Excuses

I had thought we would be further into the renovation plans by this stage, but I have a couple of great excuses for why we are not.

'I will fix this hole' said Possum as she tried to 'hamm' a screw in. 

We gave her a nail and then she did much better. 

 'Bubble' said Blue whenever he ran off with the spirit level to measure a wall.  He also ran around saying 'noisey' whenever a drill  was in use or hammering was in progress.

They say to let the housework go when you are renovating, but two small children need things to be kept tidy so it was a case of cleanup after each step to avoid major mess build up. 

Possum told me she wanted to be a builder when she was bigger, but then she got a splinter which I had to dig out with a needle and now she is not so sure.  Time will tell :)

Good Stuff from the Bedroom

When you chase a red belly black snake under your house you may start to dwell on the fact that the walls in the main bedroom are so warped that the skirting boards have fallen to the ground below the floor space.

So there are not too many sleepless nights dwelling on this I came up with the plan to re-sheet that room, the spare room, half the lounge and some of Blue's room too.  Better safe than sorry!

 

Behind the masonite sheeting we found two layers of wall paper and next to no studs or noggins, and those that were there are not much good.  No wonder the walls buckled! Thankfully behind all that is the slab construction of the house, still in good order.

The date on the newspaper above is 10/12/18.

I love an old house!

It's a pity things often look worse before they look better...

More hard work tomorrow!

Spare Room

Our house is rather old in places as evidenced by newspaper paper covered walls dated 1923 as above.

This is a spare room, not doing much now but I have plans for it. 

 An ad for Henry White Jamaica Rum and what appears to be an ad for an interesting sounding book...

The slab hut construction of the original part of the house.

Some of this will be plastered over in this room so I can put in a wall of cupboards.  There are a couple of places where it lends itself to leaving some of this exposed which I think I will do.

All hidden behind bad wall paper on poorly framed walls and very bad 80's carpet. 

There is still a lot to do as so far we just have a big mess here, but it is fun seeing what we find along the way.  We have to move a door, re sheet, plaster, paint and decide what I am doing with the floors too.

Project 52

Project 52, one photo every week in 2011 following the theme 'Rural Life'

{week three}

Project 52

Project 52, one photo every week in 2011 following the theme 'Rural Life'

{two}

 

All the lawn mowers had a busy day.

SOOC

10 things I love about chooks

1. Our chooks now live in the orchard in their new cage.

2. We made the cage ourselves.

3. We used only materials that were here.  Recycling at it's best!  Even the nesting boxes, tin feeder and water drum were salvaged here.

4. The chooks will eat the fruit fly from the dropped fruit off the trees.  They will be mostly free range chooks that will be let out every day to roam in the fenced off orchard. 

5. Fresh eggs!

6. The egg shells when crushed go in the compost.  You have to crush them well because they don't break down, but they are an excellent source of new calcium for the soil.

7. House scraps put to good use.  What the chooks don't eat we compost.

8. I use shredded paper in their nesting boxes.  They don't mind and it means when I clean it out the paper (and poo) go straight into the compost pile which is a good balance to the high amount of grass clippings we compost in summer.

9. I am going to plant passionfruit vines on the outside of their cage.  The chooks will gain extra shelter and shade when they get going and we get the fruit.

10. This makes this a project both started and finished during the holiday break :)

I need a couple more big chooks and a rooster now.  I am thinking Australorps to go with the 3 Isa Brown hens we already have.

Permaculture is in progress!

Holidays

The holidays are almost over.  We decided not to go anywhere as we had enough fun staying here, swimming in the creek, doing a few jobs about the place and having fun with the children.

We now have fly screen on doors, curtains on windows (mostly), the chook house is close to complete and in the orchard and the chimney is almost properly water proof.  We still have to finish the many jobs we started but we are getting close.

We butchered a cow and filled a freezer.
We also harvested and froze veggies for awhile to come.  The fresh veggies in the garden are doing well, as are the bindies in the lawn.

A big load of rubbish was taken to the tip.  Mostly junk and stuff that was here when we moved in.  It is good to have it out of the way.

We chipped 1000's of Bathurst Burs (and a few other nasty things) and I have a blister to prove it.

3/4 of a shelving until was made to fill in a hole in the wall.

My brother came out and started fixing some electrical issues on my big list of things to fix or change.  He still has more to do so I hope he gets a free weekend soon.

So yes, we have been busy, and will be busy for awhile yet, but we are happy and progress is being made.

2011 Rain Record

A place to tally the (mostly) welcome rain in 2011.

2011 = 34.33inches!


DECEMBER (88.25mm/3.53inches)
1st ~ 10.5mm
7th ~ 12.5mm
10th ~ 14.5
11th ~ 18.5mm
12th ~ 5mm
19th ~ 2mm
22nd ~ 7mm
23rd ~ 13.5mm
24th ~ 3.5mm
26th ~ 1.25mm

NOVEMBER (227mm/9.08inches)
7th ~ 7mm
13th ~ 58mm Very heavy storm
16th  ~ 15mm
18th ~ 11.5mm
22nd ~ 4mm
23rd ~ 51mm Steady general rain.  Creek flooded.
24th ~ 12.5mm
25th ~ 59mm
26th ~ 9mm BIG FLOOD

OCTOBER (106.75mm/4.27inches)
1st ~ 16.5mm
2nd ~ 1.5mm
6th ~ 5.5
8th ~ 17mm
13th ~ 14mm
25th ~ 29.75mm Heavy storm
26-31st ~ 22.5mm

SEPTEMBER (85mm/3.4inches)
8th ~ 27mm
9th ~ 10mm
10th ~ 2mm
11th ~ 1mm
24th ~ 1mm
28th ~ 30mm
29th ~ 12.5mm
30th ~ 1.5mm

AUGUST (49.5mm/1.98inches)
8th ~ 11.5mm
9th ~ 3mm
10th ~ 5.5mm
17th ~ 8mm
18th ~ 7.5mm
19th ~ 3mm
27th ~ 11mm

JULY (0.5mm)
10th ~ 0.5mm

JUNE (19.75mm/0.8inches)
1st ~ 1.75mm
11th/20th ~ 15mm
21st ~ 3mm

MAY (69mm/2.76inches)
22nd ~ 33mm
24th ~ 15.5mm
29th ~ 6mm
30th ~ 14.5mm

APRIL (42.5mm/1.7inches)
11th ~ 25mm
16th/17th ~ 17.5mm

MARCH (44.5mm/1.78inches)
1st ~ 4.5mm
2nd ~ 8.5mm
11th ~ 1mm
12th ~ 3mm
15th ~ 2.5mm
17th ~ 6.5mm
18th/17mm ~ Very heavy storm
22nd~ 1.5mm

FEBRUARY (104.5mm/4.18inches)
6th ~ 4.25mm
7th ~ 2.75mm
13th~ 29.5mm
16th ~ 60.5mm
28th ~ 7.5mm

JANUARY (40.75mm/1.63inches)
3rd ~ 6.5mm
5th ~ 14.5mm
10th ~ 14mm
11th ~ 3mm
20th ~ 2.75mm

2010 Record (from July 10th).

Project 52

Project 52, one photo every week in 2011 following the theme 'Rural Life'

{week one}

New chook house in progress.

SOOC

Pesky Pets

It would seem that once again my fat and spoilt horse has stood between the Mr and his BUMPER CORN CROP.   And I don't think it is entirely my fault given the Mr's horse and the Small's pony were also in on the act...

It would seem corn is irristable to horses, and don't think planting it safely away in the orchard will save it.

It could have been worse, we got to chuckle over corn woe of old while shucking what was left and we still got 20 good(ish) ears now cut, blanched and frozen in the freezer.

Start as you mean to go on.

Happy New Year!

This morning we were out in the garden while the dew was still wet on the grass.

We harvested carrots and rhubarb, some for the fridge, and some already blanched and in the freezer.  It is a great way to keep yourself in veggies all year and not waste the excess.

I collected the eggs and fed the chooks the scraps from last night too.