Garrick's body destroyer hike test session.

Garrick and I scouted out a route and trial run for his 15km hike with 40kg load. We tried 10kg(Dad) and 15kg(Garrick) weights as trial starting points and shot off to Lysterfield. We did a few laps 'till we did the distance in the time. 15km's between 2h30m to 2h45m. We hit 2h38m, right in between the goal times with a short break to bandaid a blister and hit the toilets (while the timer kept running). We took sammiches, crackers, cheese, mars bars n drink.

I borrowed Dave's 10kg vest and Garrick took my weights-plates backpack with 15kg load. Garrick did really well. His only complaint was some foot discomfort, this afternoon he's pulling up really well. My body on the other hand is absolutely ruined. I actually died. I'm writing this from the grave. The 10kg vest I borrowed seemed a little heavy, it felt wrong every time I lifted it. I couldn't shake the feeling, I'm wrecked after doing the hike. I started weighing the sand-bags from the vest and they're 900grams each. There's 20 of them... With the vest weight it's clearly a 20kg pack! :( No wonder I died. I'm crushed that I sent Garrick with only 15kg. :(

Lots of Roo packs out. Many 1yr old lil' ones about with their mums, some late season critters in pouches still. Fun hike. We'll bump up the weight for Garrick next time.

Mindy sent a great photo of Oreo. :)

Misc Camper n Long Service Leave stuff

I took four weeks off work for a break. The plan was to finish off the van, but being July rain and cold that plan kinda went south. I coulda'...but didn't... I've knocked out some rough work with the wall skins, the bed, and started on the clothes cabinets above the bed.

I took Garrick with me to the wrecker so we could get some misc parts for my car that were worn. Brake pedal rubber boot, floppy sun visor, wheel well plastic guard, mud guard, seat belt latch etc... While we were there we fished out some nice seats for the camper. They're from another Magna like mine. They were in great condition for a 1998 model car. They're gonna be super comfy in the van. They're dining chairs...not passenger/driver seats. They'll mount on top of a box with drawers underneath.

The brad nailer I bought a few months ago is proving usefull as a clamping device. I'm shooting brads through some 3mm MDF prior to the work piece so the head is always proud enough to comfortably get a nail puller onto them and yank the brads out after glue is set. I just hate seeing brads, or filler for brads in furniture - hence removing them. The hole will self heal with time, sawdust and varnish. The hole is micro because the head never enters the material.

I picked up a nice AEG compound mitre saw that I've been eyeing off for years. It has a primo' 70 degree mitre in both directions of one plane, and a shadow line instead of a laser line. The warranty period is ludicrous. It's a great saw. I also finally bought my own RivNut gun (M3 to M12 sizes) so I don't have to steal the one from work all the time.

Garrick and I have continued his training for the ADF. He's gone through a few more application phases with them, did the medical, and has further confirmation that he's fit for his two primary chosen application roles. He's really just waiting to finish Yr12 now. They may offer him a position prior but that can be deferred easily. Garrick smashed out a fitness requirement today of 2.4km in 11:18 that I previously thought was a 14min requirement; I must have read the wrong column for his age group or just messed up, dunno. I'm still 30s behind him, but I'm over 2.5mins faster than my required age-time, so I guess I'm keeping up sorta. We've been completing his requirements once a month mixed in with other training, so we'll see if I can catch up before end of year. Next challenge is some absurd 15km hike with 40kg's in 2.5hrs or something. We'll tackle a test run of that challenge on the next weekend that's not raining with a 15kg pack starter. I figure we'll go 15, 28, 35, 40kg before beating it. I've been pushing him heavily to eat eat eat eat eat while he's at this premium age so he doesn't end up a skinny dude like me. Unfortunately fattening him up means there's cookiees, crackers, cheese, cornchips, licorice and all kinds of snacks in the house...there are repurcussions for my old man bod'.

Misc unsorted photos below.