Black wattle – a hardwood much preferred for burning!
We experiment with some hydrocarbon based accelerant
Ok – its used engine oil
Now everyone wants to join the fun
Adding fuel to the fire
What can I say – who doesn’t want to play at this!
We have produced stones for our next building project (or HALBs – semi-finished products in SAPanese) (the dog is sleeping – honest guv!)
Before you start! These pine trees died 5 to 6 years ago in a bush fire. The live branches and needles you see are from the surrounding new growth since then
but they are big and heavy
Our super strong double axle trailer from Inverness Scotland!
Being tower by ‘Hurler’ our essential MF690 4WD tractor from 1985
Bye
A graveyard of firewood – and this is by no means sufficient for the job coming
Target number 1 – the largest granite boulder in our path
Target 1 under fire
Didymus oiling his saw ready for cutting hardwood
Mr Musodza (Buwirimwe) getting it straight
and square!
Simple tools of the trade – a saw and adze
Getting to the end of our Swiss style chalet walls
Eddie
The start of the rafters joining from the end of the existing roof onto our new wall and beyond to form an overhang
Charging the d.lights
George working on the pillar foundations
Rafters with six skylight frames: three internal and three external skylights!
The roofing slats go on
and on
getting there now!
Didi working on the skylights themselves
Skylights in their initial form
Pillars supporting the external overhang forming a sheltered walkway
Adding chromadek to the skylight frames
Overview of the skylight frames
Our roofer in action
Porch and walkway with skylights
For the last term everyone has enjoyed having these friends around. Now it’s their time off.
On the front lawn!
Squirrel – on the way home from school
Mocha – coming home from school
In their stables – Squirrel right
Mocha
The old stables
We recently built and hung ‘The School Gates’!
As you may imagine it was not that simple but the end result was well worth it as you can see!
(The cantilevered gates have to align within a couple of mm to allow the sliding bolt to close between the two halves.)
The Troutbeck School Gate
The Troutbeck School Gate
The Troutbeck School Gate
The Troutbeck School Gate
The Troutbeck School
Our first lamb is born
And then there is the heavy lifting…as we found some 6m poles. Most were around 3+ meters that we had cut previously, thinking to use them for the fencing project.
lifting and moving a large pine pole
walking with large pine pole on shoulders
Nearly there
Done!
Eastern Highlander 