a holiday is planned

31.5.2011

BUILDING NEWS

The week got off to a flying start with builders arriving about 6.30am on Monday. It was still dark but when I joined them at dawn they were starting to build the parapet on the roof that stops the soil falling off the front. Mid morning the sun came out and things were moving fast. Again today the sun has broken through the morning mist and work is steaming ahead.

Al came over and helped us draw out the curved line he has designed for the top of the parapet wall. Geoff and Al measured out heights on the wall at 2 metre intervals and then we held a curved pipe up to the line to draw the desired shape. We needed the architect for this step as only he could make the final call.

Edd has ordered the windows to be delivered on Thursday and we have Sue coming to see if she can do the rendering. I think we will need to order more blocks to do the chimneys and solar tubes. We seem to have gone through an awful lot of blocks.

OTHER NEWS

I am thrilled. I won the E-bay auction for the table and chairs. Bo’s kids had to stand back from the computer and they counted down the final minutes as I poised, all ready and terrified in case I did not get a bid in fast enough. This stress was not really necessary as I think I was the only person bidding, but at least I stayed focussed enough not to bid against myself!

Luckily the man selling the table and chairs is OK about waiting until we drive up there when Josh gets back from Perth. I would have set off straight away on my own but Edd is keen to come too, and if we both go we can enjoy the drive to Queensland like a mini holiday. I said I would go off once the cow had calved and was over the stage you worry about milk fever or mastitis.

Yesterday was a pottery day and Thea and I worked with Maureen in her warm shed. This week I made a lamp base to go with last weeks organic flower vase. Next week I will have to make more side plates for the dinner service I am making. Thea is proving an expert on the wheel. She has made a set of coffee mugs that all look exactly the same and are totally perfect. I get more and more worried about doing wheelwork again. I am sure I have forgotten everything!

Spinning is a different matter. I spin whenever I sit down for a cup of tea or a conversation. I will soon have enough wool to start on Sylkie’s winter clothes. The lanolin from the wool is correcting all the damage a years building and gardening have done to my hands.

On Sunday I showed Bo’s kids how to make butter. It turned very easily because Donna’s milk is so rich at the moment that I have been able to collect lots of thick cream. Donna is very pleased that Simon has sent up barley from the brewery and she is at the gate bellowing for breakfast now. We have named her calf Sharron; she is now bouncing round the paddock and has coped with the wet and cold weather.

rain stops play

26.5.2011

BUILDING NEWS

It is still raining! The land is so saturated that it is impossible to do any work out doors. The roof on our house has stayed in place and Edd is cleaning off some of the bricks inside with acid.

OTHER NEWS

It is hard to keep ones spirits up in this dreadful weather. We have had a few wins though. Donna the cow has been very reliable and has permitted us to hand milk her in a make shift bale on the drive. Yesterday Edd and I went down to Warrigal to buy new parts for the cow milking set up. Today she let us use the machine with out any resistance, which was incredible as it was hard to get it on.

The new chooks have begun serious laying, today there were five eggs from them so we are really heading back into egg production. The goats are miserable. They hate getting wet or muddy feet and shelter in the shed all day rather than risk the mud to walk out to their grazing paddock. This behaviour has reduced their milk yield yet again but we now have cows milk to compensate.

I have fallen into temptation and invested in a little retail therapy. I have brought a huge dough trough from the Lilydale antique shop, and a large round floor light from a shop in Warrigal. They were both incredibly cheap and very unique. I am worried that when we eventually get a house we will have nothing to put in it. At least, that’s my excuse.

I am also trying to buy a table and chairs through e-bay. I am not really sure how to do this and up till now have relied on Josh to sort it out for me. Unfortunately he will not be home here in time. The chairs have the same shape as the old ones I lost in the fires. I brought those chairs at an auction in Yorkshire about forty years ago. They were in need of a lot of TLC and as I did them up and painted them I imagined that I would paint them many time in different colours as our life changed. This turned out to be true and I felt so attached to them that they were the first non-living things I grieved for after the fires.

There is a slight snag even if I win the chairs. They happen to be in Queensland. I guess I could fit them on the back of the ute if I can’t find a company to transport them. I will deal with that problem if it arises!

sad news

23.5.2011

BUILDING NEWS

It rained on and off all night, I know because I kept waking up with the noise. It was still raining at a totally ungodly hour when the phone rang with last minute calls confirming our intention to pour the roof. The crane arrived whilst it was still totally dark and was rapidly followed by John and his team. The concrete trucks started to arrive as dawn broke and the work began.

The rain was not heavy but was enough to make things hard. About mid morning we were actually glad about the damp conditions because when half the roof was poured and we discovered that some one had cancelled the trucks bringing the second half of the concrete! John got onto this but there was still a long halt in proceedings before the next truck arrived. It was good that the damp conditions delayed the concrete set and that there was not a break in the roof structure.

The sun came out at lunch time and the workers began to get a finish on the cement. The sunny break did not last and heavy rain interrupted the procedure. John tells me if it is dry in the morning he plans to come back and work on the surface again. The good thing is that almost no cement came through the bond deck so there is no major clean up job needed inside the building.

OTHER NEWS

Al came over this morning to see us start the roof pour. He seems to be OK. Last night he posted a message on facebook that I am probably better off just quoting.

“Just a short message to let you all know that Bella and I have recently separated. We both still hold much love and respect for each other but are choosing to go in different directions as individuals rather than continue as a couple. This is a mutual decision; there is no animosity and we are still good friends and committed parents. After 19 years together we don’t see separating as a failure, but as a point in our individual journeys where it’s not helpful to travel together as husband and wife. Rather than dwelling on the aspects of our relationship that weren’t so positive, we are committed to remembering the richness and joy of our time together. We are currently working out the best way to support our family through this transition, and at this stage we see continuing to share our home as the most positive and stable arrangement. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us as a couple and as a family, and hope that you all can respect our decision and continue to share in our lives. With love.”

We have been aware that issues have been building and in some ways it is a relief it has finally come to a head. I have known Bella since she was under four years old and have got used to her as a daughter in law. I just hope she will be happy in the new life she has chosen.

It's a girl

21.5.2011

BUILDING NEWS

We have muddled through until the weekend and with any luck we pour the roof first light on Monday. We are still waiting the all clear from engineer Doug but as far as the rest of us can see if we add any more reinforcing iron to the roof there will be no space left for any concrete!

Yesterday the winter sun came out and it was really interesting to see how it entered the building now that the bond deck is in place. Light came in at a low angle and touched the base of the back wall and light bounced off the water in the solar buffer zone and reached up to the ceiling. Our original idea had been to have a lap pool in the solar buffer zone but this was going to be too expensive and complicated so we now have to think of another way of reflecting the light. The water there now is just what collected from rain fall in the area without the slab.

OTHER NEWS

Donna, our cow calved this afternoon. It was an easy birth and the calf was a good size and strength. I switched off the electric fence round her paddock in case it rolled through the wires and we should probably leave the fence off tonight. We will worry until the calf gets past this next stage especially as it is winter with cold nights.

We have now dried off all the pregnant goats and the milk from the rest has thickened and reduced so all milking is by hand. Donna usually over produces so we will milk her once her milk drops to stop her getting engorged. We have dug out the old rusty bale but now we need it set up in the milking shed so at least we can hold her still.

I just hope she has remembered that being milked is an acceptable procedure. I had to rope up her legs last time when she was milked for the first time. Getting a maiden goat to give milk is just so easy but cows are built like tanks and have a much greater power of resistance! They also kick backwards, like a horse, as well as forward and I have been sent flying against the wall many times in my youth.

Having said that, milking a cow is one of the most satisfying tasks on earth. On a cold morning a cow walks in like a warm radiator and extrudes an atmosphere of calm benevolence. You can lean on a cow. A cow gives you milk, cheese, butter, and yoghurt and produces calves one can eat. If you look into a cow's eyes you see a truly giving being. Cows are great. (P.S. You may hear a different story from me as we go through the week)!

troubled times

BUILDING NEWS

We woke this morning feeling optimistic. The day was cold but clear and John had got all the iron laid out on the roof ready for Thursday. From that point on everything started to unravel. Doug, our engineer, came first thing to check everything but for once he was not totally happy and explained that we needed to make a few changes. This required buying more steel and John discovered that it would not be delivered until late afternoon.

All in all it was concluded that it was better to get things exactly right rather than rush and make mistakes so we all agreed to postpone the pour until Monday. There are some problems with this because the weather could turn against us by then and first thing Monday is a difficult time to cancel pumps and concrete. We will just have to keep fingers crossed.

The builders have also come to a stopping place. They really need the roof poured to go on. Once again everything grinds to a halt. We are actually so lucky that we have this donga here to live in. It is far from luxury but at least we are not under crippling financial stress to get the job done. Edd and I have all sorts of loose ends to tie up so we have lots to get on with.

OTHER NEWS

We are a very tribal family. We do things together, we talk a lot and we really care about each other. This is wonderful, but it means that we are all sad when one member is in difficulties and bad times come round. All my sons, and two of my grandsons are having problems this week and any difficulties or delays in our building plans seem relatively unimportant.

On a worldwide scale even these problems are miniscule. A macabre fascination lures me to trawl the Internet and keep informed about the disaster going on in Japan’s nuclear industry. Just right now we seem incredibly lucky to be living on food producing land in the preferable hemisphere. Also we are happily not living on a flood plain or the join between two of the earths plates!

My plan is to become even more self-sufficient. The lack of garden fences is making progression in this direction harder than it needs to be. Now the cold weather is here we are moving to winter activities. I am drying off the pregnant goats so that they can use their energy to stay healthy for the latter half of their pregnancies. The six non-pregnant goats will continue to provide everyone with milk but we I think I have made the last goats cheese for a while.

My next concern is the sheep. I am negotiating with Simon to try and get barley from the brewery to give them supplementary feed, as they get closer to lambing. The horses really need to move to the hill but last year they got out through the fencing and this year there has been so much growth that replacing the faulty fence has become a major task.

time to move into hibernation

16.5.2011

BUILDING NEWS

Oh the mud! It has stopped raining but last week’s deluge has turned most of the building site to heavy yellow clay mud. It also stopped work for days and now we have a rush on our hands to prepare for the Thursday pour. The bricklayers arrived early this morning and worked on the roof all day to lay an edge layer of blocks that make a rectangular bond beam. In theory this stops the concrete falling off during the pour.

I helped Edd try to work out exactly where on the top the holes for skylights and chimneys go. I was below and Edd was on the roof with the builders. It was very hard to hear each other because if any one moved about on the bond beams they rattled made a dreadful noise below. Just when I was getting really frustrated Al arrived to help sort out other plan details so I escaped.

Peter also came round with his latest pictures for the coloured glass. This was much more inspiring. It is nice to think of some artwork as part of the build. Concrete blocks, and concrete floors are not really inspiring.

OTHER NEWS

I am moving into hibernation. The spinning wheel is back in action and we have a large jigsaw puzzle taking up all of our dining bench. In the evenings I am reading my way through the pile of second hand books I got last week and loving it. Arden came to stay for two days at the end of last week and he is reading them after Edd and I. Nothing stops worry as well as a fast moving thriller.

There is a dreadful smell of dead mice. The mice all come in through holes in the floor and I admit to putting down poison. Now we are suffering the consequences and new mice continue to arrive. Sometimes I miss having cats. We had cats years ago, but when we realised how they devastated all the wildlife we decided that cat keeping was not appropriate in this area. I am going to make sure there are absolutely no holes for vermin to enter in the new house.

The frost finished off the basil and tomatoes so I have dug them out and replaced them with parsley and winter greens. I should really try and rescue the chilli peppers by digging them out and relocating them in the polyhouse for winter. This level of activity does not accord well with hibernation mode. Or maybe I am just too tired and unmotivated.

Luckily Thea dragged me out to Maureen’s, which was good. The potbelly stove in her converted cowshed creates a beautiful warm work place and we all potted together in quiet harmony. Thea and Maureen are masters on the wheel so I am trying something different by making a free form pot with three, joined sections. Maureen has lit the kiln and is firing the plates and bowls I started all those years ago! Her son, Justin, and Peter are combining glass skills and metal work ability to make birds and then insects. Justin has a workshop in a shed next to us. We are a little hive of artistic activity.

getting ready for the lid

11.5.2011

BUILDING NEWS

It is pouring. Not concrete, rain! Poor John and his team are out there trying to get all in order to put on the bond deck. I have now discovered just what bond deck is because it was delivered yesterday along with big sheets of reinforcing iron. Luckily, although yesterday we woke to heavy frost, the sun soon came out and delivered a crisp clear day. The big trucks all came with cranes so they could unload easily and turning round on the dry grass made it possible for them to get out. That would not have been so today.

The scaffold people worked all yesterday and filled the house with blue poles so that it is now impossible to walk inside. They also built a fairly plausible ramp from the roundabout beside the large polyhouse to the top of the walls. It did not look one hundred percent safe to me, as it was tall and thin, with all the weight at the top and was not attached to anything.

Apparently the internal scaffold is not for walking on but to take the weight of the concrete roof until it sets. John informs me that it will need to stay in place for at least twenty-eight days to allow the concrete to harden. The good thing is that the ramp also stays so Geoff can use it to build the parapet that stops the soil falling off the front of the building.

OTHER NEWS

I have a bucket catching the rain as it falls through the ceiling onto this desk. The trick is to put a towel over the top of the bucket to prevent splashes and irritating noise. The rain is probably doing the garden good but the frost yesterday was heavy enough to finish off some summer plants.

David H worked hard and moved lots of the old wire down the drive to the rubbish pile by our entrance. We are stockpiling rubbish until the building is complete so that it can all be dealt with together. There are still piles of stuff there from the old brewery and we can rummage through for materials if we think there might be something we can recycle.

I have started cleaning up the foot of the big bank above the garden. My plan is to terrace it with above ground beds for vegetables. I would like to get broad beans and rocket planted but there is no more space yet. The new chooks are now very much at home in the old veggie patch. They have adapted well to a life of freedom and gradually their combs are enlarging and reddening, so more eggs will be coming soon.

Edd and I completed the fencing and Donna, our cow, is now in her own paddock above the dairy and the goats have a separate road out to their grazing areas. We have rescued the round bale holder from the gravel pit paddock and set Donna up with her own big bale of hay to eat through. She seems happy about this but we have no idea when her calf is due because she stayed with the bull down the road for months.

solar tube research

7.5.2011

BUILDING NEWS

The scaffolding needed to pour the concrete roof arrived on Friday morning on a big truck. It is now sitting around the house on pallets waiting for someone to come and put it up. Once the truck had left Edd and I headed into Melbourne. Our plan was to visit the Skylight shop in Airport West and then go to the shop in Bayswater where our windows are being stored.

The skylight shop had a really good display of different sorts of solar tubes. They had set up various rooms from to be like normal house rooms and lit them with solar tubes through the roof. The staff really looked after us and gave us a piece of tube so that we know how big to make the holes through the concrete roof. There were different makes of tube to choose from but we ended up feeling like Al that the heavenly intelligence one would suit us best.

There are about five solar tubes in the house back passage so this was an important factor to find out about. The next job took us right across the city and back to the window people. Edd showed them Peters glass designs and they gave us the template to use for cutting out the corners of the big windows. They were said that it was no bother for them just to supply the rectangular pieces of glass.

OTHER NEWS

It is getting so dark in the evenings now, the light is almost all gone by six o’clock in the evening. It is colder too and the wether was bad enough for me to stay indoors long enough to get the accounts up to date. We are actually not as badly over budget with the building as we feared.

Edd is still working on the cow fence and spent today digging the old insulated cables out from under the ground so that he could re-use them under his new gates. They are needed to carry the electricity for the fence. We are still recycling old fence posts, which is help.

I have been working in the garden weeding and mulching along the orchard fence line. I have now almost done this area and so far the new citrus and avocado trees that I planted are doing OK. They need a lot of protection from the rabbits who are still as destructive as ever. The vegetables in the raised bed are doing best. They are covered by a net too so even flying perils are kept off. This has top be the way to go.

boys their toys and good guys

3.5.2011

BUILDING NEWS

Action again today. The new pump company arrived this morning with the biggest boy toy yet to adorn the property. Strangely it came manned by someone who has been a dairy goat farmer in a previous life situation. Fortunately for us he arrived with the intention of getting the job done and worked with a will. Boral kept up a steady flow of concrete trucks and Geoff and mate arrived in time to help with last minute jobs and scaffold moving. Thank goodness, our walls are now filled with concrete and it may be possible to talk to Edd again!

OTHER NEWS

The weekend was full of parties. The only problem is that I now feel really bad because I have nowhere suitable to return the invitations now the weather has changed. I had a great laugh at Peter and Thea’s on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon we got together next door to celebrate Craig’s daughter’s first birthday. Craig is also starting to build and spent Easter digging a cellar and building in concrete walls with no mortar, locking blocks. I have no idea how he managed to get so much work done in so little time. He and Edd decided to pour concrete on the same day as we are now using the company Craig recommended. I wish we had done this first time.

There was no sailing on Sunday so everyone came back here. Al organised Ti and Morren to help him move away broken blocks from the front of the building site with the tractor. Both boys worked well, I think turns at tractor driving or rides helped, and Al is so good with them. Whilst this was going on Edd moved piles or earth with Skiddy and I picked up wood, plastic and bricks. In a couple of hours we had made everything much tidier.

When I am not driving round fetching building materials I am struggling to get the accounts up to date. I am soon to start
March, so I am catching up. I rely on a system to cope with dealing with piles of paper where by I do task one, task two etc and then it all just sorts out if I keep going. As light relief I have been putting together the under bench trolley I got last week in Ikea for the dairy. Today I finally got it assembled and the results are just what I needed. Now my big pans have a place to live.

The goats are really drying off now and only one needed a repeat mating up to date. We still have enough milk for everyone but there is less cheese making. Edd has kept going on cow fencing and my next task will be to dig out the cow bale and recondition it. All the galvanising burnt off in the fires so it will have to be a paint job. Once the cow calves I will be extra busy in the dairy.