Happy New Year, we made it. I think 2020 will be an interesting year for us here. Who ever thought we would be living in 2020, sounds like science fiction.
We had a fairly hot day on Monday, got to 35 Celsius here. Down where John is it got to 41 C breaking some 122 year record. It was the same back over in Mornington on the mainland, and would have been unbearable in the rental. They have had some fires in Tasmania but nothing like over in NSW and Victoria. The new website I check every day is from the Tasmanian Fire Service that shows what’s going on here. http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/Show?pageId=colCurrentBushfires
We have been slowly but steadily emptying boxes and arranging things. I have been reassembling wire shelves and making adjustments in the closets. We have 5 bedrooms here plus the annex so we have a lot of room to spread out. I will probably reassemble the day bed in one of the downstairs bedrooms today in case we get any visitors, and we also have the self inflating queen airbed we used for the first few days.
We are continuing to familiarise ourselves with the property, I have found the water cut offs for both the main house and the annex, I know where the water main is, but have not found any cut offs for all the outdoor faucets or the ones out in the paddock. You are supposed to be able to water the garden from the rain water tank by the shed, but I can’t figure out how to do that yet. I have a list of questions for the previous owner so will probably call them in the next few days.
There are also 60+ old tyres on the property, some around the bases of good sized shrubs which I am going to have to deal with, it could cost $20 apiece to dispose of them. I wish I had noticed them before we signed the contact but I was just so excited about finally finding a place. I am also identifying where the old guy dumped rubbish and stuff around the place, and there is a big brush pile that needs to be consolidated and burnt when the fire restrictions are over. There are also dead branches littered around the place, and I need to mow in the back soon. Its all a bit overwhelming so I just need to take it a bit at a time and not be discouraged.
Eva has been trimming and spraying all the rose bushes which looked like they hadn’t been touched in years, and I am watering daily to try and keep the lettuce and zucchini alive in the vegetable garden.
We have seen a few more birds, native Tasmanian Swamp Hens, finches, and we still have our friendly plovers. We have also spotted a couple of Wallabys, and also a smaller version called a Pademelon. We can see them if we go out after dark with the spotlight, but hard to get pictures during the daytime.
We haven’t met any of our neighbours yet, but these are bigger properties, and everyone has been busy with Christmas and New Years stuff for the past few weeks anyway. We are content to do our own thing for now and I suppose we will gradually get to know people.
Our new gate into the front patio looks good, I have all the rocks selected and in place to fill up the gaps, but still have to mortar them in. The bottom of the two posts is braced till I figure out how to finish it off, but it is at least usable now and very handy. I don’t know how they put up with that for so long. Also we have noticed ALL the closets in the house are too narrow to actually hang clothes on hangers. That will be something we have to fix one at a time. I have our fancy shower head installed in the upstairs en-suite, and have another I have to put in the downstairs bathroom.
It gets cold here in winter but rarely even touches freezing. The big problem is the UV, we have to wear hats all the time. I keep an eye on our weather station here, https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ILEGAN7 to see what it is. Another thing on our wish list is solar PV panels and maybe a battery backup. In the meantime I have been checking the electric meter and figuring what our bill might be.
We had a fairly hot day on Monday, got to 35 Celsius here. Down where John is it got to 41 C breaking some 122 year record. It was the same back over in Mornington on the mainland, and would have been unbearable in the rental. They have had some fires in Tasmania but nothing like over in NSW and Victoria. The new website I check every day is from the Tasmanian Fire Service that shows what’s going on here. http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/Show?pageId=colCurrentBushfires
We have been slowly but steadily emptying boxes and arranging things. I have been reassembling wire shelves and making adjustments in the closets. We have 5 bedrooms here plus the annex so we have a lot of room to spread out. I will probably reassemble the day bed in one of the downstairs bedrooms today in case we get any visitors, and we also have the self inflating queen airbed we used for the first few days.
We are continuing to familiarise ourselves with the property, I have found the water cut offs for both the main house and the annex, I know where the water main is, but have not found any cut offs for all the outdoor faucets or the ones out in the paddock. You are supposed to be able to water the garden from the rain water tank by the shed, but I can’t figure out how to do that yet. I have a list of questions for the previous owner so will probably call them in the next few days.
There are also 60+ old tyres on the property, some around the bases of good sized shrubs which I am going to have to deal with, it could cost $20 apiece to dispose of them. I wish I had noticed them before we signed the contact but I was just so excited about finally finding a place. I am also identifying where the old guy dumped rubbish and stuff around the place, and there is a big brush pile that needs to be consolidated and burnt when the fire restrictions are over. There are also dead branches littered around the place, and I need to mow in the back soon. Its all a bit overwhelming so I just need to take it a bit at a time and not be discouraged.
Eva has been trimming and spraying all the rose bushes which looked like they hadn’t been touched in years, and I am watering daily to try and keep the lettuce and zucchini alive in the vegetable garden.
We have seen a few more birds, native Tasmanian Swamp Hens, finches, and we still have our friendly plovers. We have also spotted a couple of Wallabys, and also a smaller version called a Pademelon. We can see them if we go out after dark with the spotlight, but hard to get pictures during the daytime.
We haven’t met any of our neighbours yet, but these are bigger properties, and everyone has been busy with Christmas and New Years stuff for the past few weeks anyway. We are content to do our own thing for now and I suppose we will gradually get to know people.
Our new gate into the front patio looks good, I have all the rocks selected and in place to fill up the gaps, but still have to mortar them in. The bottom of the two posts is braced till I figure out how to finish it off, but it is at least usable now and very handy. I don’t know how they put up with that for so long. Also we have noticed ALL the closets in the house are too narrow to actually hang clothes on hangers. That will be something we have to fix one at a time. I have our fancy shower head installed in the upstairs en-suite, and have another I have to put in the downstairs bathroom.
It gets cold here in winter but rarely even touches freezing. The big problem is the UV, we have to wear hats all the time. I keep an eye on our weather station here, https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ILEGAN7 to see what it is. Another thing on our wish list is solar PV panels and maybe a battery backup. In the meantime I have been checking the electric meter and figuring what our bill might be.
