Tony came out to help us with the truck. Well we got more done than I expected. We lined the inside with the cheap Oregon we got from Palmerston. It smells wonderful and looks great. we used left over expos insulation from our houses.

Look at these awesome puff balls we found. Yum yum! We have been having mushrooms with every meal. There is just so many of them!

Rowan and I pulled finger to finish off jobs with the truck. I got that luton cleaned out and Rowan finished off the doors for the window. We put the mattress inside and viola. We have a bedroom.

Late Thursday night Rowan booked tickets to Sydney. Bette has osteoporosis and is healing nicely but would like a visit. Rowan is just going for a couple of days. Then in April we should have more time to both be able to visit and stay longer.

At 1am I gave up trying to sleep in the camper and went to the truck. Rowan was struggling to get to sleep and I was struggling staying asleep. Man it is comfortable to be in a real bed again.

Rowan leaves Saturday morning on an early flight. So today we do a couple of jobs before he goes up and stays the night at Rick & Liz’s.

We offered help to our neighbour Jim. His sister in law is having trouble with her driveway draining. We get up early have breakfast and get the job done in an hour. Between us all it doesn’t take long to break up the AP and shovel it into our trailer. Jim will reuse the gravel somewhere.

Rowan and I then head to Palmerston to see Graham and Vaughan. It was a very productive meeting and we are all now on the same page.

A quick run down… Murray who has been the main builder is now not allowed to be working on our houses. We tried last year and he was supposed to come back this year with Graham being the lead builder. Well it just hasn’t worked out. We told Tama that we don’t want him no more and to send someone else. Now we have Graham and Vaughan who I am sure will work alongside us to get this done. Rowan and I feel much better about the situation.

Rowan leaves around lunchtime on his motorbike. I get a few jobs done around Herbert. Then head in to buy paint and go out to the movies. I saw Snow White, which was pretty good. It was for a fundraiser for Easter camp.

Saturday morning. I get to check out Macraes Mine. Rowan is sad that he is missing out. There is over 1000 people going through today and we booked the earliest time of 9am. I am glad we did as it did get busy pretty quick. We got to check out some machinery. One of the 5 holes in the ground. They eventually dig to roughly 300m (depending on what they find. It is 35 years old and they reckon it will be going till 2050 at least.

That big digger thing is actually electric!

We also got a tour of where they process the rock and pull out the gold. It takes 4 people to run this area. The whole mine runs 24hr a day 7 days a week year around. 700 staff working on 7 days on 7 days off shifts. Processing 800 tons an hour. They process 2.4 million dollars worth of gold a day. Roughly one large bar. They use 60,000L of diesel every 12 hours. It isn’t gold nuggets here, it is a fine dust similar to talcum powder. It was very interesting.

After my tour which took 3 hours I headed to the houses to paint the soffits. Graham suggested I paint them now while they are not up. I may have a touch up or two but it is much easier to do it now. Laura, Alistair and the kids dropped in for a visit. They had a tour at the mine too.

Today’s weather is rather crap. I made the most of it by staying in my pjs and making a net curtains for the truck out of material I had left over from the antique shop. I need to do a little editing and I may add onto it. But I am rather happy with the outcome.

I go into town to do a few errands and realise it is a public holiday. Well that shortened my tasks dramatically. I go home to get a few jobs done around Herbert. Catch up on washing and cleaning. Not a very exciting day I am afraid.