The sun came out early and the laundry got done.
In the afternoon I broke the back of the trenching for the retaining wall of the tank stand. A little bit more and I will be ready to treat the trenches for termites and treat the timber for rot. The the timber can be installed and I'll have to start moving the several tonnes of gravel from the old tank stand into the new one.
The weather was a bit light to variable with sunny spells interspersed with windy periods.
I finished the trenches and treated them for termites.
I spent most of the day painting all to sleepers for the retaining wall. It was an unpleasant job because the creosote is poisonous so I had to wear the moon suit and the smell is very pervasive.
I had time to install the new letterbox. Perhaps the mail will now stay dry when it rains.
Another clear, frosty morning. We are both looking forward to getting away from the frosts when we go to Queensland next month.
I worked hard to get the retaining wall finished but I found that I had not made the trenches sufficiently level so I had to do some more digging. I believe I'll finish the wall tomorrow and will be able to start moving the gravel. How long that will take will be revealed when I get into it.
I finished the retaining wall - at last.
John and Vicki offered to take our rubbish to the tip. Our stuff was too much to add to their load so they came back after dumping their rubbish and I went back to the tip with John to dump our stuff.
At the tip I saw a sign about the Barraba Common. I went to the Information Centre but they didn't have any information. Taking their advice I went to the Council offices and the lady there was most helpful giving me a town map with the Common marked. It is quite extensive stretching for three or four kilometres (2 or 3 miles) down the west side of the town. It is apparently used for ajisting stock
I started to job of moving the gravel from the old tank to the new tank stand. It was a relatively easy job because it was all down hill. I was just getting optimistic about the work when another problem reared its ugly head. The gravel gave way to clay about a quarter of the way into the tankful. If it was all gravel it would have filled the new stand but I haven't the strength of body or of will to move three cubic metres of clay so I will have to buy some gravel and have the clay disposed of with the old tank.
We took ourselves to the RSL for supper which we shared with John and Vicki and with John and Mary, the President of the Club and his wife.
With no more work possible on the tank stand I did some other small jobs.
I did get the new modem to work as advertised by sitting in the garden with the iBook on my knee and the modem running with maximum power input. I downloaded some significant software updates and still didn't catch up on the 40 minutes a day of connect time I get on the Telstra plan. It seems that all will now be well with my internet work.