Since we left a fortnight a fortnight ago, things have moved along at many levels. 2020 is turning out to be a weird one, alright.
On the day we left, we popped past so that I could see where things had got up to. It was good to go and have a look, with a view to being back in a month (best laid plans…more on that in a moment) to spend more focused time on preparations for the inside.
The second bedroom has now been enclosed:
After we left, we headed to Bright for a week’s R&R with our kids and grandbaby, before heading home.
So, the plan was to take a week’s leave in late July and go back. That is still the plan, sort of. Except…Melbourne (where we weren’t, except for a few hours to have dinner with PJ’s family) has had an uptick in Covid-19 cases and several suburbs are now in lockdown. Travel options are a day-by-day proposition, and it’s looking quite likely that if we were to travel to Victoria, even though we wouldn’t be in Melbourne, we probably couldn’t be confident of being allowed back to NSW. (I read a news article yesterday that suggested Victorians might be smuggled over the NSW/Queensland border inside trucks. This is all very bizarre.)
This means I will continue to blog from a distance at this stage, relying on photos and updates from mum and the builders.
On the topic of builders, we are really happy with the people working on this project locally – they’re doing a great job. Not only that, but they are great to work with. Ash and PJ have frequent conversations and Ash sends through photos to keep us updated. This week, he contacted PJ to say that they had only been able to get half the deck laid before the weather changed, so they’ve taken the weathered boards back up, sanded them, and will re-lay the whole deck and prep it so that we don’t have a before-and-after look. A lacklustre tradie would presumably have just forged on and hoped it would all even up in time (with us not being there to see it). He has also tracked down some discarded timber for the shelter “wall” (not fully enclosed, but providing some protection from the southerlies as well as structural support) at one end of the deck, which will be perfect.
The other bit of news for this week is that the roof of the Dairy is now going to be replaced, because it turns out the pitched and flat sections are different materials (gal and zinc…or summat…I’m more into yarn, personally, but I get the gist). The unplanned re-roofing is not a big problem, in fact it’s good to have it picked up and dealt with.
Meanwhile, our week’s leave has been approved and the cat is booked in to his holiday accommodation, so if we can’t travel to Victoria we’ll hopefully get to spend a few days away somewhere closer, just for the change of scene. Although one of the workers at our local supermarket tested positive for The Virus a week ago, so Victorian clusters might be the least of our challenges.
To close, here’s a picture of the cat, who is untroubled by any of this.
Books and Chooks 
Wow! That’s moving along really quickly and I know you’ll really enjoy the sunsets. Here, it’s that “golden hour” of the evening, when photographers want to run out and take advantage of the warm, glowing light. (I’m not.) But sunset won’t be for another couple hours or more.
I hope that tank fills up properly! Nothing like catching rainwater to soothe a heart. Do you use it for drinking, too? Is there some kind of treatment involved to keep bugs out of it?
(I finished “Becoming” a couple of weeks ago. Wonderful book!)
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I love that golden hour. The tank isn’t connected yet, but our goal is that it will eventually be for drinking as well – we’ll probably treat it to be on the safe side though. The main aim is to be able to use it for washing and watering the veggies (when we have them). Most of what we intend to plant, garden-wise, will be indigenous to the area, so that care is a minimum. At the moment we’re having a very wet winter so we’re keen to save up some of that water while it lasts.
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