s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

The last week we have absolutely stunning weather. Clear blue skies, little wind, and temperatures of 15 or 16C (60F) during the day. This is winter? The met service reports show that this July was one of the warmest on record, a few degrees warmer than average– and August is well on the way to continuing that trend. It has also been quite dry, as winter is normally all about rain, rain, rain.

Of course having said that I have probably just summoned up some 5-day long super storm that will strike later this week. While we are now much better equipped to deal with this (the shed), it would be bad for our neighbors. The lambs have just started coming, and such storms can kill hundreds of lambs- and destroy a years earnings- quite quickly.

On Saturday Tam and I hung the rear gutters on the shed. Like so many other things about the shed, we figured out how to do a particular task just as we are completing that task. The instructions for hanging the gutters were backwards, which caused much of the problems. People who sell kitset buildings should endeavor to have slightly more accurate instructions. Now all that is needed is to attach the downspouts and we can be get final-final inspection. This is a bit frustrating, as we need a “drainage plan” for any building larger than 10 square meters. Before the building was there the water went over the bank. Now that we have a building the water will (surprise!)… go over the bank. Hopefully the inspector doesn’t decde we need some expensive and pointless “remediation” work. The probalem of being in a “City”- the building codes, rules, and inspectors are used to dealing with urban and suburban dwellings, and a rural farm building is really a round-peg/square-hole sort of situation.

After putting up the gutters Melanie came over, and we all took a hike up the back hill with Jim the Llama. I think Melanie really enjoyed taking the llama for a walk. Melanie, being a botanist, also helped to identify a number of plants we were curious about. A number of those identifications were of the “noxious, invasive… destroy!” variety. I will have to get to the destruction quickly, as flowering/seeding is beginning with spring. Always more to do!