Forever House #31

Friday 11th October 2013
Fifty one weeks to go till the October long weekend in 2014. The count down is on now. I'm out at Currawinya alone - arriving around 3.30 this afternoon. It's hot hot hot. Although has cooled down a little by now - 7.30pm. I'm in the van by candlelight and wearing the head light (which my sister Peita left for me on one of her several visits this year) for writing by. Jeff's 'gorn fishin' with some family menfolk - so he took the camp light. I've been here with others so often of late it feels a little strange being home along in my little van. My plan is to continue mudding around the bathroom and mud room - hopefully I'll get two rows done by the time I leave on Sunday afternoon.

Not sure what these bugs are but there were squillions

When I got here today it was too hot to think of anything but a swim. But not before using the bug spray I brought out with me to disrupt the flying bugs that have made the humpy their home over the past month or so. They have definitely lessened as I sit here now - I've just had to sweep up around the van to get rid of those that have died since I sprayed. I also found one tiny dead mouse on the floor of the van as I unpacked. It had munched a good chunk of foam out of the lounge before it died - not sure if that's what killed it, or the baits I leave in the van to dissuade vermin. I sound like I'm bad with poisons - but I used to not use them and the rats moved into my van a few years ago. So I weakened, and ever since I have found the van as I left it each time I return  - which is a much better way to arrive than being greeted by yucky old rats and their stinky mess.

Cat fish rings in my swimming hole

After unpacking and sorting out the bugs and mouse, I got out the trusty Triton from the humpy. It started first time which was good because it has been a bit temperamental since it came out here to live. Currawinya Dave worked out it is the starter motor on my last trip out here. Disappointing seeing that was reconditioned just before bringing the car out in Early August. It seems the job may not have totally fixed the problem. Backing out was a bit tricky on my first effort - I thought the brakes might have been stuck, so I gave her a bit more accelerator and out she rolled, and down to the river we drove. The river level is down quite a bit, about up to my underarms at best - it is usually over my fingers when I hold them up above my head while standing on the bottom. Nonetheless, it was very refreshing and I lapped up and down before hopping out and heading back up the hill to get productive.
For whatever reason I walked around the Triton when I parked down by the Forever House... and heard the dreaded hiss of a punctured rear left tyre. Damn. I quickly got back in and drove the car back up to the humpy so that it wouldn't be stranded in the hot sun with a flat tyre. I looked in the humpy to see if the difficulty I'd had reversing was due to some sharp object and there was the culprit - a jagged piece of wood. The tyres for that car are $262 each so that's a real bugger having only replaced the four of them less than a year ago. So I got what I thought was the trusty jack out of the back of the ute and tried to get it under the car before the wheel had totally deflated - but the jack wouldn't work. Not sure what the problem is with that. In an effort to do what I could, I found the lever that releases the spare from under the car, wound it down and pulled the very dusty wheel out, hoping Dave and Gab might call by tomorrow and I can borrow his jack.

Not much more I could do there, so I got into water carting mode, carrying twelve buckets of water from down at the full tank, and filing the blue plastic forty-four gallon drum that is my water storage for mudding.
I looked in the new tank to see if any rain had gathered since putting it there two weeks ago, but nothing. We need rain in the Northern Rivers Region; it's been very dry for a while. Unusual after having what felt like continuous rain for the best part of four years. It's always drier here on this side of the Hogarth Range - which is part of the Great Dividing Range - compared to the other side on the coast where I live at Tuckurimba.                                          

Bathroom external door

In an effort to continue being productive at home over the last two weeks, I've been working on the three-panelled window that will go into the exterior door of the Forever House bathroom. I've pulled apart and cleaned up an old stained glass window that I have talked of previously - and now I am cutting that into three panels and adding some extra glass around the edges to make the panels fit the width of the door window panels.

One of three panels completed and I'm on to the 2nd and 3rd

  I wondered through the week if I could stop watching television for the year to give me the best chance of completing all the glass projects I have lined up. But of course that is a little unrealistic while we have the huge television sitting up there large as life in our loungeroom in our very small house.  I've run the idea of storing the TV past Jeff but his reaction was pretty much "nah". However, I can certainly make an effort to limit my telly watching, now that I've realised that achieving my goal to complete the Forever House by October next year is actually only fifty weeks away... and there is sooo much to do. We've just turned our clocks forward for six months or so for daylight saving. I can spend a couple of hours after work most days, chipping away at foiling and soldering. That's already having an impact. The bathroom door is progressing nicely.