Look before you leap!
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2020 3:54 pm
So... as most will know, my workshop is on the old AECI land in Somerset West.
An intriguing history to that patch of land - but the short story is , it was set up around 1895 as a dynamite factory to make dynamite in SA for the mines - The poms didn't want to put it in Transvaal because .. you know. The Boers were revolting
Anyway, so it's little parcels of workshops dotted around a large open space - this is so that if one went 'BOOM' it didn't destroy everything .
Anyway, there are roads between the areas, but obviously, there are also a few dirt roads people have made as short cuts, which the authorities have kept on trying to block off and people keep driving over the heaps they place.
Good fun.
ESPECIALLY when it's wet 'n' muddy.
But here is something I have never thought of....
Most of the land is barely a metre above sea level - so there are no actual sewers.
Logic thus dictates there must be French Drains to service all the older buildings
Further thought would indicate that these would be over 120 years old by now and I have never seen a honey sucker collecting the politicians promises from them.
Which, with further thought, explains the exceptional green lushness of some of the areas the dirt roads pass over near the buildings, especially in the dipped parts of the road where it's REALLY nice and muddy.
Yes. it all seems to logical now.
So, it's been raining, it's FUN TIME!
Slip it into 4H, over the mound, ESP partially off and off to slide it around.
Loads of fun. Spy the mud pit ahead, wipers on full and get it slightly airborne to leap right into the middle of it at about 60ish.... wheels spinning and.... sweet LAWD! the stink as I churned up century old *poo**. GACK. then suddenly it all felt very unstable, so I kept the throttle down and threw tons of it all over the Jeep and headed for dryer ground . It has the soft top on too - luckily it was up.
lets just say the Jeep now smells somewhat unpleasant.
Gonna have to wash it ....
An intriguing history to that patch of land - but the short story is , it was set up around 1895 as a dynamite factory to make dynamite in SA for the mines - The poms didn't want to put it in Transvaal because .. you know. The Boers were revolting
Anyway, so it's little parcels of workshops dotted around a large open space - this is so that if one went 'BOOM' it didn't destroy everything .
Anyway, there are roads between the areas, but obviously, there are also a few dirt roads people have made as short cuts, which the authorities have kept on trying to block off and people keep driving over the heaps they place.
Good fun.
ESPECIALLY when it's wet 'n' muddy.
But here is something I have never thought of....
Most of the land is barely a metre above sea level - so there are no actual sewers.
Logic thus dictates there must be French Drains to service all the older buildings
Further thought would indicate that these would be over 120 years old by now and I have never seen a honey sucker collecting the politicians promises from them.
Which, with further thought, explains the exceptional green lushness of some of the areas the dirt roads pass over near the buildings, especially in the dipped parts of the road where it's REALLY nice and muddy.
Yes. it all seems to logical now.
So, it's been raining, it's FUN TIME!
Slip it into 4H, over the mound, ESP partially off and off to slide it around.
Loads of fun. Spy the mud pit ahead, wipers on full and get it slightly airborne to leap right into the middle of it at about 60ish.... wheels spinning and.... sweet LAWD! the stink as I churned up century old *poo**. GACK. then suddenly it all felt very unstable, so I kept the throttle down and threw tons of it all over the Jeep and headed for dryer ground . It has the soft top on too - luckily it was up.
lets just say the Jeep now smells somewhat unpleasant.
Gonna have to wash it ....
