Tag: Concrete

Easter, rain and digging dogs

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
The covered in pergola
The covered in pergola

The rain stopped for a while last night and as it was not fully dark yet, I decided to take the dogs  for a walk.  It was so funny, Chienna – being the lady she is – delicately  jumps over the puddles whereas, Mannie, on the other hand, just walks right through them – no variation of the path he wants to go, just directly ahead, puddles and all.

Because of the rain and my feeling not quite the best, I have not been to the Arid Lands Garden, but I really must try and get over this week. I said before it is  150klm round trip but  it’s a good morning out and the prices in the Nursery are very reasonable. I am not in a great rush because I have not quite finished the area I want to put the new plants into, but if it stays dry tomorrow (Monday) I will see if I feel up to continuing with the cleaning and preparation. It should not take all that long.  Tomorrow is a public holiday so we can’t go anywhere anyway All-in-all, it has not been the best Easter we have had for a while.. I also have some concreting to do. Some dogs  (Two) on the far side of the property have started to dig under the fence. They are big dogs and they can’t possibly get through, but they have dug a hole big enough for my little ones to get through. It is only an area  9 feet long by about 14 inches wide so it should be fairly easy to do. I have just  closed one of the gates to keep the dogs out of that area for the moment. I could complain to the neighbours about their dogs but that could led to complications.  The House next to me is a State Government owned house and it is a police house – we never see them, which is probably a good thing.. Better I  just attend to the area and leave well alone.  I hope to be able to do this in the next day or so.

The “Dreaded Lurghi”  is starting to loose its grip and whilst it still hurts a bit when I cough, it’s not nearly as bad as it was. Still, I have to be thankful in that I have heard of some people being confined to bed and being really sick and it’s only just the start of the “Flu Season”.   I will just have to keep an eye of things and make sure that I don’t overdo things and allow myself to get run down.  I have to take Alan to the hospital again this morning and  see how the Warfarin  is behaving.

I don’t think I am going to be able to get over to the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens until after I take Alan back to Adelaide. Given some of the things that has been happening I think it’s safer ( for  my peace of mind!) that I delay the trip for the moment. Anyway, colds and flu notwithstanding, I have enough to be going on with at the moment. I have to say that we are only a week or so into Autumn (Fall) and since it has been a hot and windy summer there are no further leaves to come down from the tree, so once I have cleaned up this present lot, that should be it for a while and I can retire the vac-blower for a bit.  I might even be able to sling mu hammock without getting it covered leaves.

Nearly There

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I am starting to get just a tad worried about my little man.  OK, he is 11 years of age – not a spring thing anymore- and you don’t expect him to go charging about like a puppy but when I took him for a walk this afternoon, he just stopped and refused to go any further.This is not the first time this has happened and several times I have noticed he has been  slowing down and carried him for a little while.  Generally this happens half way through our walk but today it happened after about 15 minutes. Chienna is a year younger but , unlike my little Maltese, shows no signs of slowing down. But the odd thing thing is that he is always excited about going for a walk and runs around in circles, then his energy seems to dwindle away and I carry him for a little while. Of course, it could be that he is nothing more than a little con-artist. and I wouldn’t put that past him. I have been working in the garden and have cleared most of the center parts of the concrete away, but digging it out is hard work and I can only manage about a section and a half at a time. The trailer is almost full so I’ll have to think about getting down to the dump in the morning. I did go to the sand yard to see just how much decorative chips I would need for the area I want covered – and at $93.5 a cubic meter – I would need something like 4 cubic meters, then another cubic meter of other material for the center. However, the center material I can get on the trailer, so I wont have to pay transport fees for that.

I have completed all the edging and cleared out the center section. I have also emptied the trailed and filled it up again. It’s been a long day, which started at 8:15 and finished at 17:06. It is now ready for the chips to be delivered on Saturday. Why Saturday? Because I will I will empty the trailer tomorrow and fill it up at the sand yard with the blue metal for the center then have the red wood chips delivered on Saturday morning and start spreading them out Saturday and Monday.

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!