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.

Tuesday 29th July 2008

Snow on the Mountains!!

Well I’ve relented… We are now the proud owners of an electric blanket but I want it on the record that I still think it’s a dangerous bedfellow (just so someone could theoretically stand weeping over our charred remains and say ‘Well, she was right’). Sorry for the delay between blogs but to tell the truth, not a lot has been happening (though I will still be able to rant for a while in case you were worried this would only be short J). We have just finished drawing up the changes made to our drawings by the structural engineer. I will drop them off tomorrow for him to sign off on and then it’s off to council.

We have seen some exciting movement on the block though. We’ve had an excavator come and form  an extension to our driveway. He formed an extra 120m which means our driveway is now 270m long (for those of you playing at home). Then he levelled the pad for our shed (after knocking over a few carefully selected trees L). It looks so different and now we can see that we have chosen the perfect spot! Greg (the excavator driver) was such a pro, I watched his every move, which was probably spooky for him but so so interesting for me. He was there for 2 days, on the second day a guy came with a roller and we had 12 truck loads of road base delivered for the entire length of the drive. And let me tell you, it is the most beautiful driveway I have ever seen! It’s not supposed to be a finished surface because so many trucks will be driving over it in the near future but it sure is pretty.

And at the end of the second day Greg even dug me the hole I’ve so been looking forward to having!!! I could write a whole page on how excited I am about the hole but Ill try to keep it to one sentence. It’s a hole… at the corner of the driveway/bottom of the slope, which has two stormwater runoffs running into it, which will… hopefully (fingers crossed) fill with water so I can fill it with fish and sit beside it and look at the fish... Ooo so exciting, but so far it just has a puddle because Tassie is having a bit of a drought. But fingers crossed.

So there’s the hole, the driveway, the levelled shed site… what else… Oh, We have had snow on the mountains!!! Yay, we have such a perfect view from our future house site. When I first saw it I had a bit of a cry. So beautiful, and I can’t believe that we own that view. I see only one problem which is that I’m guessing no one is going to come and visit us in winter so yall are gonna miss out on it. Heres a photo…

On the job front, Bernt has been offered a promotion to supervisor which will probably take effect some time in the next few months. He has been spoilt a bit going out for sea trials on the ferry they are nearly finished, getting to see seals, penguins and dolphins. We have got to remember to claim his seasickness tablets on tax though. I’m still hanging out at home most days, I keep gearing myself up to go to the block but I can find all kinds of excuses like it still being 2 degrees at 10 o’clock in the morning. We spend most weekends at the block working together, we’ve been having regular bonfires, doing a bit of cleaning up. I was terrified of the fire the first time but I’m getting used to it now; the marshmallows always help persuade me that another bonfire is a good idea. Every now and then we go into Hobart (usually when I start getting cabin fever). We haven’t had a chance to do much sightseeing so we will rely on people coming to visit as an excuse to explore. We did find a really awesome miniature golf place if anyone’s up for a round!