Why I like NSW instead of QLD

[Hillbilly]

Well, the humidity is lower, so it's a dry heat in summer, not as many sharks, no crocs, and this:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/070113/2/1222d.html

[Karma]

Dry heat I can handle, did some time working in a kiln (literally) shifting stuff around, but cos it was dry heat it was easy as.

[Hillbilly]

It's gonna be around 31 degrees for the rest of the week. At least we have no jellyfish to worry about.

[merv]

Just got home from NSW on Sunday after a great holiday in Sydney, South Coast and Canberra, and we did see plenty of blue bottles on the beaches like at Wollongong and Narooma.

Loved the weather, pity about the drought.

[Hillbilly]

I'm further north, and the closest beaches are Cathrine Hill Bay, Blacksmiths (a 20 km beach) Nobbys' (Newcastle) and the Central Coast Beaches of Umina and Pearl beaches. I work around the corner from Umina at Ettalong Beach. Haven't seen any jellyfish or Bluebottles.

Just got my feet eaten by hoards of ants while checking out the big bush fire 400 meters up the road. The Rural Fire Service have blocked off the main road in to our suburb. The wind is N/NE which is away from the houses, hopefully it won't turn NW or W, which will bring the smoke first, and then the flames. Everything here bites, including the ants. I should have put shoes on. Hmmm, the little bastards are really agressive too. Oh well, the burning from the formic acid is going away, but I just gotta wait for the swelling to go down. They're pretty ants too, with large Turqoise heads. At least they weren't fire ants.

Oh, the bush fire was started not by lightning, but by a couple of MX riders going though the bush as if it was their own private trail. It's (was) a public reserve and the rangers regularly drop large trees across the paths that the MX riders use to discourage them. A lot of white crosses nailed to trees too.
You'd think they'd get the idea that it's really dangerous. If you get hurt hitting a tree, the snakes will finish you off, and they're eastern browns.

Do I like living here? YEP! It's a matter of respecting your environment, and creatures that live there. BTW, ants don't invade homes here in rural NSW, too much to eat outside. Living here is nothing like a holiday. It's a whole different world.

[merv]

OK didn't realise you were getting fires up North as all the publicity was about Victoria and one of the days we were in Canberra the wind came up from the South and blanketed Canberra in smoke.

As for ants, saw plenty bigger than we see at home - Str8 wouldn't want those in her FZR's workings.

[Hillbilly]

Some are harmless like the Sugar Ant. The the Fire Ant is like out of a movie. They have mound that look like they're covered little pebbles. They have many exits and are ferocious. If you're a child, brave or stoopid, you poke a stick into one entrance and watch them attack th stick in their thousands. Literally! Of course, I said stoopid, because while you're watiching the sick, thousands are swarming all over your shoes and trousers biting like all hell.

Leave them alone, they'll leave you alone. they have to clean up all the other dead things lying around. I got bitten by "Bullet Ants".