iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Anyone who knows the North West coast of Tasmania knows the highway closely hugs the coastline. Today on my commute home I got to witness a humpback whale breach a few hundred metres off shore. It’s a wonder there aren’t traffic accidents. Just an incredible sight.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I don’t post much here anymore but it’s the time of year I love to share what’s happening in the garden. One of my personal favourites, fritillaria meleagris, is in full bloom. I love the checkerboard pattern.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It was an interesting process but was able to get Radiohead tickets for Melbourne next year for the family. I’ve never had much luck in these sorts of situations before so I’m currently over the moon with excitement.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Donkeys have laid down in the exact position that allows them to see what’s going on in the house.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

An eagle eyed member of a chat group I’m in spotted this during last nights Crows Bulldogs broadcast. Blackface in 2026. Baffled how they got past security and into the game.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Just came back from a two day work trip to Ballarat and for the first time ever I can say the weather was much nicer in Ballarat than back home.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Proud father moment last night. Watching my 18 year old son play Gomez in Hellyer College’s production of the Adam’s Family. He’s had an interest in drama since Grade 8 but he’s always leant towards sketch comedy. This production is a musical so involved lots of singing and dancing. 1/3

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

This is as far as we will get for now. The window needs a little more work and the built in wardrobe needs a lot of work. Also need to install the fire fascia when it arrives and tidy up the fireplace. Tomorrow we move our son back into a mostly complete room till we next get a block of time.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Haven’t posted for a few days. Been slugging through the hard bit. Getting the last bits of old paint off the timber. Some finishes are going on now. First coat on the walls and the dado boards have been freshened up with a new layer of shellac and wax.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I wasn’t coping so well a few hours ago but got close enough on the second attempt. A coping saw would have been helpful but I was able to make do. Each room we restore I seem to have to learn a new skill.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Not a lot of visual progress today but the door frame and window have had all the paint removed and a light sand. The cornice was stained today so the next job will be preparing the walls for painting. I’ve included a picture of a finished room to show the look we are going for.

Cornice stained with walnut stained shellac.

Finished ceiling and walls in a different bedroom

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Day 4 of the bedroom restoration. Window 95% stripped back and doorway is 99% stripped back. Ceiling done. Next few days will probably focus on the garden and then back into stripping skirting boards while my wife stains the timber.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

After 5 consecutive rainy days and over 100mm of rain, how good is vitamin D?

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Day 2 of the bedroom restoration. Discovered from watching YouTube restoration clips that after they have stripped the bulk of the paint off they use a wire brush to get paint out of the grooves. Wish I’d known that trick 20 years ago but it has sped up the process a lot.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Started stripping back the pink paint off the timber in the final bedroom. Forgot to take a before picture so this is a just after we started photo.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Adding to yesterday’s finds there was a Queen Victoria 1886 penny and a King George V 1944 penny hiding behind the skirting boards. The oldest penny is pretty beat up and in poor condition.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Things found behind the mantle I pulled out today so it could be restored. The bit that I was curious about was the butchers receipt from the 8th of February 1966 in decimal currency. I’d always understood it was changed on the 14th but there must have been a transition period

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Never get tired of seeing eagles close up in the wild. Their population seems to be recovering well in my area.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

There are many joys to owning animals but traipsing through the mud in the rain at sunrise to feed them isn’t one of them.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Today we went out plant shopping at some small independent nursery’s in my area. It was a pleasant day out and I was not prepared for what we found when we got home at the end of the day.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Been a sad day in our house. Our elderly cat Ellegaard went missing Friday night and hasn’t been home since. She’s a creature of habit and never misses a meal so at this stage we fear the worst. It’s 95% certain she’s passed away somewhere Friday night. It’s the way we always suspected it would be.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Grim reality of living in the country. Get back from 4 relaxing days in Melbourne only to have a quoll get into the chicken shed and kill three chickens.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Been a bulldogs fan since I was a small child and every time I’ve seen them play they’ve lost, often by a lot. Fingers crossed tonight is the night.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Just got all my hair shaved off by a barber in St Kilda. Was walking past, they were empty and just decided spur of the moment that it was time. Embrace creeping baldness.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Today was the third consecutive day of seeing at least one wedge tailed eagle on the ground. The last two days it was a single bird on the road but today it was 3 and in a safe location.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Lunch today was a gochujang beef rice bowl. Think this one will be going into the lunch rotation

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Just realised today was a first for our household. Both the children went to work while the parents were at home. Starting to realise they won’t be around for much longer.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Today was the final day of my short stay on the West Coast and we had to start with a tour of the heritage centre in Zeehan. The rock and mineral collection is first rate and the rest of the exhibits are worth the trip. One of the better regional museums.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Last night we went out to the spray tunnel and got to see the glow worms. It was quite a difficult place to find after dark but well worth a visit.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Travelled to Zeehan today via the most rarely travelled road in Tasmania, the Western Explorer. Spectacular scenery but painfully slow There is a 50km stretch that takes nearly 2 hours to travel with narrow twisty corners full of large potholes and ruts.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

The cats are struggling to adjust to the addition of a robot vacuum intruding into their peaceful world. Not as scary as the normal vacuum but needs ti be viewed with suspicion.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

My teenage son was filling up his car while the attendant was adding a price rise into the system and it accidentally wiped all trace of the transaction resulting in him scoring a free tank of fuel.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

There’s two things that New Zealand seems determined to cram into every product. Feijoa or cranberry. However, I don’t blame them. Fresh NZ feijoa just taste so much better than the ones I can get back home.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

One of the things that irks me traveling between farming areas with strict quarantine rules (Tasmania to NZ) is they make such a fuss at the airport over the tiniest speck of dirt but neither have installed boot disinfectant stations to deal with the prospect of unseen pathogens.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

My competition pumpkins are coming along nicely* *goat for scale

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Whenever there is a major bushfire people ask why they don’t do more hazard reduction burns but when they actually do hazard reduction burns the smoke from them is a major issue. This is from a small burn 80-100km away.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

My footy tipping will never look this good ever again. Leading the work tipping by 1 and leading my boss (a footy tragic) by 3.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Today has been a great day for middle aged Tasmanian men who like to say “but it’s a different sort of heat down here”.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Being hand reared means Penny is used to being handled and likes a cuddle.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

It’s snake season at home. First one I’ve seen at home for the year. He was curious but didn’t want to hang around.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

It’s so nice hearing rain on the roof in summer when you rely on tank water. Our gutters have been broken and were fixed this week so it’s doubly nice hearing the tank fill up. Also finished harvest yesterday so it was also nice to get that finished before the rain.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Trod on a tiger snake today while getting a site ready for harvest. It was a small one (about 80-100cm) long but it will definitely be over 1m by the time I get home and tell the story to my wife.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Woke up the pigs during their afternoon nap. This is Winnie’s “bed hair”.

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Brent Smedley @boring-smed.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Was out chipping thistles and looked up to see this view. Sometimes I almost take it for granted by but not today.

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