big building action

7.3.2012

BUILDING NEWS

This is a week of massive action. The septic tank has now been properly installed and the earth moving team have loaded the scoria onto the house roof followed by a geo-fabric and a coat of sand. The plan is to put the final coat of soil on tomorrow and dig the trench for the services. They were lucky with the weather today. It was mild but sunny and the roof was not a bad place to work. Edd and the other men did the fine work by hand but the digger did all the lifting.

Stevo has made steady progress in the bathroom and has just about got it ready for the render. Gary says he is coming back on Thursday to build the brick work round the seats and bath. Steve cannot finish his work until this is done. I have done just about no work on the house this week. One day was taken up with a permaculture tour and today I have stayed in bed with some sort of virus.

OTHER NEWS

Josh reached Perth in record time. He bypassed Adelaide and found a dirt short cut that made it possible for him to reach Perth by Sunday lunchtime. He phoned us when he arrived but we have had no news since then. His next big challenge is to get into some sort of arrangement for completing his qualification. At least we know he has made the journey OK.

The rest of the family is struggling through big problems but some good news is that Bevan managed to drive down from Queensland despite the floods. His partner Trish needs dialysis, so we were all worried that they would get stranded and into difficulties. I spoke on the phone to Bevan and his story of their journey is like a great escape novel! Roads were closed and they had to keep taking diversions. They narrowly missed getting totally stranded in Wagga by his quick thinking.

We seem to have developed a flood season at this time of year in Australia. Large areas of NSW are in difficulties as well as towns in Queensland and parts of Victoria. I am glad we are well up from our creek. The odd thing was that it used to be a time of year that was always reliably dry down here.

An alarming fact is that we keep hearing about businesses are collapsing. It seems like a pack of cards. One lot not being able to pay their bills causes the debtors to get in difficulty and so on down the line. I try to keep up with our bills but it has been too hot in here to work most of the summer and my accounts are months behind. Catching up is the next big job.