Simon is currently doing some work at the Batu Hijau open pit mine in Indonesia. The pit is now about 400 m deep. There is another 100 m of pit at the bottom that has been filled with water during the wet season. The final pit will be about 1000 m deep and about 2 km across.

Mining in the pit is done with electric shovels and haul trucks. The shovels in this picture have a power cord about 6 inches thick coming out the back. To get a feel for the size of the trucks, thats a grader on the haul road on the right side of the picture.

A closer picture of the trucks on the haul ramp in the previous photo compared to a Hilux. If one of these haul trucks runs over a Hilux, as occasionally happens, the driver cant actually feel it and doesnt notice. That is why we have parked the Hilux well out of the way, and it has a flag on the top..

We still go on Great Dane club walks once a month. We get between 10 and 30 Danes turning up usually, and they have a chance to play with a dog their own size. This walk was along the river in Nedlands.

Most Danes dont like the water, but Dallas is a good swimmer, and likes to show off his skills to the other Danes. Unfortunately Simon is attached to Dallas by the lead, and on this occasion had forgotten to take his phone out of his pocket. The river is brackish here, and that phone is now dead.

We had a good crop of tomatoes this year, and Simon also grew a crop of hops for making beer this year. The hops are a climbing vine, so Simon has strung ropes above the vegetable garden.

Most of teh tomatoes were given away at Fleurs work, but we also semi-dried a bunch to be stored under oil.

The hop plant in full flower. The fuzzy cones are the things that give beer its bitterness.

Although it looked like a decent crop of hop cones when picked, after drying, compacting and sealing, it was only enough for a couple of batches of beer.

In June, we changed the lounge around so we could light the fire, as we were getting unusually cold nights, minus 1 degree on one night. This takes care of the dogs as they flake out in front of it all night.

Each year we take the dogs to the RSPCA million paws walk to raise money. Dallas got plenty of attention being dressed for the occasion.

There are always plent of weird looking dogs at the walk.

In April, Fleur made a pilgrimidge to Sydney, to see her favourite band, the Rolling Stones. She had to go to Sydney as they werent playing Perth. This was a big event for her, especially as she is very scared of flying. But she went with some girlfriends, and had a great night at the concert. So great that she decided to mark the occasion with a tattoo.

This is the Minahasa site in Indonesia, which is a mine that has finished operations. Simon is working on closing and reclaiming the site. This involves installing drainage channels that will last a very long time without allowing any erosion of the newly vegetated surfaces. This drop structure will carry site runoff during intense wet season rainfall events, while helping to lose energy from the flow as it bounces from step to step.

In the village below the Minahasa site, the mining company is planning to install erosion protection between the river and the village. On a recent visit Simon mapped the shape of the river channel. This river is the receiving environment for pretty much everything from the village. At the end of this exercise, Simons boots stank so much he ended up leaving them behind rather than put them in his bag.

The guest house at the Minahasa site has no wall on one side, no need when the temperature is 27 to 30 degrees all year round.

The view from the guest house, looking from the mine to the village and coast below. This guest house will be demolished in July as part of the reclamation works.