I was planning a bigger update, but forgot to transfer photos from my laptop to the memory stick to bring into town. And starting the laptop means either (1) plugging it into a noisy generator, or (2) attaching the inverter to the battery off the solar panels near the shed up the hill, running an extension cord into the tent (the "study" these days - provides shade so you can actually see the computer screen) and plugging the laptop into the extension cord, or (3) attaching the inverter to the lighter plug in the car and using the laptop while driving to town (while Dave drives, of course). All options require effort and timing. I'll get there ;-)
I'm having a computer-using day at the library today as I rarely get near the internet. When I do though, I zip into the library half an hour or so before closing time to do some urgent money juggling, check email for anything urgent and dash out. School's back now, though, so hopefully I'll not be so pressed for time.
Actually, on second thoughts, I probably will be even more pressed for time because I'm off to enrol in a couple of horticulture courses at Armidale TAFE later this week (neighbours and I are going to share petrol costs - it's 200km round trip) which means I should be at TAFE Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each week. Should be more fun than that bloody Certificate IV in Business Administration was - that shouldn't be hard though, just about anything is more interesting than being stuck in front of a computer in a small room for a job, bleah.
This morning I've already been to the storage shed and knocked some shelves apart, loaded the back of the ute with boxes and shelf components, and loaded the trailer with furniture (padded with blankets and wrapped in a tarp in case it rains, strapped down with far too many ratchet tie-downs but hey it's better to overdo it than have things fall off!). Amazingly, the storage shed is looking close to half empty. Just need to get the house finished then we can empty it out - will be a couple of weeks-ish yet though.
Well, here's some house photos. I'll have to get some more loaded on my memory stick for another day, because we've done a heckuva lot since these were taken.
That's me on the trestles, finishing off the external Hardiplank cladding on the eastern end of the house. Hmm, taken late November from memory. I don't have a fear of heights, just a fear of having someone else feeding me and wiping my bum for me if I fall and break my arm! There were a couple of times, though, when Dave and I were both on the trestles (two hollow aluminium "planks") that I spoke rather abruptly to Dave - something along the lines of "stand still you bugger before I s**t myself!!" - because he's far less skittish than me and would walk confidently along the plank without realising that I was on the receiving end of the trampoline effect of his weight.
View of the house from the southeast. The trestles are set up on the western gable for me to finish the cladding, verandah cladding almost finished (just the top row to go). Actually, this photo was taken on the 1st of December because I can see the truck that was unloading the internal linings and insulation around on the northern side of the house. We didn't get very much done on the house after this because we had to pack up the rental house - mostly into a rented storage shed - and clean it out. A neighbour from Mount Mitchell who owns a pan-tech truck helped us bring a load out to the new house (including the 50-odd pots with our future orchard in them). And we handed back the keys to the rental house.
Just as well - paying nearly $200 week rent PLUS mortgage PLUS fuel to get back and forth to work on the house (90km round trip) meant that we were very glad for the Economic Stimulus bonus money. It ended up being spent largely on takeaway food and petrol.
Apart from finally getting the house to lockup stage, all we did on the internals prior to moving was to get the walls in the main bedroom lined. Actually, we got three walls done, which at least gave us somewhere to stack the mattresses. We slept in the tents for two more nights while we lined the last wall, and we've been moving the beds around and camping in different rooms depending on what room we're working in/on.
This last photo is to give a different perspective of how the house is situated on the 25-acre block. Most of the other photos I've taken are fairly close to the house, and the most noticeable thing in those shots is the sandy soil that was exposed by the earthworks.
But as you can see from this photo, the clearing works can't even be seen if you go for a bit of a walk down the hill. The block of land is on the eastern slope of Mount Mitchell, which is the "locality" of our address. For pureblood townies, a locality describes a general area, far more spread out than a village. In our locality, blocks of 25 acres are the smallest. Our "subdivision", at our end of the road, is mostly 25 acre blocks, but there are 100-acre blocks further up the road, from an earlier land sale.
That'll do me for now, hopefully it won't be over a month before I get to post again.
The solar panels charge a battery - we have a truck battery in this photo, cheaper than the "proper" deep cycle batteries, won't last as long but it'll do for now. Actually, we have two sets of panels and two batteries set up at the moment, another set of 5 panels waiting for Dave to put them together and hook them up. Then we attach an inverter to the battery/ies, run an extension (power) cord into the house, turn the inverter on and run our standard 240volt appliances - will run laptop, stereo, tv, video/dvd player, blender (slowly!), etc. For power-hungry things like the washing machine (twin tub), iron and vacuum we run the big generator (at the top/left of photo) - makes a helluva noise though so we don't tend to use it for frivolities. When the batteries are low, we hook the battery charger up so generator charges them. Needs petrol in the genny though..... Had a little generator 750w but it's in outpatients awaiting attention.
