Long Weekend

A reasonably productive long weekend interspersed with a bit of time out.  Went camping down the block with the younger 2 boys and took the oldest boy indoor rock climbing.  Also had our "Adoptive" daughter and her boyfriend over for lunch.

Outside that a bit of carpentry, moved about 8 cubic of dirt around to fill a hole and level out where our outdoor entertaining area is going to be in readiness for paving, burnt off some dead grass and tree pruning's and hung some blinds and curtains.

The plumber came and we did some investigating of a potential very slight gas leak but not sure we resolved it.  On the upside we fixed the dodgy hot plate that would never light.

Cherry Blossom

(Photo by Melinda)

Our fruit trees are coming into blossom

 The Great Camp Out 2015

A great example of how much you love your kids is when you spend the evening camping at the bottom of the block instead of watching your team win the Preliminary Final to book a spot in the Grand Final.  Sorry boys no camping next Saturday, Daddy is watching the football.

 Curtains and Blinds

Blinds have been installed on all the bedrooms and curtains added to the big open area window.  Makes a huge difference on a hot day.

 Herb Patch

We now have a herb patch that is easily accessible from the kitchen.  The soil is a combination of composted leaf litter and sheep poo.

                                              A shot of the house from down the block

Second Tank Finished

Another massive weekend on the house.  The second tank is finished and the storm-water pipes plumbed in.  Just in time for Summer.

Tank Finished

Connecting up the leaf catchers on the West side

Now the tank is in we took the opportunity to connect up the remaining leaf catchers on the Western side of the house.  Now all we needs is some rain.

 Sheeting the Verandah on the West side

We managed to score some extra corrugated roof sheets off the tank installer so the sheeting of the verandah is complete and has made an instant difference cutting out the sun on the window from 12.30 through to around 3.30pm.

Bird Board Install

Bird board is about 95% installed, with just some small zones around the open area to finish off. Then seal any gaps with sika-flex and time for a coat of paint.  Cordless saw and Nail gun made relatively quick work of this.

Work continues in earnest on the brush cutter to clear the area around the house in preparation for bush fire season.

Big Weekend

Another massive weekend has seen some really good progress on various projects

 Verandah/Awning

Designed to provide shade to the big West facing window  on the open area.  The carpentry is done and now we need to order the roof sheets, gutter and flashing's to finish the job next weekend.

Nan's Garden Paths

We made a start on Nan's Garden paths.  The main path to her shed is done.  This then needs to be extended out to her fruit trees.  We leveled the area around her raised vegie beds ready for paving next weekend.  We had to dig in some drainage pipe and unfortunately we didn't have quite enough to get the drainage past the end of the vegie bed path so we need to get some lengths of pipe before we do anymore on this area.

 Bush pole Trellis

Made a trellis out of bush poles cut from the block for Nan's passion-fruit vine

Bird-board

Started installing the bird-board to seal off the roof cavity.  Cordless saw and nail gun make this a really quick job.  Of course on such a big house there is still a bunch of board to still install.

September Projects

September is on us and the weather is warming up yet we are still hopeful of more rain and more chances to burn off before summer is upon us.  The weather has a definite spring feel so many of the projects on the go currently have a real outdoor bent.  

We are waiting for a call back from the tank installer.  Last time we spoke he indicated next week as a likely start date for the new tank.  Be nice to get a wet start to spring once the tank is in.

 Guitar Chair

So we decided to make a chair from a log to go in the music room to sit on while playing guitar.  We plan to make a pile more for sitting around our fire pit outside in winter.  Being an inside piece this one needs a fair amount of finishing detail, sanding and varnishing but should be a nice piece of furniture once its finished.  Its the perfect height for playing guitar.

Office Desk

The long term vision for the office desk is to use slabs of marri timber milled from logs felled to make way for the house.  As the milling and drying process will take around 12-18 months we decided to put in a cheap laminate version in the meantime to make the space workable.  The fact that Bunnings was running theses out at 30% off helped the decision making process.  Got to use the brad nailer to make the pine frame that sits under it.  Where has this tool been all my life?

 Asparagus Bed

Dropped in to see the old man at the brew shop for Fathers day.  We came bearing small gifts and left as always bearing copious amounts of beer.  Then swung past home to see mum.  She had a large asparagus plant that she wanted to get rid of and we had a need for asparagus for our garden.  We now have a 2.5 metre long asparagus bed chock full of asparagus corms. Happy days.

 Vegie Bed

More work has been completed on the vegie patch adding leaf litter and sheep poo with fire ash to start the first couple of beds so we can do some planting next weekend.

Verandah

We are putting a verandah over the big west facing window in the open area as this room will get very hot in summer without any protection.  The stirrups have been concreted in the ground and the carpentry will commence this coming weekend.

Second Tank Pad Finished

We had the excavator again for the weekend and managed to get the tank pad finished.  Tank installers should be calling soon.

We spent an hour or so spreading out the burnt ash from the fire heaps and some old composted topsoil and leaves in the orchard area as well as pushing the remaining logs and stumps around to try and form a new fire pile further down the hill.  Didn't have much luck with the bigger stumps.  Might have to give Shayne the Earthworks guru a call and see if he has his big loader coming over this side of the hill any time soon.

Leveling the Tank Pad

Orchard area