Backyard Citrus Grove

The previous owners of our house obviously loved to grow their own fruit.

We have had a bountiful supply of Mangoes that were eagerly devoured by the girls, we have had Paw Paw, not a huge fan but it was much better than I had expected.

Freshly Squeezed OJ for breakfast.

In the last two weeks we have had a huge amount of Oranges and Lemons ripen on the trees in the backyard. There were many kilos of Oranges so we ended up juicing nearly all of them. It was the tastiest, sweetest juice I have ever had. So far we have produced more than 10 litres of fresh OJ, it is wonderful to have a fresh chilled OJ for Brekky.  The Lemons are proving a little harder to use, I think we will end up making some Marmalade.

The last of this seasons Oranges.

Amazing amount of fruit from a small tree.

Next fruit to ripen will be Mandarins, we have a small tree with a small amount of fruit on it, however it is still quite some time from being ripe. 

Mandarins not ripe yet.

The pool build is still going, it is frustrating to hear from a neighbor that they started to build their concrete pool seven weeks after us and have been swimming in it for a month! That being said, our pool fence has been certified and I have been told our pool will have the pebble applied on Monday. It should then be filled and chemicals added by the end of the week. Hopefully we will have a functioning pool for the change of season and the onset of winter! We will call ourselves the Pullenvale Penguins and we will be swimming in the pool the first day it is ready - come hell or high water we will be swimming in the pool on the first day it is ready! Photos of the first swim will be provided.

The filter, chlorinator and pump set whilst being top notch good gear, is not terribly appealing to the eye. Hardly the sort of thing you want to adorn your backyard to add visual appeal. So how do you screen such a beast? As you can see the filter is a large black orb with a couple of VSD driven pumps, salt chlorinator and associated PVC pipework. Noice different unusual...

Pretty hey...

I had the idea that a stone Gabion wall will give the desired screen and add some visual appeal to another wise pretty ordinary looking piece of kit. The next few photos and notes will hopefully illustrate the construction phase of aforementioned backyard art.

Structural posts in place.

The first step is to add some posts to give the Gabion some stability, it is possible to make them without support but the base width must be one third the height of the Gabion. A 500mm wide base was too much for my design so two 50x50 gal RHS posts provide enough strength to support the wall. The design incorporates three walls with a sloped corrugated galvanised iron roof to keep the sun and weather off the gear. The three walled set up should also allow easy service access to the pool equipment and the AC unit.

With the posts set it was time to cut and set up the wire frame that houses the stone that make the Gabion, I was initially going to wire the mesh frame together, but have since decided to weld the mesh together and paint the welds with cold gal. The welds should provide further strength to the wall. It took a little more time than I had expected but I am pleased with the results.

Mesh frame in place.

I learnt an import lesson very early on in the rock filling process, there were not enough lateral supports to keep the sides straight (as Karren had suggested). We had to remove all rock and add more supports, then start again.

Doesn't look much better yet.

Lower section complete.

I am pleased with the results, there are plenty of different colours in the rock fill that are even more pronounced when the rocks are wet.

About half finished

Getting there.

 It was a pretty successful day, I ran the conduit for the power to control the pool cleaner as well. All is in readiness for the pebble coating. Could really have done with a swim when I finished today...

What is it with the Weather?

The weather over the last few weeks has been great with only the odd shower here and there to settle the dust. Of course now that we are finally up the the stage where I can begin to do some of the work I need to do with the landscaping it starts to rain and I am stuck inside writing a blog instead of doing what really need to be done! Frustrated only begins to describe it!

Anyhow the pool fencing is finally complete, and I reckon it looks alright. After watching the guys install it, I realised I should have bought the fence and fittings and done it myself. Unfortunately I just needed to see it done first to give me enough confidence in my ability that I could have done it myself. Not to worry it looks great.

The view from where I will be sitting drinking my beers watching the kids.

The desired result has been achieved, I can comfortably sit on the back porch and look out over the pool into the bush - view uninterrupted!

View looking west

The position of the pool ensure we have sun shining on it until late into the afternoon, that along with the solar heating will ensure we get maximum usage out of the pool. That is the theory anyway.

In the background of the photo directly above you can see four Paw-Paw trees, we have had our first ripe fruit, it was surprisingly good. The oranges are nearly ripe, we will be picking them over he next few weeks and enjoying some freshly squeezed OJ for brekky!

Strip footings look OK - you can't pick 20mm run out by eye...

Very happy with the results.

The strip footings were completed the weekend of Emily's birthday week, we had her best friend Heidi and her mum Margeux visit us from Ballarat as a special treat for her. The concreting started at 7.30am and it was all hands on deck - Margeux and Karren both made excellent concrete labourers, all they needed was a hat made from a hanky with the four corners tied in knots and they would have been set so to speak.

The weekend trip to Movieworld was a highlight the rides were awesome and Emily really enjoyed the Superman ride after controlling her fear of dying while riding it! Rosie is still frustrated by not being tall enough for the really scary rides but she LOVED the Scooby Doo adventure ride.

What is it with Rosie giving herself rabbit ears?

I had a run in with what I believe to be a Coastal Taipan at the Brookfield Produce centre the other day. To be quite honest if I never see another snake I won't be disappointed! It gave me a scare at the time, but only when I googled images of snakes that call SEQ home and recognised what it was, that I had nearly trodden, on did a true sense of oh shit sink in. The girl that worked at the produce centre who was nearly bitten trying to pick it up should also thank her lucky stars...