Driveway 4

In go the soil and cement footings. Half a bag of cement to 16 shovels of soil.

Towards the end of the pour it started to rain, up go the tarps...I sent Liz off to get some more cement. This is how much I had left to go. Fortunately she just got back just as I finished the last pour.

This is some of the sandy clay that is very deep in the ground.

The morning after - more rain. Notice the quality of _my_ crappy camera...

Drive Way 3

I've just formed up the first track of the second drive way. This one will be 800m wide rather than 600mm. This should make it easier to park.



I used packers sometimes to make sure the timber position is just right.

I had to make a bridge so I can actually get the concrete where it needs to be.

Instead of encounter heaps of tree roots (I just had a few), I had to remove a thin layer of concrete that was left over from the building.

Cement Driveway 2

Another day and another track in my drive way. My soil and sand mix seems to be working well. I get many questions in my unorthodox approach, but it all makes sense to me.

Full of over confidence, it was a late start and a late finish - 6:00 by the time I could do the broom finish.



I went for the full bag mix with the cement mixer. It strained and groaned and even stopped when I went to unload the mix into the wheel barrow.
Here are some pictures of the soil and cement mix - much like mortar.
I got Liz go go to Bunnings to get some ordinary cement. The frigging idiots there pointed her to Builder Cement (has fly ash for more workability), but I did not want that. I wanted a stiff mix with low slump. I really got annoyed with Bunnings poor customer service and Liz had to go back and then they gave her some cheek about what the difference is.

Cement Drive Way

9 bags of cement later and track one of the cement driveway is done.

I first layed a bed of soil and cement and then laid the "real" concrete (100mm thick with some spare steel mesh). The real concrete consisted of soil, recycled aggregate and cement. I opted for a broom finish. The reason for this bed of soil cement is because I had to excavate to about 200mm to remove a lot of decaying roots. I could have simply compacted the ground or filled it with gravel, but it was just cheaper to use soil and cement.

Being a cold day, I didn't have any issues with the concrete going off too quickly.

The ozito cement mixer is gutless, you could hear it groan as it mixed. It didn't actually stop, but I'm sure it could have easily happened. I would not recommend the cement mixer for any serious work as it really slows down under load and like all Ozito stuff, it is under powered. The last thing you want to do is have to stand around waiting for the mixer to mix properly and worry about it breaking down. But for me, it was a good buy.

I also elected to stabilize it a bit more by fixing the bottom bar of the stand to a piece of 4*2 just to make sure in no way could it fall over.

cement mixer

Just bought a cement mixer. A Bunnings Special - Ozito 4.4 cuft 370W 125L OZCM44A.

The reasons why I like this one are as follows:
1) Light enough for me to load it onto my ute by myself.
2) Seems to just take up less space then the other models.
3) Big, good for mixing compost with dirt for the garden.

I bought floor stock and I did not have to assemble it myself. However, I wondered whether I could make it even lighter by taking the drum off and this is how I did it...

1) Remove the fan casing and fan.

2) Using multigrips, stop the motor from free wheeling



3) Make up a "jig" as can see below using some timber just so you can get a grip on the bowl. The timber inside the drum is flared to grip the drum between it and the outer piece.



4) The important bit, rotate the drum off the right way. And this would be counter clockwise - just like taking a lid off a jar.

5) I took the time to grease the thread just so it will be easier to remove the drum in the future.

Stairs now open for business

Now that shakey is not here, it is safe to open the stairs. I even put in a poll for that extra bit of safety. I can send Louka to the dungeon without going out side ;).

New Letter Box

A letter box upgrade has just been completed ;) The mail holding capacity has increased to huge. The old meter box was recycled. It is like a software upgrade. On paper it looks better, but sometimes you think it was a mistake ;)

stairs finished

Ok, finally completed the stairs. They feel good, solid and not really wobbly. I can't imagine a better set give the contraints. No hand rail yet, kind of does not seem necessary.

I've kind of made provision for a hand rail, but that involved more design and effort.

Stairs - half way there

Stairs with a few steps

As you can see, three and half steps added. They feel good. Nice and solid F27 hardwood.

beginings of stair construction

Finally, the stairs are going up :)...

stair design

stair design using google $ketch

Triceratops for Louka

Rescued Native

I put this native out the front for a year and it did nothing except slowly die. I move it out the back and it instantly flowered and I have now been rewared with a cherry. It got badly sun burnt one day, but it will recover. I forgot what sort of native it is, but it does produce sweet edible fruit. Hopefully the possums and birds don't find out too soon.

A few large harmless spiders have been busy making webs. Hopefully they will kill a few mossies.

Ferry to Work

I've been planing on catching the ferry to work since day 1. I finally pumped up my bike's tyres and did it. Add about 15 minute to my trip, but worth it, so much more relaxing.

Gum blossom

Graham's mum gave each of us a plant as a house-warming gift. Mine, a lovely Eremophila nivea, died at the beginning of summer. Graham's, a eucalypt, has had buds for what seems like months, growing fatter and fatter. The biggest ones have finally opened. There are still plenty more.

Brewing Myths

I think I have brewed enough good beer to come up with some wisdom about brewing.

1) Use coopers plastic bottles to package your beer. It is impossible for them to explode. They probably will fail around the 10 bar mark (atmospheres) and yeast will stop fermenting way before that - not too sure exactly what pressure the yeast will stop working, but they do recommend you limit your commercial brew tanks to 15m (1.5bar). hmmm I feel this is right for an experiment. I've read that Co2 will freely go between disolved and bubble state at around 6 atmospheres.

2) Never rack your beer. The beer really needs to hang around after primary fermentation stops for the the yeast cells to absorb nasty bad tasting chemicals (diacetyl). Let it sit for about three days before bottling.

3) Don't boil your wort if you are using kit cans. Another waste of time - you will remove the volitiles in the hops.

stepping stones

I finally got around to putting in the stepping stones in the front garden. They were pretty heavy and made me exhausted fairly quickly... They are partially buried ~ %50 so you can get an idea of their size.



It was all too much for the trolley and one of the wheels fell apart on the first stone and that was not even the heaviest. It just kind of popped apart. I'll probably repair it somehow. I ended up using my wheel barrow for the rest - the only problem was I had to lift them, carry them a metre or so and gently plonk them in. I mostly lift with my knees so my knees feel like they are falling apart at the moment - and I have massive knees. My hands are a bit tender as well.

under siege kookaburra

Liz noticed three kookaburras hanging out the back. Maybe the are looking for juicy mice.

It was still there after it got a little darker - maybe it thinks it is an owl.

bird netting for figs

I made up a couple of frames to throw bird netting over to protect the figs from birds. I hope they work as we have some nice figs on the trees. I got the bird netting from www.pestawayaust.com.au Very quick service - arrived in a couple of days.

Bunnings could not help me :( I find them funny - despite their huge store, a few times they have look at me and made polite noises as if I was silly to think they would stock _that_ item. And these sorts of big stores complain that people are buying stuff over the internet.