It should have a tag attached, showing the date and place of gathering and who did the gathering. Also a licence number for the gatherer. That tag needs to stay attached to the tree to prove that it wasn't illegally gathered. There's a HUGE black market for illegally gathered grass trees, both here in Aus and overseas. If it's illegal, then the seller needs to be called out and made to pay the fine. Or the purchaser pays it when discovered. Check state requirements. Also grass trees gathered in maybe QLD can end up here in Vic, where they really don't belong and struggle to survive. It's a poor soil and dry conditions specialist, so overwatering is a real problem for the plant in a suburban setting with automatic watering nearby.
Yes, it won't grow much unless it gets a 'cool burn' around the base every few years - don't burn the topknot cos that kills the tree. It does need some fire in the right place and at the right time to reduce competition around it's very small root zone and so to thrive.
Hasn't been fun dealing with it. Fortunately my "I'm no one to mess with" mojo hadn't deserted me, so the dogs mostly stayed out of my yard. Lots of us here in the street were walking on eggs with regard to those dogs. We are SO GLAD they're gone. I don't think anyone got bitten, but imo it was only a matter of time.
The derelict van belonging to the squatters in the local (derelict) milk bar got towed by the council. No more of their 3 flea-stricken mongrels wandering in and out of everyone's front yards. Yes those dogs were definitely NOT being looked after properly - all were entire males and challenged every other dog in the street and people too. Sometimes very loudly. They chased small children from the local school coming home, were fed mostly on KFC and were disobedient to their 'owners'. And the squatters' non-registered land cruiser got towed as well. I think everyone in the street rejoiced at the sudden increase in parking and now can walk their dogs without fear of large vet bills. And let their children come home after school unaccompanied. Which I think is healthy. There's far too much helicopter parenting nowadays. While I understand there's a housing crisis, and mental health (and drug) issues make it hard to find a cheap rental, keeping 3 hungry, disobedient dogs in a derelict van only a couple of blocks from a primary school is just plain bad pet parenting. I'm very glad indeed that there were no tragedies.
True. The initial question does not specify if the chuck in question is forward directed or rear directed. Damn questions that miss out on the most important info.
This pretty close to the best answer I came up with. BUT. Woodchucks are rodents, not monkey-ancestor brachiators like us. So their shoulder and arm assembly is geared to grip & gather, not swing and bear weight. So the 'calculated' answer I came up with was 35grams. Given the moment arm and leverage etc. Plus claws get in the way - woodchucks don't have fingers/thumb for gripping like us. No doubt this question will continue to bother me.
Might be interesting to check your step counter/watch/whatever in case it reset itself to zero at midday. My boss has a watch thingy that counts his steps and one day he was morally certain he'd done 'enough' only to find that only the steps from midday onward had been counted. Something to do with a 12 hour clock not a 24 hour one. The watch turned out not to be faulty, he'd just set it up on the wrong timing. Worth checking imo. And happy birfday!
Looks like the worst of it will pass south of Melb city. windy.com is showing quite a lot on the radar.