It looks to be going nice and slow and we have a nap sack ready to use if necessary....
Around the corner of the shed about 2 metres away from the main shed the wind takes our fire up onto the roof and we go "There goes the shed". The nap sack won't stay on John's shoulders and in taking it off to try and carry the arm brakes on the concrete. John rushes into the small enclosed area where we have many tools and chemical worth a couple of thousand dollars combined but he saves our camping chairs first worth around $5 each ummm... What pressure does to you!!!! The photographer took this photo and then fled yelling, "I thought you told me you had this under control"!!
Another day and we are hopeful of having a road built into the sheds and around the tank to the back of the main shed. Maybe even the Studio soil cleaned out a bit where we hope to concrete the other half in time. This is the entry before the Bobcat driver and the crushed granite arrive from Sarina....
All marked ready to go.....
We didn't expect this a large truck with a semi tipper. Trying to turn around at the bottom of our road. Our Bobcat driver told us at Sarina he had 56 inches of rain in the last two weeks.....
Some discussion on how things are going....
Yes Well ! It's now time for John and Jenelle to depart on what they have to do for the day as they can't do anything to help this situation....
The truck is tipped and the trailer is tipped and the bobcat driver has to bring the rock in out of the way. He finally is able to pull the trailer around and the truckie departs. Ringing back to say he will be right to bring another load from Sarina and just back down from the bitumen to our entry dumping it on the road for the bobcat to bring in to our place. From the end of the bitument to our place is around about 700 metres gravel road.....
We make a few discoveries for our records.....
Our road in being formed.....
The bogged holes on the council road were filled with our rock. These holes proved to be a problem for at least another week. The road was made from road base but as we walked where the truck went through it was like a trampoline. The ground is very spongy underneath.....
Meanwhile John and Jenelle are clearing lantana from around the large shed where the fire had been yesterday. This is one of the biggest roots we dug out. John didn't think it would come out but every spare minute Jenelle had she would dig out and find another part of it and over a while we had cut enough roots to get a shovel under it and lift over. Vic (Jenelle's Dad) would have been proud of her as he hated lantana......
We were pretty proud of our days work. It is work that is physically harder than either of us has done before. It didn't even matter when the bobcat driver came and said "I have seen the two of you work on that patch from 9am until 4pm and I could have done that in 20 minutes with the bobcat"...
Meanwhile the second load of rock became bogged 50 metres from the end of the bitumen. The bobcat driver had to drive up the 700 metres load up his small truck and bring it down. He did over 20 trips. A farmer with a four wheel drive tractor came and pulled the truck straight out. We didn't even go and look as by now we were pretty distraught at what was happening and the knowledge that we would still not have a road to the sheds for us to use. It was made to about 30 metres of the shed and the bobcat was sinking so just left a pile at the end and left.....
Ever optimist the next day we raked and smoothed the rock enough to get our car in as far as we could. In some places that were spongy we picked up single rocks and paved where the tyres had to go. If the Romans could do it we can too........
Today it was decided to get rid of the branch of the mango tree that is overhanging our power line. We don't want it to give us any future trouble.
It only looks like a couple of feet over the line from the ground but we take endless time in deciding how to pull the rope... where John can get his ladder... and where the cut will be made. This is the last photo the photographer took as the branch came down and didn't even look like missing the power line. We now have live power lines on the ground between the sheds and under the mango tree.The photographer who normally always has a bright outlook on situations is now so distraught that she is standing in the big shed with her head in her hands and can't even speak to the wood chopper....
Would you believe that we had Ergon out in about 2 hours and because our saddles on the main post at the shed were so rusted the line just pulled off the post and didn't break. In about three hours we had the power back on.
After all this excitement we are still cutting down the rest of the tree late into the afternoon. We then have a truck and trailer with out tank and some other much larger tanks on roar down the road to our gate. The problem here was that he had been told to stay on the bitumen and we would help him get down the road or roll the tank from up there. Jenelle is now having kittens wondering why men can't just follow simple instructions. After our trials of just a few days ago!!! We unload the tank and John and Jenelle roll it into our place and don't look back as the driver backs out of our road back to the bitumen where I guess he turned around.
Another day and the rest of the tree still has to come down....
We spend just over half a day still cutting up and pile the tree into a pile to be burnt at some stage. We have now decided now we don't want any of this tree to grow again.
While the ladder was in a good position some photos were taken off the area from a higher view point. We also had a good look at the main shed roof which resembles a wave pattern and this would account for the rusted out tin.
The last of the metal off the old roof....
Another day Saturday and the new roofing arrives at 8am. It now has to be carried in from the road outside our gate to where the sheds are. After a couple of failed attempts at carrying in 4 or 5 sheets at a time together. Jenelle makes the decision that John is to get on with what he is doing on the shed and if it takes her all day she will carry in the metal 30 odd sheets 2.6 metres long one at a time....
A very large eagle over a metre across.....
Sunday finds us both stiff and sore and so John is on light duties and Jenelle goes to Sarina to buy cement and needed hardware. We have a break when Jenelle gets back and go back and have our bacon eggs in Carmila. Back down at the farm in the afternoon it is time to start mixing concrete to extend our slab so we have no unwelcome visitors get in. Jenelle learns a new skill in mixing concrete by hand and shovel. Its just like making a batter really. After doing five bags by herself John can see she is fading and does the other four to complete our day and the end of week three....
