Nothing is as nice as a productive weekend with good company!

Friday going into the weekend was less than stellar. In the morning I had a skip delivered to remove the brick and renovation rubble, old fencing wire and assorted junk from moving. So good to have it gone but trying to get it done meant me doing it on my own all Friday (which I probably shouldn't have done...) and then with Nic on Saturday and then finishing up this evening.

On the way home just as it's getting dark my car blew a tyre. And I mean really, truly BLEW... every bit of rubber on the whole tyre gone. No big deal - just put on the spare right? Problem: This WAS the spare. Just previous the regular tyre had gone flat and we'd not replaced it this week. So we're facing a $130 towing charge, plus a new tyre and no way I'd be able to make m appt Saturday morning. The fellow who showed up though is a local and said since we were so close it was $50 and if we'd give him the flat, a mate of his was coming over that night who could match it with a second hand one and would also drop it off at our house the next morning for $50. Just promise to bring the money the next time we're in town. Can I just say this attitude it one of the things I *love* living in a small town again???

Then today was the day of the BYP Victorian picnic get together in Silvan. Much excitement for us as not only as I love get togethers, and especially with BYPers (nothing like a bunch of folks who understands your obsession because they're just as obsessed!) but also because we actually had a real live guest here... two even! We almost never get people over which stinks as I love having people over but most of our friends are still closer to the city and not up for the long haul. BB and his wife Judy had come all the way down from the Albury area for the get together though and so we had them over in the morning before leaving for the picnic.

The picnic itself was great, nice to catch up with everyone and chat as always. Plenty of food to share around and a lovely BBQ site ensured a good lunch for all. BB also had a trio of adorable little Aylesbury ducklings from Jacquie which I had to fuss over. ;-) (I misssssss having ducklings!) Of course by the time we took this picture, you can tell a certain little person who'd gotten up 2 hours earlier than normal (never a good thing!) this morning was well and truly over-tired but on a sugar high from some pavlova which meant he didn't nap, so when asked to stop running for a millisecond and sit for a picture we got the resulting expression - check the zoom in!
"No picture mum! I wanna play!" Mind you three seconds later he was back off and running, grump averted. Thankfully Nic was able to play mum's hero and take La off to play a few times so I could have a break, sit and chat. Veeeeeery much appreciated, especially as atm I'm rather feeling in need of a break between the clean-out, general busy days and being pregnant!

The downside of the day was that a fair number of us brought our dogs as the picnic was at a dog-friendly park and Hope highlighted concerns I've been having about her. She was spooking out and panic barking at various things throughout the day, while refusing to approach and narking at a couple of other dogs from her crate. *sigh* This is something I've been seeing in her more and more lately. It's pretty much coincided with social maturity, which was my worry with her and something I'd been waiting to see if it'd crop up in her second year or so. I'd seen a few of what I suspected were precursor signs earlier on and believe much of Veri's difficulties are inherant and have a genetic basis so I'd wondered if I wouldn't see this emerge at this time even while crossing fingers I wouldn't. :-? After it seeming like the conformation isn't coming together with her pretty much nixing the showring, I'm not terribly happy with the idea sports being challenged by behaviour issues let alone the fact I'd hoped she'd avoid this for her own sake.

It gets better...

Electrician dude came out today. The verdict? He dunno.

Dunno if it fried because of the rain-leak. Dunno if it's something else. Dunno where precisely the problem is because he chased it around the entire house, into the ceiling and under the roof and through every house for several hours until it was pitch black outside.

The only thing we DO know is that there is a whole craploada blackwire and rubberwire up there.

Which is interesting, since we had a prepurchase inspection and having dealt with it in our Hawthorn home (built in 1911) I specifically asked about it's presence here and was told there was some but it was remanent, inactive and the plasticwire sound. Then again, the roof was also rated as secure. Not only are the rubberwires crumbling and craptastic but they are NOT inactive - probably the reason for the problem... two of them crumbling, touching and killing the circuit... and rather interestingly rigged with other wiring and done in a way that beggars belief.

Recomendation? While we're replacing the roof, we should replace all the wiring up there too.

*whimpers as I wave bye-bye to Canberra*

Doh!

I don't mind the renovations I want to do but I really don't need Murphy kindly handing me MORE of them!

We now have a new indoor water-feature aka a leaky roof. This did not make me very happy. Even less amusing was the lights going out, probably courtesy of the leaky roof.

Out comes the roofing guy. "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news blah blah blah no shortcuts yadda yadda yadda Archicenter really shouldn't have missed that during prepurchase inspection blah yadda blah NEW ROOF." Oh. And btw you should call an electricity repairdude to ensure your house won't go up in an electrical fire.

'S a conspiracy to keep me away from Canberra by sucking up all my savings I swear!!!

Futher renos...

It's reno-central here at the moment it seems - lately I can't walk from one room to another without tripping on a tradie of some description! ;-)

I finally got my lovely mantles up! Our place has two fireplaces (our sole heat sources) and they had functional but meh-worthy mantles. We'd brought along our lovely period mantles and the overmantle from our last place and finally got them up today! I still need to clean/polish everything but I'm too happy not to share! They're UP! TADA!!!!

(Paint is the next thing happening in this room... the pinky-red doesn't do it for me!)

And the bedroom fireplace... much more detailed carving than the pic shows, but as it's ebonized wood it's so hard to get a good picture of! Still to clean up the bricks/paint/tiles.

Our porch was ripped up completely yesterday, the floor and cross-beams or whatever they're called and all.

(Old boards ripped up, exposing support boards about to be ripped up.)
The roof was propped up by several large boards wedged into the ground in a manner that looks like it wouldn't hold but is shockingly sturdy. The new deck is in place and it's all purdy just waiting for me to oil it! The skirting around the house is mostly done, three and a half sides so far.

(New boards in place, waiting for deck to be put in.)

(And TA DA!!! New shiney pretty porch!)
The Terrible Trio are very pleased with themselves. All three are loving the fact that tradies move between their worksite and truck so very often because every time one of them does,kibble rains from heaven upon them. This is to continue Verity's "strangers are treat dispensers in disguise" work and nip Hope's barking her silly head off at people on our property thing in the bud. (Okay, so it's probably just because of her heat but no harm in being extra bulletproof!) Both are stomachs on legs so I had one little half-woof today and that was it!

Hope, after being restricted from running in the paddocks and especially running in the paddocks with Veri and Si, had her first good romp in weeks and was so elated to be let out with the others instead of being banished to the Mudroom of Perpetual Boredom while they romped and having to wait for her seperate, quieter turn.

Miss Verity decided to join us in a clicker session and instead of just focusing on relaxation stuff, I decided to actually see if we could get a 'sit' since that's what I was playing with Hope and Si with. (Well, tbh I was mucking about seeing who could sit faster but close enough...)

Anyhow, we not only got a sit but she had this lightbulb moment. Now Verity under fairly normal circumstances here is Steve Irwin-like in her enthusiasm so Verity when elated is a sight to behold - she dorked out, tore off in a mad dash in a circle as fast as she could, ricocheted off the watertank like a manic flyball dog, came straight back around still going full tilt, skidded the last few feet and SLAMMED into a sit leaving her bum-fluff green with grass stains! LOL

She bounced up, completely unaware she'd almost taken my kneecaps out, slammed into a sit again, jumped up in glee, *WHOMP* back into a sit. "Didjya see that mum??? Didjya??? Didjya huh? I *sat*! I sit and you click and that means TREATS and look at this - *WHOMP* Ha! I did it again! HA! I knew that'd make you click! Whooooooooooooooooooo hooo!!!!"