Surely This Is Not My Kind of Work? Part 2

Welcome back. I know you've been wondering just how much, or what kind of digging I did next, haven't you? After the concrete slab area had been cleared of dirt, I set to digging downwards into the earth (on the other side of the slab) to find the stormwater pipe, which the water-tank overflow must be connected to. Tony's Dad was so sure of it's location, but as things turned out, his memory obviously played tricks on him!

I started digging where I was told, but could not find the pipe. Tony suggested moving along in a line, and he seemed confident that I would soon find it. However, after digging about 10 fox-type holes in a nice line - and still not finding this 'blasted waterpipe' (which is what I was now calling it), I started bemoaning the fact that the water-tank had to even be connected to the stormwater in the first place! I doubted we would have the amount of rain that would make an overflow pipe necessary - because I planned on using most of the water on the vegie garden, and would be grateful for enough rainwater to do just that. We do live in a dry country, after all. Please can't we just forget all this digging and I'll make sure the tank never gets over full? Please? Well, I'm sure you know the answer to that question.

One of the fox-holes


Then it was suggested I try digging in a spot to the left of the first foxhole, because perhaps the pipe was a little more that way. Sure ... no worries. I'm hot. I'm dusty. I'm frustrated. By now I'm regretting the addition of the water-tank full stop. But .... I also know if I gave up now it would be weeks before Tony could resume the job. So after a few great gulps of water, I set to digging again. At the very least it was good exercise. My 2 supervisors (Tony and his Dad) were standing nearby, full of helpful suggestions on just how to hold the spade, what part of the hole I should dig away at, etc etc. Hmmm. Bite your tongue, Debbie! I'll not make anymore comments here - after all, Tony will have a read I'm sure (hello darling husband!)

Dig dig dig. Clang. Oh my goodness, what's that? Concrete. What? Outside the slab area? Moving along a little and I recommence digging. Dig dig dig. Clang! More concrete! For what purpose we wondered? Oh... perhaps it was an old path that Grandad put down. Oh great. I could go on a whole lot about what happened next, but suffice to say it was an old concrete path.

The 1st plan of attack was that I move to the side some more and dig a new hole .. still searching for the elusive stormwater pipe which I was starting to think could be anywhere in our big old yard! I'd now started to mentally link the stormwater pipe with the holy grail...though I was prudent to not mention that piece of silliness! Digging in a new spot just led to more concrete. By now Tony's Dad was surmising that the stormwater must be UNDERNEATH the concrete path, so the 2nd plan was that I use a sledgehammer to smash away the concrete path - thereby discovering the stormwater pipe. Yes, you read correctly. A SLEDGEHAMMER! I've not ever used one before, and at this point Tony wanted me to leave the job till his rib was healed enough so he could takeover. But I was on a mission! I wanted to find that pipe - TODAY! So ... pass the sledgehammer please.

And here I'll just let the photos do the talking. This is the hard work I did






As you can see, there was no sign of the pipe underneath the path. I'd even scraped away underneath a part of the path that I'd not smashed. During this I had a few moments of thinking, "I'm nearly there, soon I'm a gonna hit this blasted pipe", but unfortunately, this didn't work either. No sign of the pipe. I even got experience in using another tool that was supposed to help. A bar - which is a long, heavy piece of steel that I was instructed to lift up, then 'just let drop'. Kinda had to do this sideways by the way, because you recall I was trying to clear dirt underneath the path, don't you?

Tony's Dad (bless his heart) was scratching his head in bewilderment. Tony said the stormwater was in this 'general area'. I was madly frustrated and praying; "please Lord, help us find this elusive pipe".

The next plan of attack was to hammer a piece of steel bar into the ground ANYWHERE Tony and his Dad THOUGHT the pipe could be. If the stormwater pipe was in that spot, I would hit it with the bar and not have to resort to digging holes here and there. So I did this where I was directed, with still no luck. Then I watched as Tony and his Dad wandered over the backyard, pointing to spots and trying to follow the paths from places where they knew definitely that a pipe lay. We were all certain of the location of the sewer pipes, because they need to be regularly cleaned of tree roots ... but the stormwater was another story.

So I was leaning against the clothesline, following all their fingerpointing, and then noticed a depression kind of channel in the lawn. I pointed it out and they said, "it could be there" ... so I just grabbed this bar and hammered it into the ground. PRAISE THE GOOD LORD, I hit something fairly soon - and would you believe....it was the stormwater pipe! I tell ya, this is exactly how it happened! Amazing! I believe the Lord made me acutely observant here; and He directed and lead my eyes to the exact spot. Oh, I was so grateful!

Unfortunately, the stormwater pipe was a good 2 metres away from where they said it was, and I then had to dig a trench back towards the watertank so they could be connected. Can you believe it? More digging! At least it was straightforward, and not very deep. I learnt how to first spade up rectangles of grass that could be replaced after the pipes were laid; and how to dig a trench spade depth and spade wide. Oh yeh, what fun. Hopefully it will be the only time I have to do this.

So here's some photos of MY trench








So, all the hard work is now done, and I'm almost delirous - or is that exhausted? Lol. Tony said he is able to lay the pipe and then once that is done, I will push the dirt back in and wedge the grass blocks back on top. My only question is "when", meaning, can you do it tomorrow please pretty please? Now honestly, how can he deny me anything since I've sweated and given all (to the point of tears once) doing this hard mens work? - and done a very fine job indeed, I might add!

Next post I'll show you the water tank in situ. Till then, God bless you :)

Surely This Is not My Kind of Work? Part 1

Dear Lord, please stop me from moaning and groaning too much throughout this next post!!

My poor body has been so very tired and sore almost everyday for the past 2-3 weeks! Too much kickboxing you ask? No, though that would have been preferable to what has caused these aches and fatigue.

It all started with the generosity of Tony's Dad, who bought us another water tank for the garden. I wanted it sited way up the backyard (behind my outdoor laundry) for ease of watering my newly planned vegie beds. The tank will eventually hold 2500 litres of water, taking advantage of approximately 80m2 of the laundry and our pergola/awning roofs. Since I have already begun praying for the Lord to send rain to fill it as soon as it's connected ... and because delivery of the tank was last Friday ... and because, well just getting things done NOW is how I like my world to run...naturally I wanted some action!

Unfortunately (and through no fault of mine, just in case you wonder) Tony cracked a rib whilst boxing a week or so before the delivery of the water tank was due. Right about the time he should have been digging out the spot. Underneath all the grass is a concrete slab that years ago used to be the incinerator area. Remember when we used to burn our rubbish in the backyard? Anyway, Tony had filled the area with dirt from our renovations because we never thought that one day a concrete slab in that area could be useful. Due to his injury, Tony was unable to dig...so who did the job fall to? Moi, that's who! Marking out the area was rather exciting, starting to dig was not!

The following is the place where the water tank will stand. Marked out, with a few pitiful spadefulls of dirt besides. Unfortunately, the job seemed beyond me. The ground was so hard and I hardly knew where to begin.





Thankfully, Tony's strong nephew came to help, and he is such a good worker! Richard reckons he moved out 3 tonnes of dirt, and I wheelbarrowed about 1 tonne of that further up the backyard to get rid of it. Hopefully the chooks (when we get them) will be in dirt heaven - I read they like scratching around in dirt...and now they have plenty, lol! Wait - who wheelbarrowed about a tonee of dirt? Moi, that's who!

Next is a photo of that beautiful concrete slab - minus the dirt. How good it was to finally see!




What do you think of that? So far you may be wondering why I'm so sore if that's all I did, but let me tell ya - there's a whole lot more to come. Nephew Richard went home, Tony is incapacitated, his Dad is too elderly, the kids are too young (though Daniel helped where he could) ... who is left to complete the job?

Moi, that's who!


Stay tuned for part 2, and till then - I'll be relaxing a little!

This Week

In Our Home
Most things are pretty organised at the moment, so this week I'll only need to do the regular cleaning as well as:
* Prepare the fortnightly menu
* Change the carbon in the fishtank
* Tidy the linen cupboard

In Our Garden
Lots to do here, and the warm weather has me itching to begin! New plants to put in this week include my favourite wattle Acacia Baileyana Purpurea; 4 English Lavenders; 4 French Lavenders; a Sasanqua Camellia; and most exciting of all - a Nectarine tree! Yum, can't wait to eat those! Last weekend I dug over an extension to an existing bed where the cherry trees are. Using the pickaxe and spade was hard work, but has given a satisfying result. It's still a bit early to put in most of the summer vegies, and it's quite likely August winds and a cooler snap will chase the current warm & sunny days away, but this week I'll be planting seeds in the propogator so they will be ready to plant out in another month or little more when the ground will be much warmer. We will be getting our 3rd water tank soon (thanks to Tony's dad) and I plan to site the new vegie beds nearby. I hope it all happens soon so that I can plant my seedlings there. I've already started praying that rain will come to fill the tank as soon as it is in position!

In Our Homeschool
We schooled through the recent school holidays so that we can take time off when Tony has some holiday's at the end of this month. This week we'll be continuing with
* Maths
* Spelling
* Copywork (1 question & answer per day from the Westminster Confession in their best handwriting)
* Computer Skills (Sarah - Microsoft Excel. Daniel - Microsoft Word)
* History (Ancient Greece this semester)
* Music (Sarah - piano and Daniel - electric guitar. Daily practice 5 days per week, plus their weekly lesson outside the home.
* Sport (Sarah Karate; Daniel Karate and Soccer)


We Are Reading
Tony Bible: 2 Samuel
Debbie Bible: Psalms
Bible Read Aloud to children: the Gospels

Tony: latest Creation magazine plus some booklets loaned him from an acquaintance who is connected with the Philadelphia Church of God. Tony is also researching on the internet their core doctrinal statements, so that intelligent conversation can be conducted between them both in the future.

Sarah: Saddle Up Thoroughbred Horse Stories by Christine Pullein-Thompson

Daniel: Jack Russell Dog Detective by Darrel & Sally Odgers

Debbie: The Measure Of All Things by Ken Alder. I've been reading this for a couple of months, which is a long time on one book for me - but it's been interspersed with all the gardening and chook raising books I've been devouring lately. The Measure of All Things is quite a fascinating account of 2 French scientists (Delambre & Mecharin) and their expedition in the late 1790's to measure the shape of the world and thereby establish the metre, which was to be one ten millionth the distance from pole to equator. They hoped that this measurement would be used instead of the arbitrary systems decided upon by monarchs. Apparently,18th century France had a staggering 250,000 different units of weights and measures!
Quote:

For seven years Delambre and Mechain travelled the meridian to extract the single number from the curved surface of our planet. They began their journey in opposite directions, and then, when they had reached the extremities of their arc, measured their way back towards one another through a country quickened with revolution. Their misson took them to the tops of cathedral spires, to the summits of doomed volcanoes, and very nearly to the guillotine. It was an operation of exquisite presicion for such violent times. At every turn they encountered suspicion and obstruction. How do you measure the earth while the world is turning beneath your feet? How do you establish a new order when the countryside is in chaos? How do you set standards when everything is up for grabs? Or is there, in fact, no better time to do so?

After 7 years, they met in the fortress town of Carcassonne, and from there went and presented their data to an international commission meeting in Paris, their moment of triumph. Napolean Bonaparte actually said of it, "Conquests will come and go, but this work will endure."
In the course of the author's research, he discovered that there is also a story of intrigue and deception - a story of scientific error and "the agonising choices it forced upon men and women of integrity." It turns out that despite Mechain's extreme caution and exactitude, he committted an error in the early years of the expedition and upon realising his mistake, covered it up. Afterwards, so tormented by his secret knowledge, he died in an attempt to correct himself. Only after his death did his collegue Delambre choose between loyalty to his friend and his science.

Here is what I find quite astounding: according to today's satellite surveys, the metre calculated by Delambre and Mechain falls roughly 0.2 millimetres short! "It may not seem like much, but it is enough to matter in high precision science" The author says that, "this then is a tale of error and its meaning: how people strive for utopian perfection - in their works and in their lives - and how they come to terms with the inevitable shortcomings." As mentioned, I'm finding it quite fascinating and do recommend it as an interesting book about the beginnings of the metric system.


I'm Pondering:
* Downsizing my wardrobe. It's bulging at the seams and somedays I still think I have nothing to wear, which is quite ridiculous! Do I really need this many clothes that I don't even wear? I'm attracted to the idea of owning a dozen outfits at the most. Modest and serviceable ones. To go ahead with this would be a ruthless purge that I really need to be sure about, as it would be most UN-frugal to replace them in future.

*My spiritual/ministry goals for the second half of this year. This is a follow on from the DVD series our church family is watching by Reggie McNeal called "This Present Future; Six Tough Questions for the Church"

All in all it's another busy week! Some hard work which should prove productive, some exercise, some good nutrition, walking with the Lord, some intellectual pursuits ... and a birthday thrown in. Yes, Lacey (eldest daughter) will turn 29 years old this week. HAPPPY BIRTHDAY LACEY !!! xxooxx Here is a recent photo of the very beautiful Lacey as bridesmaid at a recent wedding, with her Dad.