1st fire of 2011

I really like fire... and fires, and I'm getting pretty good at them. The idea is to get it going with twiggy bits then go for slightly bulkier bits. Build it up but at the same time give it time to get going and use a shovel to spread it out. When its well spread, and nice and hot, the smaller cubey bits can go on and then bigger cubey bits... then it's back to twiggy, after spreading it out of course, but more branchy than twiggy and eventually you can get this big bowl of glowing coals to start throwing on the stuff thats hard to burn normally. Good fun! And actually really nice after the sun sets and the animals and insects start moving about and can be heard after the humans have done the days to its end and one quietly sits soakin' up the positive ions.

Dangerous little monkey... and thats a good thing!

Theres this movie called the Boondock Saints 2 and towards the end theres a dialogue about real men... and it's hilarious!, and true.The bit that comes to mind is about real men never showing their feelings... because they're personal... and therefore none of your damned business! I like that but it's also about men doing things because they believe in them and hang what anybody else thinks or defines as safe and appropriate. Of course, this doesn't just apply to men but to everybody who's got their head screwed on and isn't a victim.
Anyways hows this for safe?

Thats a picture of my jury rigged scaffold so I could cut down a length of wood, that black projection, one handed with the skilsaw... dangerous? Potentially yes but I know what I'm doing and I'm willing to take the chance. Shouldn't be a chance eh? Well there was because once I sidled out to the end the 4x2 I'd nailed up to prevent side to side movement had come away but it felt safe so I carried on regardless.

If I'd done this job by the book... I wouldn't have been able to do it. The scaffolding alone would have cost more than all the materials I used and basically thats why I like that Macho man thing sometimes. The idea of only relying on your own intelligence, skills and fortitude to get a job done and not falling back on others involvement because your basically a scaredy cat.

When I learnt to weld, way back in the early eighties, I was on a course at ATI (AUT now) to learn Arc welding but the first thing they taught us was gas welding and the first thing they did was show us a bunch of films about how dangerous it can potentially be. This had benefits in that when we went into the workshop to fire up the gas for the initial lesson the scaredy cats were so scared they did everything wrong and were obviously told to leave. Soon after that the teachers weeded out the dumbies who were brave enough to turn the gas on but made silly mistakes because of their inability to retain knowledge.

The thing was that it was a dangerous skill and you want a mixture of bravery and intelligence to be able to do it... or an elevated balance of left and right brain co-ordinations... see where I'm going with this? Doesn't matter because thats enough. Explaining it all is a waste of time really because the type of learning or awareness engendered by this elevated balance actually thrives on not being told the whole story... it's how being able to figure things out happens.

Anyways heres another view of the house.

This is my little verandah and the vertical face unfilled on the left, which has a roof butting up to the floor... but will be removed to stop the possums having a free run accross all the roofs, is going to be covered in fibreglass sheet with a big round hole in it... so it's flash moderne!




Almost finished the outside. Odds and ends here and there... actually maybe three more full days then I'm moving in.

Rebuilding the house.

I've been living in  the backyard in a little shacky housey bachey thing for about 6 years now and I built it so cheaply that it's been leaking for about 5 1/ of those. I've done running repairs but it's been on my mind for a few years now to take the roof off and start again with something that gives me more space and is more impervious to the inclement weathers.
So over the past few years I've gotten various building materials together to finally get the job done. A bunch of sheets of fibrolite bought just before the prices doubled, and then some, and a load of old corrugated sheets for a bigger roof. All I needed was a few hundred bucks to get a load of 4x2 and then that happened a few weeks ago, just before Christmas, with a factory around the corner being gutted and the old wood being given away for free. I got absolutely loads of wood, easily a thousand bucks worth, and have been able to do alot more than I'd envisioned with a meager budget.

To date I've spent 172 dollars, with fifty of that for a set of shears to cut the galve sheet to fold up flashings, so it's been a big job without hardly any outlay.

So if anybody remembers what it used to look like then you'll be able to see quite a bit of room has been added. It's been really hard going but all the framing done and I'm now into the papering a fibro, plus attendant flashings, so it should be weatherproof in the next two days. The only bit of hassly stuff is that I have to do is build a door frame which'll be a bunch of fiddly cutting and routing but I've got some fijian kauri in reasonable sizes so it'll be quite fun using some decent tiber for a change. I've got a chair almost sold at the gallery so that'll allow me the next expense which will be a bunch of rough sawn tanalised tiber to build the soffits.

Then I'll line it with all the packing crate plywood I've kept under cover for the last 8mths. The really good thing about this whole job is that it'll tidy up the section immensely as all the various piles of materials I've kept to do this job will be attached in some way to the building... right down to interior fitting s and furniture. Then it'll be into and onto the gardens...