scavenged finds: doors

Dad found these lovely solid-wood doors being thrown away, and rescued them from the side of the road.



Dad suggested to cut out the wood and install glass at the top, then use them as doors from the kitchen to verandah in the old house.

But I think that seems a shame, and would rather hang onto them as they are. Eg: they'd be great to use as doors from the library to the tower section, if we went back to the idea of having a big centrally open part (which I'm leaning towards doing).

Also, earlier Dad found these other somewhat shabbier door and window set, which I think he wants to use for the external side entrance to the laundry


I'm not in love with them, but they should scrub up OK. They are solid wood, which is the important thing (not plastic).

mowing the orchard

One of the tasks Dave did while back was to mow the grass in the orchard. Clearly the fence was working well to keep the sheep and kangaroos out, as although everything else was nibbled flat, this had just gone crazy.

To help with the task, Dad bought Dave an early Xmas present: a lawnmower!

Here's a short video showing what it looked like before mowing. The trees might look dead from a distance but when you get close up you can see that they've got buds on.



Here's what it looked like midway and after...

why are tractors so expensive?

So, in advance of Dave's visit, we decided to buy the posthole digger attachment for the tractor, to help in digging the stump holes.

Then Dad decided to get three differently sized augres for it (8 inch, 12 inch, 18 inch) which he said we need for different jobs.

Then when Dave got there, it turned out the tractor annoyingly was missing the bit that you needed to attach the attachment to! So we had to buy that bit as well.

And when they were in the shop they spotted a Ripper attachment supposedly going cheap, so they got that too.

I swear, this tractor is turning into a money pit. :-(

When they finally got it all connected, they couldn't resist doing some practice digging, so proceeded to dig potholes near the shed. Dave assures me he filled them in again though...

Sunrise mist

While Dave and Dad were camping out at the block, it was unfortunately pretty cold. Not a surprise given it was the middle of winter, but still not pleasant.

The only positive was that it meant Dave was able to take some lovely misty sunrise photos. This is my favourite:

Mum's update on Amherst

Dave is back in Australia now. After a few days catching up with his family in Melbourne, Mum drove him up to Amherst to work with Dad. Here's her report of the day:

I got Dave at about 6.15am and we set off to Amherst. It was VERY windy and dark and there was rain on and off – I dropped Dave at your place (Dad was there from Friday afternoon) and went to the Talbot farmers market. I went back out to the block to take stuff out and see them again but Dave was asleep. I had got him so early and I guess he had been so late.

The dam is as full as I have ever seen it, and from the top of the hill by the house it looks like the floor of the landing is only a foot or two above the surface – and it is almost up to the bottom row of reeds.

It was raining so much I had a bit of trouble getting up the hill, slipping and sliding but not daring to stop. I gave the stuff to Dad and let him go over the caravans with his four wheel drive. Everything is green and there were some puddles along the road.

Your two separate fruit / nut trees are in blossom. Did not see anything in the orchard but you have to understand it was raining so I did not go down on foot and when driving I was sliding about and not looking at trees.

trees doing well

The trees continue to thrive...

The lemongums along the driveway are beautiful. Hard to believe that only a few years ago they were the size of pencils!



The new trees that we put in last trip survived the transplant shock and have put on some growth. A big relief as it's very different for them to be in the ground vs cosseted in their pots.

The dam is full, and the damhouse is perfect

Wow, the dam is fuller than it has ever been. And the dam house (really a glorified shed) looks wonderful, like it's in the middle of a lake when viewed from the front. Just the effect I was hoping for... :-)

Here's what it looks like now:




Just to put that in context, here's what it looked like when we built it in April. The water would be lapping at your feet if you were to take that photo again today.

Green green green

Dad took some photos for us on his last visit, showing Amherst as wonderfully lush and green... Oh how I wish it was like this all the time.