Deck Evolution

Apparently, when Darwin first proposed evolution he was aware it would be a slow process, but he had little idea just how slow. To say the same about us & our deck would be grossly unfair, but there is a flavour of slow evolution about this project.

A couple of weeks ago we finally got the call from Rob, our friendly welder, to say that he could start work on the steel frame. This took about a week (see Pippa inspecting the quality of the work on the left), and he was gone by Tuesday of last week. Nat set to work painting parts of the frame on Wednesday, and Ella & I finally kicked off laying the timber on Friday afternoon, after I collected her from pre-school.

As with any new project, there is a learning curve. By Saturday morning I had Patrick to help with this learning (good to have an experimental physicist on deck [haha] for this part; not to mention Susie looking after the children). Conan came around later in the day to apply number theory to optimising the use of the timber. By nightfall, there was enough decking timber down for Conan and I to perch on the edge and drink a beer, but it all seemed a little pathetic in proportion to how sore and tired my body was!

Another full day's week on Sunday, this time we had the ultra-efficient Nat drilling boards, while the kids were eliminated from the equation with a visit to Nana.

So, a full weekend into construction we now have enough timber laid to reach one of our two front doors (provided you are able enough to vault a metre up onto the deck). The kids seem to like it so far, although the jury is out as to whether it's a playground or a catwalk (see below). Stay tuned for progress ...

Mossy Point

Every year at about this time, we take an extra long weekend (as though there aren't enough public holidays in the first 4 months of the year) and head down to Mossy Point. This year we had hoped to have Grandad with us, but he's in Perth nursing a broken achilles tendon, so we headed down by ourselves. Mossy Point is one of our favourite spots on the coast -- not too crowded, peaceful beaches ...




... as well as a creek (perfect for Katy to play in) and the world's best muffin shop/cafe.



Beach-time with the girls is becoming more fun every time. Katy is no longer scared of the sound of breaking waves and these days she even wanders into the sea on her own to jump over the waves (OK, it may only be up to her knees, but it's a big improvement). Ella, meanwhile, can now carve up the waves on her boogy-board! She starts out at something like thigh deep water and launches herself onto the choppy remains of a broken wave -- luckily she's light enough that it carries her along about 20% of the time.



Of course, March on the South Coast is not so warm, so after our surfing we needed to take shelter from the wind near Candlagan Creek and occupy ourselves with sand castle construction.



And, for Nat, the most important activity of the week is to have proper fish & chips for dinner, which I'm informed is not possible in a landlocked city like Canberra. This means a trip to Moruya and the flying fox, which Katy can now happily ride on (with a only a couple of near-disasters).



Anyway, holidays are always too short, and we arrived back to Canberra soon after lunch on Monday. Next trip to the beach will be camping at Potato Point over Easter....

Decking Progress

So progress on the deck has been slow for several reasons. Firstly the rain just won't stop. The mean monthly rainfall for Feb and March are 51mm and 55mm. This year the mean rainfall for Feb was 127mm and for the first 11 days of March it's 170mm! This has meant the deck man who is responsible for building the steel structure wasn't able to get out of his property due to flooding but even if he could it was way too wet for outdoor welding!

Second complication was that Grandad, Andy's assistant for installing the boards, was suppose to fly in to Canberra last friday but is currently in hospital after requiring surgery for a ruptured achilles tendon which snapped while he was playing his weekly indoor cricket match. We are all really devastated that he won't be joining us but hope he has a speedy recovery and is back on his feet soon.

Despite these setbacks, the timber from Thor's Hammer arrived at the end of last week. Today we managed to oil both sides of the 129 planks of wood which are now drying. We have removed the camelia tree much to Ella's disappointment as she loves the flowers. I've also moved the few shade loving plants from in front of the current porch.The deck man is pencilled in to come on wednesday to start construction on the frame barring rain.

Piggy and Tweety

Andy bought home these beanie ballz toys from the US which apparently are supposed to always land on their feet. Katy's is the pig which she named Piggie while Ella's is the guinea pig which she named Tweety.

Piggy and Tweety portraits drawn by Ella!

Dry Night

Yesterday was the first day we didn't have to wash sheets with Ella's 3rd attempt with no night nappies. It's been a very long road with the first attempt about a year ago. And although she did remain dry last night it was with lots of assistance - taking her to toilet at 11.30pm, her waking at 3am wanting help to go to the toilet and then us waking her just after 6am prompting her to go to the toilet. Anyway we have discovered fairy rainbow books and luckily for us there are over 100 in the series. At this stage Ella earns a book if she manages to go to the toilet herself whether it be in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning. Ella now owns 6 books! The road ahead will be a long one but at least we haven't done a u-turn yet as in previous attempts!