Rainfall this week : 1/2 mm

Starting the day very slowly today, these two mature aged apprentices are feeling every year of their age this morning🥴. Working with someone half your age for four days will do that to you though. But it is worth every weary bone in our bodies when you witness what we have achieved.

Thank goodness for Liam. My absolutely amazing nephew drove out to us on Monday morning after a two week stint working out west and pulled this over the line with us in four days, even with the two oldies in tow. Putting him straight to work on Monday we managed to erect about a third of the frame even with having to make a few adjustments due to a measurement error on the slab. (Not from us by the way)

We honestly wouldn’t have been able to complete this without Liam. Those frames are bloody heavy. What was great though is that they were all numbered. We could check the supplied plan and look for the corresponding internal or external number and away we go. But of course sometimes the frame that we required next was at the bottom of the pile🤪. By the end of a very big day Tuesday we had the frame up and started to get ready for the trusses which were delivered on Wednesday.

Racing against the clock Wednesday morning, serendipitously the trucks carrying our trusses happened to get a little lost trying to find us which just gave us enough time to complete the hatching/ribbon plate around the perimeter of the frame so that the trusses could then be placed on top ready for us to stand up.

Remember how I mentioned about the frame you wanted next would be underneath nine other ones, well of course that happened with the trusses also🥴. Here we thought we had them placed perfectly in the middle facing the correct way, only to find out the end gable for the eastern side was on the bottom. So after dragging the top trusses across to the other side we were finally able to make a start. Of course that was also after realising the end gable which has two trusses was pre nailed together. Mustering all our strength we managed to lift it into place. Again these things are NOT LIGHT!

After getting a few up on the eastern side Liam pushed us into getting the other heavy end up so Thursday would be an easier day. After a lot more dragging of trusses back and forth across the frame we did it👏

Finishing the frame was such an amazing achievement. And again we definitely couldn’t have completed it without Liam. I think even Liam was slightly surprised we could almost keep up with him🤣. My nephew is very clever and bloody fantastic at what he does. One very grateful and proud Aunt here.

After battling high winds, impending rain, dust storms, hot sun, relentless flies, crazy dogs, cold mornings and two mature aged apprentices Liam admitted he had fun and has promised to come back👏👏👏 And I’m pretty sure the dogs are missing him already.

I honestly can’t really remember what we did last weekend. More prep in readiness for Liam, grocery shopping, watering and more watering, a breakfast date in town, a few beers at the shearing shed with the neighbors, washing and some early nights. Another busy week has passed by and more amazing sunsets have ended the days nicely, oh and we are now on daylight savings. We aren’t particularly fans of it, especially living so close to the border as our phones chop and change between QLD and NSW times. And quite frankly I rather doubt the stock realise that they should now sleep in for another hour🤔.

On that note, we best get out of our pyjamas, get showered and get back to work. This house ain’t going to finish itself😆.