Well I finally got back from a well deserved 5 week camping holiday down south at a little place called Tathra (on east coast near NSW border) and I am slowly catching up on all the threads. I hope everyone had a good Xmas & new years celebration.

My holiday started with a bang with the car's big end giving up on me 30km south of Canberra:eek: :mad: , so as the car was worth nearly the same as a new motor, I traded it in on a 1999 Magna V6 station wagon. Certainly goes a lot better towing the 750kgs of camping equipment than the old 4 cylinder van .

Weather was great and I met up with SilentC from Pambula and saw his new house and shed he is building . Sorry I couldn;t catch up with anyone else from this forum along the way , but I try to get there ASAP.

More good news is that I scored some red gum burls from my mate down that way - the first is around 350mm dia, the last 2 shots are of the larger 450mm dia. I also scored 2 lengths around 1.5m of 150mm dia odd coastal banksia from the side of the road .

When I got back I discovered little piles of sawdust/dirt on the floor below my beautiful exposed beams:eek: :eek: :eek: . After the initial panic about white ants, I arranged an inspector the same day. The bug man tells me they were from QLD pine beetles (the grubs boring their way out) and there appears to be no longer any signs of them. I let off lots of bug spray bombs when I left and he/I believe this killed the emerging bettles before they could lay more eggs . Also, no sign of white ants except in the garden. So I have arranged for the bug man to install baits to kill the nests around the garded before they get to the house (more money ).

Just to add to my financial decline, the dishwasher also gave up :mad: and had to buy and install a new one.

I hope to make it to Majorpanic's getogether on Sunday and catch up with everyone from up this way.

Cheers