Easter break '10

I've had a break from blogging, but behind the scenes the work has still been continuing. The major addition so far has been a second water tank. We haven't had a lot of rainfall after the 2nd tank was installed, so the water level is a bit low. Here's the 2nd tank.


I was up at the farm for the Easter break. My job on this occasion was to start some work on the awning at the front of the shed. We have noticed that when the weather is really bad, the wind and rain come straight into the door of the shed and the floor gets wet. The awning will also act to capture more water and help fill the tanks

Here is the before photo of the shed "pre-awning".

The 4 posts which will make up the frame. The poles are about 3 metres each and the metal posts on the ends are about 65cm.

Here's the 1st post in and time to pour the concrete to make sure the wind can't move it. The post is straight, but the shed is not.

Fast forward... here are the 4 posts in and concreted. I wanted to finish the job before any chance of rain. This part of the project took the better part of a whole day.

Around this time of the year the weather is changing and the nights get really cold. Here's a big load of fire wood to help me keep warm.

The next day I started with the top supports of the annex. This will be the foundation of the roof. I just need to put some cross beams in.


Well, I had used up all my supplies and it was the end of my break. It's amazing how quick 3 days can go. Although I did achieve a fair bit.

Kath & I had planned to return to the farm the next day, so I drove back to Sydney to re-stock the supplies, pick up some fencing material and head back to the farm.

With a few days ahead at the farm, Kath decided it was time to get serious with the lawn mowing. She had purchased a second-hand lawnmower - She is the only person I know who gets excited about lawnmowers.

Here's the lawnmower in action. Fonzi is inspecting the work for quality control. Good job.... keep going!!


In the tradition of starting one job before finishing the earlier job, I purchased some fence netting. I was determined to finish the fence along the boundary. It will nearly be 1 year since I started this fence!!

This is 200 metres of wire netting. It weights about 90 kg and it's easiest (and safest) to roll the thing around.

Here's the view looking down the fence. The wire netting goes at the bottom part of the fence - where the gap is.

Here's Kath in front of the fence connected to one length. Behind the scenes, it took me about 3 hours to connect the fencing. The netting still needs to be tensioned at this stage.

While I was battling with the fence, Kath planted some Liquidamber trees. Since these trees grow really big, we planted them a fair disatnce from the cabin site, but still in view so we can see the leaves change colour.


This is my latest toy and my early birthday present to myself. It's a nail gun and hopefully will make building projects easier. It would have made building the floor of the shed a piece of cake.

One major problem is that the generator won't power the air compressor - big problem as I don't have air to run the nail gun. A quick trip to the neighbour's property to borrow his generator (and 1 hour later) and I had everything ready to start up the nail gun.


Here's a sample of the nail guns handy work. 4 nails done in about 3 seconds and these are not small nails - they're almost big enough to go right through the timber! I had finished the frame of the annex in about 10 minutes. It would have taken me hours with the cordless drill and screws!

I'll have to investigate why the generator won't work with the air compressor. I suspect that the genertor isn't powerful enough to run the compressor.

Here I am thinking about life's problems in the middle of the bush. Just a bit of time to relax and take it all in. Fonzi is keeping me company.

We had to head off early on the last day of our break because of work commitments. Here is the annex as I have left it. To be continued....

The last job was to plant a gum tree around 50 metres from the shed - right where the summer sun sets and heats up the shed.

Time flies at the farm. All in, I spent about 9 days at the farm and I was sad to leave. Although, I was missing home a bit by then. Our next trip is for the ANZAC long weekend.