My God It's Actually Come to This

[RinkyDink]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/busin ... .html?_r=0

[BaNZ]

It's horrible, but at least we know he is paying taxes unlike some other companies out there like Apple.

[RinkyDink]

It's horrible, but at least we know he is paying taxes unlike some other companies out there like Apple.

Now that he lives in Florida, where there is no state tax, his tax bill just decreased by eleventy. And then there's this . . . http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-bake ... 48468.html

[billie_morini]

Wha? Wait? Surf, not taxes!

[RinkyDink]

Wha? Wait? Surf, not taxes!

Just a little suggested reading. No response required.

[RinkyDink]

Just a little side note on surfing and taxes. As I was surfing today I looked over at the pier where I surf and I wondered what the function of the pier actually was. I thought that the guys fishing on it couldn't possibly justify the public expense for it. The pier obviously drew people to the beach and created some commerce for the shops around it, but as far as I could tell the primary function of the pier in my neck of the woods was to promote the pure and simple pleasure of the people. I thought about how that must really rankle the conservatives who sneer that they shouldn't have to pay for a pier with their tax dollars. If people want to go out on dates along the pier or watch the sunset from the pier, then they should pay for it themselves, the scolds would say. In the conservative world, we'd all have to pay a toll to take a stroll on the pier or, even worse, pay for a ticket to even step foot on the beaches which would all be owned by Disney. That's about when I started paddling for another wave.

[dtc]

Lots of piers used to be working docks and have just been retained for heritage type reasons. One place I've spent a bit of time at used to be a forestry area (now a national park) and the huge metal piles put into the natural rock platform to support the pier are still there (but nothing else is) - its kinda weird walking along a rock platform with nothing man made even visible and suddenly spotting a 3inch thick chunk of iron embedded in the rock. I like it though, it was 50 years or more before I was alive but its an interesting thing to reflect on.

[RinkyDink]

Lots of piers used to be working docks and have just been retained for heritage type reasons. One place I've spent a bit of time at used to be a forestry area (now a national park) and the huge metal piles put into the natural rock platform to support the pier are still there (but nothing else is) - its kinda weird walking along a rock platform with nothing man made even visible and suddenly spotting a 3inch thick chunk of iron embedded in the rock. I like it though, it was 50 years or more before I was alive but its an interesting thing to reflect on.

That pier you described sounds sweet. From Wikipedia I read that piers started out with a utilitarian purpose, but then they started building them just for pleasure purposes. I love those moments in history when a society recognizes the aesthetic value of wilderness and nature. It's odd to think that there was actually a time, say the Middle Ages, when people looked upon deserts, forests, and seas as dark, dangerous places with little appeal. It took a long time for landscapes to show up in paintings as just landscapes instead of as simple backdrops to human subject matter.

[dtc]

You cant see from this photo but on the flat rock platform in the middle there use to be a tramline (tracks and everything) built across the main rocks to the rocks out in the water and then a short jetty/pier. The logs would get hauled down from the surrounding forest and put on the 'tram' (really just a rail cart) and taken across the rocks on the line to a waiting barge. There are still quite a few iron rail spikes (used to attach the rail line to the rocks) embedded in the rocks, and the holes from other (no longer existing) spikes are all over the place.

This is not my usual surf spot! But its a beautiful beach, right in the middle of a national park. There is a very small village (90 houses or so and only about 20 permanent residents) up in the trees, but you cant see them. If it had more waves (my issue), if it wasn't about 25 minutes to the nearest shops (my wife's issue) and had better internet (the kid's issues) and wasn't so expensive, it would be my ideal beach...

[RinkyDink]

You cant see from this photo but on the flat rock platform in the middle there use to be a tramline (tracks and everything) built across the main rocks to the rocks out in the water and then a short jetty/pier. The logs would get hauled down from the surrounding forest and put on the 'tram' (really just a rail cart) and taken across the rocks on the line to a waiting barge. There are still quite a few iron rail spikes (used to attach the rail line to the rocks) embedded in the rocks, and the holes from other (no longer existing) spikes are all over the place.

This is not my usual surf spot! But its a beautiful beach, right in the middle of a national park. There is a very small village (90 houses or so and only about 20 permanent residents) up in the trees, but you cant see them. If it had more waves (my issue), if it wasn't about 25 minutes to the nearest shops (my wife's issue) and had better internet (the kid's issues) and wasn't so expensive, it would be my ideal beach...

depot-beach.jpg

Wow, that's a gorgeous beach. I'd surf there . What kind of wood were they logging? Is there a ghost town around there or is the village you mentioned where the loggers used to live?

[dtc]

I don't know all of the history. They were harvesting eucalypt of some kind; apparently along this area the 'authorities' gave permission to harvest a certain quantity and quality of logs within a certain area. So a small saw mill would be set up (the first was at the wonderfully named 'Cockwhy Creek'), the loggers would go in for a few years until reaching the limit, then the saw mill would shut down and be removed. This was in the 1890s - 1950s. Fortunately the quality of log requirement meant that only large older trees were logged, meaning that now (50+years on), the young trees from back then are fully mature.

I'm not sure about the history of the village. It was there when the beach became a national park in 1973 and, while normally everyone would be kicked out, they were allowed to stay but on the condition that no one could live there permanently and with the potential that the decision to allow the houses to remain would be overturned. So the old beach shacks were kept in just good enough condition to holiday in and no better - and my family was fortunate enough to know someone with such a house (fibro walls, water tank, no telephone, pit sewer, no air con, one room shack!) and I went to the beach many times as a teenager. Loved it - I wasn't surfing then, more into fishing and wandering. But within the last 20 years or so the rules were changed to allow permanent residents and to provide long term secure tenure. So the houses are much better, but the village cannot expand beyond the number it currently has.

Not great for surfing in summer but in winter you can get some waves. There is a much better beach around the corner

If you wander up the hill you will see this in the village - lawn mowers totally not required

[RinkyDink]

If you wander up the hill you will see this in the village - lawn mowers totally not required

I live on a quasi-farm and my landlord moved out of the main house. The land across from my place got completely overgrown and the landlord brought some steers and goats in and left them there. The land was leveled down to the dirt in practically two days. I ain't never seen nothin' like 'at coming from the city and all. Anyway, you got some good waves and good hiking in your part of the world. Enjoy it.