July Update - What's been going on?

Well, here we are in the start of July, so I figured it we were well past due for an update. Nothing too fancy to report, really, just going about our daily business. Some of the things we've been up to:

• Garden Attack! - We've been continuing our work on the back garden, but I've not yet managed to get any photos of what we've been doing. We stole the old ute a few weeks back and took two or three loads of rubbish out of the back, which cleaned up the far jungle corner, and down the far side. So we're now at a point with the back garden where things are relatively clean and tidy - the challenge is now to keep it that way. I forsee a lot of palm trees getting the chop over the next few months. We've also painted the remainder of the asbestos fence, since we cleared out the rest of the garden that was covering it. All in all, looks a lot better. Photos to come, once I get off my lazy butt.
  
• Crusher dust. Oh, how I love crusher dust. We bought in somewhere around 1.5 cubic metres of the stuff, and have dumped it down the side of the house, where the big tree used to be. So now we have a nice graded ramp from the side of the house up into the backyard. Coupled with the removable hills hoist, we can easily drive a ute up into the back yard now, which made cleaning out the gardens as described above a real breeze. Previously, the closest we could get the ute was just inside the front gates, requiring everything to be carted by hand or wheelbarrow all the was down the side of the house. We still need some more crusher dust though, as the sink hole in the front yard is settling some more as more of the tree roots rot away. I suspect we'll be topping it up for years to come.
• Grass. In an effort to make the yard look less like a construction site, we sowed half a bag of grass seed over the new crusher dust ramp, and around the edges of the back yard that we reclaimed (and are currently just dirt). We hope to get it nice and green and covered by the time my party rolls around. It's coming along nicely, and we've been watering it every night now for about a month. Some patches are greener than others, though, and it seems crusher dust is a good medium to dig in and bury bones with. Also, it appears that grass seed is very tasty, as is potting mix soil.
• Push-ups. I've started on the 100 Pushups plan, as found here. I'm now at the end of Week 1, and this morning just managed to eek out 19 pushups. But that's better than the 4 I could do at the start of the program, so I'm making progress. This is actually my second time through Week 1 - I ran through first using "girly pushups" (Knee pushups, as shown on this page) to build up some initial strength before tackling it properly. It's jolly hard work, and proof that you don't need to spend money on home gym equipment when you're just getting started. So far, it seems to be paying off, with me only having one bad headache (yesterday, in fact) after three weeks worth of training.
  
• Swine Flu. Jess has been crook this week. Started out like a flu, but by Tuesday morning she was at the doc, with a diagnosis of throat infection. Actually, the first Dr diagnosed Sinutitus, but she didn't believe him, and went to see a different GP. The second fellow diagnosed a throat infection, so she's spent most of the first half of the week in bed, taking antibiotics. She went back to work yesterday, and is feeling a lot better again this morning, so hopefully she gets it licked quick smart.
• Pathfinder. Nearly bought a Patrol last weekend. But pulled the pin, and decided to stick with the mighty Pathy a bit longer. Have decided to start doing some work on the car that I've been putting off for a while now, depending on available finances, and first job is to design and build a carrier/mount for a second battery (this one - Warning - PDF Link) in the back of the car. I'm being a bit different with this, and actually want to mount the battery underneath the car, behind the rear passenger wheel. There's a bunch of free space under there, and by my calculations it's just big enough for that 100Ah battery. I've built a mock-up battery out of cardboard, and have done up a couple of designs in Sketchup. I've been talking working on this project with Justin, a mate in Melbourne from the Pathfinder club, and we're slowly refining the idea into something that we think will be simple, strong and useful. Hopefully we'll have something to show for our troubles soon! Big shout-out to Justin for all the help he's been giving me, and for even offering to knock up a prototype, since my welding skills leave a bit to be desired! Next project after that will probably revolve around fitting a water tank into the back for the car, so we can carry heaps of fresh water when we go away.

And that's about it, really. We've had a couple of weekends at home, which was much appreciated after the hectic couple of weeks early last month. Unfortunately we haven't been able to spend much time relaxing, as there's been heaps of jobs for us to do around the house. It's all good though - the backyard is starting to get to a stage where I'm happy with it, and the house is starting to work really well. All the little things are starting to come together, like the new toilet that flushes, and the new vent fan in the bathroom that's not about to fall out of the roof, and new clothes line that can be pulled out of the ground when you need to drive into the backyard, etc. It all cost money, but we saved by doing all of the work ourselves, and have been able to set things up just the way we like them.

As always though, there's plenty more work to do, with the front gardens starting to look very overgrown and neglected now! And with the deteriorating state of the front fence (even since the tree loppers backed their truck into it), it won't be long before we need to seriously look at replacing it, and most of the side fence as well. I already have a plan in my mind for what I want to do there, but again, it's a bit involved and will take some time to do and some time to save for the materials. Plus I need to learn about things like retaining walls, welding, concreting and rendering - all things which come naturally to an IT nerd. So I can see I'll be spending a lot of time asking questions on the Renovate Forum. But when it's done it should be fabulous.

We're coming up to a busy few months, however, with it all kicking off next weekend with the V8 racing down in Townsville. We've got full 3 day grandstand tickets, and a few days off work. Should be a great event. Hopefully we'll be able to score some pit passes, and get down amongst the teams.

The weekend after that is a long weekend for us here in Cairns, with the local show holiday. We had plans with friends, but they're beginning to unravel after one party is unable to attend, and another has been injured and can't get out of bed at the moment. So we may end up doing something else entirely.

Then, we've got a quiet few weeks until August kicks off with a vengeance, and my YoYo Adventure starts, with 3 return trips between Cairns and Bris inside of 6 weeks. Fun fun!