Recycling an old Barbeque into a Potting bench

Gardening, like Architecture is about the small details. All the small things add up to create the bigger picture. Being a bit of a Greenie I find it hard to throw anything away that still may have some use. After 25 years of use my old Barbie finally wasn't up to the task any more. I had finally upgraded to one of those stainless steel hooded barbies and when I was dismantling the old burners from the frame I realised that 25 years of sausage fat splatter had protected the hardwood beautifully. The metal burners, manifolds and valves had corroded beyond salvage but the timber frame was too good to dispose of. I had an old laundry tub I had kept from when I re-modeled the laundry & with a bit of rough carpentry I managed to fix it into the frame & had a lovely mobile potting bench.

From Potting bench to upmarket Drinks trolley

An upcoming birthday bash with a hundred people coming over persuaded  me to change my potting bench into a drinks trolley. A few more hardwood slats over the handles, a coat of paint and it was looking the part. An old nylon door-stop screwed into the base just below the bypass overflow hole of the tub created a perfect place to put a vintage umbrella.... From rubbish to garden feature....its all about creativity & the fine detail.

Barbeque recycled into a Drink Trolley

Vale: Ralph Lucas

For those who did not know my father, he was a remarkable man. Many attended his funeral last week to pay their respects and afterwards I had several requests for copies of the Eulogy.  Looking at his achievements now it is hard to see how my Dad ever had time to sleep. The list of positions he held in the various local floricultural societies alone is testament to a man who made the most out of life and who's favorite saying was "there's good daylight out there don't waste it"....

EULOGY

Thank you all for attending this celebration of Dads life. Your respect for Dad and sympathy to our Family is appreciated and evidenced by your attendance here today.

Ralph Mervyn Lucas, my dear old Dad, was born on the last day of December, 1925. He died on a warm, sunny morning that was filled with promise, eighty eight years later.

I was privileged to be there when it happened and as passing goes dad was as lucky as he had been with the rest of his life.

The previous day had been a bad one for Dad. As I only had time for a short visit that night I promised to see him again in the morning. He told me that he thought he may be able to last until morning as the “writing on the wall” had indicated that it was the end for him.

Worried about dad’s state of mind I did something I had never done before and visited him before breakfast. Dad was in good spirits when I got there and while we talked he had a breakfast consisting of 2 weet-bix, a bowl of stewed apple, 3 slices of toast and marmalade, plus a chocolate milk.

Till the end no matter how bad things got Dad appreciated his food. Dad attributed the fact that he had outlived his brothers to the care Mum took in preparing food for him. Dad was on a Pritikin and fat free diet years before anyone knew what was “heart-healthy”.

The morning of Dads passing we discussed the fact that there would be fish and chips for lunch and laughed that the orderly had offered an alternate choice of vegetable samosas…. Who would pick those when there were fish and chips on the menu??

Dads friend Roley had died just 2 days before. I had broken the bad news to him the previous night. His memory hadn’t been the best for the past few months but while we waited for his breakfast he asked me “Is it true is my best mate’s dead?” I told him it was. There was silence.

Dad and Roley were fierce competitors when it came to flower exhibition. For more than 40 years they had grown Gladiolus and each of them wanted to be the winner at the annual show. I said to Dad “well, it looks like you won this last competition”. A small smile flickered and Dad was OK again.
Dad simply just got on with things.

Dad had mentioned the “writing on the wall” before & I had thought it was part of his illness where reality and dreaming had blended together again. The first time this had happened I had chills and asked him to tell me about the writing. Could he understand it? Were there any messages that may have some meaning???

Dad concentrated his faculties and carefully scrutinised the 3 walls of the hospital room that were visible from his bed and then he focused on the wall in front of him. What do you see Dad? He answered “That wall is in turmoil”. He then focused on the space above the doorway to the bathroom. I tentatively asked the question “what do you see Dad?” There was a long pause as he focused more intently. Then spoke the words “Seven dollars fifty a night”

Dad was a good tempered, gentle man but he also had a wicked sense of humour. He had declined help from a physio in the Repat a couple of days before and I had thought it was because the exercises’ were too difficult and painful.

He confided to me that morning for some reason the Occupational therapists and Physios’ would always come around lunch time. He didn’t like this much as it interfered with his favourite part of the day. He smiled as he told me his secret to getting rid of their unwanted attentions. Dad motioned for me to come closer & whispered to me secretively. The young ones are very rude to me, so I just tell them tell them “go away… you’re ugly”.

As well as his appetite returning his mind had cleared and we had the opportunity for a good talk. I was able to convince him that he should be nicer to the Physios’ next time and start participating in their classes. The transformation that had taken place overnight was amazing and I had begun to hope that Dad was rebounding yet again from the myriad of medical problems that troubled him.

Unfortunately this time (as usual) Dad was spot on & he passed away shortly after this conversation, fulfilling his prediction from the night before. Dad had a big heart &
it was this big heart that suddenly gave out. Dad was able to see the garden from his bed and there was a gentle spring breeze blowing in through the curtains, shifting them & billowing them in towards him. His mind had clarity, his wounds had healed, he
had asked after Mum and the family, he had humoured me by telling me he would be nice to the physios’, then unexpectedly and quickly…he left.

Back to the beginning:

Ralph Mervyn Lucas was born in his mother’s house on the 31^st of December 1925 in the inner city suburb of Hilton.

Dads parents, Doris and Clarence Lucas had been given their house as a wedding present from Dads grandmother who at that stage owned what remained of a small farm next-door.

Dad was the middle child and perhaps, as is the case with many middle children, this inspired and drove him to greater things. James was first born, taking his father’s (and Grandfathers) middle name and Keith was the baby. Dad confided in me that Keith, as youngest, was Grans favourite.

Having the farm next-door was an important aspect of Dads childhood. Although he was a Depression Child, his family didn’t struggle as much as others. There was milk from the cow, eggs from the chickens and all the fruit a young boy could wish to eat.

There was a fig tree over the chook yard, the chooks fertilising the tree and the tree producing enough fruit for the Chooks plus 3 hungry boys. Even to Dads last days figs were his favourite treat.

An old row boat that had been designed with a low keel for racing made life even easier as it ensured that there was always fish on the table.

The boat was moored at the Royal yacht squadron until the war & the boys would row out to the sand bar and pass it before any-one else….
claiming the best fishing spot & ensuring there was a meal for the night.

During the early days of the war Dad and Keith moored the boat under the pier of the Torrens Island power station. There was talk of a possible Japanese invasion and so this was strictly off-limits. Dad however convinced the Military police on the pier that they should be allowed to stay.
The first five butterfish of the night were dutifully thrown up onto the pier for the MP’s above & then the rest could be taken home.

When dad turned 18 Australia was still at war in the Pacific and so he joined the Air-force like his brother James had done before him.

Dad had bad eyesight due to a bout of measles as a child and so he wasn’t sent overseas. He ended up in The Northern Territory serving with the 42nd Squadron Equipment and Accounting section in Melville bay. Dad had a near photographic memory and a talent for numbers so he was well suited to this posting.

With hindsight this stationing was the beginning of what would later become a successful career as an Accountant and Business manager.

Dad met Heather Lochhead, at a dance at the Embassy ballroom about 6 months after the war. He was smitten and when she went back to the experimental farm in the Riverland for 3 months he wrote constantly.

Dad was confident. He was so certain that he would marry Mum that he never really proposed but just worked the phrase “when we are married” into the conversation one night.

The engagement ring was duly purchased and presented at the next dance. Dad had guessed the size by telling the Jeweller that it should fit his little finger. It was a perfect fit; as was their marriage for the next 66 years.

Mum and Dad were married on the 3^rd of April 1948. This Anniversary was the most important date on the calendar for Mum and Dad, surpassing birthdays and even Christmas in importance. This year Dad managed to hold on to celebrate this special occasion one final time. A good time was had by all. For a while we forgot what was so obviously approaching and there was laughter and smiles around the table.

A week after this happy day Dads failing health put him into what seemed to be an endless cycle of emergency visits to hospital.

Falls, pneumonia, infection, bad circulation and heart failure were only a few of the problems that troubled Dad, yet throughout this he never complained. He showed an amazing resilience and recovered enough to be sent home from hospital on four
separate occasions. Mum battled on and although 3 years Dads senior she became Dads primary carer. This gave Dad several additional months at home where he could sit on his seat and look at his garden, which after Mum and Family was his next greatest love.

Gardening was Dads passion. He also loved a good contest, especially if he had a chance of winning. Whatever dad did, he strived to be or do his best.

When they were first married Dad and Mum lodged with an old lady in Medindie to save money to buy the land for their first home. Dad wanted a large garden and so they bought a half an acre block in Broadview on low lying land that was originally little
more than a duck pond.

Dad worked at the bank and so was able to use the banks Architect to design their house. It was cement brick, cement tiled & modest in size. I didn’t know it at the time but it was also quite special.

As a child I had no idea of such things but I knew that our place was different to the ones in the street with their freestone fronts, small windows and dark rooms.

Our house was oriented so the living areas faced North. There were large glazed steel casement windows that wrapped around the corners of the house, seemingly having no visible means of support. There were flywire screens that rolled up invisibly, and a two way bathroom that could also be accessed from the garden.

Mum and Dad had the good fortune to win Tattersals back in the early 1950’s. This was a life-changing win. Dads share was three thousand three hundred and twenty four pounds nineteen and eight pence. Dad was informed of the win at work, but as the inaugural Gladiolus club meeting was scheduled that night he attended this first before going home. When he got there friends and family ensured that the party was already in full swing.

The win meant that the Mortgage could be paid, carpet put down and furniture bought. A brand new Morris Minor was purchased and life was very good.

The Garden at Broadview was something special. Over 30 years Mum and Dad created a beautiful place that was serene and peaceful. Always a competitor, Dad entered the Garden in the Sunday Mail Garden contest. Dad and mum entered the Garden 3 times, but the achievement of two first place, and one second place award wasn’t quite good enough for Dad. He always insisted that if they hadn’t had a flood that year he would have had a perfect score.

This garden was the place where Dad spent his spare time growing the specialty blooms that he so dearly loved. There was a camellia House, a Rose Garden, a glass house, cactus wall, chrysanthemum house as well as a digging patch for Gladiolus and vegetables. There was also room for the Dachshunds’ to run and a small 9 hole putting coarse for me to challenge dad.

Dad was someone with broad interests. He always joined in and helped out at the various societies and clubs that he frequented. There were many friends to be made from all walks of life.

In the early days Dad bred and showed Dogs, the culmination of 10 years being a Grand champion Dachshund he bred named Stolzhund Jeremy.

The sixties was a busy time for Dad. He had studied at night for a bachelor of Economics Degree and was working his way up the Management ladder as an Accountant. Gladiolus quickly became more than a hobby, and for several years he spent his spare time on a block on the side of the Torrens growing them commercially. The money saved from this venture enabled a Beach house at Port Willunga to be purchased.

The rule was that the first 2 days of the Holidays was Dads time. The lazy-boy lounge was his throne and he would lie there under the fishing rods mounted on the wall, sports guide in hand, listening to race commentaries on an old Bakelite radio that sat in a packing crate bookshelf. After the 2 days of curfew all family members were welcome to come along and stay for the night or the week. There are many of us here today with happy memories of that small lime green asbestos shack sitting in its field of oats with its bright pink outhouse in the garden beyond. There was always risk of snake or spider bite when venturing past that bright pink door. No-one was happier than Mum when dad built on a shower and toilet to the house, eliminating the need to brave the wild-life out back.

Joining the Adelaide Gem and mineral club in the early 1970’s meant years of fun camping out… first in tents and later in our Combi camper van that was fully fitted out with everything including the kitchen sink. Mum remembers these days as some of the best times. She was there for the company, but always a competitor, Dad collected and competed with his rocks and fossils. Much fun was had hiking across creek beds and mountain tops in search of an elusive or rare specimen. After presenting him with his prize the judge from the South Australian museum commented to Dad that he possessed the best collection of Port Willunga fossils in existence.

After Dad retired from work at the age of sixty he had renewed enthusiasm for fishing. He had just moved to Glenelg North and this meant that the beach was only a hundred meters from his house.

Mullet season would see him down on the beach every morning. The special brew of semolina, garlic, mince-meat and curry powder was his secret fish-catching weapon.

Dad would stand in line with the other regular anglers on the beach. No-one talked, they just would acknowledge each other with a nod. No-one would even look sideways to see what anyone else was doing… but peripheral vision was working overtime.

Dad knew what everyone had caught & who had triumphed in their daily battle. Dads brother Jim would come down & fish with him some mornings and I have fond memories of seeing them side by side; indistinguishable in their old tatty jumpers, rubber boots and camouflage hats, competing like they did when they were children.

Dad’s passion for gardening and willingness to share that passion with others is what defined him as much as anything else.

I have memories of show halls packed with trestle tables and filled with blooms on competition days.

In the early morning we would travel down to the cold stores in the East end market where Dad rented space for his best flowers to keep them in tip top condition and delay their opening for as much as a week before the upcoming show.

Dad was a master of the art of “dressing flowers”. On competition morning he would be found hovering over a bucket of flowers on the Laundry bench at Broadview. Tweezers in hand and razor blade on bench, he would meticulously place last minute cotton wool behind florets, whilst with fingers flying he removed wiring and pinning from the night before.

What Dad started with and finally finished with were sometimes such remarkable transformations that even other floral aficionados were amazed. Dad was proud of the fact that even if he hadn’t grown the best bloom with a few minutes of preparation it would look like the best one.

Floriculture resulted in many accolades for Dad over the years, culminating in the medal of the order of Australia in 1998. I read here a précis of his investiture:

For service to Floriculture in South Australia as a grower, administrator and judge.

Senior Judge Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society Floriculture show.

Editor of the Australian Gladiolus Annual 1969-1976, he has served on the committee of the Gladiolus Society for more than 40 years. President 970-1977, secretary 1957-1977, show secretary since 1977 and is a life member. He was selected as Gladiolus
Commonwealth champion in 1966, 1970, 1986, 1987 and 1989.

President of the Rose Society of South Australia 1982- 1984
Treasurer since 1984 and is a life member.

Treasurer of the Australian Camellia research Society in the early 1970’s and Show organiser since 1980.

A Former President of the Chrysanthemum Society, currently Show Secretary and secretary and is a life member. He is also a Qualified Dahlia, Daffodil and sweet Pea Judge.

An update to these achievements was published in the Rose Society Bulletin in July this year. Dean Stringer wrote the article after visiting Dad at home in Townsend Park shortly after one of Dads many hospital stays. The final paragraph reads:

“Ralph has served as a highly respected Judge and awarded life membership from the Rose, Dahlia, Gladiolus, Daffodil, Chrysanthemum and Enfield Horticulture Societies.” It was a Delight to listen to him recount his favourite horticultural achievements and the many changes, some good, some bad, over the years. We felt honoured to have spent the afternoon with a person who has taught us so much over the years and surely must be one of our great Rosarian Icons.

Mum proudly showed Dad the article on one of his better days a couple of weeks ago. He was very pleased to hear such nice things said and dismissed his achievements with his usual wry humour. He smiled and commented “At least they only called me an Icon, if I was a Legend I would have to be dead”.

Dad you are a legend now. Rest in Peace and with all our love.

Thank you.

Autocad 2015 Review

Autocad 2015 was the first Autocad in ages that loaded reasonably easily. This lulled me into thinking that perhaps the developers had finally made some stability improvements. A month later using this beast of a program in my small Adelaide Architectural Practice & my opinion is that it is actually a huge step backwards. 

What is Wrong With the Newest Autocad?

So what is wrong with this version of Autocad? Other than messing with the way the interface looks & changing the file version yet again my biggest gripe is that Autocad 2015 takes much longer to load & runs much slower than my 2014 and 2013 versions. That alone is a huge backwards step. For an old bloke like me the icons on the toolbars are very faded. This is supposed to reduce eyestrain...it just means that everything looks the same & you need better vision to focus on what the icon actually is rather than recognising it by colour contrast. Editing text takes a lot longer to start the editing process. It used to be instant a few versions ago & now I wait a couple of seconds after clicking on the text.

Autocad 2015 stability issues

Another huge problem for me is that this years Autocad has stability issues. Every time I close the "refedit" window & save it I crash.  The backup manager doesn't work that well if you use the same drawing names for your drawings from job to job & so if you don't save every time before you do a refedit you can lose your work.... REALLY FRUSTRATING the third time this happens in one day.

Autocad 2015 file version is probably the cause of this. Every time the developers re-write the code (I presume to stop piracy  issues) the new version is always full of bugs. This one in my opinion is unusually unstable and reminds me of the problems I had with my first windows version of Autocad R13 was way back in the 1990's....we all remember what a dog of a program that was... Anyway the hope is that next year they will fix up all the things they messed up this year...Cheers Autodesk!!

Analysing Awstats Data

Awstats is the default analytical program that came with my hosting package from my Web hosting provider Ventra IP. I use it to analyse how the website of my Adelaide Architectural practice is going. It has a lot of information available that is easy to read at a glance. Understanding exactly what that information means however is a little trickier. The more visitors you get through your site and the longer your site is up and running the easier it gets to make sense of what is happening.

Awstats Patterns and Anomalies

The two most important things that I use my stats for is patterns and anomalies. Unlike Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools which only have a 3 month log memory, Awstats remembers your logs back as far as you had them. This means that if you haven't been downloading copies of your monthly reports it doesn't really matter. It also means that when you see some sort of anonmaly or new pattern starting to emerge you can backtrack to see when this first started.  Not understanding exactly what all the information given means makes it easier in some ways.  When you are new to the whole web-hosting game you can start with the really easy things like visitor numbers compared to unique visitors and what organic phrases people use to find you with. What pages were viewed and entry and exit numbers for these pages is also a no-brainer.  No interpretive skills are needed for these things and they really are what the newbie is interested in. The rest is more to do with fine-tuning and perhaps checking that there is no malware or suspicious activity occurring.

Visitor Duration Anomaly

The visitor duration list in Awstats may need a little more understanding. By the end of the month I can have as much as 90 percent of my visitors under the 30 second duration mark. Under 30 seconds visit duration means that those people really aren't interested in what is on offer and just click away as soon as they enter. 10 thousand visits a month actually means only one thousand are really having a good look. What I have discovered however that this may not be an accurate representation of what is actually happening. A screen shot of this part of my stats panel on the first day of the month, when there is only a single day of stats available, shows something entirely different.

Awstat Visitor Duration for Adelaide Architect Grant Lucas

This shows that for a single day the under 30 second proportion of my visitors may actually be around 65 percent. This is actually quite a good result. This kind of anomaly is only obvious if you ensure that you look at your stats on the first few days of the month & see how they differ from the end of the month result.

Visitor Duration Greater Than An Hour

What is also apparent is that there is actually a far greater percentage of people on my site for more than a hour than I had thought..... in fact this is actually the greatest single duration demographic on the list apart for the less than 30 second one. What I now need to determine is why the end result is masked so heavily.... also are such long stays actually a good thing? Are these potential clients? This is where it starts getting tricky. I provide an informative site about things many Architects don't talk about. Costs, what an Architect actually does and what you get for your money, with examples of what a documentation set looks like. These are things that I rank highly in with Google. I can mention these things on my website because I provide good value for money. My jobs are well documented and my prices are around half of others due to the low overheads of working in a SOHO situation. I also have one of the most popular sites world wide for custom swimming pools on sloping sites. Are people just coming over for the information or are they actually interested in finding an Architect? Another possibility for really long stays might just be that people are viewing my site at work & sneaking a peek whenever their boss isn't around. Hiding away on a background screen these hour plus duration visits may really be 10 minutes of actual viewing. Because the bulk of my visitors are Australian (another AWSTATS table) this is easy to see at a glance as the hours aren't skewed much by time zone.This certainly isn't disproved when I look at the visits per hour of day table AWSTATS provides. The dip at around 2pm and 5pm may actually confirm this as at 2pm most workers are into the swing of things getting work done after lunch and at 5pm they are ready to go home.

AWSTAT visits/hours for Adelaide Architect Grant Lucas

Adelaide Architect

Organic searches equate to new potential customers. My Awstats key phrases and keywords panel for search terms that day shows that the few keywords for that day that rated well were Architects, Adelaide, and Residential.  The only other organic search phrase was a long tail one. I get lots of long tail searches due to the fact that my site contains lots of information & so the fact that this odd one appeared isn't surprising. What is informative is that this indicates that most of the new people that find me aren't just looking for information, but were looking for a local Adelaide Architect. It is getting harder to analyse the key phrases as since most organic visitors come in Via Google and since Google's privacy laws now mask these results, only about one in 10 phrases is registered. This means that the 4 organic phrases for the day visible in my stats are only a random selection from around 40. The fact that 3 of the 4 contained the words I was interested in was however comforting.

Awstats for Key Search phrases shows the  terms Adelaide & Architects are popular

Conclusion

 Awstats comes free with many Cpanel installations. It hides among the many other free tools provided by your web host. It a great tool to understand how people are using your site. Its simple table-like format is easy for even a novice to understand. Because it provides a log memory back to the first day of use it is exceptionally good for discovering trends and patterns on your site.  I highly recommend that if you have this package that you take advantage of the information and insights it provides.

Choosing a Free PDF Merging Software

PDF has become the standard method of viewing documents. Adobe Acrobat is however very expensive. There is no need to purchase such an expensive program.  The choice of free PDF software now available is daunting.  In my Architectural Practice I have used PDF995 (free) for around 10 years but it works through my printer and so doesn't concatonate (append) documents. I occasionally have the need to merge individual documents from other consultants or made with PDF995. It is much easier to read a multi-page document than sort through individual files

The Best 5 Free PDF Merging Programs

I researched for a few hours and it was very confusing. There were lots of program choices and then many alternate download sites to choose from. I checked wikipedia and looked for comments on forums and checked software companies reputations and still had lots of trouble selecting a suitable free program. I even was seduced by banners such as "Top 5 PDF Merging software" which indicated my state of mind after around 4 hours of fruitless research. I finally was worn down by in-conclusion & ended up trusting my antivirus software to save me from trouble.

Which PDF Merging Program to choose?

The choices I made were, in order.... Foxit reader, pdfmerge, PDF split and Merge and PDFill Free PDF Tools. Foxit reader installed but required a paid upgrade to merge documents, pdfmerge wouldn't install and my Antivirus deleted the file telling me it was infected. PDF Split and merge, although reading as one of the best in reviews also gave me an infected message through my Antivirus software. I did persevere with this one and tried to load it through both the parent site as well as Softonic. My Trend Micro saved the day both times and put the infected files in the "Vault". I then did a bit of checking and I wasn't the only one to have problems with these last two programs. It may be my Antivirus program giving a false positive but I wasn't going to keep trying with these programs when there are so many other free ones to choose from.

A Good PDF Merge Program Is...

The name is a little long winded but PDFill Free PDF Tools is excellent. PDFill Free PDF Tools wasn't my first choice, as it isn't a stand-alone program. It is a set of manipulation tools that can do lots of things as well as split and merge documents. It is however a small file and it loaded cleanly and quickly onto my computer. The interface is really simple and took about 20 seconds to produce my first multi-page document from a set of 3 A3 plans and an A4 letter. The resultant file looked professional & there is no "trial" watermark or nagging advertising lag. It is early days yet, but I am very happy with this product and look forward to trying out the other features it offers when I find time.