Forever House #19

Sunday 30th June 2013

Wood shed of sorts - it worked - the wood dried

End of the Financial year. It'll be great if I get a tax return. I can do with all the budget I can get at the mo.
I didn' really know what I was going to do today. Decided to take that trip to Mallanganee Tip. That was a good job - to get rid of all that garbage and scrap metal. On the return trip along Paddy's Flat Rd I picked up a trailer load of damp bits of tree. Figure it will dry out and be useful at some time with all the people coming out. Keeping a pile of wood is a constant of course - especially for an outside fire. Always good to have some hardwood.

When I unloaded it I made a lean-to over the wood stack, between two trees well-placed. Maybe that will assist to keep the stack dry. I've still got a ute full of pine pallets to take out tomorrow morning. I think they'll be stacked under the eave, to be used in the 20ltr tin brazier on the front verandah.

I dropped over to see if Quan was home. It's an amazing driveway in to her place, especially after a bit of rain, as there has been. It's always a relief to find her home when you make the trek. She was working with her offsider Colin, on her long awaited covered deck. It has come a way - with a roof and railing and beautiful feature posts being sanded - a bit boat like. There's a place for a pot belly fire. It's so good to see Quan getting some stuff done to make her home more comfortable. I showed her the pics of what I have been doing over at my place. She was suitably impressed. She particularly seemed to get a kick out of my Portugal tile made with pieces I scavenged along a walk while there last October. I've asked Quan to come over and make a mosaic. It is important that everyone who has a connection to my house should make a tile. I worked out a rough calculation, using no science at all, that I will need about fourty five tiles to lay around the traffic areas of the house.

Keen mosaic-er me - my first effort

a cup?

I came home from Quan's and started fossicking in the shed with all the mosaic makings. That shed is now referred to as the mosaic studio by the way - not a whiff of rat left after sweeping and burning the kitchen cabinets that had become their disgusting nest. I couldn't wait to get started on the mosaicing, so got to smashing some of the least favourite crockery, saving some of the prettier stuff until I/we know what we are doing. And I cut out pieces of flyscreen on which to lay the designs. Before I knew it, using the camp light as darkness prevailed, I had two made; one featuring a plate and the other a cup. It seems I've started with a kitchen theme. I've got heaps of makings and Peita, my sister, is bringing more coloured tiles up on the train from the Central Coast.
As usual, out here at the Forever House, it was too much fun and I'm really looking forward to collecting a stack of tiles over this week out here. I've got a trip back to Lismore tomorrow. Lots on my agenda. Then tomorrow night,about eight thirty should see Peita and me back at the caravan and almost ensconced. Neither she nor I will have to venture out of Currawinya till Sunday arvo - a week away. Others will come and go during that time. By the end of it there will have been a lot of activity and a huge leap forward for mankind, on a small scale.