It's Been a Great Week!

Well it is official this has been a great week!

I finally completed my Motorcycle training and assessment with HART and have landed employment with Australia Post as a Motorcycle Postal Delivery Officer! Very happy and thoroughly looking forward to my first day of work on Monday the 25th of March! The girls are excited about Dad being a Postie as well.

The Australia Post induction is one of the most comprehensive and interesting that I have been through. It was a very worth while three days, interesting and engaging! The motorcycle training and assessment was also rigorous, educational and comprehensive. It is a pleasing way to start employment with a new company.

Good news with our pool construction as well!

Form work finished

LED lights in place

Pipe work and skimmer box in as well.

Once the form work was finally completed only bad weather could have prevented the concrete spray from going ahead. Initially booked in for Thursday, a small delay with the form work meant it wasn't sprayed until Friday.

I came home from the motorcycle training to a freshly sprayed pool. It looks fantastic, I am really pleased and you can finally see how the design will allow us to look unobstructed into the bush background from the pool.

The deep middle is very deep

The pool was designed to be deep in the middle at 1.8m and 1.2m at each end. In the end the issues with excavation have given us a pool that is closer to 2.0m in the middle and 1.2m at one end and 1.4m at the other. No big deal, shouldn't affect the use of the pool at all.

Wetting the structural decks for paving

Wetting a green pool in warm weather is crucial to stop cracking, the heat coming from the curing concrete was incredible. It will need a drink three times a day for the next couple of days.

Temp fence spoils the view

The temp fence spoils the view across the pool and feature wall with the bush in the background, we need to pick tiles and pavers for the pool and decide on fencing for the three sides that require pool fencing, no fence is required across the back wall, giving us uninterrupted views from the pool.

Shallow each end

This photo shows the step for sitting on and drinking booze, and the step below and off to the side for Rosie to stand on with her head above water.

The step in the pool.

Another view of the pool with the sitting step in the foreground.

No not filling the pool yet!

Skimmer box off to my right. The feature wall about 350mm above the water level to stop the kids climbing on it and falling out over the back edge of the pool and into the abyss. Not sure how the Mango and Lemon trees will cope with the concrete over spray, I will have a go at rinsing it off the leaves tomorrow.

The formwork comes off in about a week, the excavator then returns to finish the earth works, then tiling and lining with pebbles a week later, then fencing and filling. Should be ready to swim in by the end of April. We are hoping against hope that the solar heating gives us a couple of weeks of swimming before winter sets in, fingers crossed. I will need to do some landscaping and turf work so hopefully I can get all of it completed in the cooler months to have it done and dusted ready for September and the start of the warmer weather.

Won't be much to report on pool wise next week but I will give an update of my first few days at work and report on our visitors for the Easter break. Can't wait.

Pool Progress

The weather has been significantly better this week! Hooray!

The box and steel guys finished the box work Thursday and are commencing the steel reinforcing this week, at this stage the engineer is booked to inspect the steelwork Wednesday and the concrete sprayers booked for Thursday. Fingers crossed this time next week we will have a sprayed pool. The concrete has to then cure for two weeks before tiling and pebble work can be finished.

Looking North-west

Starting to look like a pool

North-west corner

Ready for steel.

I have been doing a fair bit of walking lately, mainly around the Mt Coot-tha forest. There are numerous walking tracks and mountain bike trails in the area. I have walked most of them now and have been enjoying the walks varying in distance from 6 - 10k, the bush  is quite picturesque and it certainly makes for an enjoyable tramp, although the hills are a challenge. I haven't seen much wildlife, however today I managed to see three different Lace Monitors, this one was just a few metres in front of me when he started to climb the tree. It didn't take him long to get all the way up there!

Long way up there!

I couldn't get photos of the other two because the were super cunning and kept moving to the opposite side of the tree from me as I tried to skirt around it to take the photo. This bloke had a different strategy, just climb real high and not worry about hiding.

Safe now!

Colleges crossing is now open again so I thought I would go back and have a look at it without the water. The first thing obvious apart from the road itself was the destruction that the water had caused. The recreation area on the south side of the river was destroyed, the playground looked like it had been crushed like tinfoil.

Was once a playground

Heading to Ipswich

This photo was taken from around the area of the high water mark from the 2013 floods.

Colleges Crossing

The crossing itself looking south-west, the car is roughly where the water was when I took the photos a couple of weeks ago.

Debris everywhere

A little bit of luck!

Week 12 of our Queensland adventure saw a little bit of good luck come our way!

Emily was awarded a Certificate of Recognition for her seamless transition to her new school, both socially and academically. The award was presented to her at the school assembly on Wednesday. We are very proud of the way that both of our beautiful young ladies have adapted to their new way of life and in particular the way they have embraced their new school.

Very proud of Emily

Karren also got some pleasant news, she was informed that she had won a Maggie Beer gift hamper from a raffle that she entered when we visited the Museum earlier this year. The hamper contained some tasty condiments and other assorted foodie stuff including a recipe book. She was well chuffed.

A bit of good fortune also came my way! I was successful at securing a conditional offer of employment, the condition being that I successfully pass a two day training and assessment course. I will provide all details when and if I am successful, but needless to say it is a good confidence boost to be given an offer after not hearing a single word from some 30 odd other job applications. Honestly, people working in Recruitment and HR need to work out a way to simply contact unsuccessful applicants. Surely it is not too much to ask?

The weather continues to dampen both literally and figuratively, our efforts to get some work done on the pool. Fortunately the weather broke long enough to get a day and a half of form work completed this week. It is still very frustrating and we are now a month behind the construction timetable. We have well and truly used up the eight day rain allowance in the contract. There is very little you can do about inclement weather and Stuart and the team at Rogers Pools are as frustrated with the progress as we are.

Some form work

A little more form work

A month ago I joined the Dollar Shave Club. I just got sick and tired of paying ridiculous amounts of money for razors, I was using once a week. Yes I am still being a slob and shaving only once a week! I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the blades. For something completely different I shaved three times in a week the first time I used the blades. I was very happy with how the blades performed and they seemed to maintain their edge at least as well as the expensive stuff I had been using prior. I wouldn't say that they gave a closer shave than the more expensive blades but they were certainly not worse, I would strongly recommend giving them a try.

Emily heads off to her grade five camp this week, to say she is excited about her three day adventure to Edmund Park is an understatement to say the least. The flying possum swing, flying fox, abseiling and ropes course are all activities she has been looking forward to having a crack at. I hope for her sake the weather is kind and the activities meet or exceed her expectations, just quietly the forecast looks horrible!

It is only two weeks to Easter and the end of first term, Emily and Rosie are excited about the school holidays for a couple of reasons. Obviously a couple of weeks off school is appealing, throw in some Easter chocolates and a visit from Nan and Pa, Aunty Lou-Lou and Noel and you have the recipe for two very eagre and excited girls.

Nothing to see here...

Nothing much of any note has occurred in the week since the last blog entry...

Plenty more rain, some rain, a little sunshine, more rain, oh and some rain. If this keeps up I will have webbed feet and gills.

So as I said nothing much to report and definitely no progress on the pool.

I thought today I might check out Colleges crossing which has been closed due to flooding for a couple of weeks now. I crossed Colleges crossing when I drove up from Ballarat but could not remember the crossing in detail, or at all for that matter! I guess a 200 meter section of a 1800km drive is going to be a little hard to recall.

Colleges Crossing 5/3/2013

As you can see from these photos I took on the 5th of March the river is high and very wide whilst the water in the middle is moving at quite a pace, some four to five metres above the road level.

Colleges Crossing 5/3/2013

Flood Level Indicator Colleges Crossing

The paint marking indicates the level of the flooding (about 8 to 9m) this year and pales in comparison to the flood of 2011in the photo below that I found by searching on the interwebs google images. 

High water mark 2011 Colleges Crossing

The tree in the water in the middle of the water in the photo (I found on google images) above is the dead and droopy looking thing at the base of the tree in this shot below. The truck was parked roughly where I stood to take the photos I posted above. The high water mark in 2011 was about 60 or 70m further up the road and more than 10m higher.

Colleges Crossing clean up post 2011 flood

The crossing is closed currently by road blocks, with signage stating the level of demerit and fines applied if you attempt to cross in a vehicle. Given any attempt would end in death I fail to see the point of such signs, however from the photos below you can see that some people will attempt to cross flooded roads that are signed as closed anyway...

Volvo flooded while crossing Pullen Pullen Creek in Grandview Rd.

While taking these photos I got to have a chat with a local who was at pains to tell me that each time this creek floods he has to retrieve someone out of one of the two crossings nearby that are inundated. People it seems are incredibly stupid when it comes to flooded roads. The people who risk their own lives to save them are brave if  not a little silly for putting their own lives at risk to save the stupid. He told me of one family that were washed down stream in a flood, a young man passing by dove into the water to help save their lives, fortunately for the rescuer the barbed wire fence that was normally in situ  had been washed away by the flood water, he was able to save the older lady trapped in the car, but was lucky he didn't lose his own life to save others.

Signage and massive fines and demerits don't seem to be a deterrent, perhaps a different approach is required. My suggestion would be to remove all road closed signs and replace them with a cross at your risk sign and have bigger and better depth markers, maybe even some indicators to show the speed of the water over the crossing. Then let the morons cross if they feel the need and Darwin's theory of evolution should take care of the rest. I am sure this will at least reduce the number of people who are dumb enough to attempt to cross a flooded road. Might lift the average IQ and even improve the gene pool a little as well.

One wrecked and written off Swedish taxi.

Anyway fingers crossed for some better weather in the next week.

Slow Progress or No Progress?

The inclement weather of the last week has meant very little in the way of pool construction. The box and steel boys returned Friday and did a little more form work, this will be the back wall of the pool... sadly that is all we have to show for the week just gone.

Progress from last week.

Last Sunday was Rosie's seventh birthday so in lieu of a party we headed to Seaworld for the day. Later in the day it poured with rain and we got a bit wet, that aside we had a great day. Emily, Karren and I particularly enjoyed the SeaViper roller coaster ride. Rosie is dirty that she is 8cm too short for the  exciting rides.

Not sure of the relevance of Dinosaurs at Seaworld but anyway...

Beachball bounce not as good as Frog Hopper but it was OK

Rosie had a great day and when we got home we had a Birthday cake for her. She is obsessed with Monster High at the moment so only one cake theme would suffice.

Monster High Cake

Last Saturday Charlie the wonder dog also happened to cut his ear (full thickness) by shaking his head and ripping it on my toolbox. Stopping the bleeding was a test of time and patience, a test I failed miserably! Eventually we had the bleeding controlled so we were able to wait until Monday morning until we headed off to the Vets. The Vet insisted on taping his ear to his neck to help recovery and by Wednesday this has caused a weeping sore on his neck. This could only repair itself if he didn't keep scratching and rubbing it on what ever he could find - it was time for an Elizabethan collar!

Poor old fella.

The collar is now off and he is healing well and making a swift recovery, same cannot be said of the wallet which took and absolute belting, antibiotics, creams and drops for ear infections cost a bloody fortune, not helped when the Vet over charges by a lazy $700 and you fail to check the POS machine when you enter your PIN... the money was refunded, but only after mistakingly charging another $700 before finally refunding $1400. Funny thing is the initial overcharge and the extra $700 appear on my account at the moment but not the two refunds, even though the latter occured on the same day at the same time??

Sunday we went for a little bush walk to Simpson Falls in the Mt Coot-tha Forest, I had done a quick reccy the day before when I completed a 8.7k round trip walk from The Gap Creek picnic ground to the Simpson Falls and back. We drove to the Grey Gum picnic ground and did a short stroll to the falls, where upon arrival Rosie took her shoes off and pretended to slip into the cool water of the rock pools.

Simpson Falls

It was a lovely day and we all had a great time, it was particularly amusing when Rosie insisted on leading the way along the path, stating "watch and learn" as she pick her way over and around rocks, fallen trees and tree roots. It was hilarious when she again shouted "watch and learn" as she picked her way across a creek crossing, slipped and went up to her knees in water. Watch and learn indeed!

Moments before the "slip"

The uphill climb to the car park was tedious given the energy reserves of the little ones had been severely diminished, a quick race was called hoping the competitive urge would get them up the hill to the car. It worked a treat, in fact it worked so well that Rosie, Emily and Karren failed to see the three foot Lace Monitor (Varanus Varius) that was scavaging around the bin, designated as a make shift finish line for the aforementioned race to the top.

He couldn't have cared less.

We are hoping the weather forecast isn't particularly accurate and we can get some more construction work completed on our pool. It was already supposed to be concrete sprayed so we are at least a week to 10 days behind schedule... hopefully more progress this week.

Pool Construction Under Way!

It has been a very busy week!

The pool construction started on Tuesday morning with Rick and his 5t Yanmar excavator. It was super exciting to get things moving and everyone had a mile wide smile on their face - for about 25 minutes.

Rick and the 5t Yanmar getting started

Our block is on the side of a hill that runs down into a valley below. Before the house was built, to get some extra flat ground some rather large retaining walls were constructed and clean fill was trucked in from around the area to flatten the block. Normal practice is to lay the fill in 300mm steps and compact with the excavator prior to the next load/layer. It is now apparent to us that no compaction occured. Naughty, naughty naughty peoples...

So what I hear you say, well the pool builder Stuart, expected there to be a need for additional piers to be dug and concreted for the foundations to secure the pool and I learnt pretty quickly, and as you would expect, all foundations must be keyed into natural earth, not fill.

The house itself has solid foundations, the flat area for its construction was cut at the same time the retaining walls were built.

After reaching the pool depth at the West end of the pool, Rick fitted up his 300mm auger and set about digging the first pier, after about two or three minutes it became obvious that the loose concrete and rocks in the fill would not allow the auger to dig. Plan B was to use his 300mm bucket and dig the footing, not ideal but the best option available. After digging for 15 minutes he had reached the dig limit of his excavator and was not yet into natural. Plan C was then swung into action, the dig was called off and another larger machine was booked for Wednesday morning.

Hole nuber two - only 3.5 cubic metres in this one.

Wednesday morning Paul from Edge Earthmoving arrived and got digging, unfortunately due to the nature of the earth surrounding the pier, the hole just kept getting bigger and bigger! At this stage I was getting very concerned, all I could see was $$$$$$ and all I could hear was kaching, kaching every time the bucket pulled another pile of dirt out that would need to be filled with concrete. The scene from the Castle came to mind, I could see Darryl Kerrigan saying "tell 'em, go on tell 'em... Dale dug a hole, tell 'em Dale... he started the patio", then Sal saying "good onya Dale".

Paul and his 8t Hitachi digging hole number four

The build engineer decided we would not need eight piers but now only six due to the sheer size of them, which was a slight relief. Paul decided wisely after completing the third hole that he would not proceed with hole five and six until the largest hole was filled. This would prevent futher collapse of the already excavated holes. Paul stood down his machine and did not charge me the time he had to wait until the concrete pumper and ag turned up. This was extremely generous of him and saved us about $400.

The first massive hole being filled with six cubic metres of concrete.

The holes in the ground were enormous, but got smaller as the holes were dug to the East, however, six cubic metres is a lot of concrete and the need for extra concrete in the piers has blown a big hole into pool budget reserves. Contract variances are a pain in the freckle, but in this case unavoidable.

Using the bucket in hole number five to prevent collapse as it is filled

Dad, I dug another hole...

Preparing to dig the final pier.

The box and steel work contactor got to work yesterday, and while it looks as though not much has been done, they have got quite a bit completed, in what is now a much larger job due to the soil collapse that occured on every dig face.

Form work commenced

Form work for the feature wall

There was quite a large dig allowance included in the quote and given we were not getting our fill carted away we should be able to recoup a portion of dig allowance for the variance from the extra in the piers, the soil from the dig will be used to make another flat area at the bottom of our block below the two existing retaining walls, this area will be properly compacted and levelled thus allowing me to build a small adventure playground for the kids and complete our garden to the boundary of our property.

The dirt that was excavated make big piles.

The piles of dirt are difficult to scale due to the photos but I have worked out that there is roughly 70 cubic metres of soil that will be spread and compacted to provide a small level area.

I will be posting plenty more photos and notes on our progress, the pool should be sprayed by next weekend, things are still progressing well given the very early setbacks. Keep an eye out for updates, or you can subscribe to updated feeds via subscibing to posts using atom, at the LHS very bottom of the page.

Eight Weeks Already

As the title suggests we have been here for eight weeks now, time has certainly flown by...

I think I may have mentioned we have signed contracts with Rogers Pools, Stuart Bevan our pool designer and builder has started by laying out the pool ready for the excavators to start on Tuesday.

Pool Layout looking West

Pool Layout Looking East

Pool Layout Looking North East

We are pretty excited about the pool and can't wait for it to be completed.

Luke and Jo Jephcott visited us this week and we had a great time catching up, we did our best to convince them to move to Brisbane and were able to demonstrate many of the positive attributes of greater Brisbane, luckily they didn't visit QLD when the Kelly's did!

I also had the opportunity to catch up with Wardy and played some poker with him and Errol, unfortunately I was dominating before I had to leave, but my normal form returned and I was able to donate all of my $180,000 chips in three hands before I had to depart.

Chip Leader

Rosie has settled in beautifully at school and made some new friends, she was lucky enough to spend the day today with one of her school friends. She visited a Lego promo at Toys R Us, then went to a post match function for the Queensland Reds where she secured some signatures from blokes she doesn't know of, who play a game she has never seen - apparently they play Rugby or some such?

Rosie came home from School on Friday and was super excited about joining Auskick, I am amazed, when in Victoria the home of AFL she wasn't interested, now we are in QLD she wants to play AFL?? I just don't get it... I have also been asked to join an AFL Superfools side, those of you that know the depth and breadth of my footy skills will get a laugh out of that. 

Today we did some more garden work, we planted a lovely Firewheel Tree Stenocarpus sinuatus it is a member of the Protea family and can grow to 30 or 40 metres in a rainforest but in gardens normally grow to about 10 metres. We will be getting serious in the garden over the next six months or so.

Firewheel Tree Flower

I will post some more photos of the pool works over the next few days...