Walls, Horatios home, the Internet and a Mouse.

We decided to take all the dogs out to the farm last week. (sorry – forgot to take photos!)
We’ve taken each of them singularly, and take Digby out most times – as he just loves playing up and down the fence line, with the dog from next door.
They just run and run, and it’s brilliant exercise for them both.
But we decided it was time we got brave and just did it!

For the most part it went fairly well, but of course molly had to have a barkathon breakdown at one point, so it’s going to take some definite supervision and boundary setting for just which behaviour is acceptable and which isn’t – and we’re pretty sure that the bark collar will be used to assist in the ‘settling in period’ once we move out full time.
We seriously can not stand a damn barking dog!

As we told you in the last round of news, we finally have some doors and windows in the place, and it makes a huge difference to the ‘feel’ of it.
Its not just a shed anymore…Its becoming our HOME!

Unfortunately, what we didn’t notice prior to them going in, was that a lot of the glass had a thin spray-film of what seemed like either grout, or cement on them.
It was not easy to get off – literally hours and hours of scrubbing – and there are still some bits on them that will have to wait until a bit more patience has been restored; but for now, if you don’t look at them with a magnifying glass, they look lovely and clean, and we can see our gorgeous view – so thats what matter to us!
Right about now is when we thank gawd that our eyes have gone to shit, and we can’t see properly anymore anyways lol.

We also got started on putting up the first few sheets of wall panel, and have done some undercoating of some of them (mostly edging so far) but can’t put too much more up until Justin (the electrician) comes back and sites where we want to put lights and power points.
We want it to be as easy as possible for him, and as cheap as possible for us, so him being able to do the first fix without too much wall in his way – will benefit us both.

We also had another delivery this week of Termiflor – which is what we are using for the wall panels, so its there alllll ready to go once we have confirmation of when Justing will be here.
We’re hoping to go along behind him and put up walls after he has run the initial lines, so that he can then come along behind us, and do the final fixing 🙂
Its going to be a busy day, the day before, trying to get enough panels measured and cut.

We stilllllll haven’t got the roof on the shed – it just doesn’t seem to have happened yet – somehow…
But the cement next to the shipping container was re-gurneyed, and the four walls that have thus far been put together have been moved over to the spot where it will be living.

During the gerneying process, we thought we had found a major booboo in the shed-building process, which looked like it meant our little home was going to flood at the first load of decent rain, but we’ve since realised that it was just a case of the gurney blowing water up over an inch-high lip, and into the shed, that was the problem.
Not the sort of issue that will be replicated by your average storm, and we’ve already been working on a solution that means even if we do have a big blow, that the water won’t be able to get in along the floor line.

A friend of ours, MS – kindly came out and gave us a bit of professional advise for the price of wine – and we’re soooo appreciative that he took the time out of his day to come out and have a look at our mini-dilemma!!
Its amazing how just having someone cheer you on a bit with what you are doing – can make all the difference to your confidence levels!

Our town home at M Street has been suffering from some serious neglect, for the last few months.
Yes, the necessities of dishes, and laundry, floor etc all get done, but the nitty-gritty of cleaning and upkeep on the garden hasn’t really been getting much of a look in at all 😐
A bit more decluttering has gone on at the M St house, but there is still soooo much more to go.
Alas, there is so much that is waiting to move from the suburban home to the Farm, that that stuff is actually clutter all on its own at the moment!

We both attempted to take the week off last week, but it really only eventuated into a successful 1 and a half days off, as the call of work ended up winning out – so unfortunately, not a lot ended up being accomplished.
Frustrating…

Its been stinking really hot again (still) and the weatherman is telling us that there is more of the same, with a bit of extra heat thrown in, coming up in the next week.
We’re hanging out for a bit of rain – and whilst we got a short shower yesterday – the grass everywhere is starting to crunch, and we’ve come very close to losing some plants out at the farm…

As well as having the mobile reception bloke out to hook up a smart-antenna for us – as we didn’t have much reception to speak of unless you went out to the middle of the paddock, we’ve also had the nbn guy out, who has done his thing, and we’ve now got wireless internet.
YAAAY!
Makes for a lot less stressful work-life, in that we can now get calls and get emails etc out – and also makes for a happier home life, in that we can now google and netflix to our lil hearts content – should we so wish to!

Today we went and got the truck filled up with garden soil, and sorted out ‘Horatios’ new garden bed.
Horatio is a water gum (tristaniopsis laurina) and is the raised centrepiece of our ‘roundabout’.
Well, actually, its a square – but you get the general idea of the purpose of this particular structure/garden better, if we call it a roundabout :))

So…Horatio has been planted out, mulched and heavily watered; and there will be a variety of food and flower plants that will go around the bases, which will be added in the coming weeks.

We managed to procure some really good recycle bins last weekend, so now have them stacked in the corner within easy reach of the kitchen.
We’re thinking that we will probably make a shelf for them on the back wall of the outdoor area, so that we can just back the truck up to the shelf, and slide the full bins straight on the tray, to take them to the transfer station.
Time will tell 🙂

Oh, and it seems we have a resident mouse at the farm.
We’ve both spotted him a couple of time, running through the centre of the steel girders, but he has yet to attack any of the food (dry stores mostly) thats around the place.
We suspect will be only a matter of time, so will probably investigate ‘rehoming’ him, when we get fed up enough – and hopefully before he decides to move all of his rellies in!!
If we don’t get round to it, one of our cats will no doubt sort out the issue, once they move to the Farm. :))