changing colours

1.4.2011 BUILDING NEWS

The weather gods are looking on us kindly this week and steady progress continues. He first wall with glass on the north side is almost complete. Geoff made the bond beam above the doors yesterday. We have probably made a mistake and raised the doors off the floor when they should have been directly on the concrete. This has meant block cutting to get the block levels to match up and means we may have to raise the floor slightly! Bother.

On the plus side Peter has been over with his thoughts on glass decoration and we were very impressed by his illustrations. He thinks we could colour all the twelve quadrants of glass under the external arches in a pattern of shapes that repeats but gradually changes from warm colours in the eastern living side to cooler ones as towards the western bedroom end. He wants to put semi circles of colour in each central lower corner so that they radiate beams of coloured light into the house as the sun moves along.

The other local artwork I would like to have in the house is some metal work from Justin, my friend’s son. He does amazing sculptures, gates and screens. He made the outdoor iron screen for Bo’s restaurant and the ants wall panels inside. When we searched through the ashes of out old house I found the latches from the doors, so I could use these as a model for new ones. The other thing I would really like is a special iron gate door for the entrance to the back passage. I have also just noticed that Al has designed a window screen for the main bedroom west-facing window so perhaps that could have metal work too. I will have to be careful not to get carried away by dreams.

OTHER NEWS

The new raised garden is now complete and planted out with seedlings, thanks to all the help I have had from Dave, David and Edd. Luckily the metal shade frame is about exactly the right side and it is now holding up a net to try and keep off pest and dogs. The first four goats are mated and it is a lot more peaceful now the bucks are moved. The only snag is that they are now down wind of us!

I have begged family to help me with a working B on Saturday rather than give me birthday gifts. I hope this works because we need a gang to move the chicken shed and chooks so that we can get a new mob and have enough winter eggs. The poor chooks have been in the same two orchards since the fires! Our usual practice is to move them to fresh ground several times a year but for a long time this has been impossible.

I also need help with the front garden fence. Now the season is changing the kangaroos and deer come out of the forest and graze in paddocks and closer to houses so the threat from these big raiders is increasing daily. Living off the land takes quite a determined effort in our valley.