The last of the crop

The days have turned cold and are noticeably shorter.

The reduction in day time temperature caused the tomato plants to quit for the season.

One last picking was harvested. 

I guess we will have to wait until the warmer months before we can enjoy fresh ...out of the garden tomatoes. Luckily the Little Lady spent a weekend preserving tomatoes at the height of this season crop's production.

We will have plenty of Fowlers preserved tomatoes to keep us going through winter.

However, last night I saw the Little Lady looking enviously at a small plastic "hot house" in the coming Aldi catalog. She asked "Do you think it would be big enough for a few large pots to sit in there?

Perhaps it won't be all preserved tomatoes after all......

Decking Progress

The deck has seen some progress since the sub-frame was stripped down, moved and reassembled.

I had previously used the deck sub-frame as a large flat assembly stage for the construction of the big exposed trusses.

I planned on getting straight into the laying of the deck boards but the Little Lady had other ideas so we got busy laying electrical cables instead.

Recently my Mum and Dad arrived and they were eager to "get that deck done".

Once Dad put his mind to it there was nothing that was going to stop the job from being finished before they left.

We had many days of rain, M&D's solution was a big umbrella and a plastic sheet! No they would not have a day off!

They worked solid.... flogging me along. The three of us worked from before 8am to dusk each night. Around 13 days later the end result was a deck of approximately 53 m squared of stunning, mostly deep red boards.

The decking is of local ironbark, a very hard, dense, long lasting timber.

This strength has a drawback, yes every single screw hole was pre-drilled! That is about 3000 drill holes.

The deck is over 12.5 m long and more than 4 m wide. A landing section at the top of the stairs/ramp takes the deck to 5.3m wide for a 3 m long section.

The landing is still awaiting boards. I am hoping to hear from the mill any minute.

I have been oiling the boards and  must say I think it looks stunning. Thanks M&D for your amazing effort and drive.

Once the landing area receives the remaining boards I will install the balustrades, wires and skirting boards.

More progress soon I hope.