Still Burning

 Burning the big stump

Oh Dear

That sinking feeling when the fire jumps from the stump you are burning to the pile of logs you wanted to keep for firewood.  It's always the way... the pile you wanted to keep burns better than any of the other piles.  Went out this morning and it is just a smouldring pile of ash.  The stumps on the other hand are all still there.  Oh well saves me sawing it up and I still have all the straight logs for milling.

A weekend away

We took a long weekend Thursday - Monday and ventured down to Pullmans Bunker Bay resort in Dunsborough for some R&R. With buffet breakfast thrown in we didn't have to worry too much about lunch or dinner.  We did sneak a romantic dinner, kids free in.  

We did some indoor rock climbing, ventured down Jewel cave and spent time clambering around rocks at the beach.  Oh and visited some chocolate manufacturers and the odd micro brewery. The bulk of the time was spent lazing around on the super comfy lounge.

 Bunker Bay Sunrise

I snuck some pre-breakfast running and quickly discovered my running fitness is nearly non existent so I have quite a road ahead of me if I decide to do another half Marathon next year.

Lighting the Heap

Once home it was back onto the never shortening list.  Conditions were right on Tuesday to finally set fire to the heaps from the house pad clearing.  By Wednesday morning the bulk of the smaller stuff was gone leaving 3 large stumps.  I fully expect the stumps to smolder away for several days.  I doubt they will burn completely before the rain returns on the weekend and I will probably push them further down the block with the excavator into a single heap to burn down (in a few weeks time if not next year).  At least the area for the orchard will finally be clear and we can get some more trees in before Summer.

Burning into the Night

Not much to report this weekend.  A bit of gardening, felled the big dead jarrah tree down the bottom of the block and did a bit of carpentry.  Drank some beer, had a jam with Jack on drums and me on guitar.

The challenge is to turn this above into one of these below.  We have cut 1 ring of jarrah and 2 rings of Marri and given to Paul to mill and over the next 18 months try and turn into a snare drum to start creating Jack's drum kit.

 Strawberry Jam

The house was filled Sunday with the delightful aroma of strawberry jam being made.  Some very happy boys.  Melinda has perfected the technique.

 New Toy

Cordless Bosch saw.  Very cool piece of kit.

More Earthworks

I have been a bit lazy on the Blog front so this week we have a massive episode covering the last few weeks.

Attention has shifted to the outside as we prepare the pad for the second tank.  Over the weekend we hired the mini excavator from Digrite again to start the excavation for the tank .  Whilst we had it on site we decided to do some gardening "Hills" style.

Storm Front

Saturday morning we woke up to a storm front rolling in. With around 20mm of rainfall it was a wet and blustery start to the job.

Wet morning on the digger

Undeterred we soldiered on in the rain wind and cold and soon the area for the tank went from being a grassy slope to a muddy slightly more level area with some big rocks sticking out.  Time for the rock breaker

Start of the Tank Pad

We got as much rock broken as we could on Saturday before turning to non rock breaking work on Sunday (noise restrictions).  We will need to hire the excavator again next weekend to finish the rock breaking.  Then get a pile of sand in.

Granny's Garden

First cab off the rank Sunday was Nanny's garden area which was just a big mound of top soil left over from the house pad excavation.  The digger made short work of leveling the area off into a nice functional area for gardening

Leveling the area for the carport

After a brief stopover on the driveway, and filling in the services trench the next area to tackle was the future site of a double carport.  Again some leveling was required and more dirt will need to be brought in to finish the job.

Dragging out the Marri Logs for Milling

We then tackled the massive wood heap/ bonfire pile where the orchard is going.  There were a bunch of decent logs in there that we wanted to drag out and move up to the top driveway so the milling man can bring his portable mill in and slab them for us for some really cool furniture and office desk tops.  The excavator was able to get them out of the pile and with the combined power of the 4WD and the excavator we were able to drag them away.  With the decent logs now out of the pile we will be able to set fire to it once it dries out a little.

Vege Patch

While we were in the vicinity we decided to create the terraces for the vege patch. 

Sour Dough ready to bake

Melindas Sourdough course has been a roaring success.  We are all loving the results

Sourdough ready to eat

Strawberry Towers (recycled chimney flue)

We decided to make use of some leftover chimney flue to make Strawberry towers.  We are all looking forward to the product,

Tree Planting Hill Billie Style

Another Sunday job was starting the orchard by planting some fruit trees in the one area not covered with the bonfire pile.  Digging holes for fruit trees is easy with a little help from your friends.

i

Little Helper (note the bare feet)