House update and The Naracoorte Show

Brad was on a mission to finish the walls before his holiday began at the end of the week. As the wall took shape so did our thoughts on the actual wall heights. They are low enough now to let in more natural light but still high enough to hide our blushes and not to shock the neighbours (for which I am sure they will be grateful), when we shower.

The stones were quarried locally and when you take a closer look they hold a beautiful treasure trove of natural history. Shells and ocean flora and fauna trapped and hidden for thousands of years, slowly turning into what we now call Paddock stone.

It is hard to imagine just how old this shell is and fantastic it wasn't damaged in the quarrying.

Once the wall was complete Rick could crack on with finishing the verandah louvres. With much contorting and grimacing later it was a job well done. They look fantastic and the angle and distance the blades were finally set at seem to work well. This week has been really hot and sunny, temperatures in the 30's already and even without the ceiling insulation finished it is still fairly cool in the house.

The Naracoorte Show

The 151th Naracoorte Annual Show was held at the weekend and the Naracoorte Spinning Group were to be represented. In true laid back fashion anyone who wanted to be there to set it up and stay and spin were welcome. Requests were made for skeins and balls of yarns, home knitted items, well infact anything which had been homemade to be taken for display. Up to this request I was still very undecided if what I'd managed to spin could be turn into anything recognisable. Slightly shamed by the fact that Deb had already spun and knitted a beautiful alpaca and wool snood/scarf I was persuaded to make something, with just two weeks to go it had to be pretty simple.....

So here it is my very first attempt at spinning yarn and knitted into a Japanese Knot Bag, which I even lined with Calico. Very rustic looking but a clever pattern as it is knitted in the round the only seam is the base.

This is our Spinning Corner. We had four very different wheels there in total, one was set up for anyone to try their hand at spinning. We had people of all ages having a go.

Alison in pole position to chat to passersby.

I thought the display was amazing, from wall hangings to finely spun and knitted throws, jumpers, beanies, scarfs, dolls, felt, all hand made some even hand dyed. We also had bags of many different yarns, loads of different skeins and balls of yarn.

Isabel and Jan catching up

It was great fun and I was amazed just how many people stopped to chat and tell their stories. Jan did a fantastic job getting people to give it a go, from Littleies who couldn't reach the treadle to the Biggies who always wanted to try. Some were brilliant at it straight away.

It's a 1st!
Just before leaving for the show I got a call from one of the girls saying she needed Sweet Peas, so I grabbed the bunch I'd picked the day before and Deb and I headed off to raid her garden.

At lunchtime Isabel congratulated me on getting a first, I had no idea what she was talking about. It turned out that there would have been only one entrant for the Sweet Pea class at the show. Isabel realising this rang around and 'conned' three of us spinning ladies into bringing in Sweet Peas and duly entered us all for the competition. It was hilarious that we managed to win 1st, 2nd and 3rd with mine and Deb's bunch coming 1st!!!!

Our prize winning Sweet Peas

The first time we'd entered anything like that

A picture's worth a thousand words.....

or so the saying goes
where the time's gone these last few weeks.... goodness only knows...

With two weeks worth of news/happenings to report on I will try and keep this brief.....

As the house progresses to lock up it seems there is more and more demand for our input. Which is great fun as well as being slightly stressful at times with unexpected requests sending us scurrying around doing research or trying to source what ever is needed. Sometimes after a couple of sleepless nights we come up with a more creative way forward.... as with the outside shower.

It turned out there was a rare mis-communication between the builders so after a flurry of waterproofing activity in the outside shower it was ready for Brad the Stone Mason to build the walls.

Ricks trumpet!

Rick got going with copper pipes, brass fittings and the welder and created what was first thought to be a trumpet!
It is infact the pipe work for the outside shower, it's going to look wicked once it's been polished up. Brad is setting it into the wall along with a beautiful chunk of River Red Gum for us to attach the pipes to. Unique and perfect for us.

Both the Paddock and Mount Gambier stone are porous so once the walls are completed they will be sprayed with a silicone mix. Sealing the stone and allowing the beauty of it to be seen and us to shower without causing problems with the structure of the house.

Much gyproc action in the house and we have rooms! YEAY!!

The long awaited Louvres arrived from Perth and we set too fitting them. There are three sections in total and were set to 30 degrees.... but the supports the struts were to be slotted into were set at a slightly different angle. Hmmm.... much chin scratching later and we decided to increase the space of the blades to compensate.

Fingers crossed this works out as it will be a devil of a job to do it again.

Rick was Chief Fitter and me the Goffer which worked out very well. Only challenge for me was the wind picking up speed when I picked up the really long blades. It had a wee bit of a helicopter effect.... eeek!

News Flash
Rick has since been promoted from Chief Fitter. There was much mirth this week when he received a letter addressed to Rear Admiral Rick C. Brilliant.......but he hasn't let it go to his head.

There has been an outing to Mount Gambier to check out tiles for the kitchen and wet areas. Luckily we both like the same things so getting what we like and keeping within our budget looks to be the biggest challenges.

The Veggie Patch

Is still doing well despite the strong winds doing their best to flatten the broad beans. Jack and the Giant would have been proud of stalks! Unfortunately I need to climb into the 'no dig - no trample bed' to pick the beans, hay ho. The second crop are thankfully a lot shorter and already producing beans.

Happiness is a basket of freshly picked pods on a glorious sunny spring day

Adventures

Dimboola (over the border in Victoria) were hosting a Swap Meet (like a UK car boot sale) and Dora needed a good run. On normal roads Dimboola is about 2 1/2 hours drive away, it took us a little longer as we headed off across the corner of the Little Desert for some of the journey which was great fun. At times we had no idea of where we were, the newly acquired map of the area and freshly updated Roger (the GPS) didn't help! But using Ricks instinct and which side of the car the sun was we some how manged.

Beside a creek somewhere on the west side of the Little Desert 

No idea what the shrub is but loved these tiny spring flowers

This beautiful Goanna ran across the road in front of us and shot up the nearest Gum. Very impressive tree climbing skills.

On the way back we went through this dear little town. The sign declared there was once a population of 92 which today has been reduced to 10.

Fred thinking all his birthdays have arrived at once with this rather impressive bone.

Cladding and other exciting happenings

It was all go at the block this week with builders, plumbers and sparkies all on site at the same time. People busy every where.

At long last the cladding is in the process of being fitted and the house at least on the outside is beginning to look complete.  By the end of the week the outside shower had been 'tanked'. Waterproofed to the uninitiated and ready for Brad the Stone Mason to work his magic with the paddock stone shower walls. It was really good to see the bright blue insulation being covered. The house has quite a presence on the block but now seems to blend in a lot better with its surroundings.

The colours we have chosen reflect the weather, which was a great surprise I think looks quite amazing. On dark stormy days the house also looks dark and stormy, beautiful.

The sparkies set to and sorted out the the next stage of the electrics. It is quite a challenge trying to imagine exactly where the most useful place to have power points, lights and light switches will be. Luckily they are quite a laid back lot and we've been told we have until the gyprocing to change our minds.

The not so laid back plumbers needed to know exactly what sinks, taps, showers and bath we had ordered. Which sent us into a bit of a frenzy because up to then we hadn't actually ordered anything. Eeeek. Luckily we knew what we wanted and by the end of the day everything was ordered and details emailed to the plumber. We have been left puzzling what the rush was all about as we haven't seen or heard from him since!


The large piles of sand (our soil which is fantastic for drainage and building houses on but not so good for holding onto nutrients, poor plants- I digress) have been shifted to level out the verandah areas. This has made the area much safer for the lads to fit the cladding and the covering for the underside of the verandahs. As we have a BAL 19 fire rating we have to make sure no wood is exposed to possible embers. Hence having to clad the eaves with a fire retardant material.

Don't mention the doors! The jury is still out on the difference between fire rated and BAL rated, everyone I have spoken to seems to have a different version. So far the difference seems to be a certificate... hmmm... so we're currently no nearer to having doors, oh well I guess it will happen in the fullness of time.

And I have finally managed to track down and have a chat with one of the kitchen chaps. He turned out to be a cabinet maker who actually makes all the cupboards on his premises. It was wonderful to talk to a craftsman who truly loves his trade. The workshop was something else, hand made cabinets crafted from all different types of wood. I am keeping everything crossed that the kitchen he quotes us will be within our budget range.

Penny
Rick has managed to get Penny going and from the colour of the smoke coming out of her exhaust she was in desperate need of a long run. Penny's tires are enormous and very heavy, too much for the poor thing to be carrying on her bonnet. So her bonnet has been swooped with Dora's (Dora didn't seem to mind) and as a result Penny seems to almost skip along. Rick, Deb and I all had a turn at the wheel driving a small circuit on the roads .She is very much easier to drive than Dora, no double de clutching, thank goodness and the steering is surprisingly light.

Making friends with Penny.

 Rick and I took her for a spin to one of our favourite conservation parks, Fairview. It's a good drive out and there is some four wheel driving when we get there. Penny's insides have yet to be finished as you can see from the window winders having a rest! But at least we had floors.

Fresh new growth sprouting up from the base of the fire damaged shrubs

And spring flowers in abundance everywhere.

Fairview didn't disappoint, proudly wearing her spring colours, new growth and flowers every where. We even found a small flock of the Red Tailed Black Cockatoos feeding on their favourite Stringy Bark seeds. I didn't managed to get any decent photos of these beautiful shy birds though. It was such a lovely drive, really good to see the seasonal changes and I think Penny enjoyed it to.

The Hammock

At a sale a wee while ago I saved a lot of money (womans logic) and purchased a hammock and stand. Saturday was a gorgeously hot day and I was lulled into thinking that the warm weather had well and truly arrived. Time to get the hammock sorted. It didn't take long to erect the frame and tye the hammock to it. But it did take quite a long time to get the hammock the right length. I carefully got into the hammock and found myself laying on the ground...... Fred was delighted to find humans on the same level as him!

 

Deb to the rescue again suggested tying knots in the ropes which worked very well. I just need to find away to stop the fabric cocooning you once you're in it. Very comfy though especially when you're off the ground!

Veggies

The weather went from beautiful warm sunny days and bright blue skies to rain threatening clouds and cold. To everyones delight it did eventually rain. But the rains where accompanied by not so delightful ferocious winds which have laid a lot of crops flat. Including my poor old broad beans and peas. Hay ho.....

I may go on about this again and again.... but it is such a lovely feeling growing and picking your own veg AND a wonderful bonus to find how amazing they taste. It really makes you wonder what process they go through and how old shop brought veggies are by the time you buy them.

Deep joy.

A huge thank you to Rick for the lovely artistic photo's......

The house and the veggie patch

The week started with the lads finishing fitting the windows and doors, not an easy job as it turned out. Not only were they all very large and heavy (the glass panels not the lads)  but the large glass wall for the en-suite shower were a wee bit larger than expected. And 'wee bits' can cause quite a few headaches for those fitting hefty windows!

North facing side,en-suite almost ready for it's paddock stone walls.

The lounge and bedroom 1 have wall to ceiling windows, much like frameless sash windows. They are fantastic as you can't even see the join in the middle. These will be fitted with fly screens as will all the windows. And hopefully enable enough air flow to cool the house on really hot balmy summer nights. These windows go floor to ceiling, hot air rises, once opened the idea is for hot air to flow out of the top and cool air in through the bottom. Well that's the theory we may of course just end up with chilly ankles!

There are a few minor niggles with the windows and doors which hopefully the window chap will be able to fix when he comes next week.

Loverly louvre windows, the gap is where the front door will finally go.

Just need to sort out the front and laundry doors and we're at lock up.... YEAY.... And then the fun begins.

With the windows and doors fitted the lads were off to another job due back next week to fit the much anticipated cladding. Which finally arrived Friday afternoon. Huge pieces of deep blue corrugated iron were off loaded by hand, having been cut to size. Much like it was with the roof its hard to believe there is enough for the whole house.

Kitchen Plans

After a great deal of research (all great fun) I finally managed to roughly put on paper my idea of a great kitchen. Armed with my rough drawing and dimensions of everything I could think of Rick kindly drew it up. I have (or so the internet would have us believe) the optimum surface work area, apparently 3 linear meters. Simple and no wasted space I think are the key words to describe my kitchen. In my dreams I have a carefully crafted native wood (sustainable of course) kitchen with marble or granite work surface. A quick inspection of the finances indicates Formica or laminate will do nicely.

We are trying to keep the walls bare, storing most things in the huge pantry (which I'm hoping will be Tardis like). No breakfast bar but there will be a useful island to work on. Dishwasher, which I am sure I have waxed lyrical about before is white. The gorgeous range cooker and canopy hood are black. I want to avoid the monochrome, shiny modern kitchen out of a magazine look. I am also aware the cooker may take on a bit of a Darth Vader look, not a good look in a kitchen. I'd like subway tiles as the splash backs and possibly a warm terracotta colour floor tiles and perhaps work surface. Eclectic may also be another key word to describe the kitchen style.

So with all this jotted down in my super smart, newly drawn plans, off I trotted to visit the two places here in Naracoorte which fit kitchens. In fact I did this several times. One had the door open and a sign with a mobile number on to ring if no one was at home. Which we did to find they'd also left the mobile!! The other eventually declared via another sign Closed - Back on Monday.

I took solace in the veggie patch, after a visit to the nursery. Armed with tomatoes; pumpkins; a sultana vine; a chilli plant; peppers and chook poo (thanks Deb for the last two), oh and more polystyrene boxes (thanks again Debs), off I went. There is nothing like a garden to put everything in perspective. My plan is to use the poly boxes as mini movable veggie beds. They are nice and deep so in one I've planted carrots; chives; spring onions and parsley, all very good bed mates (well so the books tell me). Apparently the chives make the carrots taste sweeter... really?! This will be monitored with close interest and if I remember reported on a later date.... 

Two of the pea pods were finally just about fat enough for us to pick and sample. Oh what a moment that was. I've not done that since I was a child. It used to be my job to pod the fresh picked peas for dinner and being asked to whistle whilst podding. You can't eat peas and whistle at the same time!

The broad beans are not there yet. I reckon they are THE slowest growing beans ever - or am I just being impatient. Oh the joys of peas and beans to come.... I can hardly wait

I've been using a solar powered butterfly to scare away the real thing. It flutters and flits around just like a normal butterfly but as much better manners as it does not lay eggs (obviously). So far so good as the savoy cabbages etc are caterpillar egg free at the moment.

All things planted and then just like an early UK spring the temperatures dropped to minus - ARRRGH - for 3 nights on the trot. Poor things looked very sad but amazingly are holding their own.







Lesson learnt - early September here is  a wee bit like an early May in dear old blighty.

Batts, Landys and an old trailer

A great deal of time over the weekend was spent by us putting in the insulation batts, this was followed by an amazing storm, it really blew a hoolie. Sp it was with some trepidation we ventured down to the block ready to climb fences and perhaps trees to rescue any escaped batts.  What a nice surprise and relief to find only a few of them had slipped and sagged a little but there was only one small section which had been blown open to the elements. Quite amazing really considering how strong the wind was. It was easy to find the escapees only one of the batts had wandered off towards the veggie patch the rest had been blown into the house.

Other than that wee bit of excitement not much else happened this week on the house with the lads working off site finishing another project.  We did meet with Sid to discuss the different merits of the two styles of flashing offered. This flashing is to edge the outside walls, neatly finishing the corrugated iron cladding. The traditional one would need precision cutting of the iron sheets which would possibly irritate if it wasn't spot on. Where as the other flashing would cover the iron edges, both will give a nice finish to the house corners. We've gone for the one with the least chance of irritating errors.

Landys first outing
to be specific as she has been on plenty of adventures in the past, this was her first outing with the Historic Vehicle Club. After our last topless jaunt around the town and being caught in the rain we've been checking weather reports thoroughly. Eventually deciding on the soft canvas top being the best option, of course it didn't rain! The monthly Coffee Run seems to have come around very quickly, not quite sure where that month has gone. The outing to Apsley had to be put off last month due to a power outage (as they say here). We convoyed to Apsley a lovely sedate pace (for some of us anyway) through this glorious countryside. Spring has sprung so a lot of the huge gum trees are a mass of pale flowers and the generous verges have a highly scented sprinkling of naturalised freesias. Beautiful.......

Landy looking very smart sporting her canvas top (just in case of rain)

Apsley is a tiny Victorian town, population of 324 in 2011 but there is not a lot of evidence of that many people now. Sadly in 2011 the pub closed it's doors as did the local general store, which didn't leave a lot other than homes. 12 Apsley families clubbed together, brought the pub and refurbished it and fairly recently they had the grand opening, 600 people attended! It's great to see the results of their hard work and determination, the bars are made out of beautiful huge slabs of red gum. And we were told that it  has been hugely improved inside.

A grand morning out and a delight meeting other members of the club.

More Landy News
Rick has been hard at work on Penny, the last Landy to arrive looking forlorn in the 'stable'. I think I may have mentioned the gearbox problem turned out to the the least expensive one to solve. Re-installed attention was turned to cleaning the rest of her up. At last at the weekend she was back together enough and looking so much happier, for a trundle around the block.

We had doggy sat Fred for the day and he is always excited about going anywhere, even a trip around the block. So he was first in the back of Penny and looked very at home, managing to restrain himself from trimming any of the seat covers with his teeth. As you will have noticed we have chosen natural air-conditioning, I have been promised doors and floor for the longer trips. Oh and a seat which has been fixed.

It was slightly alarming seeing the drive shaft whizzing around whilst I hung on to what was left of the dashboard and my feet jammed on to what was left of the frame it was great fun. Penny in this condition is quieter than Dora!

All too much excitement for Fred, he made himself a dug out in the cool sand for a wee bit of shut eye.

An old trailer

And last but not least, I've been toying with the idea of having chooks at the block for a long time now. It makes perfect sense to me as they'll help keep the excess herbage down, produce heaps of fertliser and eggs and eat bugs. BUT they will need a chook tractor, light enough for me to move them around, a trailer being the best solution. Except I didn't know anyone with a really old trailer they didn't want anymore.... well I thought I didn't. Once again Deb has come up trumps and very kindly donated her old rusty trailer for me to convert. Am I excited or what.

All I need to do know is build their house, being high enough off the ground they shouldn't be bothered by foxes or snakes and if I'm careful enough with their feed hopefully that won't attract attention from other unwanted pests. I just need to draw it up and build it.... hmmm.... simple... if that's the way your brain works! 

A plan is forming I just need help from my friends... once again, seeing as knitting a chook tractor is really not a practical option!!

The start of my chook tractor, thank you Debs.

Leaps and bounds

Yeay the roof is now done and thankfully we did have enough iron for it, with not much to spare though. It all looks super smart even the guttering which is the same colour as the roof and you can't see how it's attached.  Very clever..... or am I just easily impressed?

The colour we chose was the most reflective and energy efficient (of course) we could get. The bonus we hadn't thought of previously is how it changes colour with the mood of the weather. Being spring the weather is very unpredictable, we have had several days of intense dark stormy skies with intense sunshine just ahead of the storm. All reflected by the roof and very beautiful to watch.

At last after many sleepless nights, numerous discussions, consulting books and the internet followed by yet more discussions, a decision has finally been made regarding the louvre sections of the roof. They will be static so require nothing more than the correct angle on setting them up. They will be made in Perth to our specifications, including powder coating them to match the roof and guttering, and shipped across. Coming in at a tiny fraction of the cost of the all bells and whistles version which seemed to be able to do everything but make the coffee... ok slight exaggeration there. The gaps have been measured, fittings discussed and the louvres ordered.

The house has now been wrapped in it's first layer of insulation.This stuff, a fetching shade of blue, is thin, has foil on the inside to reflect heat/cool back into the house and tiny holes in it to allow for any condensation to escape. The holes, as far as we can tell are what set it apart from the standard wrap normally used! 

We had a call late one afternoon about delivery of  the window and door frames, which we were expecting, but we were also expecting a wee bit more notice. We were told they'd be delivered the next day, with the builders off site it was lucky we were there to assist with the unloading. I am still surprised at just how big and heavy the north facing windows are. 

The north facing ones are glazed with Smart Glass which is not as good (thermally) or expensive as double glazing but should still be very effective for our needs. The builders arrived the next day and started putting them in. It took several attempts but they managed most of them in the end.  Just the heavy north facing ones left to fit once the whole team is back at the block.

Next bit was down to us, the fibre glass batts, or fluffy candyfloss (known as fairy floss here) type insulation was duly delivered.  Each pink plastic bag holds five sheets of  the compressed batt, which I have to say is so satisfying to open.... oh the joys of small pleasures. Bread knives at the ready, it was our job to cut them to size for the external walls and attempt to hold them in place with poly-strapping. Easier said then done and a really itchy job once the fibre glass worked it's way onto your skin. It also I discovered adds a lot of extra body and texture to your hair too though I'll not be recommending it.

Bedroom 1 with the en-suite shower door laying flat on the floor

The laundry, louvre windows fitted just awaiting the backdoor now.

The difference was immediate, the rooms once echoed and were dark from the foil wrap are now much lighter, cool, quiet and calm.  Rick also spent quite a bit of time whizzing up and down the ladder, climbing over roof joists, sealing the sagging insulation on the roof, small things perhaps but it could make all the difference.

Landy

Ricks dear old 1964 Landy has finally been registered through the historical vehicles club which means we can take her out for a spin now, limited to just 90 days each year.

With next weeks coffee run in mind Rick dusted her off, we eventually managed to get the hard top off and decided to take her for a short spin.  It was beautifully sunny at the block and although dark stormy skies were threatening in the distance we thought we'd miss the rain.  Off we set, firstly running out of petrol luckily not far from the block and the spare petrol which we keep for the wippa snippa and slasher.  Duly topped up off we went again and straight into the rain... it was hilarious... nothing to do but laugh.  And made even funnier when Rick kindly parked under the filling stations awning to give me and Landy a bit of shelter to discover the rain changed direction and was coming at us horizontally.  That will teach us to go topless!! Fingers crossed it'll be fine weather for the next outing.

Sustainable House Open Days 

Started on Sunday 7th and an off grid permaculture home at Keppoch, about an hours drive from here had opened their doors. It was fascinating, the lovely couple Pam and Matt have been living in a clearing, first in a tent, then shed and very recently the house they have built on 500 acres of land. A perfect haven for all native flora and fauna as well as unfortunately some of the introduced pests.

Their permaculture garden and commitment to sustainability was admirable and inspiring. They were both at pains to point out the life they have chosen is not for everyone and neither were they preaching that everyone should adopt it. They were very open about the learning curves, lessons and not to be repeated projects they have gone through.

Due to a visit from the in-laws they have only just commissioned the inside loo, the waste of which will eventually be transformed into compost. Their 'normal' loo was a 'short' drop sited among the fruit trees.  A combination of beautifully draining sandy soil and the fruit trees acting as filters meant all pathogens were dealt with very effectively. Very inspiring but you may be relieved to read not something we are considering doing at the block!

'It is possible that my whole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others!'

This sign made me smile.

It was also Landys second outing and although very windy was a gorgeous sunny day.