Mt John & Lake Tekapo
Burkes Pass in late afternoon light
Dog pilgrimage to dog impression
Tekapo, Burkes Pass & Doggie Pilgrimage
shack renovations…
some before and after photos as we worked on the second-last piece of wall – insulation, board, light feature and paint to come
before
during
after – with hound added
Orchard Planting
Anne and I (with the help of a bunch of great people from St Stephen’s) arranged and helped plant 77 fruit trees at our Totara Valley property. Most of these are apples – and most of them are heritage apples. We enjoyed a great week after the rain of the planting day! Some pics will make their way over the next few days… this entry has one of the hound (Griff) with apple trees etc in the background if you look closely, and a (wet) toast to the new orchard with the planters – apple cider of course!
for better or worse we make the cover of the Timaru Herald
The reporter and photographer rolled up yesterday while we were doing lumberjack work ahead of next week’s orchard planting… we wonder if we wanted the publicity… but front page news we made!
You can see it here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/8723407/All-set-for-religious-conversion-project
Please understand that the religious references were not made by us!
Birthday
A couple of old lovely gifts today… I’m in a things from yesteryear phase – an old working German coffee grinder, an old pair of shoe maker’s moulds for birthday (thanks Anne, thanks Josh), and an old church earlier in the year. All fitting in nicely for little old me!
Done – what’s next?
finished!
The last piece of work an hour before the machine was trucked out and off to its next destruction exercise. Peace at last!
We begin a consultation and discernment process for what is next in June. The journey continues!
A BIG TICK to the crew from Southern Demolition Ltd. They were respectful, efficient, fun to be around and very accommodating.
more shack work
the kitchen area with plywood walls installed!
We had a good go at the shack over the last couple of days. On Saturday Anne and I got dropped off by a friend who was visiting her niece who lives nearby – that enabled us to strip the ceiling and wall linings in the spare bedroom and put insulation in and put some wallboards back. Then on Sunday evening we went down again with our friends Geoff & Dale and we put ceiling panels in then lined some walls – especially in the living room behind the kitchen bench (pictured). A lovely sunny day in what has been a dull wet week. We also had visits from the carpet guy (who will cut the carpet we have salvaged from Christchurch and lay it), and the digger guy who will pull out some old and new stumps and rip the strips where the orchard will be planted in a few week’s time. Another busy but lovely trip to Totara Valley!
the stripes in the grounds where the orchard will be planted
Down and Almost Out
The site is almost empty with the foundations being ripped up today and broken concrete trucked away. The three hours of giant pneumatic drill from 7am-10am was a bit of a trial for us, cats, god and wider neighbourhood! They anticipate being completely off the site by Friday.
‘dinosaur’ at work
poised
greedy
gnawing
threatening
hungry
Demolition Update
Today the building is almost down – all that is left is the office level. The demolition crew did what they could to respectfully demolish the roadside section with the concrete built-in cross on it. The sequence of photographs below tell the story. What’s left is going to be pulled down and carted away over the next week or so. The principal machine operator is moving on to another site where his skills are now needed. He has been consistently fantastic to deal with.
