June 2009

Garden June 2009

When June came around we decided that it would probably be a good didea to spend some time in the garden, and see what we could change and make better, or just add too.. I love a pretty garden and so does Jan, and looking back on what we started with only inspires us to do more.. We started by having a section of the field fenced off to provide a larger space to work in and with. Our neighbour Hannes came and built us a bridge and a small wood fence out of droppers.. We then removed the little gate and placed that further down where the new fence was. This was primarily to keep the horse out of the garden as well.

Jan then built a washing line, as we didn't have one and it was sorely needed. Two families with washing, and no line... well it could not go on like that. We have since moved the washing line to a better position, and changed the part of the garden where it used to be. :)

Washing line



Pig sty

There were so many other things that also needed doing, and we were kind of getting the feeling that we had bitten off more than we could chew. But we pushed on and made a ga-zillion mental notes of everthing that we wanted to change. The pig sty being one of them. This would be the start of our future piggie house. And just as importantly the beginning of our chicken house. So poles were planted, and some fencing attached. The end of the shed building was broken down and a wall built to close that up.

Shed end

 There used to be two toilets or showers there, but thankfully these were long out of function, and therefore no mess...hehe. the wall seperating them was broken down, and the whole area built up to be a room in a shed. The top was closed using scale planks. The chicken house was at this stage just a lean to at the end of the shed, with roofing poles etc in place. And essentially this would just have to be cladded now.

African Reed putting in ceiling

African Reed doing the other side of the ceiling

As for the inside of the house. We had African Reed come and put in our ceilings for us in the loft room, and the main room of the house. I was quite amazed at how quick they worked, and how efficient they were.. The offloaded the reeds, and equipment, and the three workers. That was it.. They completed the entire ceiling in the best part of a day. By the afternoon they were done, and had started to tidy up. Behind the reeds are insulation, a 50mm green Isotherm, which is made of recycled plastic. This was covered with hessian to help prevent dust, and keep bugs from falling onto the floor. The reeds are still green and fresh when they get ut into the ceiling, and as time passes they dry out and go yellowish. Its a very noisy process as the workers had saws to cut the reeds to length, and then the compression nail gun to nail the reeds in place. But the result is lovely, and we are glad that we had it done. :)

The completed ceiling