6.11.11
BUILDING NEWS
This week has been crazy. There were so many trades’ men in the house that I could not get to the floor to do any grouting until Saturday. Pat has started roughing in the electricity system, Dion has been finishing his roof and Gary has started the stonework. Edd and Steve are back on carpentry doing the bits that are needed for the electrical and plumbing work.
We are thrilled with the stonework, the pale gold of the sand stone gives the right contrast with the other materials and is not too overpowering. We are so lucky having Gary around to put it up for us. I am also excited about the chimney for the kitchen exhaust that is Steve is doing. We have studied Google images and are building our own interpretation of ones we like.
I am having less luck with light fittings. Once again the only ones I like cost nearly $500.00 each! I need to go on a search mission to see if I can find anything useful for a cheap replica. I can see that hanging metal baskets and cooking basins up side down with holes drilled might work if we could find the right ones.
OTHER NEWS
Our poor sick lamb died yesterday but I think I now know what was wrong. The land here is deficient in selenium and the lambs symptoms align exactly with white muscle disease that a lack of selenium causes. We always have the right salt licks for our stock and have not seen any problems for about 25 years. I think there is a link with high rainfall but I have not had time to research this yet. It is a pity the vet did not make the connection when we took the lamb in, because he might have been saved with the right treatment at that point.
I will now need to look at all the other animals and find out if we need to do anything for them. Long ago we gave our horses injections as it helped them when their hoofs were soft so there may even be a link between the feet problems people are having this year. It certainly accounts for animals being weak at birth.
31.10.11
BUILDING NEWS
Edd and Dion have spent the day working on the roof. They are just finishing off the two cantilever ends now. I started to dig out a hole in the solar zone to sink a planter box into. It is hard going and I am having lots of breaks to do other things. It is still too wet for grouting so I am leaving that at the moment.
Chris L delivered the laundry system that I had brought second hand. He has a taxi truck service that I frequently need for large purchases and this was certainly one. The difficult bit is going to be getting into the laundry it is so large and awkward.
OTHER NEWS
We had a great party at Bo's last night. Everyone brought food so there was a feast. Al came in with Pia and told us that he had been sailing in high winds. He had managed to cope with the situation but found odd turns were needed to avoid capsizing.
India is coming to stay tonight and we are all planning some sort of do for cup day.
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