Animals

I dropped into Gordon this week to deliver Gina's (dog) medication. Thought I'd put this up because in the background of this gorgeous Anatatolian Karabash (the dog) is mum's backyard and one of my early DIYprojects. The dog kennel housed two 50kg dogs, and it looks as good as the day I built it 12 years ago! (the MDF floor and walls are struggling but thats due to poor material selection.. I used what was available at a recylcers yard on the way back home from Wagga years ago). It's Gina's winter house... in summer she prefers the cool bushes, but she uses its shelter more in the cold weather. This little snake is a black bellied swamp snake. It was only 20cm long and I uncoverd it whilst making the chook house. Its not very dangerous.... rather cuteactually.

End of the Financial Year

Hi Everyone,

I'm forever appologising for the lack of updates! Here's a few photos from the past month... but they're not nearly as exciting as Bjorn's web album! I hired this one man auger for a day so that I could dig a few post holes in a hurry because I wanted to build the espaliared fruit tree trelis using left over concrete from the carport slab. In the background is my finished chicken house complete with gutterguard, gutters, and rain water tank... I'm now putting up a fence around the orchard and chook house...
The bed for the trees aren't done yet obviously... I need to clear the old shed stockpiles (I've spent about 7 hours on it so far and I'm only 1/10th of the way through it!!!) so that the bobcat guys can come in and excavate some dish drains along the boundary fence so that we can divert some of the rain water run off from our neighbours and also fix up the driveway.... then we can plant the fruit trees and train the branches onto the wires between these posts. The finished stable shed from behind... I haven't started inside yet... outside, I'll build a raised garden bed all along the shed.
June 15th was a special day, with Graham's 60th birthday and the birth of a new nephew.... Bjorn Enzo Nordling in Stockholm!
The carport slab which Bernie and I laid... my next job here is to enclose this using walls salvaged from the old shed stockpile... hopefully the wood is not too rotten! This space will be my garden shed... ie. storage for firewood, building materials, tools etc.

I've also finished installing the gutterguards on the new shed, but the real challenge will be fitting them to the carport because the roof pitch is so steep.

My new toy this week is a small MIG welder... I've read up on all the scary safety aspects of welding... I don't feel like dying with heavy metal toxicity, so I'll be careful! My first welding attempt today was a hinged jockey wheel on the trailer. It wasn't neat (and its probably not v strong either!) but it worked and it held up to a fair amount of weight today! I'm practicing welding so that I can make my horse yards adjacent to the stables.

Inside, Annette is still plugging away with the paint brush.. don't worry Tomo, the Low VOC (low volatile organic compound) is OK for her. I'm sure she probably contacts far more dangerous chemical and compounds at work.

ANNOUNCEMENT: We WERE planning on a house warming on the 26th July, BUT, with the latest rains, we've been set back again, so we are going to have to postpone :-(

We'll keep you all posted on a new date!