Owner Build in Southern Flinders Ranges- Cert of Occupancy

My dad always used to say :-

"Always have ones at 11's" .... there's always somewhere in the world where it's turn 11.

Make it an hour earlier just to be on the safe side.
That time is commonly referred to as "wine o'clock" around here.

Stewie

Thanks for the advice, I will implement it tonight.

There have been gale force winds today (+100km/hr) and my build is in an exposed location (N3/N4 category). It has been too windy to build today.

Yesterday I did manage to fix the water leak in my new mains supply and I back filled the trench and I also put a second coat of paint on the gable walls of the house.
I managed to paint with my left hand (as my other arm is on light duties).

No point in posting photos of a second coat of paint as the walls look exactly the same as when they had one coat of paint.

One of each, just to be safe.

The ceilings are now finished. I can not claim credit for this. I installed about 30% of the ceilings before I got hired labour to lift up the remaining sheets.

This has allowed me to finish tiling the ensuite bathroom.

I also need to slash the grass around my build as the bushfire season as been brought forward to the end of this month, however the gearbox seized on my brushcutter. I have ordered a new gearbox online but it has not turned up yet.

What an amazing space. I don't blame you getting help for your ceilings. Hope you can cut the grass back soon--never too soon to protect yourself against potential disasters.

What a fabulous space you have..
Definitely dont blame you getting in help for the ceilings, especially since its enabled you to proceed on to other things.
Yes, bushfire season is fast approaching. I know I have been on to our council (we are BAL 12.5) to attend to some long grass and weeds in the creekbed behind us. Before it really gets hot and dry.

The gearbox for my brushcutter did not turn up. It was lost is transit. Another one has been ordered . I hope it is delivered soon as there are restrictions on grass slashing once the fire ban season starts.



As I could not slash the grass last weekend, I had a bit of a tidy up and moved the left over building sheets into my shed and updated the photos of the ceilings in my earlier post.

With warmer weather here now and hotter weather just around the corner I have had air-conditioning installed.
This should allow me to work through the Christmas holidays.

One small problem is that there have been ongoing issues getting mains power connected so I can't test run the air-conditioning unit yet.

You don't need a slasher, you need a herd of cattle ! That's some grass you have there Beetaloo.

The rest of the place is staring to come together nicely.

Stewie

Would be good if you could just use the sun to generate your own power to run the air-conditioner. That space is amazing! I love it.

Not much building progress this weekend as I needed to cut the grass around my build. Some of the grass was 1 metre high and very dry.

I had by now finally received the parts for my brushcutter so I spent last weekend whipper snipping the grass around my build and also around my shed.

My neighbours grizzled a bit because I spent 2 full days, dawn to dusk cutting grass. The noise of the whipper snipper set of all the local dogs so the normally quiet valley resounded in the sound of my brushed cutter screaming and dogs howling.

As it is now fire ban season I dragged out all my hoses (for the first time since last summer) and connected them to the nearest tap. This is so I would have fire fighting water on hand just in case a spark started a fire.

Just to be on the safe side I decided to test the hoses. I turned the tap on and initially the water streamed out, but after a few minutes there was a few splutters and the water flow stopped. A few minutes later the hose fittings blew apart. On closer examination the hose fittings were completely blocked by hundreds of millipedes. They must have crawled into the hoses during winter.


Most weekends now I see my resident snake, usually around drink o'clock, when I sit down to relax with a glass of wine and some soft cheeses however this weekend I saw 4 snakes.

The first snake was soon after I had arrived after driving up from Adelaide after work. I unloaded the car and carried my food, clothes and building materials into my shed (where I camp on weekends during the build). As soon as I had finished unloading the car I closed the shed door and started to put things away. I picked up a bag of clothes that I had dropped on the shed floor and a small brown snake was under it. As much as I like native animals especially when in their natural habitat I did not fancy sleeping in the same room as a snake so I quickly caught it (before it had time to hide again) and relocated it outside the shed.

The second snake was when I was whipper snipping the grass. The snake was concealed in long grass, so I did not see it until I cut the grass directly above it. Fortunately this snake was half asleep and kept its head down so I only nicked its back. It did not seem too concerned about me so I continued cutting the grass as I slowly worked away from it.

The third snake was my resident snake except that instead of seeing it at drink o'clock I saw it whilst I was having breakfast. At least this snake always keeps a respectful distance from me.

I saw the fourth snake as I was walking out the front door of my build (house) and just as this snake was coming in. The snake turned around but did not want to leave. I watched it for about 30 minutes as it slowing explored the perimeter of the house (looking for other ways in), circled the rain water tank, carried out a detailed inspection of the water pressure pump and also the septic tank. It was not intimated by me and I could not scare it away back into the scrub. Eventually I tired of following the snake around, I closed and sealed all the external doors to the house and went to have lunch. When I returned this snake was nowhere to be seen so I assume that it also had also gone somewhere for lunch.

Some happy snaps (my apologies for the picture quality) of 2 of the snakes.










The joys of building in the country!

Maybe next trip to my build I will get to do some actual building work.

You are braver than me!!

I plan to do a snake handlers course as it is inevitable we will get them too.

Are they all the same species or different ?
The positive is that they keep the bush rat and mice population down.

Stewie

They are all brown snakes but different ages and size. There was a bit of a mouse plague last year and this probably allowed them to breed up.



I completed a snake awareness & handling course earlier this year. My main concern is to prevent them getting inside my house and shed.

Sure to offend some, but the motto for many is :-

The only good snake is a dead snake.

replace "snake" with "cat" or anything else they don't like.

Because we live on our block full time we rarely see snakes near the house. We have had on occasion, a snake or two living in the house with us.

But we actively discourage the venomous ones. This one's a carpet python. They take care of the mice and rats.

Are the solar panel operated snake deterrents any good? (I noticed ALDi were selling them recently - not expensive) My neighbour has a couple planted in the ground around his house and said he's not seen any snakes since he put them in.

Nope we bought a couple as a joke

I think RuffTuff has the answer. Snakes naturally avoid a permanently occupied house especially if there are dogs around.

My immediate neighbours, who live permanently on their properties with their dogs and cats rarely see snakes near their houses, but I see snakes nearly every time on my property during warmer months on my twice a month visits. I have even seen them on warm winter days.