Mosaic Workshop

Mosaic Workshop May 19th 2011 at Marilyn's

Guess who believed that they were the least creative? No prizes for the correct answer.

Carol, Anne, Wendy, Michelle, Kim and Elizabeth came with an interesting array of ideas and embellishments for their mosaic masterpieces.

Anne smashed old plates in shades of blue to decorate a hubcap.

Carol picked her piece of marine ply up from the side of the road and mosaiced a sun (seen here as a work in progress).

Wendy’s paver also had a celestial theme of a star.

Kim finished her first one before most had started, creating a border for her mirror from colourful stones, and then designed a wall plaque of a cup, saucer and spoon.

Liz used black, white and mirror tiles to revamp an old table top.

Michelle centred a tile (a gift from Wendy’s NZ trip) and designed a pattern on a lazy susan, and also decorated a mirror frame with shells.

Another great Ag’n’Chat Day.

Narrandera Fisheries

17th February 2011

Today we visited the Narrandera Fisheries. Our guide Dexter gave us a very informative talk about the native freshwater fish species in Australia and also the fish pests such as Carp and Redfin.

The centre was opened in 1962 as a research centre to study the biology and ecology of inland aquatic systems. It is also now a productive hatchery which releases millions of fingerlings of Murray Cod, Golden Perch, Silver Perch and Trout Cod into waterways in our area. The centre is also an educational centre for children to learn about fishing and preserving the fish environment.

This is "Agro", a 20 year old Murray Cod who has a very easy life floating around all day getting fed twice a week. He is also one of the "stud" males used for reproduction.

Photography Lesson

7th April 2011

After an early “cuppa” we welcomed John and Maria Egan as our guests for this meeting on the skills and pleasure of photography.

John spoke at length with a power point presentation on just how a camera works, it copies our eyes,. Light enters through our retinas and at the back of the eye is reversed and turned upside down and we see!!!

The camera works just the same through various lens in the camera. John spent a good amount of time explaining how the camera works. He explained that we do not need expensive cameras to take good photos, once we know how to use the apertures ( letting in the light) and speed of the shutter works. He explained how they are both intrinsic to get the result we hope for , We all just have to understand how they work together and keep practising.

After another “cuppa”, John then showed us pictures that were beautiful but could be improved on, making them softer in the surrounds, making a part of the picture sharper, remembering the “one third” principle!!! He showed us how he created the improvements and how we can manage this principle with our own camera shots.

There were lots of questions and talk about cameras as some of the members had brought along their own for John and Maria to assist them in improving their use of these.

We could have gone on all day but drew the meeting to a close at 1pm. We thank John and Maria for their generous gift of their time as they were presented with a gift of appreciation.

May meeting at Marilyns - learning mosaics.

Social Networking Technologies

March 17th 2011

Guest Speaker: Dr Barney Dalgarno

Barney is an Associate Professor in Education in the School of Education at Charles Sturt University – Wagga Campus.

Barney’s presentation focussed on the way that social networking technologies are changing the way we communicate, collaborate, and develop a sense of community. He outlined the technologies of Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, You Tube and Second Life. We discussed the positive and negative implications of these technologies.

Facts
• There are 140 million tweets per day
• There are 600 million active Facebook users, and 135 million page visitors per month

Barney also outlined how mobile devices like iPhones, iPads and so on are making us constantly connected to the internet and how this may impact on our conventional relationships.

Barney enjoyed the morning, and thought us to be a switched on group of people that must have some good conversations! I think we’d agree.

After the morning’s presentation we enthusiastically agreed that Donna create a Blog for Marrar Ag’n’Chat with all of us contributing (if we are taught how). This she has started at http://marraragnchat.blogspot.com/

"Kooringal Stud"

22nd October, 2009

Penny & Stuart Lamont were our hosts for the October meeting. Penny and Stuart, along with their son Angus, run a horse stud, "Kooringal Stud", on the Harefield Road, via Wagga Wagga. This property has been in the Lamont Family for nearly 100 years. Stuart's grandfather and grandmother came to this property from Victoria. Grandfather Lamont died in 1916 and Grandmother Lamont farmed the property until her son Colin, Stuart's father, returned from the 2nd World War. Stuart is the youngest son of four children and the only one interested in horses and so he took over the management of the stud. The property covers an area of 2,500 acres of which over 2,000 acres is set aside for the thoroughbred enterprise. Paddocks range from 10 acres to 150 acres and all contain either permanent or portable shelter sheds built on the property. An extensive system of laneways ensures safe and efficient movement of stock around the property. The majority of crops grown on the land are made into hay and also oats are harvested for grain to be fed to the horses.

Kooringal Studs 2009 sires are "Alert" from Argentina, "Bureaucracy" from New Zealand, and "Fubu" from Australia. The stud operation comprises four employees and Stuart and Penny. Stuart runs a very tight ship and their busiest time is from August until November. There are approximately 350 mares, some of which are on agistment for the full twelve months. The stud attracts mares from all over Australia many coming from Western Australia. The mares start foaling around August and a roster system is set up with employees watching the mares 24 hours a day. As soon as a mare lies down to foal, an alarm goes off so that if assistance is needed, someone is on hand. After the mares have foaled and come into season they are then serviced by the stallions using teaser stallions (these are ponies so that they can't mount the mares and they protect the stallions from being hurt).

The Stud has a nursery, for any foals that may be sick and need very close attention. All the foals are handled from day one with the help of a type of saddle (the "Foal Controller") which was invented by Tim, one of Stuart & Penny's employees. The local veterinarian plays a very important role in keeping all the stock healthy.

On arrival, we were greeted by Stuart, Penny and Angus and ushered onto an 18 seat bus (Angus' latest purchase) and given a very comprehensive tour of the Stud. After our tour Penny was a gracious host and served us morning tea under the 100 year old wisteria vine at the front of the house. Her beautiful garden is planted with crab apples, roses, agapanthus, a wisteria walk, and olive trees just to name a few plant varieties. Penny also has many sculptures that adorn her garden. For those members who hadn't experienced a horse stud before it was a huge learning curve. For us who had, it was a very good example of how to manage one.