Week 3, day ten

Monday, 7 February 2011

Speaking of winter, it seems to have arrived... From a week of 30+ days, to about a maximum of 14 degrees today - you've got to love a cool change (and living in the Mountains). Hopefully life will be a little more pleasant for the tradies, though someone did tell me yesterday that it's meant to rain for a month. Surely not every day?

Raspberries: yummy weed

Thank goodness it was cooler though, because yesterday was our last chance to save any plants from the back of The Block before Mr Bobcat arrived today. I finally got around to IDing one of the berry-looking canes that have been popping up around the place as raspberries, so got to work digging as many of these out as I could and squashing them into the hideously undersized pots we had to hand. Saved a couple of big, strapping grassy things too (maybe some sort of lomandra?), so that when the back area is levelled we might actually have a few plants to put back into it - poor Block.

Say goodbye to the last patch of green...

Mat and the kids did their own scavenging by collecting rocks that have been unearthed around the place - we're thinking we should probably attempt at least a small stone wall somewhere around the place, otherwise it's not really a proper Mountains house, is it? That should be an interesting exercise...anyone out there always wanted to try one? We'll give you food and board!

Life in a postmodern photographers' (tree)house

As it turned out, Mr Bobcat Driver had done his back in on Friday and won't be making an appearance until tomorrow at the earliest. That put a bit of a spanner in the works for James, the lovely plumber, who had grand plans of the service trenches being dug, approved by council and filled all today. Instead he and his young assistant, Ryan, got stuck into a few holes, tap connections, big pipes and the like, while James and I bonded over names (his wife is Simona) and hydronic concrete floor heating options (we're welcome to pop over and scope out his home set-up any time).


Meanwhile, the tree man and his amazing de-stumper are still nowhere to be seen - the story goes that his assistant drove his grinder over onto its side today, but I'm starting to have my doubts about his level of commitment to our stumps.


Tomorrow will tell.