Day 92 Woodford Friday 7th September 2012

Good Evening folks,

A funny day today. We toodled down to the house this morning, Susan painted the window architraves and I finished the stairs and nailed up some verandah fence boards and door jambs.

Irene and Des left after lunch for a short holiday. It is strange being at a Helpx where the hosts leave. We weren't all alone, Ron was still here and had a look at the screw gun that died in my hands this morning. Verdict worn out! Sort of like me. Irene and Des celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this month.
The thing we will take away from here is the "can do" attitude they bring to the tasks at hand. Something we need to embrace a bit more.

After goodbyes and some goofing off we set to packing up. We finished just after dark and left the swag set up next to the trailer.
After showers we headed to the Woodford Hotel which was fairly crowded. The second main course for $5 probably had something to do with this. While we were imbibing a strange increase in the noise level. It was ...... RAIN! .....heavy thundery rain for about 10 minutes. Oh did I mention we had washing on the line. Did  I mention that I left the corner flap of the swag turned up! Of course the rain was not mentioned in the forecast. After we had finished our drinks, steaks, wine and desserts we returned home. The skies were of course clear with stars. I am looking at my disassembled pillow as I type hoping it will have dried somewhat before I rest my head on it. When we were setting the swag up I wanted to place it so we could protect it with the car awning from the dew. Susan poo pooed this idea saying the fatal words there won't be a dew. Technically there wasn't and the car would not have been there when it rained anyway.
Anyway I am sure it will all be dry by 8am.

Irene and Des and a couple of ruffians

Today's sunset as the sun sets on this HelpX

This has been a good helpx and another place we would return to to check on progress. I better get to bed I need my serene mood tomorrow to deal with finding a park with the trailer in Brisbane in the morning whils tavoiding the toll roads.

night folks

Simon.

Day 91 Woodford Thursday 6th September 2012

Evening folks,

It is actually a bit warmer this evening after another cool dewy night last night.

Today Susan continued with her bathroom tiling and I finished the stairs (well almost). I made an error with the side rails on the steps. I don't know if you can pick it from the pictures. It is to do with their parallelism and was caused by the location of the uprights with respect to the step treads. Fortunately it's not too bad although is in the margin of a couple of centimetres.

I fitted the step treads and the rails for the steps.

Wall tiles! Design by Irene and Susan

After lunch we went with Des out to the back blocks of Woodford for a walk across a farmers paddock up to a hill top for a great view. Des was born in the old Woodford hospital so is a true local. He is able to point out many local snippets of information. A lot of it to do with who lived where and did what. He knows the area well so made for an entertaining outing.

Satin Ash

and closer

The view, click for the big picture

Irene and Des are going for a break for a few days leaving tomorrow after lunch. We will have tea in the pub. At this stage we will be packing before we go to tea and having a swag night. Another moderate dew this morning so we will pack our canvas way nice and dry tomorrow afternoon. Especially seeing as we need to move off sharpish on Saturday.

A strong wind has sprung up so I am off to hide under the covers.

night folks
Simon

Day 90 Woodford Wednesday 5th September 2012

Evening folks,
A bit of a groundhog day today. Not that we are complaining. Susan continued up the wall with her tiling around the bath. Susan can cut these tiles in the tile cutter since they are of lighter construction. I continued on the steps. The last upright was fitted and i started putting the rails on. The rails are of planed hardwood so I decided I better sand the top rail to reduce the splinter size. I think I will get kicked out of the wood artisans association if anybody saw me using a belt sander with 40 grit. It is quick though!

After an extended lunch break Susan returned to the tiling while I washed the car. It was covered in dust from the driveway. I shall now drive at very low speed until we leave.
I made the mistake of trying to open my Lindt chocolate the one with the little cubes filled with liquid. It had melted and most of it ended up on my shirt. A quick trip to town to replace was unsuccessful since it is now off special. However strawberries were 42c for 250grams in Woolies so I bought several to share for tea.

Today's laugh was when Des asked Irene to taste his hot drink tonight because he thought that the powdered milk in the hot chocolate had gone off. Turns out he had made it with gravox! Susan asked how much he had drunk. He replied it was almost finished. Reminds me of a similar story at The Guv when they sprinkled the dessert with sodium bicarb instead of icing sugar and one person had eaten 3/4 already and not noticed

That's your lot for today. I neglected picture taking so you will have to make do with some taken by our recent NZ helpxers Nikki and Hannah.

A better view of the perspective of the mud hole

Some wild manes there!

Speaking of wild hair and shaggy beards

View of the dusty road that dirties the car

Hannah and Nikki at the front gate. House under construction in the back ground

night folks

Simon

Day 89 Woodford Tuesday 4th September 2012

Yawns and says good evening,

Today was like one of those old good old work days, when you hit the ground running and within 20 miutes you are in the treacle. We made so little progress this morning that we both put some hours in this afternoon.
Ii was building the rails to go on the steps I put together the other week and Susan was tiling the bathroom walls. both jobs were at the plan and start stage. Just like a normal job really. Even Des admitted that he had done a slow job today as well.
Susan was also still suffering from her gastric distress which didn't make her day any easier

Other than that not much to report we (i.e. Susan) is firming our schedule up for when we leave on Saturday. Saturday - Brisbane and Gold Coast, Sunday - Gulmarrad, NSW, Monday - Bellingen, NSW for our next HelpX.

Blue claw! alias yabby

Pulling the trap from the evaporating ox-bow lake. It only just covers the trap in the middle. The depression fills when the river floods .

Night folks

Simon

Day 88 Woodford Monday 3rd September 2012

Evening folks,

Once again I am sitting here with my jumper on and Mr Blankey wrapped around my legs. The clear skies are producing some unseasonally cold weather. Roma had it's coldest September night on record last night (circa -3). The previous record was set the night before.

Mercifully the days are sunny and warming up this week. This will be helpful since if there is no dew Friday night we will be able to pack the camper up first thing Saturday morning. If it does look like a dew then we pack up Friday afternoon and swag it.

Workwise today. I salvaged a piece of gyrock and patched a missing section in one room 91*72cm. I got in Susan's way for a while during the grouting. My main task was putting in extra fasteners and tightening those already installed on the back steps to make them less wobbly. It was successful to a degree. However the length of the span with the bottom tread rails only being fixed at the top and the bottom means there is always going to be some flexure. I have a bit more to do on them tomorrow. Susan grouted for most of the day i.e. after lunch as well. She finished most of it with just a small bead to be done. I tripped into town this afternoon to post letters. I also took the opportunity to purchase hot drinks.

Purple swamp hen

Tropical lilly in the dam

Freshly opened Lilly

On my return I donned my rubber gloves and emptied the fish bait out of the yabby trap. It has been there for a week and was rank. The nets are set out in the sun to dry and "freshen up" before we pack on Friday. The river water is definitely getting clearer by the day and also a bit lower. I am tempted to have an evening of fishing just to see what happens after dark. Just need a warmish night!

Susan has been afflicted with a gastric ailment and is rushing to the toilet. We may have to reverse our normal sleeping positions so she can exit quickly in the night. Hopefully she will be better by morning.

That's all for now.

Cheers Simon

Day 87 Woodford Sunday 2nd September 2012

Hi folks,

A quiet day for our day off. We were disturbed in the night by Batty one of the cats here running across our roof. How do we know it was Batty? Because he wormed his way through the ajar fly and hopped up on the bed with us at 0 dark hundred hours. I was elected to hop out and show him the door.

We pottered this morning before heading into Woodford. We had a good stroll around the town with the highlight probably being the antique shop. Although memorabilia shop would have been closer to the mark. Some interesting stuff.

Today's mystery pictures

Pretty easy really answer below

From there we proceeded to the fish and chip shop and had some big pieces of reef fish and chips.

It was then up the road to Caboulture which was larger than anticipated. They have a new Masters Hardware store so I drove in to have a look. Susan was suddenly over come by fatigue and elected to snooze in the car while I ventured inside. I was impressed. Returning to the car I awakened the sleeper and we departed Caboulture which did not seem to offer any reason to return, apart from the hardware shop! We headed back towards Woodford but took the Mount Mee road up to the lookout. Impressive views of the Glasshouse range and the plains although somewhat obscured by the haze from the frenzied burning off that is taking place.

View from Mount Mee lookout

On our way home we had a coffee at Woodford and that was about the day.

Night folks

Simon

PS The pictures are leaf patterns from fallen tree debris on the canvas roof. Very arty

Mount Mee lookout (apologies for the traffic noise)

Day 86 Woodford Saturday 1st September 2012

Evening all,
Big day of toil for the old people today. Mainly tiling, Susan laying and me cutting. I also filled and painted the cover strips under the verandah, cut and removed the excess fibreboard on the floor and installed fibreboard in the bathroom doorway. Susan's piece de resistance was the "crazy"  paving in the bottom of the pantry. This involved a lot of cutting! All the tiles bar the odd one are glued in now and grouting starts on Monday.

Nikki has sanded a lot of plaster this week!

Susan has a laid a lot of tiles this week

Showing my best view.  Removing the excess fibroboard

Crazy paving in the pantry. No that is not  blood on the ground!

All these offcuts were from the crazy paving. I did a lot of cutting!!

Tiles around the bath. Spacers are fibroboard offcuts

Nikki and Hannah left today to return to the Gold Coast and hence to NZ in a week or so. Nikki is a HelpX host so another opportunity or us if we ever get over there. They have been good team players and we have enjoyed their company.

Chuckle of the day was a hoax HelpX email Irene sent us asking us to come to their property ASAP.

That's all for today folks. Apart to add that the first day of spring produced another clear sunny day after a cool night.

Good night

Simon