A bit of a day of false starts today. Firstly the drystone walling. Got there, but no-one in sight. So called around to Eleanor's and apparently it was all off. So we exchanged preserves (apricot and ginger jam, apricot chutney from me, raspberry jam and red currant jelly from her) and gossip and she mentioned that there was a dig starting at the old Gaol site in town. So I called in there and various archaeologists were standing around clutching plans and kicking dirt to one side and working out a datum point and so forth, but they were apparently self-sufficient so I left them to it. On the way back to the car was waylaid by the plasterers who want to come and look at their handiwork and tried to imply that all that weatherboarding must be the cause of the cracks, so I put them straight but agreed to them calling by one day after work and set off home.

Once home I cut a bit more wood up for the fire (which was lit this morning and has been chugging away at low speed all day) and had another look at the place the cupboard used to be and a fiddle around with that. I think I have worked out a way forward that does not involve un-doing work later on, but the bits of wood required are under the plastic out in the yard and the various rain showers deterred any attempt to remove them and bring them in where they might be useful.

So I decided to do my English tax return, which absolutely MUST be filed today, but when I opened the letter from HMRC that I received last week and fondly assumed was the activation code I was waiting for, it turned out to be a reminder to file the return by today and not a second later pending all manner of dire consequences. So I guess I will be phoning England tonight for an activation code so I can get it sorted. At least I have managed to find all the relevant statements and so forth, and so have transcribed all the info into an excel table for ease of access and calculation.

Meanwhile, the internet signal has been even more erratic than usual so I may yet need to drive into Oatlands tonight to get the darn thing sorted out. Sigh.

Then having yet again failed to do anything useful, I went into town once more and called into the home of the chap who was supposed to be sorting out the drystone walling and had a chat to him. He is a difficult person to have a conversation with as he tends to get distracted into other lines of though halfway through a sentence, so it was sort of subject a, to subject b to subject c, to subject a, to subject d, to subject a to ... and so on. Anyway, it turns out that they need to collect the stone, store it somewhere secure, then get a digger to excavate the footings and perhaps remove some more soil from the heap that we will be retaining with the wall and so forth, and the diggers are all in use at the archaeological excavation or elsewhere an the stone lifters are out of action and there are no trailers strong enough to move more than a few stones at a time and .... it may be some time before we get going. Patience, I have discovered, is a virtue ....

Today was supposed to be 26 with very high fire danger. Well we got the strong winds, but they arrived in the morning before the heat did and had died down by the time the heat arrived, which did not last too long anyway and disappeared behind ominous clouds that failed to deliver. So a fair bit of non-weather today.

The neighbour headed out early this morning while I was still watering the garden, so I whipped back to the house, and got out the Round-up and gave all the regrowth in the undesirable areas another hit with the stuff. Then back to watering for a bit longer.

Since I was mucking around with hoses I decided it was a good chance to give the dog his bath which, because of the heat, he actually enjoyed. He had a lovely time rolling around on the dry grass to get rid of the excess water then lay in the sun while it lasted to get dry.

While he was doing that I started pulling apart that cupboard beside the fireplace. Very simple construction so it came apart in the various component pieces I wanted it to. Then got out the sander and had a go at removing the various splashes of thick white paint that Desi left behind and decided to keep going to remove the varnish as well. With the new stain it looks great even if it only one top-rail done so far. The rest will have to wait while i sleep on it as I need to ensure that I remove any bits that will get in the way when I build the bookshelves, but also avoid leaving gaping holes in the wall where the cats can get into the insulation. Since I am probably going to be drystone walling tomorrow that will not happen soon, but that gives me all the more thinking time.

My muscles are still quite sore from the various building activities with Wayne, so hopefully tomorrow will sort them out (one way or another).

Clean sheets, clean dog and clean pjs for bed tonight - won't that be nice!

It was one of those days where it starts of chilly and gets better as it goes along. But by 11am I had cracked and lit the fire. As a consequence, I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen, escaping the heat from the cast iron - oh well. At least the time spent in the kitchen was productive with eleven fancy jars of apricot chutney and two larger ones of apricot puree (which i suspect is a mistake, as I forgot to add sugar, so once again, they will have to be consumed fairly soon).

I also fitted in a trip to the tip to get rid of the various detritus of the last few days activities as well as the various off-cuts of treated timber that seem to accumulate despite me rarely using it (they use it as supports for the timber that gets delivered, and so I have also been using it for that purpose).

And two loads of washing done. So I guess it was not quite as relaxed a day as I had in mind, but not all that productive either. I suspect tomorrow will be spent getting the house in order also - it needs vacuuming badly. It needed that before I used the tablesaw in the loungeroom and forgot to shut the doors, so you can imagine what it looks like now!!

The site supervisor, the project manager and the architect held a number of meetings today. They seem concerned the project is moving along too quickly and that they will need to seek employment across the road at Alison's place. Little do they realise how much more work is required to get things done. The architect (Smidgen) only called in occasionally, but went over the road several times to scope Alison's place and to view progress at mine. He seems fairly street smart and will stop crossing the road when he hears a car coming, even from some distance away, which is always a good thing.

We did, however, manage to finish the weatherboards, despite all these stop-work meetings and Wayne got away rather later than he planned. We re-sorted the lumber stack before he left. It has been morphing out of shape with all the various deliveries and so forth, and so is back to its neat dimensions now.

The acoustics in the place are somewhat different to what they were, and I will need to re-learn where outside noises are coming from as that has all changed too.

I have given the hedge an hour's soaking today but the garden is looking fine and seems to be coping with this mini-heat-wave well.

And now i am planning to have a nice lazy evening as I am knackered from all the sun today. Which is odd as this morning I was in a jumper and beanie and flanny and various other layers trying desperately to keep warm while passing levels and making notes on bits of wood as Wayne took measurements for the trickier cuts. Now I am in a sleeveless shift enjoying the solidity of the house.

we're all getting a bit weary at this stage of the piece as you can see from the site supervisor, who has concluded that keeping one ear cocked is all that he can cope with in terms of supervision.

Nevertheless, progress has been made and we are at the tricky bit of matching up levels at the tops of windows and doors. We decided to call it a day and none too soon as galeforce winds and rain struck shortly after we had packed up for the night. And from the south to boot, so I imagine some of it ended up inside the wall Oh well...



Wayne had hoped to finish by tonight as he has a deadline to meet elsewhere, but we still have a bit of work to do. Those extra jobs may have to wait till March when he is free to return.

The weather gods bunged on a spectacularly lovely day today - which was only appropriate, given it was Australia Day. No idea what the top was, but then it was probably not all that high. Still, the sunshine was gorgeous after yesterday's gloom (which you can see in the photo, taken yesterday evening).

We did not make quite as much progress as Wayne hoped, but we do have two layers of weatherboards on, and all the architraves looks schmick and the door now has an architrave too!

Barbara and the kids came up for lunch and cooked us a really top notch barbecue lunch which was consumed with gusto, then I whipped out the failed pavlova with lashings of cream, banana and passionfruit for a birthday surprise for Wayne. We were still eating when Wayne's friends also arrived and had a bit of a look around, so it was quite a social day all up.

This also explains the lack of progress, to some extent. I will take another pic tomorrow as I suspect by then we will have all the weatherboards in position so the place will look like a real house once more.

The geese were running around their yard in an agitated manner this evening. Took me a while to work out what their problem was - they were chasing off the dozens of sparrows that were stealing the grain I had put out for them.

And the bees were going to town in the neighbour's flowering gum - having a lovely time. I may yet get to spin some honey before winter if they keep working that hard.

There is a lot of coming and going into the weak hive also, so hopefully they are raising the brood cells, and not simply robbing it out. We will have to wait and see I guess.

All went according to plan today at least. Wayne arrived as I was putting the finishing touches to the window sill and got to work removing weatherboards. They are all off now and the insulation is in, with the sisalation over the top and the flashing down the bottom so we should be set if there is any wind or rain tonight. I also sprayed bondcrete (diluted) over the backs of the plaster as this is the wall that seems to be experiencing most of the cracks. It was interesting to note that they are cracking along the seam line between the old base coat and the new base coat so perhaps it is that, which is causing the problem, rather than the house moving around. Oh well, I will get onto it once the weatherboards are in place and we can see where we are going.

New architraves will be going on the window and the doorway so it will look respectable - especially if the sill is replaced as we go which is the plan. Then hopefully half the weatherboards will go on tomorrow too. But given it is Australia Day and Barbara is planning a visit (she intends to cook us lunch) then it will all be a bit of a rush I suspect. If we get the architraves sorted by lunchtime, we can see how we go in the afternoon.

I had the table saw out for the sill so also trimmed down the shelf and doors for the cupboard in the alcove. I will need some iron-on trim to finish off the rough edges, then they can go on too and I will be able to fit the door handles as well. That will be good as the preserves are presently in full light which can not be good for them.

Pot roast tonight for dinner and that should be ready to eat soon (I hope - I am starving!!)

Today did not go at all as planned. It started off raining, so I pottered around indoors clearing up the kitchen counters which had disappeared under various tools and so forth and moving stuff into permanent homes, doing dishes that emerged from under the tools and that sort of thing. While i was about that I noticed that the apricots I had bought last Friday with a view to jamming over the weekend were getting a little past their best, so decided I really should do something about that - 10 kg of apricots all at once would not be good for the chooks digestion.

Was looking up recipes when the gardening chap called in for his money, which was duly paid. But as it was raining, and he was at leisure, so the speak, he stayed for a chat. For quite some time. In the end I made a cuppa and we sat down and chatted even longer.

Finally shovelled him out the door and decided that, since it was now lunchtime, I might as well pop into Oatlands for some more sugar, onions etc for preserving purposes and got home and got stuck in.

There are still an awful lot of apricots left but so far I have apricot and ginger conserve (labelled), Apricot jam and three bottles of apricots bottled (at least I think they are, I am not sure i cooked them for long enough, so will probably have to use them fairly quickly).



The fancy jars and fancy labels are for the market, the rest are for me. There is a jar of Apricot and Ginger conserve for me as well, but that is already on the shelf, along with the brandied cherries.

The photo also reveals my secret shame - yes, when I talk about mash for dinner, I mean Deb ... shame, shame ...

I discovered that having a fancy jam pan does not stop your apricot jam from catching if you stop stirring it (which I did while making up labels for the conserve) so the contents had to be transferred to a stock pot and a few charred bits picked out before the jam could be finished off. That is why there is none in the fancy jars. From the bits I have licked off spoons and scraped out of pans though, it still tastes fabulous, so I will be kept happy for at least a month with apricot jam of my own.

Was just putting the last lid on the last jar when the bee man came to have a look at the hives and we spent a happy hour or so pulling the hives apart to see what I have.

The weaker hive is, as I suspected, queenless. So we transferred some brood comb into it, and some honey to encourage the bees to make a new queen for themselves. We have also moved it alongside the active hive so that bees get confused and go into either. What we found in there was no brood comb whatsoever, an empty queen cell, lots of frames with drawn wax and a bit of pollen stock, but no honey at all.

The second hive was rather more encouraging. It had lots of honey, and a fair bit of brood comb as well. Some of this has been moved into the other hive, and we added two more boxes to the top of it (taken from the weak hive to give them more of a sense of enclosure and stop them wearing themselves out wandering haplessly around all that space).

So, a bit disappointing, but hopefully all is not lost. And if it is, then I can hope that the active hive swarms somewhere in my yard next spring and I can then transfer the new swarm into the dead hive if it fails to prosper.

It was rather tempting to see if I could take out a few combs of the capped honey, but we decided to leave it, see if the two extra boxes are filled and if so, to take them off for spinning, leaving the rest of the honey to help them over-winter.

As it turns out it is a good thing i didn't throw out the first pav as it was the only one that worked. Right recipe - wrong mixmaster. The second attempt, using way less sugar, I accidentally turned the oven up too high and the smell of singing pav hit the room ten minutes later. The third one, still with less sugar was sort of marshmallowy when I turned off the oven at 9:30 but was crisp on the outside by morning (just). The fourth attempt did not whip up at all well, so ended up being poured into a cake slice tin and cooked for a relatively short period which meant it could come out of the oven before I left to go down to the dog trials at 9 this morning. That one I rolled up with cream and passionfruit (canned) and pretended was a marshmallow roll. The first one I decorated liberally with strawberries and chinese gooseberries to disguise its flaws and apparently they all went down well.

While whipping the cream for the fillings, the mixmaster started emitting dark smoke, so it ended up in the bath outside in some water to stop it bursting into flames (couldn't find anywhere else I could leave it safely. So I guess I need a new mixmaster. This one came supplied with dough hooks, so it is a good thing I didn't try to use it on something that heavy if cream was more than it could cope with ... Oh well, it was old and has rattled around the world with me for some years, so I guess it had to go sometime.

Turns out this was the last dog trial to be held at Parattah. It was a very poor showing (though with floods and such, a lot of the regulars were busy elsewhere) and the younger competitors apparently favour another venue at Lower Marshes. Kind of the end of an era for Parattah. It was our last regular event for using the recreation grounds. This was the prize presentation at the end of the day, so you can see there were not too many people competing ... A few more out of shot, but not many. Our facilities here are pretty ordinary and I suspect the newer competitors, and the youngbloods want something fancier and more sophisticated than what we have to offer here - sad to see it happen though.

After all that excitement I was pretty tired when I came back home, but then I remembered I still had some cherries to brandy. So they are all in their respective bottles and there are two bottles of syrup left over - apparently it is good stirred into icecream and so forth, so I kept it and will use it accordingly (when I have room for some icecream in the freezer). Eight bottles all up, two for domestic use and six for gifts or selling on.

Then I was just getting round to making up some sandwiches for dinner (having had a huge lunch on left-overs from the dog-trial) when the son of the former owner called in with his son for a looksee and to see if the caravan was still on offer. I have promised to call him when I finally get the floor clean and all the bits and pieces back in their proper places.

So am planning an early night tonight, and it is fairly chilly still, so hopefully will sleep better than last night when it started off excessively warm, and turned blooming freezing overnight.

We came awfully close to a frost this morning with three degrees and some suspiciously crisp dew on the ground when I went out at five to let the dog have a pee. Fortunately not a real frost or I would have lost my tomatoes. Hopefully it will be a little warmer tonight, though, apparently not much warmer. The air today also had a distinct autumnal chill which is quite wrong for this time of year. And some rather lovely mists crawling along the ground.

I got busy fairly early today, with the geese and chooks fed by 6:30, some weeds pulled in the garden and 2 kg of cherries pitted, ready to make brandied cherries when I returned from the dog trials. They are now sitting in a sugar syrup, weighed down and waiting for the next stage in the recipe which will happen tomorrow night.

The dog trials today were pretty quiet. Some regular competitors were at a dog auction which had the poor taste to coincide with the trials, and others were isolated by the flooding they have had up north. Still, those who were there had a good day - it was the beginners classes today, so not too many sheep got yarded, but the dogs had a good time I guess.

Catering was fairly full on - spent the day making sandwiches, washing up, clearing tables - just like being back at Uni really. And I rashly volunteered to make two pavlovas for tomorrows lunch. What's that? I hear you say... Yes, there is another day of trialling tomorrow. Who knew ... And I am helping with the catering tomorrow too. After all, I am 20 years younger than most of the catering crew and if they can do it, so can I (she said, gasping with exhaustion ...).

So the first pav is in the oven, but it is a complete disaster as I forgot my recipe and added far too much sugar. I am tempted to pull it out and put another one in right away, but it is holding its shape so I will see what it looks like in an hour's time. I thought I could pop the second one in the oven tonight, then turn off the oven to let it cool overnight, but since it seems i am probably now going to be making three, I may have to whack another in the oven in the morning, then leave it cooling while we do morning tea and come back for it when we need it. Bother.

Meanwhile, Eleanor was supposed to be calling out to drop off some veges, which she duly did, but found a note on my door telling her where I was and called down to the recreation grounds. She insisted on driving me up to the house which, by the time we got to her car, then walked from the car to the back of the house involved rather more walking than popping over the back fence and wandering up the lane. Oh well. So I now have a fridge full of veges - most of which will end up in the stew I will also need to put on tomorrow night.

Who said life in the country was quiet? They were clearly wrong. If it were not for pavlova duty, I would be heading to bed fairly quick smart, but suspect I will be up till about ten waiting for the second one to cook so I can turn off the oven. Or maybe I will try to work out how to get the oven to turn itself off - I am fairly sure it has a timing function on it somewhere ... so wish me luck!

It was quite soggy this morning so I decided to go to town to sort out a few lingering things. So I returned the electrical items I now do not require, bought some grocery supplies and some chook food and headed home once more, calling into a farm to get some fresh apricots, cherries and more apricots (of the jam variety). The cherries will be processed into some brandy I happen to have to hand, and any left over will be cooked for use as filling in a cherry danish or three. The apricots will be jammed, eaten or bottled, depending on my mood.

Came back feeling quite chuffed at getting so much done and dusted, then checked the letterbox where another notice had arrived for a registered mail item. Popped into town to collect another letter from Rita which, once I struggled through the heretofores and 'yours of the xth insts' seems to say she has agreed to pay for and construct the lower section of fencing, separately from the paling fence which I will commence as soon as the fencing contractor is available. I have written back confirming my understanding that the fence will be constructed using new materials etc, just for clarification of the detail (you never know how things will be done unless the detail is specified).

So that is that - and a good thing too. It will be lovely to be able to step out the back door without worrying about looming menaces, and to walk down the side boundary between the house and the fence, or the container and the fence, and not feel the need to be constantly alert to possible verbal assaults or worse.

The chooks have given up laying as a broody has taken over the nest. Irritating, but I have rather too many eggs as it is. I was planning to get rid of a fair few of these by baking for the dog trials. But it seems they are tomorrow, not Wednesday, so I guess I won't be baking then... I will, however, clean up the kitchen in case.

So I now have a nice rolled roast to make a pot roast for next week's dinners and will put some time into that as well. Eleanor is planning to call out tomorrow with some fresh veges from her garden. Will send her an email tonight to let her know I am dog trialling, and will leave a note on the back door in case she misses the email. Good thing it is only over the back fence.

Oh, and while I was at the tip I also approached about another dry-stone walling exercise which sounds like fun. It will be down by the lake so probably an ideal time of year to be doing it (assuming summer ever arrives).

Aurora turned up today, which astonished me as I had forgotten to call them. I was down the back hacking at the undergrowth with the mower, but their vehicle pulled up shortly after I stopped it to give it some more fuel, so when I heard a ladder clanging on the side of the house I went to investigate. Lovely lads. Sadly they have still left the cable and the fuse box on the front wall ... apparently Steven has to come back and sort that lot out, but they have phoned him, so I expect he will drop in soon.

Huge progress was made wrestling the yard under control. The chap I had been expecting at 8 turned up at 10, but brought an off-sider and together they removed all the timber from down the side of the house, stacked it neatly alongside the lane and also shifted all the rocks that had been moved down the south side when the lean-to was pulled down. I had them stack these on the back terrace as I will be using them to build up the retaining wall for said terrace and now they are nice and handy.

They both worked hard for three hours and by the end of that time, between the three of us (me wielding my own mower and whipper-snipper) had reduced all the long growth on the rubbly bit, removed all the various bits of timber that were lurking in the undergrowth and stacked it neatly, and trimmed around the edges of most of the stuff where the mower can not go. Still a fair bit to do, but it is noticeable progress, and hopefully the rampant growth will not continue to be a problem at least over the next month or so.

The vege patch seems to be pottering along nicely as this pic shows - I even have some tomatoes growing apace (the fruit, not just the plants!!)

They left and I was just putting some bread together for lunch when Graham arrived with - the bees!!! They are now settling into their new home down the back. I decided to put them on the concrete slab that will now never accommodate a shed, at least while I have miss complainer next door. There are two hives. One was very light, and I suspect half the swarm blew out en route as several of the boxes were off-centre and had gaps all over. This swarm is very passive and showed very little interest in the whole move. The second hive was rather heavier and full to the brim with some very cranky bees. We positioned the hives carefully (though I notice the passive swarm has one box off skew - will deal with that tonight), unplugged the entrances and stepped away.

The cranky swarm seethed out the entrance and took off on a mission. Poor Shadow was stung, then was silly enough to stand there biting the sting while several more bees decided to take chunks out of him. Finally convinced him to move away and put him in the house, but I doubt he will go too close to the hives in future.

The active hive has a bit of rot in the broodbox, so they have given me a second one, which I will use to replace it. The rotted one can be cut down to become a half-super or an ideal (depending on how far the rot has advanced) so is not a dead loss. There are also a couple of spare half-supers with frames, but the frames need a fair bit of cleaning up before I can mount foundation in them, so hopefully will not be required for Monday's operations (see below).

On Monday, between baking for the dog trials, Graham promises me he will call in and we can give the hives a going over. The cranky bees should be feeling a little happier by then. Basically we will be removing some brood frames from the active hive and putting them in the quieter one, replacing the brood box, possibly robbing a few combs from one to give to the other (or to spin for honey) and so forth. All terribly exciting stuff!!

It was another day at quilting today - back to work tomorrow. Hopefully the yard-clearing guy will be here, though perhaps not. I will also need to call Aurora as their ten working days are up on Friday and they have yet to put in an appearance.

Jean only called into quilting briefly today to off-load a basket of books and folders of crafty things. One was a little book of cross-stitch patterns that I snaffled for myself. It includes patterns for some of those lovely 'botanical drawing' style cross-stitches that I have always admired and would love to do some time. Today I finished off the kangaroo, added some grass tussocks, and did the french knots below the crocodile as well as infilling more background colours and finishing off the last of the mid-blue ripples on the left hand side. But still a long way to go. The bunch of grapes is not actually printed on the fabric, I guess i have to ad-lib it using french knots for texture.

No sewing next week due to other commitments, and I am missing our annual road trip to Launceston which is a pity - it is a fun day out and we ransack several quilting shops in our path. But maybe next year I can go.

Made more progress on the tapestry thingy so have take a photo to let you see how far I have yet to go .......... it is taking forever!

Quilting today and I made some progress on the tapestry once more. This time, the kangaroo and the ground it is standing on. Plus a few of the leaves of the Sturt Desert Peas and more background filling. I find occasional spots where there is no number designated to the block of colour which is annoying. So at present I have worked all the way around the one in question in the hope that a suitable colour will suggest itself. No luck so far, so will have to get the magnifying glass out and see if the lid of the box gives me a clue. It has a colour illustration of the completed tapestry, but it is very small, and so is this particular block of missing colour.

Last night was quite cool so I lit the fire and boiled the kettle for some tea. There was a bit of a crisis as I realised I had either run out of teabags or I have put them in a 'safe place' in all the re-arranging and can not find them. But I did find my tea pot and some leaf tea (Russian Caravan) which, combined with the fire made for a very pleasant evening drink.

Then, it being cool, I managed to sleep all the way through till 8 this morning so it was a bit of rush getting organised to go out. But I am home now, the chooks are fed and the dog has had a run around and the cats are in, so I am planning on heating up some of last night's stew (beef and mushroom) to have with some mash.

Today was supposed to bring the nice man who would help me clear up down the side boundary (remove some lumber and stones and generally whippersnip down the outrageously long growth) so at 8 this morning (his scheduled time of arrival) I was up and dressed and breakfasted but he did not arrive. So I set about mowing some of the grass myself (the stuff that is mower-accessible) but by 9 he was still not there so I gave him a call. Seems he had had a domestic crisis (child rushed to hospital) so my job had gone clean out of his head. Since the weather was less than committed to being dry we agreed to re-schedule to Thursday or Friday which freed me up to go to town.

Now the trip to town was becoming fairly critical as the cord to the laptop had frayed and split and some of the wires were broken so I not only had intermittent signal, I also had intermittent battery re-charge. There is only so much stress you can cope with so a new cord was definitely required! I plotted a suitable route and so was able to call into Bunnings on the Brooker and collect some stain and some filler and some water-based exterior primer (I had been using oil-based but the rain had got into it and so it is cactus). Then I planned to go to the knife-sharpening place as I remembered I had the knives in the glovebox. En route to there I spotted Medhursts in Burnett Street and remembered that someone had said it was a must-see shop. Couldn't remember why, but pulled into a handy parking spot and wandered in to have a look.

They were right! Foodie heaven in there - every food preparation, cooking, serving, you name it item you can imagine. I considered myself very restrained to leave with only a potato masher (of the manual variety) and a mouli food processor. While checking these items out I was drooling over some stunning japanese knives (70 layers of beaten steel, rippling water-marked - oh my!!! and commented on them to the person serving me. From there we went onto my knives in the glove box and he recommended I not go to the place I had planned to go to, but to another knife sharpener in Moonah. Again, Tasmaniacs, if you have knives that you adore, this is definitely the place to take them.

My Furi EastWest blade, which had lost its tip many years ago when I foolishly tried to prise apart two pieces of frozen meat now has a tip once more. It also has a finely polished, newly formed edge to replace the frayed and chipped apology for an edge that was there before. And my Zwillinger Chefs Knife is now bright and shiny new as well. And sharp!! I reckon they would cut the wind. I have been playing with them while preparing tonight's dinner (a beef and mushroom stew) and have now lovingly washed and dried them and placed them carefully into a timber cutlery tray - one to each compartment. One of these days i will get round to making them a proper drawer insert with a space for each blade, but in the mean time, this is the best I can manage.

Before I headed north once more I continued into Hobart and picked up the cable which seems to be working well. Then home to try out the new stain. This time i found a Cabot stain called Colonial Baltic. Unfortunately it comes pre-mixed with the varnish which makes applying it that much trickier, but it seems to work much better, colour-wise. It will be better still when it is not applied with a Chicken-Feed five for three dollars paintbrush.

So to the photos - the first is the top of the cabinet showing the mahogany stain I tried yesterday. It also shows the top of the cupboard door. That will be replacing the boards I am presently trying stains out on, in case you were wondering what I was thinking. It also shows a bit of paper shoved up into one of the cracks of the cabinet, which is for a brand of pin - Pressed and framed it will be rather nice in the sewing room I think.

The next photo shows today's purchase alongside. A better result i think you will agree. To be fair to the mahogany it does not have a varnish on top, but it is still too red by far. The new stuff requires three coats, according to the lable, but i think I will restrict it to one coat with a top coat of varnish as the medium it is in is a satin finish and it kind of needs to be more glossy to match the rest.

Today was the third sunday of the month, and therefore Farmer's Market day. Of course, I had completely forgotten this so had nothing available to sell, but i popped in to see the person whose stall I sometimes share to let her know and was roped into helping set up large marquees to house said stall.

Once that was done I returned home and did some mowing (basically just around the house as the neighbour was hard at work in her back yard and I really did not feel in the mood to deal with that). Then retreated indoors to file my English Tax Return. Problem was, that i discovered I have to log in to obtain a user ID and password which will then be confirmed by mail. Not sure whether this means I have to wait for the letter to be able to do the deal or whether it is simply a formality. Anyway, it was discouraging, so I stopped dealing with that and got out the sander to have a go at the top of the cabinet in the loungeroom. This will be reused as the top of the woodbox (at least its frame will be) so I decided to sand back the bits of wood on it to see if the stain I bought the other day was the right colour for doing the unstained timber from the shelf, that I plan to use as the front of the woodbox. It wasn't. It is far too red - almost burgundy, and so not terribly much use at all. The actual panelling does look quite reddish, but when compared with the English Mahogany stain, it becomes apparent that it is actually a brownish gold. So I will need to have another go at getting an appropriate stain. But I suspect the 'old baltic' stain will be too yellow. So maybe a combination of the old baltic, the wenge and the mahogany will get a result...

Anyway that was really just messing around and I really should have been wheeling out the tablesaw to make the window sill. But i didn't. Instead I invested some time trying to work out what the neighbour is doing in her back yard.

While up on the scaffolding las week, I noticed what looked like the beginning of a large pond. But today she installed three hoops of pipe such as you use for building a greenhouse. Right over the top of the hole forming a tunnel that faces directly toward my kitcen window. Then she dug out more depth to the 'pond' and has now knocked off. Goodness knows what it will be once it is finished, as I can not imagine why you might want to roof over a pond - all very confusing. Once a second tank is in position, any views into my kitchen window will be obliterated, which will be good. In the mean time I guess I will have to wait and see what she is doing.

And on the other side of me I noticed that their horses have been noticeably absent for some days now. All a bit of a mystery there too. Will have to go to quilting this week to find out what is going on - the suspense is killing me!

Last evening, after all the gloom, the sky cleared and bright sunshine flooded the land. The same today - 25 degrees and then some. It was amazing how it lifted the spirits.

I started to mow the lawn. Well, I set out with that intention. But the spring that holds the throttle in position gave up the ghost and so the mower made a quick trip into town instead.

On my return I got out all the remaining jam jars and soaked off labels, discarded lids, washed bottles and generally got them organised for storage in their new home. I also discovered that my other set of plates does fit the plate rack, so put them into their new home also.

Esther is clearly feeling rather better and so set about trying to get under the house once again. But she seems to have finally worked out that this is no longer an option and so took herself off hunting. Brought in a sparrow - clever girl.

On my way into town I spotted a lovely spotted tabby kitten that had been hit by a car (or so it seemed) near the turn off to the tip. I thought 'how sad' and 'it must have been feral as there are no houses around here' and drove on. On my way home, I spotted another kitten, also dead. But this one was half-way out of a supermarket plastic bag... Clearly someone decided to dispose of a litter. I don't understand why people still do this sort of barbaric thing when a quick trip to Hobart would have put them in the cat's home and given them a chance at life. And a quick trip to the vet would prevent their mother from producing more unwanted litters.

Anyway, more cupboards sorted, the cupboard beside the fire place investigated for careful demolition and the worn cover strip beside it removed so I can gain access to vacuum down behind the panelling.

The australorp is definitely broody. She has kidnapped the second pot-egg from the other nest and is guarding both of them with much enthusiasm.

The mower is fixed, and has new blades so hopefully attacking the new growth will be more successful when I have a bash at it tomorrow.

Esther indulged in some payback last night in a state of post-anaesthetic mania. She was bouncing off the walls for much of the night, bringing down stuff and generally making a racket. Both Smidgen and Shadow did their best to ignore her antics, but it did not make for a restful night. So it was 7 before I emerged this morning, to face anothe day of rain.

I promised you a photo of the side wall, so here it is. Wayne knocked the boards back onto the front of the house loosely to avoid any damage to the back of the plaster if the wind shifted with the rain. But so far it has been north-east to northerly winds behind it. Only 8.2 mm in the gauge this morning, but i expect there will be a bit more today as the rain seems to be a bit heavier. Of course, this may simply be due to the winds driving it, but we shall see.

So a slow and steady day of progress in terms of sorting out kitchen cupboards. The one in the alcove has been cleared of all rubbish, recipe books, light fittings, plastic bags and whatever else accumulated in it before it had a counter-top on it, and is now cleaned out to contain the jam jars and makings on the lower shelf, and the plastic containers on the top shelf.

A rabbit stew sent wonderful odours through the place while I worked and will be dinner tonight. The rest will be parcelled up into frozen dinners for future use. Tomorrow it will be a beef stew on the oven top which will ultimately also have dumplings in it.

The rainy weather is not cold - in fact it is downright warm at present. But it does make you feel the need for casseroles for some atavistic reason.

A bit of a long day here today. Firstly it dawned rainy and soggy and Wayne drew the line at doing any outdoor work (and who can blame him). So I left him to his own devices while i took Esther down to the vet (eastern Shore Vet Hospital) where a traumatically dislocated jaw was the diagnosis and she had to stay to have an anaesthetic and closer examination. So home I drove to discover that the rain had cleared.

We were able to finish off the weatherboards on the side of the house and so I now have one more weatherproof wall. Only one to go and all should be snug and insulated (well, except the roof). I would take a photo, but after two return trips to Hobart, and recovering moggy and a dog who had been left behind on both trips, I felt it was all too much effort.

While I was in Hobart the first time, Wayne got on and installed the second door latch, so I now have two doors, each with a handle and the one into the bathroom locks as well!! That, in combination with the weatherboards has resulted in a lovely cosy house this evening despite the howling winds and looming clouds and general gloom.

Shadow is doing an impression of a negative dalmation as he seems to have laid down in the paint splashes and now has a spotty belly. Esther is purring up a storm, relieved to be home (it turned out to be a loose canine, not a dislocated jaw, so I am still solvent, though her tooth removal cost more than mine did) and Smidgen has decided to go to bed already (and i will be close behind him).

I will aim for a lazy day tomorrow if possible, though around here things may change without notice (as you will have observed). Will try to get some photos as well. Then Saturday will have to get the mower out once more as the little rain we had (8mm) has been enough to give the grass further ambitions for world domination.

I passed a train at Colebrook on my way home the second time, and so was rather more than usually cautious at each of the two level crossing on the back road. I need not have bothered. The train finally went past me here 40 minutes after I got home. I see why they don't bother with passenger services if that is all the speed they can attain.

Rain stopped play after three hours this morning. The dog was complaining about being required to supervise under these conditions and kept standing at the door to Wayne's van looking hopeful that someone might open it and let him inside. So we retreated indoors and now i have two doors (one even has a handle on it!) and a plate rack in position. Discovered the reason no-one wanted the plate rack is that modern plates are a lot deeper in profile than oldfashioned ones and so do not fit in between the dowels. But that's OK as I only have cheap crockery (the box of 20 pieces stuff) so will just keep an eye out in second hand shops for attractive older plates to fill it up and for daily use. The others can, incrementally become redundant as the new collection accumulates. In the mean time, the coffee bowls are hanging off the bottom and the bread and butter plates seem to fit OK.

Esther, who had been sulking all night, was sitting out side this morning with her tongue poking out. On closer inspection she was dribbling, but the close inspection also encouraged her to flee the country and so she was not seen all day. I was worried she might have picked up some poison as it is unusual for her to be away all day, but she turned up this evening, still dribbling, but will not let me close enough to have a look. Will wait till she settles down under the soporific influence of the heater which is chugging away and keeping the whole house warm despite us only having two thirds of the side wall clad in weatherboards. The insulation and sisalation is clearly very effective. Shadow did his best to pretend he was Esther once we moved indoors, but he found it hard to fit into the cat's bed.

Jonno's trestles have been a godsend allowing easy access to the higher sections of the wall, so if the weather is kind we should have the side wall finished by lunchtime tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

We had knocked off and were clearing up when Caroline called in for a visit on her way home from Quilting (just to see if I was still alive, lol) and was duly impressed with progress. I would love to show you some photos but it is still a case of kitchen vs workshop so there is a lot of stuff stacked around making it all look a bit manky.

Tonight will see the end of the oxtail stew so I am thawing out the bunny with a view to putting it in the slow cooker tomorrow with some veges, and cider and so forth to make more stew. As more rain is forecast for tomorrow, I am not too sure how much progress we will make. If it is as dreadful as today was, then probably not much at all, and Wayne will head home with a view to returning later on this month to finish things off.

So for today we actually have a photograph. Taken from the same angle as the original pic it shows the weatherboards going into position on the side of the house. The bare wall is now covered in insulation and sisalation, and despite Wayne telling me it is my imagination, I swear that the dank chill has gone off in the lounge room.

Esther has spent much of the morning desperately trying to work out how to get under the house - she has even closely inspected the side of the concrete slab in the hopes that her favourite space might be accessible from there. She has poked and prodded with her paws and become so frustrated she even tried to get the dog to help. Poor girl. Then she curled up on the bed and sulked all afternoon. I have yet to see her emerge ...

Rain stopped play at 3 this afternoon, but as we started at 7:30 setting out levels and so forth, it was not so bad and we got a fair bit done. Tomorrow has a forecast for heavy rain, but I still had to water the veges today as there is no sign of the rain actually becoming more than a drizzle at this stage and things are drying out.

It's been a busy day today starting with priming featherboards and the stop post for the end of the weatherboards. Wayne got busy with the bottom plate while that was going on and now I have a sound bottom plate all the way along the front wall. The front wall is tied to the floor joist at the corner to stop the corner post wobbling (this will be reinforced once the weather boards are also attached and that corner will be stablised (meaning I can then, once the house settles down, repair the large crack in the new plaster in the bedroom which resulted from the movement).

Along the side wall the insulation and sisalation is in for the bottom weatherboards, but the original boards are still in place on the upper section of the wall. This is because the weather has been threatening rain all day and the forecast does not bode well for the week's work.

Amazingly enough, neither of the cats managed to get themselves shut in under the floor (a source of some concern, as they frequently go under the house hunting). Esther was most put out the next time she wandered along and tried to get in - she hunted all along the wall for access and looked very puzzled.

I will put the dog kennel under the laundry window temporarily so they have an easy escape route if they need one.

The phone rang hot today - first Jenny called. They are cleaning out the rental property they own in Colebrook and she found two nice retro vinyl chairs she thought I might like. I reluctantly declined them as I have nowhere to keep such items I have to say, especially if the container has to go.

The next call was rather more surprising. It was a courier calling to deliver the jam pan and stuff that i ordered from the UK - that was amazingly rapid turnaround as they only dispatched it on the fourth!!! Unfortunately the courier does not dispatch to Parattah and the BP does not sign for packages, so I had to make a mad dash into town to meet him and collect the package - what fun!!

The electrician also turned up to do a few more things prior to the arrival of Aurora, so that should get sorted within 10 working days of last Friday. Hopefully some time this week given the number of Aurora vehicles that drive past here daily, but I am not holding my breath.

So,pleasantly weary tonight. Wayne is decidedly impressed with the shower and the various amenities the place now has on offer and seems to rather like playing with the microwave, lol.

Shadow is, of course, exhausted from all that supervision, so I imagine we will all sleep well tonight.

Extremely late tonight - sorry ... Wayne did not arrive until after five this evening so by the time he was settled in and we had our dinner and I turned on the computer, the signal had decided to go AWOL completely. But it seems to be back now.

In the mean time I finalised the draft of the letter to my neighbour regarding the fence, and am planning to print it out in the morning for delivery to the post office.

During the day I sorted out cupboards in the kitchen to a fair extent.It is a bit of a muddle still as all the cupboards were full already so had to be emptied out shelf at a time - the right stuff put back onto the relevant shelf and the rest stowed out of the way before I could empty out the next shelf and so on. Still ... the left hand pantry cupboard is now big cooking pots on the bottom, bowls on the next shelf (amazing how many bowls I have) and so forth. The top shelf is vases and various junky bits of stuff that have no apparent use but which have sentimental value. And the right hand cupboard has foodstuffs and cooking pans, casseroles etc.

I also finally found my tiny gravy saucepan and .. ta da! the mixmaster!!! So now I can mix cakes by machine instead of hand. And make small batches of white sauce and gravy when required. Made some dumplings for the oxtail stew and so am now set up for meals while Wayne is here.

The weather forecast is not so good for the latter half of the week, so we may only manage to get the bottom plate of the front wall sorted and the side wall weatherboarded. Still, it will be progress and that's a good thing. Will also have a look at the window to see what needs to be done apart from the sill and Wayne rather hopes we can get away without removing it, which would be a good thing.

Weather was rather more tolerable today. The wind was slow for much of the day, but there were occasional gusts, quite out of nowhere that blew once and then went away - all very odd.

They forecast a hot one and it was indeed a hot one. 28 degrees!!! Fortunately by the time the wind picked up the temperature had dropped considerably and is now around 18. I say fortunately as the guy has yet to be in touch about clearing the long dry grass for me. I phoned him this morning and left a message suggesting a degree of urgency but he has not called back. If he doesn't call back by Monday I will seek alternate options.

Jonno, my lovely plumber, turned up yesterday evening with the scaffolding Wayne and I will need to access to the top of the walls. The trestle - also required - will be dropped off on Monday evening as it is presently in use. He has shown me how it all fits together (cleverly colour-coded) and the two platforms, together are big enough to waltz on (not that there will be time for that).

I spent much of the day fitting drawer fronts. They went on, but they were skew-whiff. So they came off and the holes plugged and then refitted. They are still slightly skew-whiff, but it will not be obvious once the dishwasher is in position, so I don't care really - as long as they work.

I had planned to move on from there to sorting out the kitchen cupboards (presently stuff just shoved in where it will fit so as to look like I am not occupying the space) as it seems I have to have the container moved 30 days after consruction is completed (i.e the certificate of occupancy, not finishing off plastering internally or roofing). Alternately I will have to apply for Planning permission to keep it where it is - an expense that is totally out of the question I am afraid. Jonno has expressed interest in the past in buying it off me, so will see what he reckons he can organise by way of a forklift to remove it. This will mean having to remove all the contents and find a place for them indoors which could prove challenging with the tools as well. So will need to give some considerable thought to rearranging things indoors. Removing it will free up space for the clothesline and for a new, smaller, shed which does not require planning approval, just more work for me at some distant future time.

Am sitting here in a sleeveless frock hoping the heat dissipates before bedtime or it will be 'orrible.

Will pop into town in the morning for some more supplies before Wayne's arrival so I am not having to dash into town while he is here. He is due at lunchtime, so if he gets here while I am out, at least it will be easy to back his caravan into the drive.

Right. Well I took advantage of the neighbour's absence this lunchtime to go measure the distance of the container from the boundary. It is presently 960mm from the near face of the base of the fence. Whether this represents the boundary is arguable as the fence is on a lean toward my place and there is no stable fence post anywhere i can access that might give me a more reliable mark. In my view this is as near as dammit to one metre, but then I am a reasonable person.

I have attempted to wade through the letter once more and she does not appear to have specifically agreed to the fencing, but neither has she lodged an objection. I have made various enquiries and it would seem that rabbit-proof fencing, under the Act is about four times the cost of the type of fence we currently have. Obviously this is a matter that requires a different approach. So I have been drafting and redrafting the response to her and remain unsatisfied with the letter at this point, but feel I am close to a final draft which I can post by registered mail (since that seems to be her preferred method of delivery) on Monday if Wayne gives me time off to do it. What I am trying to do is to refocus the discussion on those matters that relate to my Notice to Fence which applies solely to the paling section of the fence. The other matters she has raised are relevant only to that part of the fence that I am proposing will be her responsibility, so I am suggesting she needs to provide quotes and a notice relating to that part of the boundary so that there is a formal process established. How to do this without creating grounds for accusations of uncooperative attitudes is my challenge. What I really need is someone who is accustomed to dealing with legal matters (but not a lawyer) who can advise on wording, but I don't actually know anyone who fits that description unfortunately.

In between all of this I have been having what I assume are panic attacks - a resting pulse of 98, chest pains, a general sense of feebleness and tremors, breathlessness etc, so I attempted to see the doctor but there were no appointments available. Since that sort of thing needs to be observed, rather than described, I guess I will need to hope that next time this happens I will be lucky with an appointment.

I also contacted legal aid for advice, but the conversation wandered off into the area of restraining orders which, while attractive, are not really going to resolve anything given the local police are already on alert to any future altercations. So while the conversation was helpful in focussing my understanding of these matters I don't feel it appropriate to take the matter further unless there are further outbursts of erratic behaviour.

So - how did my day start? I woke late, having sat up stewing for much of the night and so was still in the shower when the lorry arrived with the lumber for the work Wayne and I wll be doing next week. I am not sure the truck driver has recovered yet from seeing me wrapped in a towel, but he seemed OK by the time he left, lol. He required my help offloading the longer pieces and due to the generalised weakness mentioned above I was rather less useful than normal, but we managed (I was, by this time fully clad I might add!!).

After that I spent time on the letter, and also on the phone, and then read for a while but realised this was intensifying my tension. Since it had occurred to me, during the various squirrel-in-a-wheel thoughts that were running through my head that I had forgotten to buy the damp-proof coursing we need for the work, I set off for Brighton where I picked up the required materials and an apple pie for Jonno who will be arriving later tonight with the scaffolding. I promised him a cake, but my brain is presently not up to the sort of detailed work that a cake involves, so he will be safer with a shop-bought one.

Humid and generally overcast today, we had some rain showers of the storm-drop variety, but nothing worth mentioning in terms of moistening the ground.

The new efficient electrician arrived this morning and has fixed up all the work that needed to be carried out and will be sending me his bill shortly.

He has not removed the cable from the front of the house, which is good in that it means I still have electricity throughout, but bad in that it makes access to that wall a bit tricky for Wayne. But he has reassured me that undoing the cable clips will not present a danger, so we can just remove it and work around it I guess.

While the electrician was here, I received a notification of a registered mail item which I assumed was a delayed response from the old, inefficient electrician. But in fact it turned out to be a lengthy letter in legalese from the neighbour regarding the fence.

While the tone is argumentative it does confirm she is happy to proceed with the paling fence, which is all that I need. However it also tries to shift responsibility to me for obtaining quotes for the balance of the fencing according to her revised specifications. I am presently drafting a response that thanks her for cutting down the trees, confirming agreement to the paling fence and suggests she obtain quotes for her preferred design which she can then present along with a Notice under the Act.

She also challenges the present position of the shipping container, which could be awkward. I will re-measure its position in relation to the boundary, but i am fairly sure it is one metre from it as she suggests is the requirement. I suspect she has taken her measurement from the present wire barrier that I constructed on my property to stop the dog wandering into her yard with gay abandon as was his wont when the place was vacant.

She also can not resist having a go about the chooks once more which I guess was inevitable. It will be an interesting hearing in the Tribunal if she goes for her presently preferred option which involves rabbit-proof fencing at four times the cost of my proposed fence.

It has been a surprisingly warm day today, given it started off in deep fog. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

It is indeed a treasure trove EMW, but such a large one I still have a lot of sorting to do. I washed the two good quality doona covers this morning and took them into quilting to dry on the line there (along with my sheets), but no takers for them, so they will go to the local op shop I think. They are very pretty, but a bit too pretty from my perspective. There are a couple of others in the bag, but they will be used for rags as they are very unattractive and one has been chewed my mice, by the looks of it.

I have washed all the china that came with the lot, and it is now looking rather more appealing. The enamel casserole dish also looks much better (though still room for improvement). It had lots of black marks on the exterior, most of which have come off in the wash except those in crevices and hard to get at spots. I suspect they will all come off once I get the dishwasher installed and it can be run through that. Internally, there is a bit of a stain on the base, but then, there is on the bottom of my Le Creuset pot too - I suspect from too long on a high heat rather than anything sinister.

After all the driving, shopping and lifting of furniture yesterday, and the fact I woke up at 4:30 this morning, I am feeling a little weary at present, so while I am still pottering around getting stuff into boxes and such so I can pop it in the shipping container, and looking at the caravan table and thinking I really should clear it off and fold it up so the shelves can come out of the main passageway through the kitchen ... fact of the matter is it will all wait till tomorrow as I am not long out of bed I think. And a nice clean bed to boot as I changed the sheets, changed the doona cover and will be climbing into slightly damp, clean pyjamas (must get a second pair of summer PJs, lol).

As I mentioned, I was awake very early this morning, so I rearranged the hose and watered the entire garden fairly thorougly as some of the plants were looking a little flat after the recent warmer weather. Did two loads of washing while this was going on, and organised the chicken a bit better. Last evening as I was down the back with the dog, I kept hearing cheep, cheep, cheep, thump, and on investigation discovered he was flying up to the wire in the shed. Not really a problem except if he did it on the other wall, there is a gap quite wide enough for him to escape through and into the yard at large. So I popped back up the house for the scissors and went back down to clip his wing (again) and so far, so good. I will, however, need to get that sliding bolt onto the guineapig cage so he can come out of the shed and be totally enclosed in a run even if it is quite small for what is turning into a surprisingly large bird for his age.

Tonight's excitement was Alison's dog breaking away from his leash and charging around my back yard (to Shadow's considerable distress) until he was re-caught. All's well that ends well, and he is back in custody and safe once more.

Boy did I have fun today!! I had to go to Hobart, as you recall, to collect a few things for the electrician. So I made a list. First, call into Timber Wholesale for a couple of bits of wood for the window sill and to ask him to throw on a very long piece of skirting that I need for the back wall of the kitchen, which will not fit on my ute (4 metres).

While there, I asked directions to the shop that sells lids for bottles. They gave directions but the place was no longer there. So I asked a chap at a loading bay and he gave directions to another location but could not find it there. On my way back down Sunderland Street I noticed one of those newfangled concrete areas with sheds either side that usually house lots of different small trades and such, so went exploring. I did not find the company I was looking for, but did find a place that sells lids and bottles. So I am now the proud owner of rather more lids than you would expect (but I have a lot of recycled bottles to lid up). I also bought a dozen small jars for the garlic jelly I plan to make, and a tray of hexagonal jars for the produce that goes to Market.

From there it was Burnett Street for the electrical stuff, and a chat about wind turbines (his little eyes lit up when he saw our annual average windspeeds, lol). Decided to buy a lotto ticket after that conversation. Then down to Fragments to see if they could explain how the top-light fastening goes on (I have wrestled with this problem on and off for some time, but now I know), and to get my two best kitchen knives sharpened. Unfortunately that shop was still shut and will not be open for a couple more weeks, so I now have two concealed weapons in the glovebox (but better than loose in my handbag as they were as I walked up the crowded footpaths).

Then on to Hollander Imports for some wax foundation and a bee veil - Since the bees will allegedly arrive in the not too distant future, I concluded I needed to be sure I have sufficient kit. The bees will be accompanied by some secondhand 'ideals' with frames, but no foundation or wire - hence the need for foundation).

Over the river to Eastlands where I planned to pay my Telstra and Bigpond bills, but I forgot to take them with me, and I know from past experience the staff there are less than helpful if you don't have your bill, so left and headed up Mornington Road for cat and chook food (and a new Kong for Shadow, who is currently eating his old one).

I briefly called into Cambridge Park to see if they had some tongs for lifting preserving jars out of boiling water, having failed to find any in other locations, and yes they did.

Then I went on to my Freecycle destination at Dunalley. Wow!! It has taken a good hour to unpack the ute at this end, and there is still stuff to be sorted into proper places.

First, a Singer Sewing Machine. Probably about a 1970s model with fold-out extension and a hard case. Singer 676G, I think from memory. It has heaps of spare bobbins too which is always a bonus.

Furniture-wise - a kitchen table with lino top, a desk with drawers either side and a set of shelves - rather too deep to be useful, but will be handy in the short term to replace the caravan table which I am using as a chair-side table at present). These are all that metal-legged stuff from the 1970s. The kitchen table frame will be great for making a more substantial top once I have the house to the point where I can be fitting stuff out. Also, a solid blackwood winerack with pull out shelves for the bottles. It occurred to me I can use the black wood panels from the old wardrobe I demolished ages ago, to make drawer fronts for the racks, and the 'wine rack' will then become a rather attractive piece of furniture for either the sewing room or the dining room.

There was also a stunning rectangular mirror in dark timber surround which has come off a dressing table (the 'legs to support it are also in the deal and may be useful to convert into a mantelpiece if they are wide enough for the fireplace openings). It is still in the back seat of the ute as after wrestling the table, desk and shelving into their various homes my arms were not up to manoevring it - I will deal with that tomorrow). I thought that if the 'legs' are suitable for a fireplace, then the mirror will make a fantastic piece above the mantel in the loungeroom (or possibly the bedroom??) anyway - food for thought.

Bits and pieces included a laundry bag on a stand on wheels which will be handy for the bathroom, a linen bag with a lovely tartan picnic rug, a hand-made wagga (which I have emailed to check if it was intended to throw out - I think it is far too good to be throwing away), lots of spare sheets which come in handy for cutting up into bags and for straining stuff - an electric blanket which will go straight to the tip - you name it in the way of linen - Oh,and some lovely doileys.

In the kitcheware department, a stainless steel colander with a long handle, instead of those loops on the sides they usually have, some square plates - of that style of thing that was popular in the nineties - vaguely asian? some good chunky mugs and plates that will be hand for out door dining - a pie dish of excellent quality, and so it goes on, and on ...

I LOVE Freecycle - and am constantly astonished at what people throw out. Ah well, luck for me they do I guess. Will photograph some of the stuff tomorrow but need my dinner right now as I am famished.

ETA - forgot to mention that on the way home i passed a truck load of firewood heading the other way. Further down the road, I discovered he had lost some of his load on a corner. So that came home with me too. Six nice big bits of firewood!!!

It's been a busy 24 hours around here. Wayne emailed last night to remind me to re-read his email which told me he is arriving on the 9th. Not the 14th as I had expected. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek! So I sat up late last night fretting about all the things that have to be done before he gets here, some of which can not possibly be done, and fired off an email to him alerting him to the problems. This morning I spent some time on the phone to the various other people involved and established that, regardless of when the electrician gets here, the front wall will still be 'live' because of the old fuse box which Aurora need to remove. And of course, they take up to 10 days to do that...

Also there is the little matter of the plumber who volunteered to climb under the house and sort out the floors for me... will have to work out if I can remove some of the stone footings and make a permanent door under the house for such requirements. Good thing I have not yet repointed the mortar so once I work out where I can do it, it should not be too difficult to remove some stones and insert a frame for a door ... (I hope).

He has also promised to get the scaffolding down for me Friday night which is terribly good of him. Will have to bake him a cake to take home with him as a thankyou.

While all this was going on the kids next door have been having a marvellous day inside their concrete tank baling out the bottom, presumably with a view to finally getting around to fixing the leak in it. They also appear to have finally installed some bracing on the aerial pipe that feeds it, so hopefully they will not need to import water on a fortnightly basis as a result. And Rita has been hard at work on the side of her house scraping paint and applying undercoat, so it's all go around here. Over the road Alison has been gardening madly, so perhaps in a year or two the place will start looking quite civilised.

The phonecall to the electrician reminded me why I have to go to Hobart. I knew there was something important I had to be doing down there, but had forgotten what it was - hence me deferring trips down there even though the 'would like to do' list is getting rather long. I can also pick up some more chook food while i am down there.

I have cleaned out the woodburner and given it its end of winter oiling and wire-brushing so that is looking shiny and clean, as is the electric oven as well.


But the major achievement today was hanging the door into the laundry!! Yes! I finally have an internal door in the extension. I still need to paint it before I fit the handle, but it should be ready to rock and roll shortly.

I am still trying to work out if the chicken is a boy or a girl. It is now 10 weeks old and I am still guessing. It is quite large I have to say (must take after its dad) and the breast is developing very well indeed. So its a bit of a mystery to me. What do you think?

Since i am not going to quilting tomorrow (being in Hobart instead) I had to drop off the keys to someone. Caroline was not at home, so I called in a Betty's and dropped off the keys there. Had a cuppa and a chat, and came home with a catalogue from a seed nursery called Phoenix which carries some interesting plants, as well as a big bag of sheep poo which will be distributed on the garden as soon as I work out which bit deserves it most.

And now it is time for dinner, though what I will be having is anyone's guess - am thinking boiled eggs with toasty soldiers sounds appealing ...

Another day of weeding, clearing, tip runs and such like. I also pulled the last of the parsnips and bought some pears while in town, so will be running up some pear and parsnip soup tonight.

Also pulled some garlic that has been growing on the sides of the front path (basically I bunged in all the bulbs that Eleanor gave me, and some plants, with no clear idea as to which might be an ornamental and which a vegetable, which is why the daffodils were accompanied by spinach in full leaf. Next year it will be slightly better organised as I can see what they are now, and can arrange them more thoughtfully. Things are drying out rapidly, however, so a 10 litre can of water for each of the fruit trees today.

Have been procrastinating about a trip to Hobart for some time, so am starting to make a list of things to do, places to go, so that I can get it over with in one trip. Will probably defer it till Thursday now as I suspect tomorrow is a public holiday. But will see what happens.

Last night passed surprisingly quietly with only a slight stirring (growling and a bark) from Shadow around 2am. I suspect this was the time when the various spray painting decorations were applied to the road surface.

I was sorely tempted to start up the lawnmower at 7 this morning, but decided I was being a bit of a humbug, so set to hand weeding along the side of the container. This area is where i stack things that might come in handy. Bricks, rocks, pieces of gal offcuts, star pickets, stakes, that sort of thing. The stacks start off neat, but get raided periodically so end up messy, and the plumber dumping piles of rock-filled dirt on top of this while trenching did not really help the situation. Then there were the milk bottles set aside for conversion into cloches and pots from various donors, and ... well, you get the picture. And all through this luxuriant growths of grass and weeds which were knocked down with roundup some weeks ago. So now it is once again a neat stack of various objects, sorted into type and with an area cordoned off for dumping smaller bits of brick, smaller bits of rock and concrete so that I have a readily accessible pile of fill when I need to use some. And also somewhere to put the innumerable similar bits and pieces that turn up whenever I dig a hole in the area near the house.

I even worked my way along the side of the tank to rediscover the outlet and the plumbing to the pump and such like. I think I will have to make a vow to spray this area with roundup regularly in future to avoid such overgrowth and infestation. Similarly around the rainwater tank. I will plant some pigface around that to reduce the opportunity for malign regrowth.

All along the back of the house has also received the treatment, so it is starting to get towards a state of fire-safeness, though a long way to go. Today's weather was a reminder that the fire season is close by so none too soon to get that sorted. And I am glad that Andrew is due to visit, though I will give him a call on Monday to firm up a more definite date for that to happen (this is Andrew Rotary Hoe, not Andrew Electrician).

I was rash and extravagant last night and ordered a jam pan from the UK. Here they are $237 from the Aga shop (worse in other locations that I have googled), or $289NZD from Milly's Kitchen. There I have obtained one (8.5 litre, stainless steel), plus muslin squares, a jelly draining bag and a box of labels all for £85 including postage to here. No argument from where I am standing. Naughty, but nice I reckon.