We are pretty well set up although there's a fair bit of work to be done before I'd say we were settled in. The annexe is on the caravan - probably took me four times as long as necessary to get the thing set up properly and then a week of minor adjustments but we're dry and warm despite the rain. I've even devised a scheme involving the fishpond pump about 20m of plastic tubing and a wire to suspend it from which will allow us to capture the rainwater from the awning and feed it into the big water tank. Heath-Robinson would have been proud of me.
Haven't installed it yet - another job for the working bee on Sunday. Cait's organised a bunch of her mates to come and spread mulch, cut up pine logs, dig holes or whatever. People are very keen to be of assistance - its wonderful.
And What About the Landrover?
It's fantastic - just what I wanted - although I'm still getting used to the truck like turning circle. Stephen warned me that it was pretty big and he was right. Things are improving though as I can now negotiate Cait's driveway without threatening the trees. I'm a very happy camper. It's already proved it's worth in helping to shift loads of mulch down to the flat which pretty much becomes awash if there's any significant rain or the fire hose polypipe feed-line from the pump is split after the Grocon guys accidentally ran over it with the excavator is and sends torrent s of water gushing down the hill without me noticing for abut 15 minutes. It was dark and I was admiring the silvery glint until I realised what it was. There's a wet lining to every silver cloud.
Anyway back to the landrover which to date remains nameless but was well worth the wait. Its very well fitted out - only took me a week to work out how to use the radio - actually about three secs after I read the manual!
Speaking of Grocon which I was a sentence or so ago, today I finally confessed to Rhonda that we'd accidentally killed Phil's enormous webber by dropping a load of roofing iron on top of it and then whacking it with the excavator bucket. I hadn't made it explicitly clear that all of the items against the retaining wall were for preservation.
I have to say that apart from the webber and part of the sleeper retaining wall which got crunched by a truck driving a bit too closely, the Grocon guys did a really good job.
Site Improvements
In addition to helping us spread mulch in strategic places and feeding us dinner on Sunday night, our friend Jan and son Charles came up during the week and erected what looks like a mini-big top circus tent that has provided much needed additional protection from the weather.
We've also acquired courtesy of Helen a large pine picnic table complete with attached seats which will be very useful when it isn't being rained on.
The Uphills mentioned that they'd been over to Stratco at Epping
and discovered that they had some sheds at nearly half-price because they were a bit marked. Well the service at Stratco leaves a lot to be desired but the shed was cheap less than half the price of the slightly larger one I got the week before from Mitre 10. I'll pick it up tomorrow and add it to the list of activities for Sunday.
Well it's 23:40 and while there's a fair bit more to say, the genny's been running for long enough and I need some sleep so it will have to wait until next time.
"Adios" - to quote a well Known PM
Hi Quentin thanks for checking out the blog. I had a bit of read of yours sound like you've got your work cut out, but are making headway. See you soon Serena.
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