Working Bee 12 & 13 September 2015

Well, I had said that we were a bit too social up at Inglewood over the last few months, enjoying having guests, but not really getting anything done up here.

So, Justin went up last week and organised the top hallway, ordered the shed, and did a rather good guest blog entry for me - all in readiness for our big working bee weekend.

Now, for a working bee to work, you need good workers involved.  Alex, Justin's brother was keen to give us a hand, and I also roped in friends from Buninyong - Leslie and Chris.

Justin and I got up there fairly early, around 10.30 on the Saturday morning, with Alex not far behind us.

Justin and Alex therefore got stuck into puttying up the nail holes in the upstairs hall.  For some reason the putty smelled a bit bad.  Justin blamed my lovely salted pork hanging in the cellar, we all know it wasn't that!

Justin putting, with Alex walking  by

More Justin puttying

more puttying

During my regular walk up the street, I saw that the Royal was open, so popped my head in to have a look.  The young boy (man) was there, and we had a quick chat.  He introduced himself as Bryn, so I asked whether it was Welsh like Bryn Terfel.  This pleased him, as when he tried explaining his name to strangers he'd say like Bryn Terfel, and here I was, saying it unprompted.  Anyway, the kitchen still wasn't open, a few problems with council etc - should be open next week...

Leslie and Chris got here after lunch. But boy-o-boy they made up for the late start with a great burst of activity.

We showed them around again and Chris immediately saw the holes in the floor upstairs where the false wall had been.  He therefore said he'd make up a couple of dove tailed fillers

shaping the piece

planing it down

one of the holes in the floor - with the fashioned filler next to it

all nice and neat

Meanwhile Leslie and I weeded like demented furies, and nearly filled Gordon's trailer.  With all of the recent rain, it was not only rather green, but there were a lot of weeds

Leslie and a weed posy

Justin, Alex and Chris got stuck into the shed.  Justin had initially thought that they would lay the floor directly on the sand that he had piled up there the previous week.

the planned site for the shed

So they proceeded to lay the framework.

But then Chris suggested that it would be better to have brick pads rather than rest on the ground.  So Alex went and collected bricks from the leftover pile from the other shed's chimney, and they rested the framework on these

framework on pads

doing the other side now

more bricks laid #1

more bricks laid #2

more bricks laid #3

3rd side

always keep measuring

Once the ground frame was done they slotted in the floor which was bits of mdf

Leslie weeding around the vegie garden and keeping an eye on the proceedings

More floor #1

More floor #2

More floor #3

Looking pretty good

job well done

Over time it had become a nice sunny day, so I took a few photos of flowers around the garden too

peach blossom

nectarine blossom

nectarine closeup

beautiful purple iris in sea of calendulas #1

beautiful purple iris in sea of calendulas #2

Given that I had invited Terry around for dinner at 6.30-7pm, I thought I should start organising that, so left the weeding around 4.30 or so while they were still mucking around with the floor.  I had potatoes and carrots to peel, and the famous Inglewood pork rack to put in the BBQ.

Imagine my surprise when I glanced out the kitchen window a short time later and saw walls up! Granted they were ready assembled, but still, I was impressed.  However, I didn't want to appear so, so when I came out to put the pork into the BBQ I asked why they hadn't done the roof yet.  But quickly told them I was only joking, and what a fab job they were doing.

here we go

up it goes

up it goes #2

watching

looking good

you must have the right tools

nearly there

I also realised that we needed to go up the street to the supermarket, as I planned to make a fresh chestnut, bacon & rocket salad  (Stephanie Alexander) and we needed to buy some bacon.  David dropped by at this stage to show me some monster eggs that his hens had laid.  I had asked him in the past what the biggest eggs he'd had were.

These were 3 x monsters - with the largest at 101g - remember that a "large" supermarket egg is only 70g.  The carton couldn't even close over them

monster eggs 

I wasn't sure if he meant to show them to me, or to give them to me, I didn't want to offend either way - ie take what wasn't given, nor reject that which was.  I worked it out when I cunningly asked him to hold them and then took a photo, and then explained that we had to rush off to the supermarket. We did as at this stage it would have been about 5.45pm - and the supermarket closes at 6pm.  So then David offered them back, and I gladly and unambiguously accepted.

Got to the supermarket in time, and also saw that there were a number of events coming up in Dunolly which Justin would be interested in - being an enthusiastic Gilbert and Sullivan fan

Add caption

Dunolly Family picnic

The only thing is this is the girl's weekend :- 10 & 11 Oct, that I organised ages ago with Karen & Merrill.  And it's an Art show for Mad's Year 12 - so I'm not sure what we're going to do yet....

Also saw that there's a walk from Mt Koorong to Mt Kooyoora - which I'm sure that Helen would love - and that's the weekend before - on 4 October

And the roof was on by the time we got back from the supermarket

roof on

getting darker

hoorah!

And I reckon it took them only about 3 hours to build which is amazing, as the first photos were taken around 3pm or so, and they would have kept going til around 6pm - no daylight saving yet.

As per expected, the pork turned out beautifully, but sacrificed the potatoes.   Burnt almost beyond redemption

Inglewood pork 

Everyone had  a good time, and Terry brought  an expensive ukulele that he had snaffled on ebay as a bargain.  I think he had to fix it up a bit. Justin was  a little green with envy, as it apparently had a very sweet sound.  I guess it sounded pretty good, but any better than the others?  My tin ear can't really tell the difference.  Justin also showed Terry his Dad's old banjo ukulele - which he asked Terry to fix up if he would be so kind

dinner

Sunday. and a relatively slow start (again).  I woke up around 6am, so read for a bit, but then fell asleep again.  Yay!  Got up around 8.30, and Leslie and I went for a walk around the traps.  Showed her the rather dangerous ruins on the edge of town - where there's the crusher, old boilers and dam.  It wasn't previously dangerous, but became so when my shoelace loop got tangled on a stick or something and down I went cutting my left hand  and fingers, and banging up my knee quite hard.  I had my mobile phone in my right hand (was measuring our distance walked) otherwise I would have fallen with both hands outstretched.  Had to save the mobile I guess.  Anyway blood was dripping from my 2 fingers, filling up the nails, so we walked back quickly for some dettol and sympathy.

But, luckily I'm tough, so soldiered on, had a late communal breakfast outside

breakfast

And then got down to some more work - me with gloves on so as not to infect my cuts.  Bit more weeding first, and then sanding the floor upstairs.  Not my favourite job on such a beautiful day, but Justin, and Alex were there so it was communal of sorts (but noisy because of the sanding, and very dusty).

Alex took a photo of me, and I despite having the mask on I was smiling underneath it - silly, but a habit when I know a photo is being taken

2 x thumbs up

more a quizzical look

there I am 

and here's Alex

sanded floor vs unsanded floor

all sanded (at last)

Finishing touches were made on the shed

doing something on the roof #1

doing something on the roof #2

Justin and Chris made an built in desk/workbench

Chris & the built in work bench

Chris & Justin & the built in work bench 

And Chris routed some old floorboards in readiness for shelves, and they put up the door

about to put up the door

door on

Had a late lunch

lunch #1

lunch #2

And Leslie and Chris left soon afterwards

leaving #1

leaving #2

Alex took a few photos around the house and garden

looking good #1

looking good #2

looking good #3

trampoline - for some reason

And we started with the tung oil after they left

tung oil

applying tung oil #1

applying tung oil #2

applying tung oil #3

finished! #1

finished! #2

finished! #3

finished! #4

Alex and I left around 3pm, and Justin stayed til Tuesday, adding the built in shelves, buying some others, and painting the outside.  And also did 1 x more tung oil applications.

routed shelves

bought shelves

almost painted shed