Where has all the weather gone?

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The way I see planning is when I gt up in the morning and I think, “I will do this today”. Long term planning is as follows: Today Barbecue with family: Sunday, Church:  Monday, Garden: Tuesday. Garden, take herself out to Ladies Group: Wednesday Take herself out to ladies group, work in garden: Thursday, go to Adelaide – and that’s far enough ahead for me. And even then Thursday is not definite because I have a meeting out of town on Saturday. We have the barbecue today and Andrew heads off up north for another ten days.  The place will be quiet again. On Monday I should have all of the edging completed and on  Tuesday I hope to get the decorative  chips delivered.

This is the area I wanted decked/Now here we are on Monday- so let’s see how the planning is getting on. Oh look, it’s chucking it down and since I do not have welly boots and a raincoat, I will not be working outside today. This means that in my attempt to plan working in the garden, I am already a full day behind. Should have stuck to just getting up in the morning and deciding then. But now that I decided to “plan” I will spend the rest of the week feeling guilty that I am behind schedule. From the hottest start to April in 40 years, to heavy and continuous rain in one fell swoop, is about par for this area. And we had a family Barbecue on Saturday evening and I had moved the table and chairs out to the open area (lovely evening) and we had a good night. I didn’t move them yesterday so now my table, the tablecloth and all six chairs are soaking as is the padded seat on my park bench. You just gotta love the weather here at times. I took the dogs out for a walk last night and had a cap and a heavy jacket on.  Crazy weather at the moment. This time of the year  should be warm and pleasant not fluctuating between wet and cold and bursts of mid summer heat.

Easter is here.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed with the information from the carpenter and I had really looked forward to seeing that area completed without too much effort from me. However, that’s no longer the case and I guess I will just have to get over my disappointment and get on with other things The covered  pergola is 23.5 feet wide by 26 feet long. It is 8 feet high at the house dropping down to just over 7 feet at the far end. A rise of six or more inches is just not acceptable. I am advised that to comply with regulations  there needs to be a clearance of at least 6 – 7 inches.

At the moment, because of the unusual heat and the winds, my hay fever has been playing up. This sort of caught me by surprise since I  only have to go through this rotten feeling in spring – I don’t expect to have to go through it in Autumn (Fall)  that’s just not fair and not playing the game. I am not impressed  :o) According to the news this is the hottest start to April in 40 years.

A lovely lady, whose writings I follow, was talking about the Sunrise Service at the end of Holy Week and whilst we have not had this in Australia, I remember it from our church in Scotland. The minister conducted the service and at the conclusion we  walked from the church to the church hall where we had breakfast. Later on  at 11am the Easter Service began and the church was generally packed. Our little church of 34 people here in Whyalla has no minister, mainly because we cannot afford one. The three elders run the church from week to week and every three months our interim-moderator comes up from Adelaide to administer the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Within the Presbytery (which comprises some 96% of the landmass of the State(Bigger than Texas)) there are only two ordained ministers. Were we to lose one of them, we no longer have a Presbytery because it requires a minimum of Two Ministers for it to be a legal meeting under church laws. We are always on the verge of collapse, yet we survive, somehow.

Grounded.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The carpenter came round this morning to measure up the area and quote for doing the decking. Well, I cannot put decking in that  area without a major alteration of the whole pergola.  The distance from the ground to the roof sheeting  would be greatly reduced and it would mean tearing down the current pergola and rebuilding it to increase the clearance and give more headroom – and I am not willing, or prepared to do that. I will have to think of something to do with that area. However, it will have to wait its turn as I have enough to contend with at the moment with two projects on the go.

The weather has been fairly hot these last few days and I have been working, so not a lot has been done. The clocks have also gone back an hour so  it now gets dark earlier than it did last week. However after Thursday I will be on holiday for two weeks so I should be able to get much done. The tests that my wife did last week were clear, so that’s good.  I was going out after dinner for a little while but with the clocks going back an hour, it’s darker earlier. After Easter I will be on “official” holiday so I hope to get a fair amount of work done during these three weeks. I really want to get the front completed and I am anxious to see it finished. At the moment we seem to be having a late burst of heat with the temperatures hovering around 34c. That I don’t mind too much but in Australia heat generally means lots and lots of flies – something the holiday brochures don’t mention’. They say that after a few years you get used to them but I never have.  This photograph has nothing to do with gardens. It is a photograph of the interior of our small church in Whyalla, which is where my wife and I will spend much of the coming weekend.Our small church

Monday is Washing Day!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The new Hoist in place.Been a sort of busy day. I finally cleared the remains of the cement block and have started to put the new Hills Hoist clothes line system into place. In the morning I will  clean the area out and cement it into place. Once it has time to cure and settle I’ll  start to bring in the river sand to  spread across the place and fill in all the nooks and crannies. I hope that it will present a smooth surface for herself to walk on.

Also tomorrow I’ll get stuck into the front again and hope I can get that finished by the weekend. Next week I can look at setting out the inside section and look for rose bushes;  clean up  and restore the birdbath. It would be nice to have some birds other than Magpies and Crested Pigeons.

I also spent some timeout front and laid down a few more sleepers before the light faded. I think I have about 16 of the 22 meters laid in, so it should be a cinch to finish the rest by the close of light tomorrow. I was out most of the afternoon with my boys, before one takes off up north again in the morning. I wanted a new bike so the boys Some people call them 'Top-Notch" pigeons.decided to get me a new bike this afternoon. In the mornings, when it is fairly quiet , I can go for a ride in this area until I get used to riding a bike again. Then I can start to go further afield and get adverterous – but not too adventurous yet.

Going Forward

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

No further work done  in the garden today as I was called into work. I hope to be able to continue on Thursday but if I get called in tomorrow I will do it on Friday. I have left instructions that I do  not get called in  on a Friday, so at least I know I have one day I can get some work done. When I got back home I didn’t do any work on the front but I did worry the cement block for a bit. When I do get that out and my own  unit cemented into place, I will look at getting sand to cover the area and smooth out all the bumps. Once that’s done I can see about  laying the artificial lawn and make the place safe for herself to walk on. I already have the artificial lawn in the garage. So it should not take too long once   get the area ready.  Once that’s done I can then take over the back area and consider what I am going to do with that.  That area is covered in gravel and small stones so clearing it could resent a problem and there is no way I could get a backhoe into clear that. I think, if and when I get around to that,it will probably be a long term project.  But I would have to come up with some sort of plan for the area and I really haven’t given it a lot of thought. I really think I have enough to be going on with at the moment before considering a new project. On the subject of Next for renovationprojects, I have a carpenter  coming on Friday to look at the area for the decking, measure it up and give me a quote. If it’s good I would like to get the work done fairly quickly.

It Begins!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The test results yesterday were  clear and the infection is starting to clear up, so the  doctor being so cautious was justified. I don’t think either of us could go through the MRSA period again.  I have just come back from Adelaide and I should not have to go back down again until June. The next meeting will be held  in Port Augusta which is only fifty miles away – leave in the morning and be back sometime shortly after lunch. It’s less than an hour away.

This afternoon I will rip out the old metal edging and start to lay the new treated pine sleepers. – Ok I have ripped out the old edging and started to dig in the new edging. I have 22 meters to do and  I have managed 7.5 meters. The reason for the little work is that I didn’t start until min afternoon, by which time it was hot out there. Besides a 2.4 meter, 50cm thick block of pine is a tad on the heavy side in this heat.  The 7 meters about 1.5 feet to go - but I have it worried.laid was as much as I could do before the heat started to get to me. Still, it could be worse – high summer heat is around 40c. It’s 32c at the moment.  I did manage to attack the cement block  for a little while yesterday and I can start to see some movement. I haven’t got it out yet – but I have it worried…

Moving forward – slowly.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I got the edging but won’t be able to do much on Monday. I have to take herself to the doctor to get the results of her tests. We expect everything to be clear and the tests are just her doctor being cautious. We don’t want to have a repeat of the Staph infection that caused so much damage to her system. So, I can understand, and agree with, her doctor being so cautious. By the middle of  this week I should have much of it done and, at the same time, think about what I am going to put in the inner section along with the  cleaned and  restored Bird Bath. I have a kind of picture in my head what I want it to look like when its finished.

I don’t wish to rush it but I would like to see it completed so I can devote my attention to working on the Washing Area and removing the cement block.  I just hope that when I have actually succeeded in digging  it out, the Chinese person on the other end can speak some English. Once I have dug it up I can have the hole cleaned out and put the unit and my own concrete block in its place and then install the new washing hoist. In the meantime, I am about to go back to the garden centre to get another set of purple carrot plants. The Main Man– the Maltese Terrorist – decided that it would be such a help to daddy if he did some digging; turn over the soil and get rid of these green things.  Dogs – what am I going to do with him??  :o)

This is my Main Man - the MalteseTerrorist!

Unbelievable!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Now for the cleanup and redoing.For most of the night it has been raining. The sun is out but the ground is soggy. No edging today. By the time I returned from hospital (herself for tests) I thought it best to lave the place to dry out before I start working in the area.. It’s unbelievable but true that Wet Wednesday really lived up to its name. I left  word not to call me this week since I have doctors and hospital appointments for herself. She has not been a well person.  There is more rain forecast for tomorrow and, according to the news tonight, this is the wettest start to Autumn in 30 years. Some places in the State had their monthly rainfall overnight. Thursday and the sun is shining. Once I come back from hospital I’ll hook up the trailer and go over to the hardware store and get the edging. If it stays dry I would get most of it done today. However having said that there appears to be a very large black cloud coming in from the gulf.

It seems I have passed some kind of milestone and have now achieved some 25 posts. Interesting, really since I didn’t expect to last this long. Everything started off well but we seem to have hit a number of hurdles along the way. Clearing the bark from the front was relatively easy ( well I didn’t do it  the bacbhoe did) but it seems to be taking forever to continue on with the project. The washing area has had to take a backseat for the moment although when time permits I continue to worry that cement block and I’m sure I’ll be in China soon – all I have to do is keep on digging. The decking, which I was leaving to a professional, has come to a screaming halt  for the moment – or at least until I can get someone willing to quote for the work and then do it.  This is fairly common here – difficulty in getting people to do work and having to wait a long time to get something done. Something that would take an afternoon to do in Adelaide can take up to three days to do here.

Moving Forward

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The way this house is situated it would be difficult to get a forklift under the carport let alone a machine that can till the soil. I would have difficulty finding space for 5 hens, let alone 30.  Some of the sites that I have visited on the assumption that I might learn something  are all interesting and very readable, but they are farms and mini-farms and not related to the trials and tribulations of a suburban garden. The previous owner of this house had a thing about the soil – he intensely disliked it. I say that because  everything is either covered in concrete or tiled brick.

As a consolation prize my son called up and offered to take us out to lunch at Cafe Primo in Port Augusta. Unfortunately Herself has to chair a meeting so Andrew and I are going on our own. And no, we can’t postpone since he heads off up north in the morning and we won’t see him again for another ten days. I’ll take the opportunity to drop into Stratoc – Port Augusta and have a look for the pine sleepers that I want. Can’t get them if they have but at least I’ll know one way or the other. When I come back I’ll start to worry that cement block again.

There we are – the hardware shop has the timber pine sleepers back in so I can load up the trailer tomorrow and get started at the weekend. That saves me a trip back through to Port Augusta. By the middle of next week I should have all the edging done and be reach for the treated chips. I’ not sure what I ant to do with the inside section. I was thinking roses, but I may not go that way. I did have a look at some flowers in the new garden catalogue but it remains to be seen if we ever get them here.

All Change!!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

As it happens I will not be going to Adelaide after all.  The business that needs to be done is no longer important enough to warrant a 500 mile round  trip to Adelaide so it’s been cancelled.  I was going to go down with him but there you are. Now I’ll have to stay and work if  I get the call. Pity, really – I was quite looking forward to the day in the city.  If there is no progress at the Hardware shop here by Wednesday I will call Port Augusta and check if they have  the treated pine logs in stock. If they do I will take the trailer through on Friday and load it up. This will give me the weekend to get started. I’m really quite looking forward to seeing it finished, although I realise that this could take a little while. I tend to become impatient at times and I should learn to  take things easy a little bit more. I have started to become frustrated with the cement block  at the  other area I am working on. I bash and smash but it never seems to get any smaller. I think the previous owner much have hired a whole freaking cement truck!!  I thought gardens were supposed to be places of relaxation – how wrong was I !?!

I took the dogs out for a walk after I got changed yesterday. It was a bit warmer than I thought and I should have taken the bag with the water bottle and bowl with me. As it was the little man ( who is 10 years old – 70??) became a little bit tired so I ended up lifting him up and giving him a carry for a bit. He was quite content to be in my arm for a little while. I put him back down about five minutes from the house and he managed the rest of the way. I must remember to take the bag in future.