Mowing the orchard

On his last visit, Dad discovered the orchard grass had gotten out of control again. Because of the risk in attracting snakes - plus the fire danger - Dad spent a while mowing it.

Here's some photos... It's good to compare it to the photos from when Dave last mowed, as you can see that now the fruit trees have leaves. :-)

Before


After

The red caboose sees some action

Dad spent some time working up at Amherst last week. One of the things he was doing was installing new water tanks.

To make a flat base for them, he needed to get some dirt... and so the little red caboose trailer saw some action!




Then, da-da... back at the block, the red caboose does its magic tipping trick, sparing Dad from having to shovel it all out. :-)



Pretty cool, hey!

Talbot Tourism gets a jingle

Talbot is the little town closest to Amherst. One of the things I do in my spare time is look after the Talbot Tourism website.

For fun, when I heard about the LoveJingles project, I decided to order one for Talbot. And today was the day it happened!



Basically this talented guy called Love (yes, that really seems to be his name) writes and performs jingles for anyone and anything - within reason. He's doing 1 per day, starting on 1st January. The price goes up by $1 per day. Luckily I was an early bird in ordering. So today, January 29th, Talbot got its jingle for $29. For what he delivered it's an absolute bargain...

UPDATE: There's now an even better version of the video, which includes photos of the town. It's a bit cheesy but hey, it makes you smile. :-)

questions about lead paint

This is the third and last in a short series of posts, where I get my questions about painting answered.

Q3. How do you know if you have lead paint, and if so, how should you deal with it?
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Nick Keigher's answer

Although you can be fairly sure on older houses that lead based paints may have been used at some stage in their life, to be really sure you are dealing with lead paint you can buy what is called a Lead Testing Kit.

Your local hardware store should stock Lead Testing Kits for a reasonable price. I just quoted a kit from Solver Paints here in Brisbane for around $23.50. To administer the test, just follow the directions on the pack.

If the paint you're going to be removing is lead based, I would definitely recommend putting plastic sheeting underneath the area where you intend to strip to minimise any contamination in the soil below. When you're done wrap up the plastic and tape it up (so bits and pieces don't fall out on the way to the garbage tip) and dispose of it safely.

If possible I don’t recommending any grinding of lead based paints. (I think by this he means sanding or scraping. Hmmm... that is exactly what I have been doing - oops!)

Instead use paint stripper.. it melts the paint and you just have to scrape it away which makes the job a lot easier and faster. You will need to wear all the safety equipment for paint stripper though - safety goggles, plastic gloves and even a long sleeved shirt to make sure you don't get any on your skin.

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Nick Keigher runs Keigher Painting & Decorating, servicing the Brisbane Metro and surrounding areas.

can you paint in all temperatures?

This is the second in a short series of posts, where I get my questions about painting answered.

Q2. Are there any special considerations that you need to take into account when painting in really hot or cold temperatures?
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Nick Keigher's answer

Pretty much the whole range of exterior paints these days are designed to withstand the harshest of climates. From the searing desert sun, to the below freezing desert nights.

Obviously though, the paint that is exposed to the sun more will obviously deteriorate faster than the paint in the colder climate.

When it comes to applying the paint to the substrate you have to look at the conditions you are applying it in.

You can apply the paint in 40 plus heat in direct sunlight but believe me it's extremely difficult, and dries literally as soon as it hits the wall making it next to impossible to achieve that smooth fresh look you're searching for.

On the other extreme, I know a painter that lives in New Zealand and he literally can’t paint for three months of the year because it is either too damp, or just too cold and the paint won’t dry in these really low temperatures.

The ideal temperature for applying paint is 18 – 30 degrees Celsius (64 - 86 Fahrenheit). The painting preparation, regardless of the temperature outside, is the same as anywhere else and a far as determining factors, that's going to affect the quality of your paint work more than anything else.
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Nick Keigher runs Keigher Painting & Decorating, servicing the Brisbane Metro and surrounding areas.

Best methods for stripping paint from detailed moulding

This is the first in a short series of posts, where I get my questions about painting answered.

It all started 'cos I got an email from a Brisbane painting service who said they'd be interested in guest posting. At first I was a bit worried it might be an advertorial. But then we came up with the idea of doing it as a Q&A.

Win-win all round I think, as it means I get my painting-related questions answered for free, by someone who seems to really know their stuff.

So without further ado, let's kick it off.

Q1. What are the best methods for stripping detailed moulding?
We have some quite fiddly bits that need stripping on our house - eg:

So far we have been simply scratching and sandpapering it off, but it is pretty tedious work. Any tips for making it easier?
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Nick Keigher's answer

Unfortunately, there is no super easy way to strip detailed moulding. As you mentioned, one way is to scrape and sandpaper it off, but this is very time consuming.

I would definitely steer away from the heat gun, all it takes is one leaf behind a weatherboard or sheeting to ignite and there goes your house. I have heard of a couple of painters who have lost entire Queenslanders due to heat guns.

One way I would recommend to make the job easier is trying paint stripper and buying a new scraper to scrape the melted paint off afterwards.

You will need to wear all the safety equipment for paint stripper though - safety goggles, plastic gloves and even a long sleeved shirt to make sure you don't get any on your skin.

Just a word of warning if you choose the paint stripper route - follow the direction on the can. It might seem simple, but a lot of people don’t or quickly skip through them. The instructions can vary brand to brand.

As for the front of the house with the old stone block looking effect, you can use the same method as shown above for removing the paint from the grooves. Go to your local hardware and get a blade that will fit inside the grooves (Bunnings usually have a fairly wide variety).

When the paint stripper melts the paint you just have to scrape it away which makes the job a lot easier and faster.
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Nick Keigher runs Keigher Painting & Decorating, servicing the Brisbane Metro and surrounding areas.

daily weather during 2009

So it's a few days later than usual, but I finally got round to doing my now-traditional weather review.

Here's what it was like in 2009 for Maryborough (nearest weather station to us) according to the Bureau of Meteorology:

To start, here's a graph of the maximum & minimum temperatures reached each day, in celsius:


Click graph to see it full size

The hottest it got was 45.4 on 7th February 2009 - over 4 degrees hotter than the 2008maximum. The coldest was -2.8 on 8th August. This is around about the time that Dave and my Dad were working up there, no wonder they were freezing!

Next, let's look at the all important rainfall. This graph shows it plotted cumulatively:



It was looking on track to be a pretty bad year for rain, until November when it absolutely bucketed down. Over 100mm in a single month!

Overall, in the historical context it ended up being a pretty average year for rain.

Dad's planned work

Dad is taking a breather from working on his own place to do some more up at ours. Below is what he plans, very exciting!

Email from Dad 3rd Jan:

Once more my attention is turned towards your project and I just want to sketch again for you my priorities for progressing. A lot of time and effort has been devoted to getting started there, and the time to stand and deliver completed stages of this project has come. On all the RDO days I plan to work on the project in the near future.

At present this is my list of jobs to tackle:

• I will need to put concrete stumps under the dry toilet because I found it infested with white ant when I went there on New Year's day to deliver the tandem with a huge load of things from my shed that will be used by you. Either I save it now or we will have to scrap it in the near future. I am surprised it has lasted so long before getting white ant.

• Then I will complete the framing of the veranda begun. I will get the roof over that side and cover the floorjoists with secondhand corro sheets.

• Then I will tackle the painting and repair of the weatherboards of the front facade so I can move the scaffold.

• Then I will complete framing of the veranda and roofing it.

• All that will take time, but possibly if the dam comes down enough this summer I will make the access ramp and complete the "lake house".