Handstitched

I love old cars. I have 3 series 2 LWB Landrovers, they might start when you swear at them, and I also have a 1964 Triumph Herald Coupé, ""retirement plan"" . I have a grey 49 Massey Ferguson Tractor that needs finishing off and two E27 Petrol/kero Fordson Major tractors. One goes just fine, the other doesn't . What is retirement?? HS

@fredk Finally, after all this time, I have finally got around to actually doing these boots. They've been on my workshop floor all this time and I keep staring at them, " what the hell am I going to do with these boots?" and now I think I have a fair idea of what spikes are going where after looking at some examples online.. Its likely I'll be using them for a display/ advertising on my stall. The actual boots are worth quite a bit after checking the brand, " Demonia" , well, compared to what I paid for them . HS

We finally had some decent rains yesterday, thanks to a 'mini 'storm. Poor old Mother Earth is so parched from the extreme heat. Now I'll watch all the weeds grow. We're never happy I also indulged in some Kangaroo burgers yesterday too, damn tasty. Roo meat is so lean, good for those on low fat diets....like I should be HS

Thats very interesting indeed , although I don't make boots myself. People do ask me if I make boots or shoes,as much as I'd like to, unfortunately I don't , I simply don't have the space and I would need to invest in a few machines etc. , not to mention years of practice. Even that boot in the pic looks quite nice HS

Those are extraordinary pics, something we don't see here in Oz. We just got through some extreme heat, just starting to cool down, a bit. Queensland just a had a cyclone so all the towns closest to the coast are flooded. HS

Going back to the 'ye olde bad days again. In primary school in the southern ' burbs of Perth in the 70's , our class room was hot, full of flies etc. swatting flies was a highlight of our days in school, during summer, no air cond. the days seemed to drag on, and the lessons were borrrring, God bless Mrs Mickleright. We often kept ourselves ' entertained' . So, a girl sitting in front of me had long hair, I sneakily plucked a strand of hair from her head and very carefully tied it around the fly that I just caught , and let it go while holding the other end , so I had this fly on on a ' leash' funniest damn thing I ever saw ....and then I let it go, so theres this fly with a strand of hair flying around the class room When I think of that these days , I can't help but think of ' Freak On A Leash' by Korn Some of the other kids used to pluck the wings off the flies, they were no longer flies, they were ' walks' HS

When I was a wee lad ( I was a bit of a pr*ck back then) Mum used to take me to a dept shop,called ' Boans', now its Myers, in Perth WA . Mum would take me to the cafe, I found a table, and while she getting food and drinks, I would loosen the tops of the salt and pepper shakers on the unoccupied tables , you can guess what would happen next HS

Just to chime in, I was given 6 full binders full of LC mags as a ' thank you gift' some years ago, , some date back to the 1950's . Good to read, and to see how cheap leather and tools used to be. HS

I have modified a hat pattern by ' diesel punk' before to make it a bit taller into a ' top hat' . It did take a lot of thinking, and counting a lot of holes to make sure everything lined up, but it did work out. I didn't bother with the ' slash' style hat as thats been done to death, so I made a nice carved hat band. Came out good. HS

Thanks My birthday was good. Takeaway was yum, had leftovers for days after, and had a chocolate Bavarian cheese cake thingy with champers. . Didn't bother with candles, too many HS

Its happening again on Wednesday...I've had enough of these damn things, how do I make it stop ?? I'm not cooking....stuff it !!! Take away , washed down with some champers...... etc.

I imagine it would taste like a steak, maybe a bit fatty, but that where the flavour is . I have had Emu steaks, the flavour packs a punch, a strong gamey flavour. Roo meat is yummo, and very lean . The ' big red' roos up north are built like a brick s***t house, all muscle , you don't mess with them, best to eat them , lol HS

For general purpose belts that I make I use a 4mm DB or DS VT , but for the heavy belts I that I make, I use a 5- 5.5 mm . HS

I forgot to point out, that Camel meat is available, but only at a selected supplier, mainly in the east, and the program showed what can be achieved with the meat, a traditional middle eastern dish, looked dam tasty , but what happens to the hides ? HS

Not sure where this topic belongs, but here goes. There was a TV program in Oz recently called ' Eat The Invaders" . One of the 'invaders' was all about Camels as they are a feral pest across Central Australia, theres so many of them, they simply get shot and left to die where they are shot, quite a waste , and the program was all about eating the meat, the same as we eat beef. However, although the program was about eating the meat, nothing was said about using the hides to make leather. Cattle are already rounded up on cattle stations, but I can't understand why Camels can't be rounded up the same as cattle as I believe Camels are a wasted resource. Financial reasons? or Camels are simply not seen as a resource? I had a customer come to my stall late last year asking me where can she find Camel leather. We were thinking the same thing, I have tried searching for Australian Camel leather suppliers, but without success. She then showed me a bag made from Camel leather that she got from over seas, it was incredibly soft. We can't just about get every other types of leather here in Oz , except Camel leather. Strange HS