Tag: garden

Welcome home. We missed you…..

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

A Foxy LadyI was only away for four days but it might just as well have been a month. The dogs set up a racket when I drove into the driveway and even before I emptied the car, I was on the floor playing with them.  At times I think I sort of felt like  General Custer because they did their little dog thing – run around t you in circles. It was so funny – I’m sitting on the floor they are running around me jumping in and out of my legs and every so often they would stop shower me with licks and kisses then  circle me again. She who must be obeyed just sat and watched in amazement. It t was ages before they settled down and I was able to empty the car and get my case in.  I love my dogs and I enjoy their company – they are my associates really.   The good thing is that when I was away this time,  my flowers and plants were watered. Normally she forgets to do this and I come home to dead plants, but this time she remembered.

The front of the house is starting to look nice now. During the course of this week I will start to look at the picnic area and see what I can do with that.  I have looked an a number of options and it was intended that this would be made into a clothes area so she wouldn’t have to move too far outside to hang the clothes up on a line. And no, we do not have a cloths drier because she does not like them and prefers to hang cloths on a line to dry. We did consider using the area  as is, but the crazy paving is just that – crazy – and was really not done all that well. Because she is partially disabled the ground is too uneven for her and I wouldn’t be comfortable having her even try to walk on it. I will replace and make alterations to the borders then decide what I want to do with it. I have bought her two laundry trolleys – one from the door to the dog gate and one from the dog gate to the Hills Hoist clothes

This is my Main Man - the MalteseTerrorist!
This is my Main Man – the MalteseTerrorist!

line.

Anyway, that’s me until next year.  The  next meeting of the Presbytery is not due until 2nd February, so all being well I should not have to  be away for a while. This is good – for me – for the dogs – for the plants. The meeting lasted two just over two hours – that’s  900 klms round trip for two and a quarter hours.   We have six meetings per year – five in the metropolitan district  (I go there) one in the country (they come here). There is only one place that I will not travel too, but five out of six is not a bad record.

A Big Post.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Had a very busy three days – Thursday the AirConditioner packed up and we called the technicians. They came out and very kindly told us that the compressor had burned out and  when they make their report to their office, they will send us a quote for repair and replacement although he did indicate that it would probably cost as much to repair and replace as it would to buy  and install a new split system unit. My computer sort of crashed – well the program I was using to write the magazine (Publisher) crashed (again) and I lost all the work I had done. I can re-create it – I think.. I  went out in the pouring rain and bought a new heater for the lounge. Herself (Annabell, my wife) was really feeling the cold. It is winter here.

Friday I spent the day in town – the City of Adelaide  – some 300 miles and four hour’s drive away. It was raining when I left, rained much of the way down. When I telephoned herself later in the day she said it had been dry for most of the day and the dogs were outside. It rained off and on in Adelaide and for a good deal of the way home. I think it might be me – perhaps I attract the rain!  Sort of like ” Home Cooking” – When I go out the sun comes in, the rain comes down and it soaks my skin. – If you know the song you will know the rest.

Saturday and it rained again for most of the day and  the church ladies had organised  the “Biggest Morning Cuppa” which is a nation wide charity event to raise funds for the Cancer Council. It was well attended and the ladies did well , which is more than can be said for my diet. However, it is truthful to ay that although the event was a success, it was not as well attended as it had been in previous years. It really was a cold, wet and miserable day.  In the afternoon I closed the house up and turned on the heaters for herself. I vanished into the office and started work on re-creating the magazine. I discovered that I can load anything I want on to Publisher – except the magazine. As soon as I try to do that, Published crashes. I’ll sort something out..

The dogs have been very good these last few days as if they sense that not everything is well with the family.  When I came home from Adelaide I went into the laundry, sat down on the floor and played with them for a while.

Sometime this week we should get the quote on the AC and then decide what we want to do and how much Insurance will contribute towards repair or replacement. The system is fairly old(er) and  perhaps a new system is what we need and I think that’s about the way I am heading.

I have written nothing about the garden because there is nothing to write. It has been too wet to be able to do anything outside.  This is a big post. For that I am sorry but it has been an eventful week.

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.

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Well, so much for the “Best Laid Plans”and everything is shot to bits. However, I have completed all of the main edging and this afternoon I will start on the center area. I wont be able to get the chips until next week mainly because I have filled up the trailer with all sorts of rubbish. There was also a setback when I discovered that the old letter box pipe was never removed – only cut down to ground level and covered up. I hit it when I tried to move the edging there. I was forced to stop, dig down to the concrete and  cut the pipe off at the base before I could move forward. That and the weather set me back a bit – and I didn’t get to Adelaide after all. Because of the hot weather then the rain then the heat again the flies have been breeding like crazy and they really a nuisance I gave up a couple of times because the personal fly spray seems to attract rather than repel them. As I said before, this is an aspect of Australia that the travel books don’t tell you about.

Once I had cleared the obstruction I was able to continue on with the edging. I have now started on the center part but I can’t do any more until I clear away the stones from that area, which I had hoped to do this week. Actually I  did hope that I would finish it this week and head off to Adelaide full of satisfaction for a job completed. But not to worry – as my dad used to tell us when we were children “when the Lord made time, he made a lot of it”. I will continue with the work today, rest Sunday and start again on Monday. Everything seems to be taking longer than I had expected it to – or perhaps I am taking longer to do things than I expected to. I finished early because I  had a call to go down and open up the church vestry to let the Technician in to service the photocopier. Little things, but hey set me back a lot of time. I look back and wonder where this week went and why I am not further forward than I am. Perhaps I have an unrealistic expectation of the time it takes to do things. Oh well, not to worry – it will get finished.

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.

Showers with a few dry spells.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Not an encouraging sight.Friday afternoon and the sun came out. It ended up being quite warm so everything has a chance to dry out – well at least here, not so for other places. We don’t do floods here – a few puddles, but no floods. Other places, particularly in New South Wales, are in serious trouble with dams  about to overflow – and it’s still raining. This is not “normal” for this area – not for late summer early Autumn By the time the sun did come out and the day cleared up it was too late to get changed and go outside. I also had a pile of work to do for herself, who was hosting a Ladies Meeting at the church on Friday evening.  We had about 75 attending the meeting, which was good. Today, Saturday, started off quite nice then started raining again although it didn’t last very long. When we start the new week on Monday I will have to wait and see if I get called in to work. If I don’t and it stays dry, I’ll  move some of the rocks and see how much of the black bark I can get into the trailer. Amazing, great chunks of the country are under water and I’m talking about gardens and trailers. I really don’t have room to plant a lot of things and  a herb garden and the shade house are just about my limit. Do I mean the place is small – no I don’t. The place is a fair size but designed as entertainment rather than “garden”. And NO, I do not intend to turn the front garden into a  vegetable garden – I have no intention of going all ‘Good Life”  :o)   The photograph is the Warragamba Dam to the west of the city of Sydney. Not good.