It is New Year's Eve. And it is a very hot
day, with the temperature likely to peak at
~ 40º. After giving the garden some water to
try to get it through (it hasn't rained for
some weeks, either) we drove off to Bunnings
in Bendigo, 35km away. On the roof racks of
the car were 5 pieces of timber, each 4.8
metres long. (I had avoided looking at the
car's specifications; but I suspect it, a VW
Golf, is less than 4.8 metres long. I hoped
not to meet the police on the road, and find
out whether my suspicions were correct, and
fortunately I didn't.)
The timber was for the new fence; on our
setting in of the posts (8 of the 11 are in
now) we found that we  needed
longer lengths. So we went and changed them.
The longer lengths were able to be cut in
two so the drive back was much less
stressful.
So - our plan to simplify our lives is
proving to make our lives much busier, for
the moment. The boundary re-alignment
between us and Finsbury is nearly complete,
and the surveyor told us we can put a fence
up along the new boundary now. So I called
some fencing contractors - "no hope of it
being done before February!" - so we have to
do it ourselves. And that is what we are
doing. To help in the process we bought a
jackhammer on Gumtree; and I love
it! Without it, digging the post holes would
have been nearly impossible.
I put out a string line to keep the post
line straight, but found that a string line
is not necessarily very straight; we are
doing it by line of sight instead and it is
looking good. So far, the only problem has
been discovering that jackhammers are very
effective at putting holes in sewer pipes; I
accidentally went down right on top of
Finsbury's. It was done so long ago there
were no  records
of where it went; now we know. It has been
given some first aid and awaits the plumber
returning after the Christmas / New Year
break to fix it definitively.
While that is going on outside, preparations
for new flooring are going on inside. The
front three rooms have been repaired /
repainted / re-carpeted, and look so
much better - especially the front study
with the mantelpiece removed, and the
whole chimney breast painted gold. That is
done, but now we're preparing for flooring
replacement in the back of the house: this
involves moving everything out
from the kitchen / pantry / living room/
bathroom / laundry -  including
the kitchen cupboards and sink, the bathroom
basin, and both toilets. We will be living
in a degree of chaos for the next two weeks.
But after that, things should improve.
Finsbury will be put up for sale, and then
we are having a clearing auction of all the
things we've accumulated and don't really
want; many of them, though not all, dating
from buying Finsbury eight years ago.
We still have the Melbourne flat but, now we
are retired, we are usually there only one
night a week. Both to help Alison's 93 year
old mother a bit, and see our two daughters
and two grandchildren when we can.
We are hopeful about 2022. Despite the media
hype about Covid, and the new omicron
variant, it appears to me
that it is going the way of the Spanish Flu
of 1919, becoming more infectious but less
severe, and will eventually become something
like seasonal flu. I hope I'm right.
After doing a little supported walk around
Fall's Creek and Mt. Hotham in early March,
we hope to go to Queensland in April; then
to the UK (and hopefully home again) in June
/ July; and the Flinders Island in November.
And with the expected delivery of our
motorhome in July, we really will need to
have simplified our lives by then!
 
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