After the excitement of the power outage yesterday, it was a bit of a comedown to get it back and running nicely before bedtime. Still, it is always better when things are working than when they are not. It was another stinking hot day forecast so I dashed down to Hobart at 7 this morning in the hopes of getting home in the cool, before the real heat began. Cat Prescription diet running out was the only motivating factor. But while down there I decided to pick up another piece of moulding in the hope i can get the front door weatherproofed before the weather turns, and some groceries at Bridgewater as the IGA does not always stock all that is good and cheap. That stop also included a short diversion into Shiploads, which I have to say is a lot easier to find your way around than Chicken Feed ever was. They had some lovely variegated double jonquil bulbs which I felt compelled to leave behind, but I picked up one or two items that had been on the 'must get one of these days' list, then home, in the face of stultifying heat and unrelenting sunshine. This afternoon, of course, it has cooled off nicely - isn't that always the way....

Sewing today so a good time had with the girls in town. Then home via the IGA to collect a pre-cooked chook, which turned out to be an excellent idea as they have turned the electricity off to all parts north of Hobart. There is a bushfire which is under the main cables, so they turned it off for the fire fighters. Meantime, there is no telling when it comes back on. The good news is that the fire is in the Meehan Range, so several fire brigades territories converge on it, and it is also an area which the local louts set fire to with monotonous regularity (I know this as I used to volunteer with the Mt Rumney Brigade). So it is probably about the only place in Tassie that has little if any brash to burn, but it also has some fairly inaccessible bits. I had my heart set on a ceasar salad, so took a jug back into town to get some water from a friend so I could boil some eggs. Strangely, she had about a dozen boiled eggs sitting cooling, so they came home along with sufficient water to wash out my bowl once i am done. While there, she announced the power was back on. I am glad I did not take any notice, as it is still off here... sigh. So, a quiet and an early night tonight by the looks of things...

today started out a nice sunny day - that sort of smear of yellow-saffron along the boundaries of a deep blue sky to herald the dawn. Lovely stuff. By 8 it was such a thick fog I couldn't see the back fence. The tip, unfortunately did not open till 1 this afternoon, so I spent the morning on a training call or two and then returned home to prepare myself for the onslaught of activity. The first trip went fine, as did the next two. But on my way back from the second one, my right arm went into spasm as I reached the intersection and so I was forced to head into town. The Weis bar at the Roxy was just too appealing for words. The temperature around these parts tends to build slowly, with the maximum often only revealing itself at around 6 pm. Today it started to warm up seriously around 1:45, hence the decision to call it quits after three loads. Here's one of the loads - limited for safety reasons as the back tray is down. The thing on the right is a row of nesting boxes that Desi had perched on some drums on the other side of the shed .... You'll note that I managed to find the one spot of shade on the block to park the ute in while loading. The next lot of lumber to go to the tip (which has yet to be loaded) is rather smaller. So perhaps I can justify the delay in getting it there by saying I can add more stuff to it to make the trip worth while ...? And on closer examination it seems that the floor of the shed may, at one stage, have had an attempt at a concrete slab (very thin, unevenly applied) which I will need to break up and add to the rest of the masonry load.For those among us who are neither clear of vision or archaeologically trained, what you are looking at here is as follows. The bare patch in the foreground was where the drums sat which supported the nesting row which was in the back of the ute. To the right of that you will see a patch of shadow which is where a water bucket was embedded in the ground and subsequently removed without back-filling the hole. Above this little lot you will (if you peer closely) spot a double row of bricks and other such stuff and then the concrete floor to which I have referred. After that chaos reigns. But much of that timber is hopefully recoverable (though may not withstand close scrutiny. So pulling the shed down appears to have been the easy bit ... sigh.

The problem with making so much progress in one day is that you are all fired up to get on with the job the next day but are inhibited by the weird pattern of opening hours that the local tip operates to. So I got the ute laden with as much scrap metal as possible so I can launch myself at the tip tomorrow when it opens, and spent a few more hours stablising stuff that might blow away if the wind picks up, and re-locating the half-a-tank that used to lean against the now-demolished shed, so it leans against the smaller chicken shed (now the tool shed until better accommodation is possible. This involved manoeuvrings it into position and then driving some star pickets in either side of it to prevent it bowling off down the paddock the next time the wind picks up. Now that has been done, the rusted out section (which is on the 'ground' side) has been bridged by a section of weldmesh and I have begun winding the longer scraps of fencing wire into narrower tubes so I can store them here until the chicken shed has been built and any other things that will require small-mesh wire in shorter lengths). So tomorrow's plan is to dart off to the tip the instant it opens, dump the scrap metal, come back for consecutive loads of 'tins of kitchen fat', scrap wood, masonry bits of no particular usefulness and anything else I can think of, and get it all done before it gets too hot to move. Today was overcast, which is the Tasmanian weather gods' way of telling you you will fry if you dare to go outside. So once the second layer of sunscreen was past its use-by date I retreated indoors and have read for the afternoon, when not studying my sales technique and other such fun literature or dashing into town to top up the dog's food supply.

Some of you may remember this shed, which originally housed several feet thickness of chicken poo, a rats nest of lumps of wood and a few forty four gallon drums (as well as sundry mice). In the years since I arrived it has slowly disintegrated, aided by the amount of moisture that accumulated around the back wall each winter and the various degrees of vegetation that have engulfed it. The row of drums on the roof has, however, been a major stumbling block to getting rid of it as I have not been able to climb on the roof (too decrepit) or get at them (too much stuff in the way) and have been worried that if they were dislodged they might slide down the roof and destroy the fence (which, given the charms of my neighbour just didn't bear thinking about. I have considered various strategies, including re-building the thing from the inside out, all to no avail and finally conceded defeat and decided to demolish it. Problem was, by now it had reached such a state of apparent fragility that it was clearly not a one-person job. So I put an ad on freecycle and my helpers arrived today and yay, there is no longer a shed (well, actually there is, but it is now in two dimensions, not three. Of course my delightful neighbour supervised the activities from the comforts of a deck chair until we got to the point of pulling what remained over. Then she came down and stood with hands on hips waiting for it to fall on the fence so she could have a go. She was disappointed. And of course any thought of offering assistance with a well-placed 4x2 from her side was out of the question. So now the view from the kitchen window looks like this: The shed collapsed sideways toward the compost heap with the result I now have the entire roof sitting there. I was planning to pull it apart and take stuff away and store stuff etc for future use, but you know ... it strikes me it is the ideal place to store the piles of corrugated iron and spare lumber that litter the yard as it is a raised, defined platform with a surface that will drain freely. So that is probably what I will do. Here is my team of willing slaves who helped with the project. They are KJ - whose advice and anchoring capabilities were invaluable - she stabilised the building for us as we removed the cladding. Lisa, whose efforts were outstanding and who kept me going every time i suggested a break, and Ron who came along for the ride as he is on holidays from Queensland. He was, however, very helpful at removing those dratty drums for us before we started. One trip to the tip was all I had energy for, so the rest will happen in stages methinks.

I didn't get to the tip because i remembered I was supposed to be going to see the doctor to get the results of the blood tests. It seems I am robustly healthy with a good layer of good cholesterol lurking around to fend off any danger of following my cousin to an early grave. Oddly though, my iron levels are low. Hopefully the supplements I am now taking (which contain iron) will do the job to remedy that. A lovely sunny autumn day (precursor to a belated onset of summer according to the forecast) started off sunny here, but foggy in at Oatlands. Glad I did not have to head down the highway as it looked rather murky. The preparations for shed demolition were limited to purchasing lunch ingredients and tidying up the house to resemble a home. And then I off and sprayed vast swathes of the yard with roundup to get the mallow back under control once more. Ferretted out the jemmy bar and a couple of hammers, pliers, screwdrivers and other demolition impedimenta and now I am ready to heat up the lasagne left over from last night for dinner. Surprisingly tasty I have to say, given the unpromising ingredients. Oh, ,and yes, I have the hard hat on standby for immediate use once we get started.

Well, loaded the ute with scrap metal for the tip this morning and unloaded it en route to collect the box of stuff I received from Herbalife today. This has shampoos (for showing to the local hairdresser who may be interested in stocking it in the salon), and two different flavour shakes (since someone is sure to ask me what they taste like and it would be good to know), and some more sample stuff. I figure if I set up a stall at the local market I can give taste tests and such like and take names of interested people (or better still, get them to enter a competition with a view to winning a something - while at the same time agreeing to go on the mailing list), and so home once more. Decided to use the meat mincer which I bought ages ago but have not used due to being missing in action for such a length of time. My recipe called for chicken mince and I only had chicken breast meat, so minced that, then got carried away and minced the celery, mushrooms, leek, garlic and any other recipe ingredient I could lay my hands to. Forgot to mince the onion, so I guess I have to chop that up the usual way. Today was the first day of Autumn, so the weather gods decided to usher it in with a morning temperature of 1.1. Fortunately I had checked the forecast and wrapped the tomatoes in frost cloth. Even more fortunately, no frost arrived, though a very heavy dew was had. The prune plum appears to be laden with fruit, now it has coloured up and I can see it. None ripe just yet (how do you tell if they are ripe if they are suppose to taste sour anyway??), and they are still very hard, but will clearly require close monitoring from now on. The tree has shot up (probably due to all that goose poo where I had planted it) and is twice the size of any of the other fruit trees. It will do with a fairly firm pruning this winter methinks, as will the almond. But the rest of the trees will really only require a bit of trimming and shaping this winter. So excited as my helpers are arriving this Sunday (we gave up on last Sunday due to weather and other commitments) and I will finally get that shed demolished. Most of the clearing up I have been doing has been preparatory to that work, to ensure there are fewer hazards about to cause injury. Having the roof fall on an unsuspecting helper is my main concern (other than sending the shed down over the fence into her-nextdoor's yard). So, tomorrow morning another load to the tip and then let the fun begin. Tonight it is a mushroom and chicken lasagne with zucchini substituting for the pasta.