October long weekend

What better way to spend the October long weekend than at the farm. Kath took some time off work so we made the pilgrimage to the farm for an overnight stay on Sunday/ Monday.

Driving to the farm, it rained for nearly the entire 3.5 hour trip. We were wondering whether we had made a big mistake as the memory of the gale-force winds which hit in late August was still fresh in our minds.

Miracles will happen and as we approached the farm we could see clear skies ahead. Once at the farm, the ground was a bit wet but just enough to make it easy to push the tent pegs into the ground. You've gotta be lucky sometimes!!!

After setting up, it was time to light a fire and relax and enjoy the atmosphere.

As the sun set, we got a little rain but not enough to cause any problems. The fire kept burning without a problem and we had a good night.

The next morning it was down to work. Kath installed some water reservoirs around the trees. These are designed to slowly water the plants while were not there - especially in Summer when it gets really hot.

There was only a light breeze blowing, so my job was to try and straighten out the wall of the shed which has the door on it. To fix the panel, I had to remove the bent support which meant un-securing the roof. I had previously learned that you can't work on the roof if there is even a mild breeze.

Here's a photo of the shed with the old support - all bent out of shape!

While the roof was venerable and able to be blown away, the weather started to look nasty. I had to hurry and fix the shed before the wind whipped up and blew the roof off. Black skies coming!


With one eye on the weather, I secured the roof and replaced the bent frame support. Straight as an arrow now! This will help the door close properly.

The rain never arrived and the sun eventually made an appearance. It was a comfortable 20 degrees.


With the top half of the panel straightened out, the next job was to secure the bottom half. Some of the walls of the shed look like they had been dropped off a cliff, so there is a lot of work involved in making them straight. I installed a reinforced bar at the bottom of the panel which extends the length of the panel and keeps it nice and straight. This metal bar will be covered by the floor later, so we won't know its there (and won't trip over it!).

While I'm working on the shed, Kath is taking a well deserved break. It's hard not to sit back and enjoy the scenery sometimes - especially with a nice hot coffee.

Now that the wall is straight, the next job is to install the other length of guttering. Here are the mounting brackets.

And done! All I need now is some plumbing and a water tank!

From the front. These two pipes will join together in a T-piece and funnel the water into the tank.

While I wouldn't have enough time to complete the floor today, I dug a trench to install one of the floor joists.
The joist is in place before I bolt it in.

And there we go! Only another 2 joists to go and I can start finishing off the floor.

With hardly any time left before we had to leave, I packed up and we headed back to Sydney.

All in, we had an enjoyable weekend. The weather was kind to us and that makes a BIG difference!!!