The objective for today was to clean up the street level deck and deal with any fire hazards in preparation for summer.
Even though I did not finish everything I wanted to I really must leave this and move on to reconditioning windows.
The first job was to round up the twigs and branches that I found last week and set up a small bonfire.
I added to this during the day as I discovered more debris and eventually fired it up around midday.
I finished off the brushcutting around the back of the block.
Then I moved on to clearing all the timber off the street level deck.
To do this I wanted to stack all the timber on some steel structures that Ian gave me years ago.
But to do this I needed to clear out all the scrap metal I had been hanging on to.
At the end of the process I had a utility loaded up with scrap and the void area set up with stacked timber off the ground.
I also added some general waste to the utility load.
Once the deck was clear I went around with the blower, blew all the pine needles on to the ground on the West side and raked them in to piles.
To completely remove fire hazard I need to take these piles away, as well as two year' growth in the bamboo thicket and some dead wattle trees near the creek.
I don't think I will get to this until the permit free burnoff period has ended so I might need to collect it and take it to the Mundaring Green Waste at the local transfer station.
Next week, I must start on the windows, definitely, well perhaps.
Sunday
After an indulgent morning (movie, lunch at café) I headed out to site to deal with the remaining fire risks.
I collected up all the scattered heaps of pine needles and stacked them in one large heap in the usual bonfire position.
Then I used my chainsaw to remove the dead wattle trees along the creek and added them to the pile.
Finally, I attacked the overgrown bamboo thicket with a pruning saw and shears. I chopped these lengths in to 1 metre segments so that they would dry out more quickly and spread them out on the ground.
My initial plan was to come out to site on Friday evening, light a bonfire and stay with it in to the night and sleep on site overnight.
However, now that I look at the pile, I'm afraid that it will take off like a rocket. Now I am more inclined to come out Friday midday and load it on to my utility. I could then drop it off at the green waste on Sunday or Monday.
