's that brown water off Sydney?

Oh yes, I remember now.

[Grub]

That, my friend, is a school of native brown mullet. But deep water outfalls ensure they don't invade the beaches at least.

Was going to take a pic of my incredibly loaded sweet and hot peppers but I ran out of energy in the high humidity. Just fed the plants bloom booster.

[Mantis]

Just looking on weatherzone.com.au and looks like you are in for rain for the next week at least Grub. Send some down here eh

[Grub]

Hi Manto.

There once was a bloke called Manto
Who was as full as goog of banto
The heat of the Horsham sun
Burnt a hole in his not inconsiderate bum
Now that's the end of this ranto.

On a serious note: you are right. La Nina is here with above-average rainfall for east coast. My tomatoes are big and healthy, but not so bloomin' lovely. Need more flowers. Also, some are doing the Cherokee Purple thing, as in, starting off gangbusters then just freezing after the first lot or two of fruitset. Kind of like they're saying: two kids are enough for me.

But I have plenty of greenies all the same. Dwarfs only have about one fruit per plant... I am hoping they set more later in the year.

http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR033.loop.shtml

No much time for Daco.

[Mantis]

Looks like you better get the brolly out

[mcsee]

Grub - I think most Victorian's would settle on half the rain you've had is Sydney in the past two months. Then we'd be complaining about the humidity and losing our tomato plants.

[dice]

[water tank repair]

From the look of those water tanks, any holes or
cracks can probably be repaired.

You want to bend them back into the shape they
are supposed to have first. A plastic dead blow or
rubber hammer should work for that, or one could
use a regular sledge hammer with an old shoe,
piece of tire, or something like that wrapped around
the end of it.

50-year silicone, polyurethane sailboat caulk, any
of those and a couple of pieces of aluminum flashing
from a hardware store (used in roofing and in heating and
air conditioning work) would work to seal it up, and
thick silicone caulk at least has a lot of actual mechanical
adhesive strength, too (I don't know how strong polyurethane
is).

The main concern is keeping the surfaces that
the caulk/adhesive must bond to clean and dry.
I worked on a job once assembling the outer skin
of a commercial building out of aluminum extrusions
and glass. The aluminum parts were cleaned first
with MEK (methyl ethyl ketone), a powerful solvent,
and then they got a once-over with rubbing alcohol and
a clean shop towel to remove any dust and to make sure
that they were dry before caulking.

We used 50-year silicone to seal the parts, then fastened
them with screws and bolts, cleaning off the excess
caulk with alcohol before it dried. In some places the
silicone would be a couple of centimeters thick in there.
We got one back from the building contractor that had
an out-of-spec part (wrong dimensions) on it, and we
needed to take it apart and reassemble it. After we got
all of the screws and bolts out of it, we had to pry it open
with a crowbar so we could get a knife into it to cut
the silicone before it would come apart.

I have seen someone repair a 50-gallon aquarium with
clear silicone, too. He just cut a piece of glass big enough
to cover the hole with about an inch extra around the edges,
cleaned all of the surfaces, put a few-mm thick coat of
silicone on there around the hole, stuck the patch on,
and let it dry. It never leaked a drop, and as far as I know
those window-and-wall units for the commercial building
are still watertight, too, decades later (at least mine should
be).

For any holes in the tank, I would cut a piece of flashing
a little bigger than the hole. Fit it up and hammer and bend
it as necessary to get it to more-or-less conform to the
corrugated shape of the water tank. Clean the patch
and the tank up, let it dry, and put the patch on the
inside of the tank, with a thick layer of silicone
under it. Press the patch into the silicone, leaving it
maybe a centimeter thick under there. You can
press more wet silicone into any gaps with something like
a plastic spatula, until you have a nice solid layer under
the patch. While it is still wet, you can clean off any
excess around the patch with your spatula and rubbing
alcohol.

Once it is dry, the weight of water inside the tank will
tend to press the patch into the hole, tightening the
seal.

Your choice on whether to use silicone or polyurethane
caulk. An architect told me once that silicone was
stronger and longer-lasting, but polyurethane was
more forgiving (worked sometimes in conditions where
a silicone seal failed).

My impression from researching sealants in the marine
forums is that polyurethane seems to be favored over
silicone for marine sealants and adhesives by people
who own and maintain their own yachts and sailboats,
but their parts are invariably mechanically fastened
as well as caulked (they are not relying on the adhesive
strength of the caulk to keep the parts in place).

If you could find some metal for a patch that was already
corrugated with about the same corrugations as your
tanks, that would probably be a big help. You probably
don't want to mix steel and aluminum, though (the
sealant in between might be enough to prevent galvanic
corrosion, but I don't know that for a fact).

Maybe you get lucky, and there are no holes, but if not,
all is not lost.

[Mantis]

Must be winter in the US

[dice]

"Must be winter in the US."

Yeah, I did not see myself commenting in
the Aussie brag thread when I opened it
up to read it. I had relevant information
for Spatz's water tank worries, though,
so what the heck.

One would think you could weld a patch on
an aluminum tank, but aluminum is a pain
(expensive) to weld, and that stuff looks kind
of thin, judging by those dents. Silicone or
polyurethane will probably work better for
a lot less money.