snakes and curing conrete

16.2.2011

BUILDING NEWS

It is homework time and we are studying and preparing for the next stage of the build. The weather and Edd have kept the slab damp as it cures and I have started to sort out some of the less damaged bricks from the old house and stack them with the ones we brought. The second brick that I picked up had a small but poisonous red bellied black snake underneath it! This is a challenging year. I was expecting red back spiders so I had gloves on and I was more on guard than the snake. No worries.

A meeting has been planned at Al’s office on Thursday to discuss the details. We have to finalise a chimney plan so that we can order a flue kit for the wood heater and the exact shape of doorways etc need work. I have been searching Internet images so that Edd and I can work out what we want together.

We now have an exact number for the concrete blocks so we need to get them ordered too. They cannot be delivered yet as the bricklayer wants them on the slab and it is not strong enough yet. We have been advised that even when it is cured it is best the are unloaded over the beams.

OTHER NEWS

The days are already shorter and the long hot evenings are a bit easier to endure. Today I am making plum jam and feta cheese. The stove is in the donga and the cheese is in the milk room so I am in orbit between the two locations. This may, or may not work, but at least it is only one day I am sacrificing to cooking.

There are far more apples than I can deal with this year. Bo and I have already stacked up our fridges, the only cool enough places at this time. The basil in the wicking bed is really happy and I still have baskets of zucchinis for the restaurant. Josh had a good idea, and suggested putting chooks in the big polyhouse this winter. They would clear up all the grass and weeds that have grown in there and keep relatively warm over winter.

The orchards where the chooks are living now have been over grazed and I have not been able to rest them since the fires. There are foxes close around our buildings even in daytime and the pens are too close to the gullies for the chooks to be let out in safety. In contrast the polyhouse is in the central circle and the dogs live between there and the gulley so it would be a lot safer.

Australia has had so many natural disasters that keeping my food supply going in winter is something I am taking seriously. Luckily Edd has had some time to help me with the garden fence so we might get that area productive too. I could then move the perennial plants and let the older chooks into the vegetable garden. This sounds good but everything is so much work and takes much longer to do than talk about.