Saturday

I was out on site at 7.00 am.

It took me the next hour and a half to unload all the materials,set up the carpentry horse, square it and lay out all the tools.

Just as I was about to start nailing in the studs, two things happened - it started to rain and Ian turned up.

The rain was only a light drizzle and I quickly pulled a tarpaulin over all the tools.

Ian had just bought a new bob cat for his business and was interested in practicing with the unfamiliar controls on the quarry dust at the back of the block - so an advantage to both of us.

The idea is to pile it up in a corner near Ross (he needs about one eighth of it ) and gradually bring in good soil to rehabilitate the ground.

I have been composting everything I can to create a reasonably substantial pile of soil.

We also have a large pile of clay, from the tank cut several years ago.

We will mix this with a load of river sand and dolomite to create more fill.

I returned to my stud frame while Ian unloaded his equipment and made some preparations.

Two hours later I had the studs nailed in and we stopped for a coffee break.

The pile of quary dust was already substantial.

As far as I could tell, Ian was operating at normal speed but he said that the controls were quite novel and he was operating at half speed (well words to that effect).

We seemed to have quite a few coffee breaks today and Ross and Jim dropped in from time to time to see how the new bobcat was going .

I went back to installing the noggings and Ian continued with the quarry dust.

I would have to say that nailing in the noggings is my least favourite job.

I spend a lot of time clamping a supporting beam under the centre line and pulling each stud in to alignment before securing it. Each nogging has to be accurately cut and it is a bit of a scramble crawling in and under the frame to reach each position. Also the nail guns cannot penetrate two layers of jarrah so all the work has to be drilled and hand nailed. A lot of attention has to be given to avoiding blowing the centre width out by 5 or even 10 mm.

We had another coffee break at this point. Ian said he felt that he was starting to master the new controls.

The dump pile has grown substantially.

Now it was time for me to install the strapping.

Fortunately Jim turned up at this point and helped me out.

I had accidentally left the tensioners at home so I was not able to complete the very last nailing process.

This will take me about twenty minutes next weekend.

Finally Ian moved my most recent compost pile on to the main pile to give us a larger dump area.

Both Ian and Ross tell me they know people who need some of the quarry dust - so hopefullly we can gradually give it away. All in all, a very productive day.

Left at 6.30 pm

Wednesday

Got up at 5.00 am, out to site by 6.45 am, installed the tensioners, completed the bracing, loaded the air compressor onto the utility and returned home by 8.30 am.

Thursday