Well almost 2 months have passed without a web site update - very BAD! The main reason is we've been super busy working on the “shack” and at the same I got a full-time job in Hobart working for Green Team Australia. But let's have a time warp first! It's been one year since Graham and I first visited Tasmania, and on October 25th last year was the first time we discovered the property at Swamp Road in Franklin. Hard to imagine a whole year has passed and 6 months since our return, the cottage construction may only be a few weeks from occupancy. This is a long one - so be warned!

Weeks near August 13th, 2007...
We left off with the concrete slab complete. The slab needed to cure for 28 days before we could bolt in the steel framing supports. We started the framing the first day we could, luckily the weeks before it showered regularly which actually helped the concrete cure to a greater strength. We did random chores and continued to brush cut the block and more documentation for Troy's immigration. We also cleared the upper south area where we built a diversion drain to collect more runoff in the dam. As luck had it, the Huon Valley had a massive rainfall at the same time the river was at a high tide, and this caused a major one-day flood in downtown Huonville. But it filled our dam more than half full! I think we got over 40-50mm of rain in 24 hrs! Next day the sky cleared and no one would have known except the ground was soggy! The steel framing went up fairly quickly, but we had many stops and starts between showers. Since one-third of the structure is a Class 1a residence, it required additional framing over a standard shed, plus we decided to clad the dwelling with timber siding that required special considerations. Many metal screws later by Graham, the frame was complete. Meanwhile, I was hired by Green Team AUS, a communications and advertising company dedicated to guiding companies that wish to make their sustainability issues an integral part of their corporate missions, and began working full-time. I could only work with Graham on the weekends, so this slowed the process down some. To try and beat the rain, Graham hired a new friend, Chris Tyson, whom we met at a 60th birthday for another friend, Gary Saunderson - we met Gary and his partner, Rachel Brumby, in Franklin at the Aqua Grill cafe. Gary and Rachel remembered us from our first visit last year, and found us one day by driving up Swamp Road! Amazing, a few weeks later invited to their house for a dinner party, we got a breathe of the US, when their friend Beverly from Washington DC came for a visit. Great dinner and conversation! Chris came to help Graham get the roof on for a few days during the week, which was a great help! Neighbour Tony, Farmer Tony, Graham and I went to do some scouting and maintenance on the residential water supply dams and while clearing some large branches, Graham got jabbed in the eye with a branch - luckily Doctor Rachel and Nurse Neighbour Tony to the rescue - some antibiotics and an eye patch and Popeye was fine. Great to have medical professionals as your next-door neighbours!

Weeks around September 12th, 2007...
Graham and I finished the roofing on the cottage over the weekend. My work with Green Team is very exciting, Heather Rose the director of the company was invited to APEC in Sydney (one of 17 women in business and one of 3 from Tasmania) - she didn't meet Bush, but listened to his lame speech and, met the CEO of IBM. That week at work, I spent time revamping the company website with the Australia content, helping layout a "introduction book" about Green Team for CEO's to learn about the company, and creating an interactive brochure for a local campaign for the London office. We had a short work week the following week - 2 days off - Thursday, Friday - flying to Adelaide in South Australia to shop at IKEA for furnishing for our shack, and visit with Graham's mum Nell and his sister Helen. I got a tour of a "green" printing company, Finsbury, that uses vegetable-based inks and is one of the top sustainable printers in Australia - we plan to use them for Green Team's printed material as well as for our clients. Things on the cottage started going a little faster, since most of the work now is getting the walls covered. Graham worked hard to do all he could during the week and then we did "two men" work on the weekends. Next came the plumber, electrician, and waste water system. Meanwhile I was taking the bus to work, leaving at 7:30am and returning around 7pm each day (it’s about a 40-minute ride into Hobart each way - my rare moments of peace!) It soon felt like Spring was near! The wattle trees bloomed bright yellow, and it started to rain more often. The neighbours Tony, Rachel, Max and Nathaniel had 3 new baby calves (I'm jealous)! Graham redid the fencing on the east boundary side with the help of neighbour farmer Toby. Soon after we moved in we (I) hope to get our Scottish Highland cattle and definitely some Boer goats to control blackberries in the pasture.

Weeks following October 8th 2007...
Another big delay in the journal writing as daily things keep us busy and the last thing I wanted to do is be on the computer at the end of the day! My job with Green Team is going well and I really like it. The cottage progress continued, but we worked on it together over the weekends with Graham devoting himself to it full time during the week. We just started putting the timber siding on and Chris made another guest star appearance and helped get the south wall covered in timber with Graham 2 days this week - because we had to move out of the apartment in 2 weeks!!! The rental company has been slowly remodelling them and selling them, so this forced us to move to the land early!!  We only had a week-to-week lease. We also had to file for my permanent residency which took a lot of paperwork time (mainly raining days). Graham and I had to make many decisions about the cottage - tile for bathroom, the kitchen layout, and lighting design and the electrician was soon to wire it. We were still hoping to have official occupancy sometime in November. Moving sooner meant a plan to move all our boxes to the workshop area of the cottage once enclosed and borrow our neighbours camper and just camp on the land for the next 3 weeks. But it's all fun and part of our adventure. We're now on daylight saving and I guess it’s Spring - but here it means lots more rain, wind and even occasional snow!!! Graham continued to work on our little home and get the systems in place as quickly as possible. We decided on Biolytix for the waste water system, so more trenching was required. We also planned to lay the electrical, telephone, and water systems for the future house/extension at the same time to connect to later. It rained hard again, and the grounds turned to muddy slush. The ray of hope was that our dam got fuller and fuller. With the electrical plan in, the cottage got initial wiring and fluorescent lighting in the workshop! Yeah, we can work at night now! Weekends helped us get 80% of the outside timber cladding done and we installed the roller doors in the middle bays. We finished installing the gutters and the rain water catchment system, and soon after it rained again - but we smiled as it filled our new rain tank with fresh drinking water. It's 17,600 liters or 3870 gals and the 6mm of rain overnight filled it by another 640 liters. The plan is to use the tank water for drinking and showering, the dam water for grey water use and the community (Swamp Rd) water for grey, garden irrigation and livestock. Our windows are due any day now, the home telephone connection this week, and the Biolytix system will be installed next week. This weekend we move out of the Lynch Avenue apartment and onto the block at Swamp Rd to live in a caravan (trailer to US readers)! Well at least we'll be on the land finally - it will be a nice feeling! It seems to be those last few miles of a marathon, so close, but tired - somehow we keep going, plus this week promises nice warm weather... Stay tuned - next time, it should be the first update from life on Swamp Road!