Friday

Just sitting here working. Thankfully the boss was able to find some time to get some weekend supplies. He’s very lovely though as he came back with gifts ?

When asked what I wanted for dinner my answer was ‘don’t we need eggshells for the tree’ (apparently egg shells help reduce peach leaf curl). So he made me bacon and egg pie. I got a good one.

[4 June 2021]

Saturday

Early start to the weekend as I had to work. Matt however was down in the basement getting the old beams in the workshop sprayed. He’s also put in most of the circuit breakers for the new power board which looks like it is starting to come together nicely.

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First lot of drafting done before the lure of the garden became too strong to resist. The beans are going to need some support and apparently ‘there’s nothing a kiwi can’t do with some #8 fencing wire’. Before long we have a nice new set of supports in while I go along the bed and add some strings to support them.

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If we’re going to put in all the veg they are also going to need protecting from the wildlife so Matt got cracking on putting up the new fencing while worked on the beds. Fencing up and second bed ready to be planted up and I was ecstatic with the result. It feels like a completely different space, a proper working area of the garden just waiting to burst forward with a wealth of vegetables.

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I think we deserve some wine to celebrate. Also rang mum to show her my new fencing. I’m not sure she was too interested in it but she was at uncle Gordon’s for his birthday bbq so got passed around all the family and friends. Then had a chat to Tonia.

In the evening we went up to investigate the list of jobs for tomorrow. The blue bathroom needs to be prepared for the plumber next so finalised where the toilet needed to go to and had a bit of a pull at some of the wallpaper. Quite a bit came of in big stretches with minimal effort which was hugely satisfying. Couldn’t help but think how much Tonia would have enjoyed it. It was getting late though so time to relax for a little bit before bed.

[5 June 2021]

Sunday

Another busy day with lots of work and jobs on the house to be done. Still managed a little lie in as it is Sunday. By the time I joined him he’d made quite the mess up in the blue bathroom. He’d also notched the second support beam for the basement workshop. A few minor adjustments needed to get it into place but eventually it went it and fitted perfectly.

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Next job is to drop some of the plasterboard in the kitchen. Unfortunately it needs doing so the plumber can run the new pipework for the pink bathroom and mum’s room in the void. While Matt did the prep work I went to go and clear up the mess that he’d left in the blue bathroom.

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Next job, pink bathroom. We need to take out the old bath, find it a lovely new home in the hallway, it’s a bit too heavy for me to help carry down the stairs without the risk of maiming Matt at least, and apparently some more re-enforced concrete. The super good news however is that it seems that where we wanted to put a door there used to be one there before which will save us time, effort and cost of a mason coming back.

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Finally with the house jobs done for the day it is time to get onto the good-stuff, the gardening of course. Tomatoes ready to plant and seems that brassicas go well with alliums which is a relief as I was starting to wonder where everything might go. All in and looking great, and another bed now has a wood border which will make it easier to mow/strim around.

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Matt has been making homemade pizza to test the new pizza stone and I am pretty impressed with the results. I however was back to work again. Since we spent all day getting ‘weekend’ jobs done I’d fallen behind again. Managed to get most of it done though and hopefully broken the back of it so can focus on my other job next week.

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[6 June 2021]