Merry Christmas

edges

Paving edges are almost finished now. It looks so very neat.

bushfires

There have been some bushfires to the south and south east of us here.  6 separate ones in fact. The fire at Margaret River saw the destruction of thirty one houses, four sheds and nine chalets, including the historic Wallcliffe House, while 16 houses and one shop were damaged at Prevelly, Gnarabup and Redgate.

 

I took the dog for a walk yesterday evening. The smoke isn't too thick here as we are about 90mins drive away from most of the fires. But it is thick enough here to make for an eerie sky.  Have heard 2 planes go overhead today though Hope that doesn't mean more fires.

Almost home.

A few snapshots

Just a little progress around the place.

The front gate went on.  We decided to go for a "pool" type gate as they are much lighter than a traditional gate. Attempting to dig a deeper hole for a bulkier and longer support post for a heavier gate would have been a major drama  in our rocky ground.

 

Doggy door frame arrived from the UK finally. It was cheaper to buy the same kit from there than to buy it locally  from Perth and have it posted down ( by over $70)

or to buy it even more locally ( by over $100) 

 

We've bought some paving.  Around 240m2 in fact.  They are 2nd's.  Given we could easily use another 100m2 with ease and end up spending closer to 20k for fancy paving we've decided to opt for a less fancy paver and  keep costs down.  With 2nds it  means a little  more cracking, some bowing, and a bit more variation in size and colour.  But overall well worth the savings as we ended up paying around $5.500 including 2 lots of delivery charges. ( we bought a smaller batch to test the waters then decided to get the lot) The plan is to do a small amount every few days.  We're no longer spring chickens and G is pretty much doing it on his own.  Doing a brilliant job of it too. The last time paving was done we were around 20 years younger so doing a small amount a few times a week is less strain on the back, the knees and  the rest of the body. G semi jokingly said he'll be finished in Feb.  I'm holding him to that.  Oh to win the lottery and be able to afford to pay some one. :)

At first we decided we quite fancied the underside of the pavers, but as work progressed we realised it wasn't as good a look as we had hoped for. So up they came.    Then when the alfresco area was almost completed G worked out why he was having more difficultly than expected in keeping the paving straight.  The first pack opened were slightly more square than the rest.  Up came the pavers again and they were all relaid  in the  same direction. 

It was amazing just how much dirt had to be dug out to level the ground.  

We have little mounds of builders white sand pad sand around everywhere that pavers have been laid.  We'll be using it to  cover up a bit of rocky ground near the fruit trees once the pavers have been sanded in.

We have baby pink lady apples.

 

 We've left a paver width gap up against the house for all paving areas except where there is a doorway.  This will be filled with bluemetal.  This is to assist the pest control man.  He had told G that they charge almost triple on jobs where they have to drill through paving ( every 1m)   to do their sprays as they will not lift pavers. His suggestion was to do the stones. So I guess when our next pestman visit happens we'll see what the bill is.

 

  Ever so nice to sit outside with a cuppa and not be in sand.

After a short break with not so practical paving weather.    G started on the front.

Lots of angles. Once all the whole piece paving is set out here G will buy a saw blade and do all the cuts.

 

Wattle loves roses. He likes to admire them for a second then bites them whole off the plants.  He only picks those in bloom that look  good never any that  have finished and are wilted.  His "handiwork" can be seen here on the pavers.  Usually he runs off to the lawn with the flower to scatter petals everywhere.

 

Once the paving is finished I'll build a retaining bed around the rose garden out of the leftover house bricks.

Pets.

Wattle wants to be friends. Mia isn't impressed. No matter how much she hisses and growls at him he whimpers for her and wags his tail and wants to play. (pounce on her)

Updates

Wattle

He's 17 weeks tomorrow.  Has developed a "I'm being naughty" bark when he's doing something he shouldn't. It's a ," Look at me. I've got something/done something/ gotten somewhere  forbidden."
Yesterday he dashed into the office while I was sorting out the cat's breakfast because I'd forgotten to put the barricade back up.  When I went to "inspect" his current mischief he has a cat pompom toy in his mouth and was very pleased with himself. Can't wait for the doggy door to arrive and be installed. Hopefully the post will come this week as we now have to put his inside bed up in the mornings or he drags it through the house or outside.
He is getting much better at knowing our routines on weekdays. he knows I disappear in the mornings and no longer stands waiting and whining at the door for me to reappear. As soon as he hears the front door go in the afternoon  he knows it's me and is standing waiting for me as I open the door into the family room. He's much more compliant about morning nap times and at coming in after his middle of the night toilet break.  yippee.  No more standing outside trying to  find him in the dark and get him to come. He and the cat  have not yet reached tolerate stage.  He tends to want to bounce at the cat which she of course doesn't like at all. But they more frequently lie on the floor about 1 m apart either side of one of us when we are in the kitchen without a carry on. There is hope.


 On the house front.
A small amount of pavers have been ordered  and delivered for the alfresco area and the front verandah and path.  If these seem to be ok we will be ordering enough to do all the paving areas. The pavers are 2nds and discontinued but I have been informed there are plenty available at the moment so as soon as we know they aren't too much a problem to lay we'll order more. Not sure when w e'll get  to lay them but they are a bargain price not to be repeated so it's a case of buy while we can.
 There's a lot of time juggling going on at the moment. The weather has finally improved enough to get into the garden and do some work on the massive amount of weeds  that have appeared.  G spent yesterday whipper snipping the weeds on 1/2 the verge and all the weeds out the front around the driveway area. Remember we are on a corner 3/4 of an acre block so this was no small area.

I'm not keen for his to  do the same in the front garden. Too much risk the plants we want to keep will be damaged. I think it will be a matter of weeding while puppy sleeps as  they are so bad I need to use a shovel/large weeding fork on some of the larger ones and I can't do this with puppy around.
Pup does enjoy tearing off with any hand weeded weeds, giving them a few bites then returning for a new weed.

We had a bobtail visit the garden yesterday. Luckily G spotted it from the kitchen right near the wire fencing that divides the back from the front before the dog did.  I was able to go out and push it through the fencing.  I gave it some banana that had been left too long for us to eat. We then let the dog out so he could look at it.  What a carry on.  I ended up taking the bobtail into a neighbouring block along with the banana treat.