Progress update

The cottage has had its final coat of paint on the exterior and is looking very smart indeed. The internal doors have been delivered, and the laundry cupboard has been lined with aqua-line gib board.

Cottage all painted

Cottage and shed in background

Doors

Gib aqualine in laundry cuboard

linen cuboard

The post-hole borer being fixed conveniently coincided with the arrival of our top-up order of copper split bolts for the electobraid. This meant that Chris was able to spend the entire weekend fencing. He was a busy bee and managed to get the whole end paddock finished which gives us another useable paddock.

Paddock at western end of property

paddock again with orchard area in foreground

End paddock again

Looking down the race to the end paddock with area for septic tank dripper lines sprayed out

He also managed to get the posts and two strands of braid up to divide the very first paddock he did in half. Its now two smaller paddocks which will be  much more manageable than the one large paddock it was previously.

Putting on the electrobraid

Posts to go in

Chris using his eyechrometer

ramming the posts

outriggers on tree triangles

close-up of outriggers

 The woolley mammoth (i.e Mack) also got dragged out of his paddock for some much needed attention. He had been following me up and down the fencline as I was pottering around saying "pick me, pick me" so I did. He has started moulting already and judging by his thick coat, there will be a lot of hair to come out! He was very good considering he's only being handled once a week. He just thrives on the attention which is great. I'm really looking forward to having  him started in the spring.

keeping an eye on the building progress

grubby pony supervising the fencing

Gibstopping

I have been a bad blogger this week. To be fair I've got a good excuse, Mack managed to find not one, but two post holes from the old cattle yards that I was sure I had filled in. Turns out I missed a couple, and Mack managed to fall down both! I arrived out to the paddock on Monday morning to break the ice in the troughs and found a very sore Mack with a swollen leg. I managed to distract distracted with a pile of haylage so I could tape off the holes. I went out after work on Monday night and filled in the holes properly!

After an emergency text to my friend Lou, I set up a tape yard to restrict Mack's movement, gave him a sachet of bute (horse anti-inflammatory) and polticed his leg with Uptite. I would have preferred to hose it but I couldn't cope with the pipe that comes straight out of the bore and a young uneducated horse by myself. The vet was duly called the next day and she was most impressed with my first aid plan (thanks Lou!). She prescribed a course of 'bute and rest until Thursday. He is already much improved, and certainly still has his sense of humour. He seems to think its a great game to throw his water buckets all around the place, especially since mother has to walk for miles to fill them up again! I will let him out into the paddock tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed that he doesn't hoon around and make it worse.

Mack is his yard

Frosty

All painted

In other news... the gibstoppers have been at the Cottage this week and have done most of it. I managed to snap a few pics this morning while I was waiting for Mack to finish his breakfast. As you can see, its been VERY frosty and cold, but it means we've been having gorgeous sunny days.

Master bedroom

Looking out of master bedroom door to kitchen

Master bedroom looking out door onto verandah

Laundry

Dining

Dining and window seat

 

Kitchen

Kitchen & hallway

Office/spare room

Cottage continues

Today was an absolutely glorious day. Chris and Mum Lesley went out to inspect the Estate and see what progress had been made.

The builder was there putting on the architraves around the windows. Looking good!

They also had a tour through the shed, making sure all was in order. They found the keys to the roller doors - left on the ledge inside the door which I must have missed in my hurry the other night. You can see the true colour of it in these photos.

The horses were fed and watered - the troughs had even frozen over. Luckily Lesley came to the rescue.

The cottage has had its first coat of paint on the outside. Thankfully the weather was kind to the painter this week, but he's away on holiday for a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will be fine when he gets back so he can carry on. Building in winter is definitely NOT recommended!

Shed complete!

The shed build is complete. The roller doors were installed yesterday so we now have a lockable shed. Its absolutely awesome. We still have to complete the drainage and get final sign off but we should be able to start lining it soon, and installing lights and other such exciting things.

The cottage is progressing nicely. The painters have been painting the exterior (when the weather allows) but should hopefully get a bit done as we have a few fine days forecast.

The pipes/plumbing behind the vanity have now been moved to make room for the recessed bathroom cupboard. All the gib board is now up and the gibstopper is due to begin today.