Let There Be Light....And Water

Gosh, lots of things have happened since my last post. 
We have been enjoying the produce from our vegie garden.  Things have been growing like mad with the warmer days but still plentiful rain.  So far, touch wood, we haven't had a huge problem with insect pests which is great as we are trying to be organic. 

Occasionally though, after gentle measures have not helped, we have a wee squirt of chemicals.  This brussels sprouts plant, however, was a lost cause even with chemicals.  The brussels sprouts plants did not fare well in this regard, we think they were planted too close together.  Isn't this a hideous sight, seething with bugs, these plants are coming out tomorrow and we'll burn them, no way am I polluting the compost heap with these critters.

This one plant however, is fabulous, covered in fat, bug-free brussels sprouts.  It's growing on the outside of the line and gets the most light, hence our theory that the others are too sheltered.  Steve will enjoy eating these anyway, I will enjoy one or two, not my favourite vegie.

Look at these flowers, aren't they pretty.  They are the flowers from a herb called borage.  Traditionally these were dipped in egg white and castor sugar and used to decorate cakes, maybe I'll dabble with that later.  I grow it as a herb that is good for the soil and is a bee magnet.  It has grown really well and will self-seed so it will be a keeper.  You can eat the leaves but they are quite spiky-hairy so I don't, but the flowers are a different matter.  My children know of my love of putting weird things into salads, nothing like some flowers or petals or fruit to liven up a salad I say! They don't have much taste, just a hint of sweetness, but the gorgeous colour is their highlight.

  

There you go, how is that for a pretty salad.  Greens include spinach, rocket, lettuce and chives, herbs include parsley, thyme and lemon balm, legumes include sugar snap peas, snow peas and broad beans, and for colour we have carrots, grated raw beetroot (that I am addicted to) and borage flowers.  Oozing vitamins I would say. :-)

 

Here's our dinner that night; pretty salad, potato salad and beer battered pike that Steve caught.  Yummitiyumyumyum!

 

We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the plumbing team this week, to do all the outside work.  This is where the septic tanks are to be installed.  But wait, what is that over there?.....

 

Peekaboo, I see you!  Cheeky roo having a surreptitious peep from below.  Is it safe?  Can I eat this particularly delicious looking grass?

Darn tootin' I can, and while I'm here I'll hop up and have a good stickybeak at this here house.  God I love kangaroos. :-)

 Anyway, the plumbing team arrived.  The hot water system went in.

 The stove was put into position and connected up.

 

 The septic tanks arrived  along with lots of big boys toys.  Big holes were dug and much sand was piled up.

 The first tank is in position.

 The second tank is lifted over the hole.

 And gently and deftly manouevred into place

 Another huge truck arrived carrying all the leach drains.  We have to have two 12 metre leach drains positioned parallel to and about 30 metres down the hill from the house.

 

Lots of trenches were dug by natty machines to connect the house to the septic tanks and to the leach drains.

 

All finished.  All holes filled in and surfaces smoothed out.  We have been waiting months for this to be done as we haven't been able to plant in lots of areas knowing it all had to be dug up.

 

Next was the return of the electrician.  While he busied himself inside finishing light fittings and ceiling fan installations, Steve got to to work with his trusty trenching shovel and dug the trench from the shed to the house for the power connection.  As luck would have it he discovered that the guys that installed power to our shed had left some extra pipe under the ground, so Steve only had to dig half the distance.  He was pleased.

And the grand finale of the trench digging and the electrician connecting bits and pieces up in the meter box meant - Ta Dum - we have power in the house!!!  Looky here at this ceiling fan, which trust me, is rotating, and its light is sparkling and shining.

 Here are the inside lights....

 Here are the outside lights.....

 And here are the whole darn lot of them switched on, we are lit up like a Christmas tree!

And the grand finale of superb is that now the house water tank's pump has power, so we have running water!!  Woohoo, who knew how thrilling these things we take for granted are! :-)

We have some cupboard work to be done, the shower screens and mirrors to go in, some fine tuning of window closures, weather strips to go on the doors, and the whole house to be cleaned, including windows (hallelujah! I thought I'd have to do it) and I think the builders are finished!

We also managed to get a bit of painting done inside.  Technically we are not allowed to paint inside before handover, but our supervisor is letting do what he calls "opportunistic walls".  Thus we have painted behind the stove and toilets before they went in, and yesterday we painted behind where the solid fuel heater will be installed and in the walk-in robe before the shelving goes in.  Today we were both feeling rather stiff and sore so we had an outing.  First stop was to organise the delivery of our two big gas bottles that connect to the side of the house.  They are for our hot water and our hotplates. Then we had a lovely drive around Denmark and checked out the beaches, then we had lunch at the Denmark Tavern - 2 courses for $21.95 each.  Recommended!