Friday 15th August 2008

Happy Birthday Bernt!!

Tasmania celebrated Bernt's birthday by putting on a bit of snow. It was down to 100m so we could see it across the river from us and most inconveniently it meant that Bernt couldn’t make it to work because the roads were closed. So he got to spend his birthday at home! And oh how it rained… we haven’t seen rain like that since we got to Tassie (which is scary because it is winter). The rain meant two very important things for us;

1. we are glad that when we ran out of water last week (running out of water in winter is not a good sign) that we only bought half a tank worth. Otherwise we would be watching free water pour out of it now.

2. most importantly, my hole is staring to fill up!! Soon I will be able to refer to it as a pond… if it holds the water that is. Heres Bernt standing in it;

Still waiting for the drawings to come back from the structural engineer before we can get them to council. So in the meantime we have been clearing more bush, still having regular bonfires and thinking about landscaping and fencing. The neighbours on one side are happy to go halvies in materials and build the fence together (they have the necessary machinery to dig post holes etc.) and we have yet to contact the other neighbours who live in England. That one will be a bit trickier because of the distance.

Bernt has temporarily moved from fit out to fabrication at his work. This means he has been learning to weld aluminium which he is really enjoying. I have been spending some of my spare time looking at designing details like our spiral staircase, shelving features and a front gate. Of course design is a fluid process so it doesn’t always leave me with much to show at the end of the day. Bernt has installed the dishwasher which came with the house, such a blessing because it means one thing less for me to do in my busy busy day…. J

We have decided that we are definitely going to get a puppy, just waiting now for the breeders to… breed some. Looks like at least 3 months away L We are very soon to have our first house guests; Peter and Steph and their son Flip are coming over from Holland for the first week of September. We are starting to get booked up for the rest of the year so if anyone’s thinking about making plans, let us know early.

Oh, we were having a Sunday drive along our street last week when we saw dolphins only a few metres away from the road. So we stopped the car and followed them swimming up the river. So cool, there were three of them and they swam right past our block. We are putting a dolphin viewing platform on our list of essential amenities.