School holidays and concreting Tuesday 30 June - Sunday 5 July 2020

Relative freedom during these July School holidays ie you can have 5 visitors in your house, and can go around Victoria or NSW (the other states/territories won't let us in)

Anyway, Helen was keen to go to Inglewood, so off we went

They got there a lot earlier than I did, I arrived for a late lunch on Tuesday.  I'd asked Helen to put a pie in the oven for me

After lunch pottered around in the garden, and after dinner we watched Jumanji Welcome to the jungle on my laptop - we all thought it was hilarious

I had told Helen that I wouldn't get up til 8am (was reading in bed etc), and so neither did they, was very relaxing.

Wednesday, and I thought we might drop in on Terry in the morning for a coffee, so called him up.  He was going out, so no go, he also told me how he was concreting around the house, so I asked if he wanted a non professional hand.  He did, so we arranged to go there tomorrow at 9am.  Helen said she'd help, and brought the kids too, as she didn't want them home alone for hours.

The kids had friends come and visit - ones that they'd befriended over Summer at the pool, so off they went, and that at least got them off their screens

I was going to have a cut and colour with Michelle on Friday, but she had a cancellation, so I went and had a cut at 1pm

Back in the garden with my new haircut afterwards - damn that invasive oxalis!

I also found a lovely dark plump iris bud lurking in the shrubbery



Dinner was leftovers, and we saw another film - this time it was a children's ghost movie  with Maggie Smith

Thursday, and a quick start, and then off to Terry's by 9am

Had a welcome coffee (my second after my one at breakfast), and then out we went

Helen and I were on concrete mixer duty, and Xavier was also there buzzing about.  Michaela was inside reading.  Terry was on wheelbarrow and spreading duty

Terry had to show us to what to :- 4 shovels full of rocks, 2 of sand, and one of cement, and then water to wet it down, and make a nice paste, not too much, or you'd need more sand

Was quite tiring work, Helen and I took it in turns to do the batches 

And there were about 4 batches per mixer load

Each wheelbarrow full was approximately 100kg, luckily Terry didn't tip any over

As with the cutting wood, we soon warmed up

Meanwhile Terry was taking wheelbarrow loads around to the side of his house where he had made timber forms to contain the concrete.  The reason that he had needed to do the concreting was that water had been getting under his house for some time, and doing some damage inside

I also helped Terry do some evening up with a flat piece of timber- but wasn't that good at it

We ended up doing 2 of those large rectangles, and then adjourned inside for lunch

Terry warmed up some of his fabulous sausage rolls for me, him and Xavier, and made Helen and Michaela an omelette each

And after this it was off to Maile and David's as we said that we would come over on Thursday afternoon to pick the rest of the olives - I had also volunteered to do some wedding/trimming back, but Maile wouldn't hear of it

Picked over 8kg all up with the kids and Helen helping - they were lovely, and I ended giving them away to my CWA buddies in Melbourne.  That said I will obviously give Maile a big jar.

And had yet another coffee after we finished....my 4th for the day, and too many for me - wondered how I would sleep.  And the answer was not very well, as I took ages to fall asleep

Anyway, left Mailes late afternoon, and back to the house.  Didn't really feel like cooking, and the kids were angling for a pub meal. so compromised and got takeaway from the pub.  I was looking forward to another nice hot long bath, so didn't really want to go there

Helen and the kids did the ordering and pick up (I paid, and bathed).  Took ages...so as per last time Justin got takeway I was in fact able to have a nice long bath

Had 2 x pizzas which were pretty good, and then another film for all of us.  This time School of Rock which we all loved

And as I said, I didn;'t sleep that well tonight - all the coffee.....

Friday, and more weeding....

And another movie after dinner - this time an 80s  classic - Ferris Bueller's Day off - and once again we all loved it

Justin, Alex and April arrived around 10.15pm, and had a quick sandwich and to bed.  Alex gave Justin a lift, and was keen to come up on the Friday night so that he could wake up in Inglewood on Saturday morning, and therefore get 2 nights there

Saturday, and more weeding etc for me,

While  Justin and Alex fixed up the curtains in the red room, as the pelmet had crashed down a while ago bringing the curtains with it.  And of course it wasn't just a simple job, took a while..It's never coming down again!

Had an antipasto type lunch outside in the rotunda which was rather nice, and the kids friends came around again to play

The kids were also climbing up the tree

Alex and April also went up the street to look at the shops, and came back with a special album for Justin

Around 5.30 headed up to Kingower for the 1st Saturday of the month get together, and as per last time there was a lovely hot fire.  More of a breeze though....(so the smoke could be a bit of a nuisance depending on your position)

Alex rather kindly brought up a bottle of boutique gin, and tonic water, so we had a few of those

 

Got darker, and so we headed off around around 6.30 for home - where I had prepared a roast pork and potatoes, and April was keeping an eye on them

Dinner in the dining room, and we had to extend the dining table for the 7 of us.  Didn't bother with a fire though, just had the heaters

Alex had taken the below photo earlier



Sunday, and I had suggested that we'd go and help Terry again with the concreting, and Justin and Alex also came along to assist ( I didn't expect them to, they wanted to)

But first one of Terry's fab coffees

And then out into the cold, because we were experts, Helen and I manned the concrete mixer again

While Justin and Alex were on digging duty around the back of the house

Justin also helped with some levelling

So did this for a few hours, and then back to the house for lunch, as the kids and April were waiting for us

Had warmed up a bit by this stage, and we were also warmed up by working

Lunch was practically a repeat of yesterday's - in the rotunda with antipasto type fare

 Justin also got out his guitar and played a few songs

Helen and the kids and I did a beanie selfie with beanies that they'd bought from the library the other day

And then just pottered around, tidied up, and back to Melbourne 

Lisa the lumberjack Friday 26 June - Sunday 28 June 2020

Drove up on Friday morning.

Had an initial walk around the garden - there was still a shrivelled fig on the tree, and some cheery jonquils

Was just finishing up when  Terry showed up as he'd seen my car.

Invited him in for a coffee and a chat, and he reciprocated by inviting me to Arleen and David's for dinner that night

The other Terry and his son came over soon after to remove more of the junk around the garden ie behind the sheds (they had already removed a lot of the underpinning dirt)

I had some quick lunch after they all left, and then changed into my coveralls as my self appointed task for the afternoon was to oil the deck of the rotunda

I'd noticed a tin of natural decking oil in the scullery so thought I'd use that.  Easier said than done, as I just couldn't prise the lid off.  In fact I pretty much undid the double furl on the lid all the way around - so that the edges were somewhat sharp.  In desperation I rang up Justin who advised me to try plumbers mates and try yanking it off - still no luck - so reluctantly had to give up

Ended up going and having to buy a new can from the IGA.  Obviously what had happened was that the oil had gummed up around the lid - in effect sealing it shut.

So, spent the  afternoon  doing the first coat - was nice and relaxing

And then a long hot shower - lovely, as although it had cleared up a bit in the afternoon, it was getting pretty cold. 

Onto David and Arleen's around 5.30, no kangaroos

Was lovely and warm in their house, cheese and biscuits to start, smoked salmon and avocado on bruschetta and then some very tasty quiche

A very pleasant evening, infinitely better than the Melbourne leftovers that I would have had for dinner

Left around 10pm and still no kangaroos on the way back

Saturday morning, and it was pretty cold, so read the Age on my ipad in bed for a while

Eventually had to get up though and brave the cold

After breakfast, pottered around the garden,  and decided that the jacaranda need to be chopped up and moved, as the weeds were growing up quite high around it, and it would be too hard to mow around it

I knew that we had an old electric chainsaw that had been my dad's - so got that out of the shed, along with some safety goggles 

Worked out how to use it, cut a few branches, and then  it seemed to be getting a bit sticky, thought it might need some more oil. Found some chainsaw oil in the shed, but decided not to use it.  Went to Plan B which was using a hand saw.  Found that the pruning saw worked best.  (had tried a couple of others ones too)

Was hot and tiring work, especially when the saw got stuck because the cut was closing up.....

 
Did this for some hours, had some lunch, and then after that did the 2nd coat on the rotunda deck (instructions had said to wait 24 hours)

Had my now customary long hot bath when I finished up around 5 or so, then leftovers for dinner, and watched Billions on the ipad in bed

Sunday, and basically just finished off the cutting of the wood.  Gordon dropped by, and said he could finish it off for me- but it was now a challenge for me, and I needed to do it.  Towards the end I was counting the number of cuts left ie 4, 3, 2, 1 - but these were on the thicker bits of the trunk so a lot more time consuming.  I also cut myself some slack ie the thicker bits could be longer than optimal fireplace size pieces, some one else could see to them

Generated a lot of saw dust - resting on the weed leaves

I liked the look of the bark - looked like rhinocerus skin,

And finally it was finished! Doesn't look all that much as per below....

Maile had also suggested that I come out and pick her gorgeous jumbo kalamata olives - so I made a lightning visit, picked a few kg, and also took some rosemary and thyme cuttings for my vegie garden

After all that I picked the last of our olives (quite a few kilos) from our trees, they were starting to shrivel a little, so I decided to cure them in salt back in Melbourne