This is on my mind.......gratitude.

Looking out over my view this morning, the weather is calm, mild and gorgeous and I am thinking about the people in Queensland who have been battered by the forces of mother nature. From floods to cyclones, those people are picking up the pieces and getting on with it. It makes me realize the resilience of human beings, even though I an SO GRATEFUL not to have my resilience tested. My wishes go out to you all.

This is on my mind...... Friday

Today we are continuing work on our extension, as you can see we have just completed putting in the insulation and by the end of the day the plastering will be completed. (I hope). We will them get a bloke in to prepare the plaster for painting, (filling the gaps and making it look professional) It's another rainy day here in Tasmania after a glorious week, where I painted our very daggy deck with gorgeous metal grey paint and its come up looking a million bucks.

This post is linked to Rhonda's Whats on your mind Friday! http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/

but wait there's more.....rain that is!

Even though Tasmania has gotten out of this wet, quite reasonably unscathed, I have been thinking about those in Qld and Northern NSW who are now having to clean up after such devastating flooding and those whose families will never be complete as they have lost family members. It is heartening to know how people have come together to help out during this crisis. In fact I get emotional when I think about it.

new store

I have a new store where my handmade cards made with recycled art images can be bought.

It's called ART FOR GIVING and a link is to the right under fave links.

or check it out at http://www.madeit.com.au/bluezbandit


Thanks

What's on my mind, Friday!

I have been suffering from aches and pains in my shoulder, so thought today I would use a castor oil pack to rid my body of the toxins that are causing the problem. I have never used this before so will be eager to see how it goes. I used instructions I got from here:

http://www.shanti.com.au/cleanses/castor_oil_pack.htm#How

Hope it works!

This is on my mind, Friday

Holidays coming soon, which book will I read first?

UPDATE

Well after reading my old blog entries, I realised I have made some changes. For example, I now have no yacht, I can to the realisation that a more useful vessel for me would be a light half cabin cruiser so I can get it into the water quickly when I have the desire for fish for dinner.

Also the extension is underway: YAY! As you can see I also now have some solar panels. These are ticking away to lower our powerbill and feed back to the grid.

While I was on a holiday in Queensland in May, Roger was slaving away putting together kitchen flat packs. I am not sure that I like the wood because as you can see there is a colour variation in the cabinets. I might yet paint over them. Still deciding!
We now have a new bathroom as we have a wall of drawers and cupboards. The big mirror is one of two enormous ones that plastered the entire wall. We expected that at least one would smash when we removed them but neither did. Roger then made up a frame to go around one of the mirrors and the other is waiting till be sell it at the garage sale of the century. All we have to do in here now is some tiling and the floor covering.
I have wanted a Japanese style bedroom like I have here at home so when we needed built in robes I asked Roger to create shoji screens for the doors which he did very nicely. I just love them. They are made from translucent perspex.
Not all work has taken place inside the house, Roger has laid the slab for the extension with some help from Brian, Tom and Jason. Its 3 metres by 12 metres and will be used as a storage room and house the freezer and odds and ends.

What a gorgeous sunset that I managed to capture tonight!

To a cool summer and a warm winter!

The ceiling insulation was the next thing to happen and not before time. It was 38 degrees here New Years Eve and we both nearly expired from the intense heat beating in through the roof. Roger spent 15 hours lifting each sheet of iron and fitting in the new batts and then replacing the sisalation before replacing the iron again. But oh the difference! It was immediate.

And now inside!

Having the plumbers and electricians here, it made sense to get them to move the old Hot Water cylinder to outside the house, making way for a new shower. We also bought a new vanity and we have begun to patch up the plaster work after removing the grotty old shower and taking off the giant wall mirrors. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I dont have a picture of the slime ridden cesspool called the old shower.

Then came the driveway

While the earthmoving equipment was here for the OzziKleen we got them to put in a driveway so that the boat could be parked behind the new gates in our back yard.

Progress in the New Year

Its been a little while since I blogged so today I will fill in the missing details of the last month or so. We had to wait for the plumber to arrive to put in our new OzziKleen. It is a self contained toilet treatment plant which gives us the use of the water after its gone through the purification process. That will be most handy when we get our gardens set up.

Roger's Sandpit Toy

After the tanks were dug out, there was a mountain of dirt (well, OK a mini-mountain, anyway). Roger wanted to save his old(ish) bones and time so he hired a DINGO and had a wonderful time zooming around the backyard moving dirt. Here he is in action.





And in the evening when its time to relax we sit back and check out the wildlife. This evening we had a visit from a young Kookaburra. He has visited us before, when we were working on the gates.

Making way for the boat.

Here is the latest progress:

The time is almost here for us to be bringing out yacht down from the Tamar River, but a few things have to be done first. We'd like to be able to park it in the backyard which meant that a fence needed to be removed and a gate put in.

What next........................

We have decided to build a 3 metre extension onto the back of the house for storage purposes. When we move from a larger home to a small home I am going to need space to keep things like my sewing bits and pieces etc etc. The plans are currently in at council so hopefully we will be able to begin soon.

Out with the old..........................

The old tanks needed to be moved so that they can make room for our yacht to fit. So we rolled them out behind the remaining shed and set them up to collect our recycled water in the future.

Tanks arrive

Here they are. They hold 36,000 litres of water. Unfortunately, we received the most rain our area has experienced forever the month BEFORE the tanks went in. Bummer hey!

Water tanks....................

There were 2 old corrugated water tanks in reasonable condition but too small for our future household needs so we decided to buy 3 large poly tanks. We had to dig out for them and before the tanks arrived there was a heap of rain so we ended up with a swimming hole. We had already planted some Coffin Bay Gums along the fenceline so that they will grow behind the tanks and create some privacy as the neighbours can look right into the back yard.

Inside.......................

The windows where covered in vertical blinds and they always remind me of office buildings so they had to be replaced. I made new curtains which give the house a warm homely feel.