RainCalendar.com – The Free Rain and Weather Database For Farmers, Students, Schools and Weather Watchers
Here is a Rain and Weather Calendar I have just made for Farmers, Students, Schools and Weather Watchers.
It is totally free!
Please share with your friends!
Rain And Weather Calendar Screenshot
I decided to design the Rain and Weather Calendar, because I feel it would be of excellent use to mainly Australian Farmers who rely on the Weather for their crops, such as Wheat, Barley, Lupins, Corn and all other seed crops, so they can hopefully have a successful year from their crops, thanks to good and reliable rains and sunshine.
With the way Climate Change is affecting the Earth, I think it is imperative to track rainfall statistics, so you can compare this years rains, to next years and the many more years to come.
I carried out some research on the internet, for other rain and weather calendars, which are similar to mine, and I just cannot find any, apart from the normal paper calendars that you hang up on your wall and never use.
I also feel that this calendar would be perfect for kids, students, teachers and schools for an education tool. Kids just love the weather, and this spreadsheet would be perfect for a year long science project for students aged anywhere from 10 years of age, up to 17 years of age.
The Rain and Weather Calendar has taken many hours to design, but no matter how many hours and days it took to get to the stage where I am happy with it.
Thats why this calendar is free, so it can help farmers, educate kids and students about the weather.
So please feel free to download the calendar, if you do use it, please let as many of your friends know about it as possible.
Please feel free to pass this link on to all your friends, whom you feel could make some use of this weather calendar
If you are a school teacher, and feel you could use this for your kids science projects next year, please let me know that you plan on using it, as I would love to know that it will be used for kids to learn about the weather!
Thanks Everyone
Billy
Western Ring Tailed Possums in Dumbleyung
Yesterday I was on my way out of Dumbleyung to do some metal detecting for lost coins and jewellery, and only 500 metres from the townsite I came across and dead Western Ring Tailed Possum on the road, it had sadly been killed by a car or a truck.
Rare Western Ring Tailed Possum - Roadkill - Found in Dumbleyung
I have lived in Dumbleyung for 38 years and not once have I ever seen a possum in the town, so even though it was dead, it is still a great sign to have these rare and endangered species on our doorstep.
I may go through a walk in the bush, near where I found it, to see if I can see any Ring Tailed Possum Nests around, I hope so, that would be great, probably a good idea to go at night time also, with the torch … more of a chance to see one in the trees at night, as they are a nocturnal species (Night Active)
Ringtail Possum Nest
Western ringtails are rare possums that face the threat of extinction due to a loss of habitat to human urbanization. This species is located in the peppermint woodlands in the southwest areas of Western Australia. The rapid decline of this species can be accounted for by the primary predator of the western ringtail possum-the fox. There are few efforts being made to preserve the natural habitat of the western ringtail possum. There is limited information on this species.
The western ringtail possum likes to nest in the hollows of old peppermint trees. Nests are lined with leaves for a cushion. Western ringtail possums are nocturnal animals. Families can be seen together while foraging for food and at nesting sites.
Western ringtails have thick grey hair with some intermingled brown fur throughout; the brown is more prominent closer to the underbelly. The underbelly is white as is the bottom half of the tail. A ring of black fur is present around the eyes. The average tail pf a western ringtail possum measures about the same as the head and body. Both parts measure about 350mm. Ringtail possums weigh 900g on average.
Leaves, flowers, and fruit are eaten in addition to various other types of plant material. Food is found in shrubbery near the nest.
Mating occurs fall through spring and females only produce one young in that time. Little else is known about the breeding habits of western ringtail possums. Source: Australian Fauna
I rang up the Department of Environment and Conversation in Katanning today to report the find and they were really nice and appreciated my phonecall and emailed me a Threatened Fauna Species Report Form, which I will fill out tomorrow and send it back to them with the required details they need.
Western Ringtail Possum
They also informed me that if people ever come across dead endangered animals on the road, or in the bush etc that a good thing to do, is the bag and freeze the animal and ring up the Western Australian Museum to see if they would like the animal, for research purposes.
More info on Western Australian Possums
Below is a Threatened Species Report Form, for you to fill out in case you come across any endangered only roadkill.
DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND LAND MANAGEMENT File #_____________________
FAUNA REPORT FORM
Threatened or Priority o Feral o Other o Database # _________________
species_____________ no. seen:_____
distinguishing features observed:_____ _____________
_____________
certainty of identification: o Very certain o Moderately certain o Not sure
collector/observer:_____________ phone no:_____________ survey date:_____________ Time:________
shire:_____________ calm district:
site location:
_____________
map ref: Map Datum: AGD84 o WSG84 o GDA94 o
(Complete one line only) DCLM map name: FD Grid Reference
or Latitude oo° oo’ oo” S Longitude ooo° oo’ oo” E
or MGA Zone: 49 o 50 o 51 o Easting oooooo Northing ooooooo
land status:
o State Forest o Nature Reserve o National Park o Conservation Park o Private Property
o Unallocated Crown Land o Road Verge MRD/Shire o Pastoral Lease o Other o Unknown
observation/collection method:
o Daylight sighting o Night sighting o Heard o Caught or trapped o Shot o Poisoned
o Road kill o Dead o Droppings o Feathers o Bones o Diggings
o Other_________________________________________________________________________________________
observation:
What was the animal doing?
age and sex:
No. of Adults: ________Male ________Female ________Sex unknown
No. of Juveniles: ________Male ________Female ________Sex unknown
breeding:
o Pregnant o Lactating o Mating o Male in breeding colours o Eggs/young in nest o Other
landform type:
o Flat o Gully o Lake o Cliff o Rocky outcrop o Other________________
o Slope o Swamp o River o Ridge o Sand dune
vegetation type:
o Forest o Grassland Significant species 1___________________________________
o Woodland o Sedgeland 2___________________________________
o Mallee o Rock communities 3___________________________________
o Tall Shrubland o Wetland 4___________________________________
o Heathland o Other_________________ _____________ 5___________________________________
fire history:
o Not known Year burnt Month (approx)
o Next prescribed burn: Year Month
current land use:
o Nature Conservation o Agriculture o Pastoralism o Mining o Forestry/Multiple purpose o Recreation o Other
_____________
Specimen: o Collected as voucher Catalogue number:____________________________________
o Retained by collector o WA Museum o Other o Not retained
attached: o Map o Mud map o Photo o Notes
action, taken/required:___________
_____________
other comments: __
_____________
copy sent to: o Regional Office o District Office o Head Office
Signed:_____________ Date:_________
Ban Jumps Racing in Australia?
Should Jumps Racing be banned in Australia?
Three Jumps horses have died in Australia in the past week and it looks likely that the Jumps Racing in Australia may soon come to an end after a 177 year history of it in Australia.
Since records were kept there have been over 300 deaths of Australian Jockeys in race falls since 1844 and no doubt many thousands of race and jump horses since that time.
Personally I think that Jumps Racing in Australia should be banned, but where does it stop, should the Olympic spout of Equestrian Horse Jumping be banned also? I am sure many thousands of horses have also died in that sport also.
The RSPCA is tomorrow launching an Australian wide media advertising blitz in regards to Jumps Racing Bans in Australia, so no doubt those advertisements will pull at the heartstrings of many Australians, both rural and city wide.
Tonight I saw a very interesting epidose on the ABC 7.30 Report tonight about the controversy that the possible ban on jumps racing is causing to both people who are protesting against the sport, and also to the people who are in the racing industry.
Read the full Jumps Racing Ban Transcript and you can also watch the video of the actual race which killed one of three horses that day. I must warn you the video is graphic and off a horse dying after breaking its neck … very sad.
The person who filmed that race is Llewellyn Fowler, a young school girl who was filming a Anti Race Jump Documentary for one of her school projects and just by chance numerous races that day obviously resulted in the deaths of three horses and the injury of numerous jockeys.
There is also one trainer David Londregan is threatening to cut off his horses heads if a permanent ban is introduced, what will that achieve? Nothing.
As I have said above, I believe that Jumps Racing should be banned in Australia, not only will it save many horses, but no doubt the lives of jockeys in the future. It’s just not worth the risk anymore to carry out these races, simply for the sake of making money, human entertainment and the lives of both jockey and horse.
Does your Business Use PayPal.com?
Do you run a Rural Australian Small Business? And you use PayPal.com to receive some of your payments? If your a Small business, whether your online or not, this may be of interest to you and it will save you money from PayPal.com’s ridiculous fees.
Many people do not know about a great feature on PayPal.com which is called “PayPal Mass Pay” I have known about it for a while, but I actually forgot about it until last night, when I bought something for 350USD and had to pay via PayPal.com, and the person I bought the item from requested I pay for it using the Mass Pay feature on PayPal.com so they could save on fees.
So I sent them $350USD and the only fee they had to pay was only $1! Thats a big saving, normally it would of cost them $14 in PayPal.com fees … in these days of financial burdem, that is definately a good saving!
Mass Pay Link on PayPal.com Webpage - Bottom Left of Page
But the Mass Pay feature comes with a catch! It is free, but your customer need to have a Premier or Business Account with PayPal.com.
IF YOU WANT TO SAVE ON PAYPAL FEES, FOR THIS TO WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS YOU NEED YOUR CUSTOMER TO SEND YOU THE PAYMENT VIA MASS PAY! SO PLEASE GIVE THE BELOW INFORMATION TO YOUR CUSTOMER!
Mass Payment
According to PayPal’s mass pay instructions, you are supposed to create an Excel file with the payment information and save the file as a text file with tab separated values, but there is an easier way of doing this, and I do it using Notepad, the program every computer has.
I. Open up notepad (or any text/ascii editor)
II. Type the following information, separated by tabs (use tab key, not spaces).
An example of a payment text file:payment@yourbusiness.com.au 999 AUD
or
In Notepad type payment@yourbusiness.com.au press tab key 999 press tab key AUD
Save the notepad textfile as anything you’d like, e.g. “masspay” and just try to remember where you saved it for later.
III. Log in to your PayPal account the usual way, but instead of sending a payment the regular way, look for the small link on the bottom of your screen that says “Mass Pay”. Found it? Good, now click it.
Mass Pay PayPal.com ScreenShot 2
Mass Pay Screenshot 2
Mass Pay Screenshot 3
IV. You are now one step away from doing a mass payment. Browse to find the text file you just created in notepad and upload it to PayPal as directed. Type in the e-mail address you want the receipt to be sent to and perform the payment by clicking the button.
The PayPal recipient (YOU! )has now received his/hers/your payment and it only cost you $1 in fees, instead of 4% !
I hope the above information on PayPal Mass Pay, it is a fantastic way that your small rural Australian business can save money, especially when large PayPal.com transactions occur, deals involve adding the 4% fee to the final sales price. Over a long period of time, you have the chance to save your business thousands of dollars!
Please Bookmark this blog entry so it will help other small business owners using paypal throughout Australia!
Swine Flu Pandemic – Should We Panic?
Swine Flu Masks! Have you got Your Swine Flu?
Well at the moment this Swine Flu Influenza Epidemic is causing global concern and no doubt alot of mass panic! The World Health Authority has raised the official alert level to phase 5, the last step before a pandemic. Something the world has not seen since the the Hong Kong Flu in 1968 – 1968 which resulted in 1 Million Deaths worldwide.
So the question is should we Panic?
Well to tell you the trust I am quite concerned, at the moment my Mother is in a Western Australian Regional Nursing Home, so I am definately worried about her, and winter is only just a couple of months away. I feel like I just want to bring her home for her to be safe and sound … we all know Nursing Homes are a haven for contagious flu’s and disease.
I must admit, I do feel alot safer living in Country Western Australia, than what I would feel if I was living in a capital city, such as Perth, Sydney or Melbourne. Thank God I’m a Country Boy …. as the saying goes…. lets hope that saying rings true!
The thing that also really concerns me is at the moment there is no way of stopping the spread of Swine Influenza, there is no current Vaccinne, and to make a vacinne for the worlds population of 6 billion plus people would take years! I just heard on ABC 7.30 Report that it will take a year just to make 350 Million Vacinations for the Swine Flu…. now thats a reason to consider panicking!
Read the following 7.30 Report Interview Excerpt about the Swine Flu
KERRY O’BRIEN: There’s a lot of talk about the rush to produce a vaccine for this strain of virus, and you’ve talked about the limitations of those vaccines that exist now. But even if an effective vaccine is produced in, say, three or four months, it’s still a massive task, isn’t it, to pump out the vaccine in sufficient volume to circulate to hospitals around the world.
LAURIE GARRETT: Well, with current technology it can’t be done period, full stop. It’s not possible. We’ve never – using the current method, which is actually a very, very old method of producing vaccine on chicken eggs – we’ve never managed to produce more than about 300 million to 350 million doses per year for the entire world.
So to get up to 6.5 billion doses is going to be quite a feat. There are attempts now to create vaccine using different vehicles than chicken eggs for creating it. Growing them on various kinds of cells, and having different methods and biotechnology for producing vaccine. A lot of interesting things in the pipeline, but it’s going to be tricky to get a totally new technology up and running in time for – to address this effort, and then to come up with ways of demonstrating safety in advance.
KERRY O’BRIEN: On the balance of probabilities, what are your biggest fears right now?
LAURIE GARRETT: What happens in the next few days will tell us whether what we’re dealing with here is a garden variety flu that just happened to have gone through pigs, but is no more likely to produce death and devastation than a normal flu; or whether we’re dealing with something that, indeed, is a significant killer flu.
And I would just remind you that we’re heading in the northern hemisphere towards the end of our flu season. Actually, typically we’ve already passed the end of our flu season, so this is already a strange outlier event.
It’s only the beginning of the flu season for folks in the southern hemisphere, and if this virus does indeed circulate down into the southern hemisphere, then all eyes will turn south to see what happens below the equator with this virus in circulation, and what we’ll be preparing for and bracing for in the northern hemisphere is October.
Source: Interview tonight on 7.30 Report ABC <- Read More
Right now if this flu reaches Australia’s Shores, I honestly feel like taking off to the Outback for the winter! But doing that is pretty stupid isn’t it, but I guarantee you, that many Australian people will be thinking the same, and no doubt alot of people will.
Looking at Google there is already rumours of a Swine Flu Conspiracy going on obviously carried out by the United States Government … what a laugh that is!
And already people are profiting of the Swine Flu, just looking at the Ebay Swine Flu Face Masks
In anycase, I am not going to waste my money on any Swine Flu facial masks, I just made a $5 bid on a Swine Flu Survival Kit on ebay, so I reckon I’ll be safe from the Swine Flu … touch wood!
All jokes aside, please do not let the Swine Flu turn you off from eating Pork, this is going to have a huge detrimental effect on Australian Pig Farmers and their income, so please continue to buy Pork from your local Country or City Butcher, just like I did today, we need to support these farmers, eating pork will not give you Swine Flu!
Swine Flu Victim!
