Mr Bean

Slow but steady progress this week.  Cabin lining is tongue and groove pine boards horizontally.  The short pieces either side of doorways in the transverse walls are easy and I had those up to lightswitch level in no time. The longitudinal ones are 5.6metres (18.5 feet) and that didn't go so well. For a starter the sawmillers had cut them at 5.62 and I had to cut about an inch off every one of 56 planks.

A drop saw would have been useful.

Hand saw.

Then I discovered I couldn't man (or woman) handle them into place. They wobbled.  They waved. With one end attached I worked my way along to the other end only to find the first had dis-attached itself and folded out and downward.  After some fighting with that I used my brain. Balance them on something in the middle, knock one end into place, shuffle along to the other end and knock that into place then work back towards the centre. Eventually there would be a point where all tongue lined up with all groove and a few taps with a hammer and wooden dolly would have it correctly seated. Then it was just a matter of securing it with the nail gun.

Thus are the long walls up to the level of the proposed power sockets. (I'm working on a plan that all wiring drops down inside the walls from the roof space.)

Now I wait for the sparky.

A neighbour very kindly rocked up last week with his digger and trenching bucket and dug the deep trench to bury the power cable. On Sunday I tackled clearing bits of that (at bends) with a shovel and extended it by about 3 feet closer to the power source. He couldn't go there because I had to locate and avoid sewer pipes.

Other neighbours helped lift the really heavy pair of doors out of the van and into the cabin and I also dragged in 9 bales of insulation for the roof.

Just the spouting to go.

Monday: Our road is meant to be closed for 3 weeks (0800-1700) from last Monday. There is an alternative way out but it adds 20km, half of that gravel. Fortunately for me the work hadn't started when I left at 0700 nor when I returned from Blenheim about 1030. Scully came with me to collect spouting. We had to do what the sales assistant called "a Mr Bean" and open the passenger side window to poke the 4metre lengths of gutter through from the back of the van.

Scully was unimpressed. The wrapping rattled at speeds over 70km (40mph). I put the heater on high heat and top fan speed. Up to 70km the heater was in charge.  At speeds over that the cold air racing in the open window made the ride bracing. Speed limit on SH6 is 90km. 

We travelled at 80km and stopped In Havelock for hot coffee and a shared bacon and egg pie. The rest of that day was spent on a dog walk, sitting out some rain and clearing some gorse from our roadside ditch.

Tuesday - finished the cabin roof over the verandah and got the gable end covers in. That involved learning to cut roofing steel with a knife (yes really - then bend it along the cut and it breaks neatly. The difficulty is getting the cut exactly where you want it.)

Relatively small jobs take ages.

Now I want to carve a Janus  (or this) to put at the apex of the gable end.

Wednesday was meant to be spouting day but I discovered that advice I'd been given on a key component was incorrect and I need to get it changed. (Remember road closures and distance and the economics of going to town for a single item...)

Bother.

Spent the day gathering up piles of rocks I've extracted in the process of clearing weeds and tipping said rocks onto the banks of the roadside drainage ditch. There are lots of rocks. Fortunately I have more roadside ditch than most properties here.

Five feijoas that I purchased on special while at the hardware store on Monday got planted out.

The flowers will be pretty in spring. Apparently you can eat the petals.

4 chickens escaped from a property down the road and came and ate every leaf of my Chinese cabbages, chard and kale that same morning (while Scully and I were out walking) so the only veg I have left are shallots. My plans to make kimchi have been scuppered for now.

Today it's raining again. Scully turned up early as has become her custom but I refuse to walk in heavy rain while there is only a small caravan to return to so she is doing sleeping. Every time I move she bounces towards the door.  This is the dog that goes swimming in streams and the sea on freezing cold mornings. What is mild rain to her?