DH said "Let's Go West & Collect Some Wood"?
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free skin care · Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:10 pm

Hi Everyone
In early August my DH (who has a woodturning hobby) said he would like to go to western Queensland and collect some native timbers. I agreed thinking it would be one to two weeks. Nearly six weeks later and we are finally home. Apart from one short session when we went into town for supplies, I have not had access to a phone or internet. But when I did check the internet a couple of weeks ago I could not believe the message that I had won the Cellcosmet Gift Pack. I was just over the moon.
It will take me ages to catch up on all the new posts but in the meantime, have there been any major wows in skin care???
I am so glad that I took my Valmont Elixir with me as it saved my skin. Can't wait to place another order for some goodies and ask Magda to send my gift basket.

free skin care · Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:32 am

All I can say is WOW!! Native timbers for what? That in it self is a treat. Then to be gone, just gone for 6 weeks? I would be in heaven.When my husband and I go on vacation, it is not a day less than 15 days. What was it like? Tell me tell me tell me. Very Happy

free skin care · Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:59 am

Welcome back, bushy. Very Happy

My stepmum's brother does woodturning and has made some glorious bowls using burred wood.

So did you manage to find some special pieces for him to create amazing stuff?

free skin care · Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:28 pm

I know the trip may have sounded amazing to some but western Queensland at this time of the year is not all fun. We were living in our caravan and daytime temperatures were around 30 to 35 degrees C with the nights getting down to about 2 degrees C which is a huge variation but does contribute to a lot of cuddling up to stay warm.
My husband does a lot of woodturning and has won many prizes for things like bowls, vases and furniture. To date, he has relied on many common species such as silky oak, camphor laurel and red gum. Some of the timbers we collected are extremely hard (will easily blunt a saw in minutes) and include lancewood, ooline, mulga, coolibah, brigalow, dead finish, wilga, boree, sandalwood and some others I can't think of now. A lot of these timbers are even too hard for whiteants.
One of the nicest things that happen when you are camped in the bush are the visits by wildlife. I put out a couple of buckets of water and within a day many galahs, cockatoos, parrots, wallabies and kangaroos came in for a drink. One wallaby with a joey even got to the stage of accepting lettuce leaves from me.
Had a great time but it was nice to be home again with a few comforts.

free skin care · Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:55 pm

bushy wrote:

I know the trip may have sounded amazing to some but western Queensland at this time of the year is not all fun. We were living in our caravan and daytime temperatures were around 30 to 35 degrees C with the nights getting down to about 2 degrees C which is a huge variation but does contribute to a lot of cuddling up to stay warm.
My husband does a lot of woodturning and has won many prizes for things like bowls, vases and furniture. To date, he has relied on many common species such as silky oak, camphor laurel and red gum. Some of the timbers we collected are extremely hard (will easily blunt a saw in minutes) and include lancewood, ooline, mulga, coolibah, brigalow, dead finish, wilga, boree, sandalwood and some others I can't think of now. A lot of these timbers are even too hard for whiteants.
One of the nicest things that happen when you are camped in the bush are the visits by wildlife. I put out a couple of buckets of water and within a day many galahs, cockatoos, parrots, wallabies and kangaroos came in for a drink. One wallaby with a joey even got to the stage of accepting lettuce leaves from me.
Had a great time but it was nice to be home again with a few comforts.

Wow. That sounds sooooo cool!!! I live in Colorado so I don't get to see cockatoos, parrots, wallabies and kangaroos except in the zoo or the petstore. So neat!

Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:43 pm

Wow! Were you staying in scrub, or camped out on a gravel-covered plain? I agree, western Qld (anywhere central in Aus, for that matter) is pretty much hardcore spiny anteater country.

He must be a charismatic bloke, personally all that red dust sticks in my throat after a while. Very Happy

free skin care · Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:18 am

When we left home we had a white caravan and when we arrived back, it was brown. I gave up wiping things down and just learned to live with the dust. Once we left the main drag, all the tracks were either rough red gravel or bulldust. The manufacturers of our caravan would be horrified to know where we took it but they would also be amazed that it hung together. This picture was taken on the first stop before we really got into the bulldust.

free skin care · Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:19 am

Blimey, those woods sound really exotic to me! Don't have those in the good old UK!

I bet the sandalwood creations will be unbelievably fabulous. As well as the beauty of the wood, they'll hopefully smell wonderful too.

I did once make some bookends out of piranha wood at school. It had streaks of pinkish red running through it and was very beautiful.

Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:49 pm

majorb wrote:

Blimey, those woods sound really exotic to me! Don't have those in the good old UK!

I bet the sandalwood creations will be unbelievably fabulous. As well as the beauty of the wood, they'll hopefully smell wonderful too.

the famous woods of the UK! sooo romantic, so many legends!
The Australian bush is certainly beautiful, most particularly the water courses and gorges, but generally it has an austere beauty.

One of the biggest things for me when I went to the UK was the super-thick, super-green grass...(I know that sounds rather silly) but I had never seen grass like it in my life!! I had to climb a fence and roll in it with the cows!!!

Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:52 pm

bushy wrote:

Hi Everyone
In early August my DH (who has a woodturning hobby) said he would like to go to western Queensland and collect some native timbers. I agreed thinking it would be one to two weeks. Nearly six weeks later and we are finally home. Apart from one short session when we went into town for supplies, I have not had access to a phone or internet. But when I did check the internet a couple of weeks ago I could not believe the message that I had won the Cellcosmet Gift Pack. I was just over the moon.
It will take me ages to catch up on all the new posts but in the meantime, have there been any major wows in skin care???
I am so glad that I took my Valmont Elixir with me as it saved my skin. Can't wait to place another order for some goodies and ask Magda to send my gift basket.

I love the Valmont L'Elixir cream so much. But it is so expensive.

free skin care · Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:40 pm

Can you do that in Australia? Just go into the wilderness and start collecting wood?

Aren't some types of Sandalwood endangered? In the US, each state has a Department of Parks and Wildlife which makes sure you don't take home fish that are too small, don't make campfires where you shouldn't, etc. Just hope you're following all of Australia's rules as regards to flora and fauna.

Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:31 pm

RMB wrote:

Can you do that in Australia? Just go into the wilderness and start collecting wood?

Aren't some types of Sandalwood endangered? In the US, each state has a Department of Parks and Wildlife which makes sure you don't take home fish that are too small, don't make campfires where you shouldn't, etc. Just hope you're following all of Australia's rules as regards to flora and fauna.

nah, there are plenty of rules relating to Australian flora and fauna protection, we have (what seems to me as ) a fairly well-managed / motivated national parks system, and I would say that overall, we are a pretty environmentally aware bunch!
however, the interior is extremely sparsely populated, as it is rather an unforgiving place to be, it's a desert basically, and while there are great swathes of national parks even in the interior, there are also large tracts of 'farmland'. Very marginal farmland, I have to say...and I'm a farmer's daughter!
Because of the extremely isolated nature of the bush, most farmers won't begrudge a traveller moving through their blocks (as long as they close all the gates!).
Also, the reality is that governments really can't prevent travellers from picking up dead wood from the side of the road outside national parks, as they are rarely able to police these distant areas.
I mean, if your car breaks down, it is likely you'll die of thirst! Tourists can and do die tragically like this!

free skin care · Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:49 pm

Many farmers cut trees down to feed stock in the droughts particularly gidyea and mulga as these are reasonable fodder and these trees regrow very quickly. Gidyea was another timber we collected which is also as hard as nails. Timbers in the national parks are protected and it is only in rare cases that licenses are issued for the collection of some species that have fallen over through old age or natural disasters. The recent cyclone at Innisfail destroyed many areas of rainforest and all the timbers that have been knocked over will remain on the ground.
I sometimes collect seeds from unusual trees and try to get them growing at home. I only occasionally succeed. We live on a very large block which is full of native trees and shrubs. I also planted a Wollemi pine (the dinasaur tree) a few months back which is growing well.

free skin care · Thu Sep 21, 2006 9:09 am

[quote="floatinglili] the famous woods of the UK! sooo romantic, so many legends!
The Australian bush is certainly beautiful, most particularly the water courses and gorges, but generally it has an austere beauty.

One of the biggest things for me when I went to the UK was the super-thick, super-green grass...(I know that sounds rather silly) but I had never seen grass like it in my life!! I had to climb a fence and roll in it with the cows!!![/quote]

Actually, I live not far from the famous Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame these days! Laughing

The Major Oak, which is where Robin and his Merry Men are supposed to have congregated is still there - very old and very wide. It's propped up these days to protect it from falling.

The part of England where I come from, however, is more known for it's pine forests, heather and bracken. Not terribly lush, but sparse, wild and largely unpopulated.

As for rolling around on the grass with the cows, I do hope you kept an eye where you were rolling! Those cows do have a tendency for leaving nice little "presents" everywhere! Laughing

Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:34 pm

"presents"! Laughing

I know I looked ridiculous, but I couldn't help it! I'm from the country originally, maybe that was the reason for it.

Of course, Australian's legends are also interesting, but they are very different in nature.

There are plenty of interesting stories relating to convict and early settler days, but the real legends are very different, coming from Aboriginal stories that rely heavily on beautiful animal magic with characters like "Brolga People" and "Crocodile Men"!

free skin care · Fri Sep 22, 2006 9:59 am

Oh, yes, I've heard of some amazing and definitely lyrically beautiful Aboriginal legends. I think you have a fantastic country.

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