Hi all,
The
weather has broken a little, but not enough to stop the earthworks at Roses
Road. We now have the garage 75% excavated (the remainder will be excavated
when we start the foundations in spring), the road realigned and the holes for
the water tanks to go into. We got a bit of a nasty shock today though as the
water tanks turned out to be $1500 each dearer than expected. Ouch. But we have
to have water, and we don't want it in plastic.
A couple
of trucks full of gravel will be rocking up there very shortly to cover the
bare clay before the rains really kick in. Phew - just got all that done before
the winter, so we are ready to kick off the build on 01 September.
Jan is
still working 12 hour days on the C Saw & Sander installation at Nelson
Pine. He is making gains, but it takes a lot of time for only one person. But
hey, it is a recession, and he has plenty of work, so that's something to be
thankful for.
We are
having a meeting with Leigh tomorrow night, to correct the errors on the plans,
and to make some changes, before they go to the council for approval. We have
just found out that the man who did the producer statement for our waste system
is no longer available; his wife has cancer and he is nursing her. What is
worse, his first wife died of cancer. Makes you count your blessings - but
leaves us in a bit of a hole over making changes to our producer statement, all
the same. We still need to put together a list of items for the solar power
supplier & get that through to them for a quote.
Janet was
down from Auckland a couple of weeks ago for a play - she, Julie T and I went
on a shopping marathon for Julie's winter work wardrobe. For FOUR hours. I
didn't buy anything, but I was exhausted! We also took all the doglets for a
tramp around the beach, and went out to dinner at Havana's Café (with Murray and
Jan!). I think Janet had a good break away :-)
Last
Friday I got a cold, so spent most of the weekend trying to sleep in bed. Jan
got busy-itis and caught up on a load of jobs that he wanted advice and
admiration for, so every time I had just gotten off to sleep, I got woken up
again. Eventually I just gave the idea of sleeping up as a bad job and got up.
However, Jan got the lights fitted in the kitchen (we have been waiting 6 &
1/2 years for that job to be ticked off the list - we have had bare bulbs dangling
by their wires in the kitchen since we moved in), and has installed a new
kitchen tap.
The new
kitchen tap is a trial for the ones in the new house. We are trying out a
cheapie Chinese one to see if it works OK, before we buy a house lot of them. The
attraction (aside from a nice design) is that they are 80% cheaper than the
European ones - and suit low pressure systems. We can't use many of the
European ones as they are generally not suitable for low pressure systems; and
the few which are, are phenomenally expensive.
This
weekend we have Brad Jackson from Auckland Uni here to stay with his wife
Jacquie - I got in touch with Brad about a book that he wrote on Leadership
which my class were using as a text, and he kindly offered to come to Nelson (at
his own expense) and give a lecture to the students. So he arrives on Friday,
stays with us & enjoys the sights for the weekend, and then leaves on
Monday avo. Jan is going to cook waffles on Saturday morning, which will
definitely show them a good time!
My folks
had a very exciting trip to the North Island on their guided provincial tour -
my mother ended up in hospital on a drip; either a gastric bug or food
poisoning. Not the way you want to spend your holiday. The amazing thing was
that she was up and about a day later and they carried on with the entire trip.
Braver than I am!
So, next
trips are still Wellington for the day on 21 May (for my provisional
accreditation interview with the Institute of Directors), then July 10-12 for
the 20 year Canterbury Uni anniversary in Hanmer, and then Wllg at the end of
September for Otto's birthday.
Right,
that's all for now. Take care & alles liebe!
Sam & Jan
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