'Tis the season to be jolly!!!!!!

Well that's Christmas done and dusted for another year - Oh No, wait.. I still have 1 more day off tomorrow woohoo!

Not a huge amount to report on from the build this week, due to the festive period, I did let Mr M have 4 days off too, although as I am writing this he is out in the garage doing wiring!

I really do admire all my dedicated readers, I am sure there are more interesting blogs out there? somewhere? maybe? but this week it sure is electrifying around these parts! Electrics here, there and everywhere!

Light switches inside....

 

Each bay now has 2 lights, not necessarily for when we are living in there but certainly for when it is a garage, the more lights the merrier!

 

We have an outside switch for our outside lights.. Oh and some outside taps (faucets) so there was a bit of plumbing this week too!

And then Christmas happened! I am going for "wife of the year" award, which I have to say, by letting my husband quit his job to basically be a builders bum already has me high up on the list! I think the thing that will tip the vote in my favor was buying the Quality Street for Christmas!  Most expensive tin ever, but so worth it! it just wouldn't be Christmas otherwise!

We had a great Christmas, despite there not being a huge roast dinner, we did BBQ steaks and trust me, we ate plenty :) It was nice to just kick back on the most uncomfortable sofa in the world and watch TV! But wait you cry...  you don't have a TV in your trailer, I have never seen one?

Ah ha.. I am married to Mr M remember!  We have a door under the window ledge..

And behind the Green door we have an ingenious bracket..

And voila... we have TV!

What else did we do this weekend? well over the festive weekend Cape Blanco lighthouse, and historic Hughes House have been open to the public for free tours, so we went to the lighthouse yesterday, we weren't able to go up into the lantern room as there is some structural issues apparently, but we went inside and saw the lighthouse room etc.  It was built in 1870 and has some really interesting history, if you are interested you can read more about it here:

http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=125

The light house sits 1.5 miles out into the ocean on Cape Blanco and apparently highest recorded winds out on the cape were on the Columbus Day Storm, when it was recorded around 180 mph! 

Today we went to the historic Hughes House, built in 1898 by an Irish man and his wife who established the first dairy farm on the sixes river.  It is decorated for Christmas every year and opened to the public by the Cape Blanco Historical Society.  It was gorgeous, I could easily live there, they were obviously a very wealthy family as it is a big house for that time.  Each room was decorated by individual local organizations, next year I will be getting them in to decorate my home for Christmas!

http://www.enjoyportorford.com/hugheshouses.html

It is good to see that everything we have is multi-functional! both the spaniels got a haircut yesterday as they were rather ahem - shaggy!  Mr M makes a fantastic job of grooming them and as Port Orford doesn't have a dog groomers, maybe he should think about starting a business, he could go mobile as his scaffolding has wheels!

As long as everyone just wants their dogs to have a buzz cut our business will be a success!!

I have decided that living here I need to embrace the local culture, during the winter the main topic of conversation is the weather, how much rain was there last night? which direction does the wind blow? etc.  My Christmas presents definitely will help me to immerse myself into it fully!

Thermometer and rain gauge *nerd alert*

And my weathervane, I love her!

One of Mr M's presents was this...

If the dog grooming business doesn't pan out, maybe he could write a book! I am sure he has some additions he could add to this guys ideas!

Finally, we did some chicken maintenance - on the coop not the chickens, we had them positioned in the lowest part of their plot and so they were getting quite wet, we moved them up to higher ground and also added some plastic siding to stop the southerly wind and rain blowing in on them.  We also have finished their gate and now they are all set.

I personally think they are going through a faze of non-forgiveness judging by the lack of eggs - by Spring they might love me again!

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me - 11 Pipers Piping!

Pipes, pipes everywhere and not a drop to drink - or should that be water?

Well its been a plumbing kind of week, lots of pipework, pipes coming in, going out, for waste and for water!

We went from this last week...

To all our waste water pipes being in situ..

 

 

It is actually all connected to the septic and so that we can complete our inspection where it is all filled up to check for leaks, WITH FRESH WATER PEOPLE! we have these funky little caps on top of the open pipework! after the inspection a sink will be attached to this pipe!

 



 

And of course water going out has to come in first, so all our fresh water piping is in too! I will leave it to all you intelligent geniuses to guess which is for hot and which is for cold!

 

Here is our shower..

Hot water tank & washing machine behind it..

Mr M has been very busy this week I have hardly seen him... Where's Wally?

 

Am I the only person who thinks he should be working on a Carnival float in this outfit?

So that's the barn update - exciting stuff and we are starting to get excited about moving in.  We went to look at appliances this week too which made it all seem much closer to reality! At last we will be spending money on something I can enjoy! I mean pipes are ok and obviously necessary and functional, but an oven is so much more stylish!

This last week or so we have been well and truly battered with storms coming in from the pacific, it has been one after another and due to storms and very high tides during the day we hadn't been able to get down to the beach for a walk for about 2 weeks.

This weekend we were treated to some gorgeous weather, such a nice change from the wind and the rain, it was low tide at midday so we went and made the most of it.  WOW it was surreal to see the beach after all these storms, at first I thought there had been a rock fall onto the beach until we got closer and realized it was where all the sand had been washed away for the past 2 weeks and our lovely sandy beach....

is now a lovely rocky beach!

 

We estimate about 4 ft of sand has been washed away to somewhere - Japan? California? Mexico? England? the writing on the bottom of this rock was right at about sand level 3 weeks ago!

 

Anyway the most wonderful thing about big storms and getting back on the beach is the beachcombing.  Although the shocking thing about that is how much plastic there is washed up, I find it so upsetting to think that this is just a mere morsel of the amount of plastic that there actually is floating around in our oceans, it has certainly made me think about the role of plastic in my day to day life!

SO back to the wonderful part of beaches after storms and beachcombing, you find so many amazing things:

Wheels and tyres - lots of them, probably from all those boat trailers that get washed off of docks, or cars that are stuck in the mud...

And as I said, lots of plastic... plastic pallets, I really wish I had a need for this, it seems such a waste to just leave it....

Plastic toilets... at least after all the washing you know it is clean...

Tennis balls, this is where all the lost balls end up, spot the ball...



 

And rope, always lots & lots of different rope and naturally of course, erm......... handcuffs???????

 



 

Being back on the beach is good for the soul, it is like the mountains and an ever changing scenery.  We are fortunate to be here and to be able to witness its changes.

 

We are now heading into the Christmas week and just 4 more days of work before a long weekend.  I hope that everyone has a wonderful festive season, Thanks for following along, and Merry Christmas from Mr & Mrs M, the doglets, the chickens and the Pelicans!

 



Bang Bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer........

I have had that song stuck in my head since Tuesday of this week.... WHY?? because Mr M has been busy using his nail gun, which happens to be silver! it is SO cool though as each time it hammers in a nail a flame shoots out of the back - ok so it might be more of a tiny spark, but that doesn't sound quite as cool as a flame!

As you can see he his completed his Health & Safety training and is now following all directives set forth!

Tilly also attended the training, which was overseen by Daisy... when carpentering you should always wear protective headgear!

So why all the hammering? we have a bathroom!! woohoo, well we have walls and a door frame and a floor.  The floor is a raised floor as all the pipework will run underneath, it was a much simpler way to complete the plumbing rather than having to have had it all planned out and put in before the floor was concreted in for the barn, no way were we that organized! at that point we weren't sure where we were going to put the bathroom.

so we have a floor.....

A wall....

And a door frame....

 

The wall will also be the wet wall in the kitchen, with the washer/dryer, sink, etc. Mr M has been busy drawing up his plumbing plans, and laying out his pipes, joints etc. and planning where the water and waste will enter and exit the building.

 

The building inspector is coming by this week to answer some questions and to make sure we are heading in the right direction, it would be better to find out now that something isn't right and won't work, rather than when it is all put together etc.

Exciting stuff though, beginning to see the start of our next "temporary" home :)  We have also been looking at appliances, I will be ready for my cooker when we move in!  I miss having an oven!  the trailer had an oven in it when we brought it, however I decided that it would be much more use to me as a storage area (and a lot safer to me) than an oven, so we removed the inerds and it now holds my bread maker and my bin. 

My bread maker is doing a GREAT job as doubling up as an oven for cake making! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm fresh bread or chocolate chip cake anyone?

Finally "Spaniel, Hound & Spaniel PI Inc." are investigating the mysterious oily footprint that has appeared in the barn.  They haven't found a one legged dog anywhere, nor have they seen any evidence on anyone's paws to suggest the culprit is local!  The investigations will continue until the mystery is solved! 

In the meantime Confucius says "stay away from oil trays, they give much treasured secrets away!"