Tree planting and wall construction

We mentioned in the last entry that we were planting trees, a job which is now finished. In all, we have planted some 170 trees this time around, mostly bushes on top of our earth mounds, but also some blackwood and blue gums behind the mounds to be used as a wind break. This will hopefully be effective in some years time, and stop a lot of the northerly and westerly winds that can be very strong here during the spring time (which is about to start now!). With the trees we have also installed drip irrigation so that we can easily give them some water during the dryer summer months. All trees were planted in the ground, newspaper put around them to stop competition from grass, then stakes were put in and plastic protection installed. Further we put straw on top of the newspaper and then some earth to help hold the straw in place, this to help hold the moisture in the ground. Now we just have to give them some water in between and sit back and watch them grow !!!

Trees planted on top of mound surrounding what will become and orchard.

Pretty small now, but will hopefully be nice and big in a few years time.

Mounds to the west and north of the housesite planted with bushes.

Bluegums and blackwoods planted behind the mounds to the west of the house.

Bluegums and blackwoods planted behind the mounds to the north of the house.

We have also managed to do more with the house construction in the last week to 10 days since we made our last entry. So far we have managed to put up 6 internal walls and 2 external walls, and quite a few of the perimeter beams that will help hold the roof up. This means that we have about the same to go of walls, before we can start putting the roof beams up, and then eventually the colourbond roof. The assembly of the walls are going relatively well, and it seems that we are finishing about 2 walls per day so far. As such, we are hoping that we will have done quite a lot in another week or so, but then again, things often do take longer than we originally thought.

This is what it looks like now, from various angles:

Seen from north west.

External walls that will be cladded with colourbond (for the ensuite bedroom and bathroom)

Internal walls for the ensuite bedroom and bathroom.

Internal walls for second/third bedroom, and second bathroom/toilet at the back.

Second bathroom/toilet seen from north east.

Well come back with more pictures in a week or so !!

Any problems, please email webmaster. This page was last updated 24/07/2008