Wednesday, November 25, 2009

25th November 2009

Back again to watch the final touches being put to the drive, and still full on action both for Mark ....


...and the local birds, still making the most of the freshly turned soil.

The two piles of dirt were easily lost on the slope, which now looks smoother than before.

And we also discovered a new use for the gorse remover - it proved very handy for extracting the mower from a tricky position.

Despite this little hiccup, we managed to mow a new section of the slope for the first time and use the cuttings to remulch all the trees. The trees are looking much better these days although one of the gums that was transplanted has since died and many of the gums have rather a lot of uninvited residents.

Monday, November 23, 2009

24th November 2009

We had missed our weekly visit for the past two weeks but that did not mean no progress was taking place. We arrived up at our new section a day early this week, just in time to check out....

the new drive. We werent sure when we arrived, it looked a bit straighter than we had expected.

but as we walked up it, it looked rather nice.

And action was certainly the word of the day, as Mark on the digger ...

and the compacter...

had the help of two trucks and their drivers and no sooner had he prepared one stretch, the next load of road metal from the local quarry arrived.

And the next truck arrived almost before he had spread it, just to keep the pressure on. At one stage, the three of them were all working at once, in their various toys.

And then there was the job of redistributing all the soil that had been scraped off, which had formed two enormous piles but was put to use modifying a steep slope.

And at the end of the day it looked rather good. Just a bit more topsoil to rearrange and a final roll for the drive required tomorrow.

The local birds seemed to relish this work and we had plovers, herons and skylarks popping in for lunch. And although it has been unseasonably cold recently, this was not snow but rain on a patch of flowering grasses.

And we have at last submitted the plans to the local council and we think we have found a builder. So yays all round.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

4th November 2009

Some more mathematics this week.... If it takes one man about 10 seconds to plant a subdivided flax plant, how long will it take him to plant the missing 23 from the vegie patch border? The answer turned out to be about three hours, as he found a gorse bush in or near almost all the intended spots.

Never mind, at least he has a tool for the job, with his own should-be-patented gorse-puller. You just expose the root...

attach the rope...

and heave ho....
simple as that!

Quite impressive tap roots though, todays winner was...

Meanwhile, the neighbours had obviously enjoyed their lunch last week and came back for some more.

And the grass around the natives clearly needed some attention...



and looked the much better for it.