Floor Plan (Part 3)

I arrived at the farm about 9:30am on Sunday. The plan was to spend the weekend there and really tackle the floor. However, work got in the way and I managed to make time for just a day trip. I hadn't gone to the farm last week, so I wanted to make the effort to turn up.

The water tank showed that we had some rain fall over the last fortnight. We were close to 500 litres now, which should be plenty for a stay during the Xmas break.

The main job today, as it had been over the last few trips, was to work on the shed floor. I laid some black pastic to go under the plywood boards. This should stop the damp rising and hopefully stop any hungry termites eating the floor.

Here's the first board down. I had cut it on a previous trip, so I knew it fit properly.

Here's the second floor board down. Fonzi is supervising from a safe distance.

Due to the walls of shed not being square, the boards don't finish in the same place. The board will need to be trimmed so they are equal lenght. This will make for a cleaner finish.

Here's the cut to the board to make it an equal lenght. Hard going with hand tools!

After 25 minutes of careful cutting, here's the two boards together - straight as an arrow.


The next board needs to be placed adjacent to the two boards which are already down. Here's the marking along the length of the board which shows where I need to cut. It would take 20 seconds to cut with a circular saw, but it took nearly 1 hour of cutting with the hand saw to get through. Not pleasant work in the hot sun!!!

Here's the (almost) finished job. The last board fit well but I had to take the corner off (corner). Also, there is still a bit of a gap at the end of the board (foreground), which I can fix later on.

In an attempt to stop the mice getting under the floor boards or insects getting into the shed, I sealed the edges between the boards and the shed walls with expanding foam. I didn't have enough foam to finish the job and will do the rest when I finish the floor.

By this stage, it was approaching 3pm and it was time to pack up for the trip home. Before I left, I checked out the thistle I had sprayed a few weeks earlier. By now, it was obviously very ill (if not dead). Rather than a bright purple flower, the pant had a brown wilting flower. This weed's days are finished. Although some of the other thistles I had sprayed didn't seem to be dying - maybe I just missed them because I couldn't tell what plants I had sprayed as I didn't use any marker dye.
On the way back home, I stopped by one of the dams. The water level had fallen noticeably and now there is a small island in the middle of the dam. Hopefully, the water levels see the summer out and are topped up during the April rains.

My next trip is planned just after Xmas and I intend to stay for a few days and finish the floor for once-and-for-all. Weather permitting, I'll also put in a few star pickets along the fence line, as it's time to spend time on that project.