Building at last

3.1.2011 BUILDING NEWS

At last we are getting some action. Today Edd and Stevo are out at the building site with a dumpy level strings and stakes marking out the house accurately.

Yesterday Edd borrowed the 12 tonner from Craig to dig out the house hole to the exact shape and size needed. Our new neighbour, Bruce, who has brought the property where Lynne died in the fires, employed a machine operator to clean up his property. This guy came and drove Craig’s 12 tonner and did the actual digging work, as it was a skilled job Edd did not feel quite ready for.

The house site looks much better now and it will be much easier to get round and do the building work. The next job is for the plumber to come in and put in the under slab pipes so the marking out has to be right. There seemed some confusion about what came first the plumbing or the slab but after a few phone calls to Al in England and Mike the foundation digger we are all agreed about which way to do things.

We have new engineering plans from Doug and now we need to check if John, who is doing the cement work has the current or earlier plans. I am leaving all this communication work to Edd. He can do the man-to-man bit this time. I have still not recovered from our last house building efforts.

OTHER NEWS

The first of the hay is in, thanks to our friends who offered it to us and Josh who helped with the lifting. We are hoping we can get the rest of the hay from other friends who want their land cleared. We have stacked these bales on pallets starting at the centre of the shed and will work back towards the outer wall. Edd is still hoping he gets time to put in a foundation and put the wall up to give us more protection in the shed from the winter weather.

It is really summer now that we are eating pesto again and the zucchinis are trying to take over. I am blanching and freezing runner beans every day that we do not eat them. The snow peas are a disappointment. They do not taste very good at all and are definitely not sweet. On the other hand the lettuces are fantastic so something has come good.

The goat kids are enjoying their new larger pen and are now able to run outside all day. We have to change their diet gradually because they can get sick or die if they get a sudden change. The bigger goats are at last shedding their winter coats and beginning to get the fat, sleek summer look to them. I will not do much cheese making until the little goats are weaned but we have so much else to do now that is a good thing.
The next important thing after hay is to get the sheep shorn. It was too wet before Xmas but is getting to priority status now.