The Mystery Continues...

Charles adds more form work to the structure... we have been asked if it's a plunge pool, cellar, water feature or a breeding place for the famous Bufo Marinus.

A few rocks placed carefully here and there and 'hey presto' we have walls... a bit of hard work and a pathway appears.

Its getting too hot to work outside during most of the day so things have slowed a little but with the cooler weather we are having now we should (hopefully) have a bit more done soon.

In the meantime we have just added a few extra touches .

Meet the Ducks, Disco and Shuggie

A local woman who sells chickens (and also supplied us with some of our hens) found out that we had Plymouth Rock hens and asked us if we would sell them to her but we kept them ourselves, however, after two have passed away due to old age and the last one not getting any younger she offered to take her in exchange for two pullets.

We ended up with two young ducklings (she knew I had a duck before and love the taste of duck eggs), Shuggie and Disco.

Poor Shuggie was gravely ill after a week of being here and we thought we would lose him/her (lost control of the legs and wasn't eating a lot) but after 2 weeks... what a change. still shaky on the legs but every day was a big improvement.

It's amazing just how quickly they grow. they now live in the opposite veggie garden to the chooks and have plenty of shade and protection from the numerous hawks and from the many pigeons that are now hanging around after the chook food that doesn't get eaten due to the bird netting we have installed over the gardens.

I spent Saturday designing and building a Duck House that can be moved from garden to garden as required. Cutting the wheels of the bottom of the old BBQ allowed me to create the perfect mobile Duck Home...

Ah! It's all coming together... Slowly!!!

The Extra soil being removed is being used around the bananas and also the lemon tree to not only bring the ground level but also to add soil where it sure needs it (there is approx 2-5 cms of top soil where the previous owners had the land 'cut n' filled'...

Rocks are laid... boards in place! just need more man (woman) power now!

Is it making any sense yet! It will involve cement, bricks, rocks and hard labour!

Is it a Sauna? Tool shed? Duck pond? or just a Folly (perhaps even bespoke!)

Still wondering what we're up to?

The grass needs to be removed and we are using the sods to grass ares that could benefit from the extra soil and grass plants.

Next on the list of things to do was to remove the top soil and place that soil in areas that need it... not that the whole place could benefit from extra soil... this soil is destined for the banana trees and the citrus.

A trip to the locally privately owned quarry... and you think we get stoned in other ways. tsk tsk tsk!

The bus brings home the booty (albeit in first gear at times!) watch this space for more clues soon! Ciao!!!

Watch This Space/Hole

Guess what this hole is for and win a weekend for two at Wanungara! No clues but the photos and as we progress with the work little teaser pics will be added... put your thinking caps on!!!

Never a dull moment, we just keep on working and devising new things to get our creative juices flowing!

Wood Fired Pizza Oven [stage 4]

So it's finally time to fire up the oven and see if it works! That is to see if it will hold it's heat, cook pizza and some bread in the stored heat afterwards.

Mmmmmm! Pizzas cooking away nicely... The recipe for the base came from a great bread book called 'The Bread Baker's Apprentice' which has some fantastic incites in to bread and it's making plus some of the best recipes I have tried (not that I have tried a lot before the oven was made!)

Charles is certainly happy at the helm of the oven... handles a peel like a pro! and just like Charles... they're big and they're cheesy!!!

So the final conclusion... a great success! There will be many pizzas cooked in this little beauty and a few parties too I would say! interestingly the oven is still toasty warm 48 hours later!

There are a couple of things we would do differently next time. it was a learning curve and we did make mistakes, but hey! it works and that's all that really matters when you have a mouthful of good pizza!!!

Wood Fired Pizza Oven [stage 3]

More hard work, a weekend with a bricksaw (luckily it was sunny so the solar panels helped reduce the energy use. The saw was required to cut the angles on the bricks so that the dome took shape without too much refractory mortar required.

Then layer by layer, brick by brick, the dome takes shape!

With the brickwork finished and the chimney in place... Hmmm! can almost smell those pizzas already!

Charles made a fairly solid door for the front out of some of the hard wood we had left over from the Guest room build. lined inside with a sheet of thin steel to keep the heat in and to protect the door.

The insulation layer of vermiculite is then spread over the brickwork, this in retrospect, should have been replaced by a fibreglass insulation blanket which would have allowed for the expansion of the chamber more than the vermiculite does.

Then a render coat over the top and the oven is ready for a small fire to test the brickwork and then a raging fire to get some food cooked!!! looking forward to it!