dog drama

1.5.2010
Janner , Edd’s dog is injured. He must have run over something sharp in the dark and sliced through the skin on his belly. This has meant a trip to the vet and he is now looking very miserable with drains in and a bucket over his head so that he can’t rip it all open again. We are instructed to keep him clean, still and dry, quite a tall order with a young active dog. I really missed him the day he was away being treated. I am used to him helping me handle the animals, a task at which he is very helpful. When we lost our dogs in the fire I felt odd about replacing them but there is a part of our lives called dog and we are happier when that space is filled. Now Janner has fitted in the dogs we lost sit comfortably with all the other wonderful dogs I have loved in the past

Josh is working on the next assignment but we have not got to panic stage yet. Maybe the new romance helps. The big gain of the week for me was that I spent a morning at Al’s office and have now got enthusiastic about the new house plans. Al had some suggestions that have opened up more possibilities and he has taken on board my idea of some large internal arches. It would be a lovely touch to use the bricks from our old house to build these if we can find enough strong ones.

Edd has survived three weeks back at full time teaching and he looks surprisingly unstressed. We have not even got the engineering plans done so he is not needed for building here for some time yet. He has gone to town to try and get tools for the new system of plastic plumbing so that he can connect up the toilet properly. This is really bizarre, but this week I have been flushing the toilet each morning with the excess milk! Normally we would use the milk for feeding calves but with out pens and enough fences it is a task we have decided to forego. The goats have milked for two to three years and I expected them to dry up but , offcourse , they are all producing as if they wanted to win a record.

26.4.2010
It is cooler now and today it is dry again. Bo’s boys “helped “ me build the rest of the wicking bed and in the afternoon I put in the pipes and some gravel. Then weed mat and more gravel, a barrow load of rotted goat bedding and then Josh put in two barrow loads of top soil. We added soil conditioners and trace elements and then Josh filled the base up with water whilst I planted lettuces of various types. Now we will have to wait and see how things go.

Bo and Edd dug in drains so that the water from the donga is finally connected to the sewage system. It has all tipped out into a soakage pit and then onto the soil for the last year so this is a big step forward. We have put a tiny basin in place in the veranda toilet too. It will give us a place to wash dirty hands that is separate from the kitchen sink. Edd is connecting this into the drainage system at the same time.

The water proofing we did on Josh’s roof worked. This was a good thing as his friend, Talia, came to stay and it did rain. We all had a meal out at Bo’s restaurant which was fun. Talia is a very interesting and cheerful young lady, very good looking too in a natural rather than a painted on way. The sad thing for Josh is that she went off travelling again next day and hails from America. Despite this they are getting serious.

Yesterday, Al came over with his boys. The original idea was to have a working day rendering but it poured with rain so everyone squashed into the donga and socialised.

toilet on the way, I hope

23.4.2010
It is still nearly 30 degrees but there is a stiff wind blowing and forecasts of rain on the way. I am trying to get Josh out of bed to put something on his donga roof to stop the rain pouring in. I have mowed all the grass and I may even have time to build a bit more of the wicking vegetable bed I started yesterday.

I have not made a wicking bed before so this is a small version as an experiment. I still have hundreds of old damaged bricks left over from the house demolition. Most of them are too damaged by the fire to be used for any better purpose. I just wish all the work was not so heavy. I had to pull the tree stumps and poles that Mike dug up when he dug the drains out of the way before I could mow and the cement is heavy when I build walls for the bed.

One good thing is that David H is back helping once a week. Now that Edd is not around during the week it is a blessing to have some male help. In the past I got Wwoofers or paid Tony but now I have lost my income and accommodation neither of these options is possible.

19.4.2010
Edd survived his first week back at full time teaching remarkably well. Josh got his assignment in on time too but this proved rather more stressful. The problem is that with all having to live in one room if one person uses the computer until 2 am the rest are involved. As well as writing an essay and making a power point presentation Josh also had to record himself giving a 10 minute lecture, pretending he was doing it to his class mates. This was quite a tall order anyway, but with bulldozers digging drains around our donga and the council mulching up the dead undergrowth and chain sawing dead trees right next to us too things were far from ideal.

My job was to fill in all the documents for the class action against the power company who it is now accepted neglected line maintenance. This involved listing all our lost possessions including things like fences and trees. I found this a distressing as well as a time gobbling task. When Friday evening arrived we were all exhausted but most of the drains from the donga now go into the septic tank, at least they will when we connect up this end. Even the new dairy drains link in. Up until now all our wastewater just goes onto the ground after the soak away pit is full. I think the lack of a system has contributed to our mosquito problem.

Over the weekend Edd started work installing the toilet but we did not get far because we had promised Andrew down the road a days help on his property. Andrew lost the house but he has another home in town that has helped. The problem is that his fences are still not replaced and the weeds and trees have grown back where they should be. Edd took the tractor and slasher and I helped other friends and family pull out tangles of wire and cut down dead trees.

There is still a dreadful mess everywhere along the roads but at least the council have now sent up teams to clean up. So far they are still working along our front boundary and they are now into week two. Even the men working are shocked that our area has been neglected for so long. The time lag makes their job so much harder.

The other thing achieved last week was a toilet. Three visits to the store after the orders kept getting stuffed up (good thing I checked). In the end there was only a choice of two if I wanted ivory colour, I chose the wall-backed model with the shrunken seat. It should be much easier to clean and if the seat really drives me crazy I guess we could make a better wooden one. I have also brought most of the taps and have finally found an old style dishwasher with out a computer that is on order. I am afraid of complicated technology not working with our intermittent gravity fed water, a problem I have had before.

I am getting worried that we have still not started on the house. The weather is still warm and dry but it could change dramatically soon and we really need to have poured a slab first. Al’s office staff tell me that the engineering maybe done next week but it is all taking much too long and we are worried.