11 March 2012

This has been a slooow week, with not much to report.

I started work on the roof of the lean to, but it is far from finished. The beam I mounted on the wall for the roof turned out to be to high up, and I could not reach in to insert screws in the roofing sheets. So I was forced to add another one to the first one to make it wider. It will work nicely now. Maybe better luck next week.

I also spent time on those little jobs that never get done, fitted a curtain rail in the living room, and some architraves that were missed out in December. I must admit it is looking much better now.  Also sorted some of the bolts and nuts that has been lying around everywhere. It seems I have too little shelf space.

We had a power cut on Friday, maintenance on the lines. It is amazing how much we rely on power. Nothing works, I cannot grind anything, or drill a hole or use the power saw.

I also spent some time on our car, little niggly things that got left behind

On Saturday, we had a very pleasant surprise. The people from our Afrikaans church group came over for a "working bee". It could also be called "mucking in" A whole bunch of people turned up and wanted to know what to do. I put them on the "too hard basket" jobs, everything I knew needed doing but which I tended to avoid.
They removed the last of the plants growing on the cookhouse roof. Unfortunately the chimney stack did not make it. It just fell apart, no mortar between the bricks, just sand. We demolished it down to three courses. Eventually I will need to dismantle all of it and rebuild. I knew it was coming, but tried to ignore it. They also cleared the whole section of rubbish and plant matter, and mowed all the lawns (grass rather). For the first time since we moved in everything is tidy now. They even removed five trailer loads of rubbish. At lunchtime we had a nice barbie(braai) of boerewors and mieliepap, and as homage to our new country, also bangers and buns. We had the nicest weather and it was a very enjoyable day . Thanks to everybody involved.