Celebration time

15.12.2010 Building News.

Xmas is starting to take over. The weather is still unsettled and all we can do is check up that orders are in for the building materials we need to start and that the various tradesmen we need have agreed to approximate dates. The windows are being made and today’s job for Edd was to try and work out the steel reinforcing needed in the walls. Last week Edd completed the fencing around the building site so all stock are now excluded from that area.

Other news

We have now had our first party in the old house ruins. Lots of local friends came last Sunday and celebrated survival (fire, 40 years of marriage, and that sort of thing) with us. It was really special that so many people came, but we could easily have invited twice as many if we had included friends from further afield. What I loved was that the venue made it possible to invite all age groups and some of our friends had 4 generations represented!

David H did a fantastic job and some how juggled taking photos with running the BBQ. My market gazebos were needed as we had a few small showers but generally the weather was not too bad. Warm enough for some kids to have a swim but cool enough for comfort My newly made benches, brick pillars with railway sleeper tops, helped provide enough seating. As usual I could never have managed with out Bo who provided the bulk of the food and made memorable salads. Simon provided a keg of beer with a cooling system and x made a great cake tower. Everyone else added plates so there was a real feast.

We had a treasure hunt, a sack race and an egg and spoon race for the middle sized kids who were all full of go and there were lots of babies who all seemed to have incredible blue eyes. Must be something in the water! I had been hard at work cleaning and painting the toilet walls that were still black and sooty. I rigged up a few plants and a screen to make the entrance more private but then Dave P pointed out that the window with no curtain was much more of a problem. I had forgotten about that! A cheap shower curtain cut short, a stick off a tree and two cup hooks sorted that out.

I had asked Edd to organise somewhere to wash hands and he discovered that the underground pipe from the shed tank to the old house was still in tact. We rescued a sink from the rubbish heap and Edd plumbed up between a spout and the old pipe. I could see something was missing when he proudly showed me his work. There was a lovely new waterspout but no tap to turn it on with. He had forgotten that bit! We ended up with a drum of water balanced on the sink but some guests still tried to find the tap which gave those in the know a laugh.

This week we are tired but Edd has now put in a tap and David H and I planted zucchini seedlings. Josh has begun the long drive back from Perth and is now in the worry zone where there is no mobile phone contact. On Friday we drive Al and his family to the airport and they fly out to England. My family tell me the weather is grim over there but at least I have finished knitting the woolly jumpers.