On Tuesday we stopped a bit earlier so Chris and I could go up to the lime quarry in Dunback. We ended up getting two large rocks that weighted over 2 ton each. These are going out the front of Herbert. Chris unloaded them as carefully as he could. Because rocks this size could easily tip the truck. They now sit out front waiting for us to place them one day.

Dean came out on Thursday to test the compaction of the backfill. All my hard work of being on a compactor for four days has paid off. All well above what we needed them to be. One was even over 100%, I was chuffed when the first reading came back at 98.8%.

On Friday Dave came to lay his pipe work. We encounter a problem, we were supposed to fill a block of sand before pouring the blocks with cement. Rowan and I rush off to Ōamaru to pick up a tool from the hire shop to be able to get through, we also pick up Jim’s generator. Luckily Rowan thinks to call the sparky and same issue, Dave is kind enough to drill two extra holes and lay a pipe for the sparky later. This is a job that shouldn’t have been needed. Unfortunately we have no clue so we didn’t realise. Our builder should have told us. We quickly realise if it is not his problem he doesn’t care. Which sucks for us as it causes more time and money for us with other contractors.

After a hot long day we went for a swim to cool off on the way home. I say we, Rowan got in I paddled my feet.

Saturday is here and I have been keeping this truck out of the blog. Not really intentionally just forgot to write about it. We picked up this Bedford for $500, believe it or not it actually drives. Rowan considered driving it out to Herbert, but we ended up getting Skevingtons to pick it up for us. The dumped it at the hall a few days ago and we put a note up. Well today is the day we move it onto our land. It has no gas tank just a Jerry can taped under the hood. It takes a while to get started, which is strange as we had it going easily before. Looks like it just locked up in a funny way. Mike our neighbour from Till St turns up and lends a hand. I go to the top of the road to stop any traffic wanting to turn in. Rowan miraculously drives the old truck all the way into place. I did video it but it’s rather long!

An early morning of up and go! We head to Jim’s farm to get some firewood. A fantastic road sign in Maheno which gave us a laugh. After loading up Jim got us some large wood rings to use as chopping blocks. Do you like Rowan’s bucket ride? Rowan and I had breakfast at the Riverstone Kitchen, a place we have been meaning to try for a very long time. I can see why it is popular. We will need to try a sweet treat next time. The meals were too big to fit in anything else.

Cory is here today, he is helping load the firewood and trim up some more trees. Rowan puts more stakes in for the fruit trees and I faux bake. I don’t have an oven but at New World the bakery area makes these delicious cookies that taste like they are homemade rather than store bought. I made some royal icing and decorated them. It took me longer than I thought it would a good 2.5 hours later I was finally done. I couldn’t find the twine to wrap them up so I used orange builders string haha