Renovations Mark II

Our kitchen now!

I thought that renovations were finished...and then we had our tornado.

So now, thanks be to God, we have had our kitchen painted (covered by insurance), and our chimney repaired to better than it was (covered by insurance).

How good God is!!! We were struggling to work out how we would do this on our own, what looked like a disaster in the tornado has turned out to be for our good.

The kitchen when we arrived

One Year Here

13th November 2014

What an amazing year it has been! We have done so much in such a short time. Of course, it really does help to having a tornado help you along with some of the clearing, although they are rather indiscriminate so I don't recommend them if you can avoid it. You can see a seat on the verandah in the first picture, this was taken by the tornado.

13th November 2015

As you can see from the second photo, we have removed a few trees...but...our car was parked in front of a 130 year old pepper tree in the first photo and in the second photo it's just a black stump. This tree was removed by the tornado, burnt by us in an attempt to get rid of it, but it's hollow, so we are now keeping it...and the amazing tree has started to grow again! It just shows how wonderful God's creation is...designed to repair itself.

People Power.

 My wonderful younger brother arranged a working bee for us to get some order out of our tornado damage. We both underestimated how it would go. He underestimated how many would be here to help and I underestimated how much would get done.

BEFORE

Taken in the evening after the tornado

The garage, lying flattened in front of our blue van, was taken away three days after the tornado. This was a part of the "make safe" that the insurance company does.

AFTER

Taken after our working bee yesterday.

There were large quantities of trees chainsawed into fire wood for the house. Sheet metal, papers, clothes, bits of plastic and glass were picked up. Fires were made to get rid of the leafy branches. It was amazing how much we managed to get done.

The End Of Renovations!

It is finished!

I do love the butterfly my beautiful family gave me for Christmas

It's feels so good to know that it's finally all done!

Yes, there are still projects. I would like to have some raised veggie beds, and there are a few walls that need a lick of paint. But the renovations are done. So what did we do? First there was the pantry by Tiger and Grandfather, then there was the fixing of the termite damage and at the same time the electrical work and landscaping at the back door, then there was the fitting out in the laundry and now finally the tiling is done.

















I still think my favourite renovation is the laundry. So practical, so usable, so sensible and so well done! A few years of thought was put into it, and if there was a next time I would put the drier over the washing machine (or the other way around) but it didn't work with my plumbing.

Local Wildlife

We've seen a bit of interesting wildlife at our place in the past few weeks.

Tiger and the boys were cleaning up a pile of corrugated iron and found this little turtle. Yes, we are glad it was such a benign creature, but the weather has been pretty cold so I would have been seriously surprised to see a snake.

We released him into our dam, after taking note of the beautiful pattern the creator made on his back and the lovely way he could scrunch up in his home.

Granny came to visit and deliver some much needed cupboards. As she was unpacking the cupboards we discovered she had a stowaway!

This beautiful, tiny bat travelled with her from near Inverell, in the north of New South Wales, down to us on the southern border of NSW.

We don't know much about bats, except that even my children know that they carry disease. We used to be concerned about Hendra Virus when we had horses in Toowoomba. Thus we got gloves before touching.

We emailed our friendly scientist Dr Danny Wotherspoon, who's always been part of our family. He said: 

"That is a most exciting find indeed! Bats are really hard to identify even when holding one in the hand. There are many small features to look for. Good to see that you had gloves on. That one is in the Evening Bat family, or family Vespertilionidae."

Unfortunately the pictures we took were not clear enough to be able to identify it definitively. But we know that this one belonged to the suborder of Microchirotera or microbat. And he certainly was small, the body was no bigger than a mouse.

Uncle Danny believes that he has probably found other bats in his species and gone into hibernation now for the winter. So it possibly ends well.

Quote from Dr Danny Wotherspoon 

BSc, Dip Ed, Grad Dip Bushfire, MA, PhD, 

MESA, MASH, MEIANZ

Councillor, Ecological Consultants Assn NSW

Abel Ecology

Burrumbuttock Babies

We have had our first baby at Burrumbuttock. We came home from church today to find this cute little lamb.

Tiger is our shepherd. He did a great assignment learning all about our breed of sheep a few months back. For the past two weeks he has been carefully feeding our little herd of 12 dorper ewes (and one Ram) every two days, whilst wearing a bright coloured jumper. He has trained them to recognise his voice, so that they happily come whenever he calls. However, whilst they are coming closer to allowing him to touch them, this ewe was not ready for us to go any closer to her and her baby than 5m or so.

Renovations Part 4: Landscaping

Work begins...better than TV!

At the back of our house there is a lovely covered area...it would be a deck if there was a wood floor. It could be a patio. We call it "The Green Room" because it is covered in green corrugated fibre glass and green shade cloth and as such it has a rather green glow about it.

But our green room had a decidedly brown floor. No grass was growing there, and it appeared that grass would struggle to grow. When it was dry...it was dusty. And when it was wet...it was muddy. And dear little Skipper just loved to go outside and play in the dirt and if ever the door opened was outside in a flash and off to eat as much of it as he could manage before he was caught.

After much debate, and talking to three different landscapers...we decided to pave. We also decided to have the retaining wall redone at the same time since it was looking shabby and made of wood (and we clearly don't want to attract termites any more than necessary).

So our green room is now paved in red pavers the colour of the old red bricks that were used to do that latest addition to the 130 year old house. We have grassed the areas around that. We pulled back a lot of dirt from in front of the retaining wall to make our slope a little more gentle and used the dirt to help create a contour bank to redirect water that we found coming off the paddocks in huge downpours. We also added two drains to our paved area to help with getting rid of water in those big downpours.

My dirty, hard workers!

Simple is good! I love the space we have created with all that green grass (it will be all grass once we have finished with it!).










It's been a very dusty four weeks. This morning the grass arrived...and our little workers laid 100m2 of grass. It looks fantastic. We are so glad this is now done.

Renovations Part 3: Termite Damage

When we bought Stoneleigh we had the usual building and pest inspections. This turned out to be a great thing, because we discovered termite damage in the wall between the old part of the house and the latest addition to the house...which is a good thing because everyone needs a good reminding to have pest inspections on a yearly basis...and this was ours.

It took quite some time to get a reasonable quote to fix the damage, but we eventually found one. It took a week to fix. And since there was a lot of dust we decided that the kids could sleep on the verandah for that time. They LOVED it! It was loads of fun, the weather remained just right for this kind of activity and it really was like camping in your own bed. I have a funny feeling that this might become a bit of an annual event!




As you can see from the photos, some of the termite damage was quite severe. The top hardwood lintel that was above a window before renovations was completely eaten through. The builder could literally put his fingers through it. It was paper thin. Considering these were load bearing walls, it was a wonderful blessing that we didn't have any disaster on our hands.

Renovations: Part 2...The Laundry

When we arrived, the laundry renovations had been started by the previous owner, but there had been a dramatic halt in all renovations so it was unfinished. A bench lined one wall and under the window. and two Bunnings kit cupboards were up on another wall. The floors were just the concrete slab. Most notably, I had a sink in the corner of the laundry...with a bench in front of it so access was leaning over a bench to get to it. It was awkward.

At Christmas time I discovered what Bradley did for a living after he mentioned that he had spent the afternoon whipping up the manger scene for one of our major Christmas services. So we had him round for dinner and dreamed up a fantastic laundry. This new laundry has eight deep drawers so that each person has a drawer for their clean clothes as they are folded up. It has a bench down just one wall but cupboards are up to the ceiling, and covering three of the walls in the room. I don't think I could have added anything more into this room. 

Happy?? VERY! Bradley has worked so hard...best working tradie by far! And the happiest disposition!

Birthday fun

Bonnet by Tiger and Mama.

Happy 10th Birthday to Princess! All she really wanted...has wanted for some time...was a bonnet. The kind worn by Laura Ingalls Wilder of "Little House on the Prairie" fame, or Mandie from her favourite adventure girl books (by Lois Gladys Leopard). Then of course there is her love of Jane Austin, Anne of Green Gables and all things old fashioned...so much like her mother. And yes, we had to make one for Joybug so they could be beautiful girls together. I truly enjoy indulging her

And for a fantastic lunch we had a homemade lunch...home made buns (thanks Sal), homemade mayonnaise (thanks to Mrs. Patmore - our Thermomix), and homegrown tomato and cucumber. Delicious! 

Clearly we are in our element! The veggie garden is growing great, as is the orchard. We are inundated with cucumbers, zucchini, plums, grapes and soon tomatoes. We are preserving, preserving, preserving. The kids are loving the idea that we are saving up for the winter, just like we have read about in the "Little House" books.

The Fig Tree...and the Snake

Can you see it? We are grateful to God that I did.

We have a beautiful fig tree in our orchard. I love having "biblical" trees growing. We also discovered a pomegranate as we were clearing out an overgrown garden.

Before Christmas we went on one of our night walks with all the children and feasted on four or more  very large figs. It was a great delight! We are waiting for the second harvest, which looks like it's going to be huge! The tree is still covered in the bird nest from last season, which is great for keeping the birds at bay.

We went for a night walk this week and Tank and I were just starting to walk around the tree checking the readiness of the second harvest, when I saw something under the tree that didn't look like part of the nets. A snake!

It was very still, and we wondered if it was stuck in the net or dead. The children and I talked through our options on how to check out if the snake was alive, and we decided to spray some water on it from afar. This way we could all stand well away from it and no one was going to be silly enough to touch it with a stick!

A small spray from the hose determined that it was not just alive, but firmly stuck in the net. We took some photos and looked up photos of snakes in our region. We are pretty sure this one was an eastern brown snake. A fairly large one at that...about 1metre 30cm to 1.5metre.

We decided the best course to go was to kill the snake as he was so distressed,  and no proper snake catcher would return our calls. We called a parishioner neighbour, who came around with a gun and a rake. The children got the opportunity to touch the end of the dead snake and feel the way the bones move inside it's body when it moves. We were able to talk about snake anatomy.

It was actually a lovely visit. We were able to learn more about our local neighbours, our congregations, mission work, how home education works, share snake stories (this farmer had been bitten by a brown twice!) and develop friendships too.

Who would have thought one could do farm work, school work and church work whilst killing a snake!?

Renovations part 1

We've bought a 130 year old house...it's a beautiful home, but there is a lot of work that can be done to get things more liveable.

Project number 1: Curtains.

There were only see through curtains in the girls room (designed so they could see out but you can't see in). So since we came from Queensland, our dear children all thought they were being put to bed in the middle of the day. 7pm is rather bright during daylight savings!

I worked hard on this project, and sewed curtains for the boys room and then the girls room and then our room and finally worked out some curtains for the study/baby room. All the curtains for the bedrooms are made with triple weave fabric that is thermal and also 95% block out. The result was just what I wanted. I've also sewed some curtains for the two bathrooms (so we can see out but you can't see in). My favourite curtains would be in our room...they look heritage. Or are they in the kids bathroom, where the curtain has little animal shapes all over it...cute!


Project number 2: Pantry






I wanted to have more storage in the house in general, but here the storage was poorly worked out, and food being central to our life and entertaining guests...this was an urgent project.

My wonderful father took on the task. Tiger was faithfully by his side, and quickly showed his grandfather that he is indispensable! Tiger worked as hard as his grandfather, not shirking when the other kids were playing. It was a hard job, and whilst not beyond my amazing Dad...it was a little harder than we both thought. The pantry is just over 3 metres long and over a metre and a half wide. It's a great size for a growing family. I just need to order an extra shelf for each section up the top.

I think the result is wonderful! Thanks Tiger and Dad.

Harvest 2014

I've never been a farmer...but I've always admired them from afar.

It's a menacing look on a photo, and I wouldn't want to get
in his way, but still beautiful...and amazing that I got a shot.

Sure we owned 6 acres in the Snowy mountains for a few years, but we never tried to run anything other than a horse on it, and it was not arable land.

But here, in Burrumbuttock (gotta love the name)...it's harvest time.

It's nearly 10pm and I can still hear the header whirring. It's a high pitched sound, with the low drone of motors from the harvester under toning it. Ordinarily, it's the kind of sound that would have annoyed me in the city...annoyed me a lot. But here, it's a sound that makes me feel excited.

A full paddock of ripe wheat (which is what our neighbours all had this afternoon) is a beautiful sight. Even more beautiful, after 20ml or more of rain in the past week, is hearing the headers take the wheat, knowing that it's now safe. Over and over since I heard the headers this afternoon I've been singing in my head "Bringing in the Sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves!" It's an old song, but it matches the excitement.

The Seven Silos tonight.

Our front verandah looks out on a large paddock with seven silos. Tonight there were multiple vehicles there with their lights on as they delivered their wheat. As I was walking and watching and feeling the excitement of the night, I heard one of them whoop. I know this can be a great time for farmers, the culmination of the best part of the year of planning, working and praying that the weather goes their way. It's good to be able to share in their excitement as we see our lonely lane become a bustling road of trucks, utes, tractors, headers, harvesters and chaser bins.

Tomorrow, Christian is installed as Pastor here in the Burrumbuttock parish, with 4 congregations and 5 preaching points. They have been vacant for three years. But they have not been idle, there has been much activity going on in the absence of a pastor. We pray there will be much to harvest here...and many good plantings and harvests in the future too.

Burrumbuttock

What a strange name!

Well we have moved here and have been in our new home all of a week. There is SO much to do with  all the unpacking, but there is also the exciting outdoors. We have bought a 13 acre property that used to be the West Burrumbuttock school (for a very short time 100 years ago). And with our property we have inherited a horse, Lorien (yes that's a Lord of the Rings name in honour of my horse rearing Grandma), 20 or so Dorper sheep (they naturally lose their own wool, so no shearing required), two ducks named Mopsey and Flopsey (who started to lay when we arrived), and three guinea fowl (whom the children named) Bash, Dash and Crash (apparently they will help keep away the snakes because they are so territorial).

The house we are living in is 130 years old, and used to be the Principal teacher's house for the school. So we are returning the property to it's original use after a long time. Look forward to more reports of our exploits. We are looking forward to finding some artefacts from the time this place was a school. Already this week we have found a glass bottle that was clearly a small cordial drink bottle from some time ago.

We are surrounded by paddocks and no houses are in view...it is quite blissful!


About-Australia.com says of our little town:
Burrumbuttock is a small village 32 kilometres north west of Albury onthe Albury-Urana Road. The early settlement began in 1839 at the "Burrumbuttock Station" which was at that time 30,000 acres on both sides of an unfenced track stretching from Jindera Gap towards Walbundrie. The present town has a number of buildings including a General Store and Post Office, Primary School, Farmers Inn Hotel established in 1880 and the Holy Cross Lutheran Church dedicated in 1877. It has a population of 150 people. The Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre is a four hectare area featuring a large dam constructed in 1902