Santa Post…..he delivers!

What better way to start a seasonal blog post than to give a 2000-year-old bloke in a red suit the credit for Australia Post’s delivery work. OK…he does it all himself, but I’m sure Auspost is getting a cut in there somewhere….aren’t they our last true government monopoly?

We promised news on the retaining wall before Christmas, and here it is. The two-person petrol-powered post-hole digger was a great success, until we got to a couple of really hard, dry spots that it just couldn’t deal with. Cue the electric jackhammer. This thing rocked (so to speak), and dug holes to our heart’s desire. Eight sleepers went in as posts (extra postcrete was required, but it’s cheap) and they were left to stand and set for a couple of days. On one fine Saturday the rest of the sleepers were put in as panels and the Great Wall was born

Yesterday I put a coat of bitumen paint on the back of the wall to give it some water proofing before we back-fill it. I put the second coat on this morning. Bitumen paint is great stuff as long as you don’t get it on any hairy parts of yourself. Naturally I discovered this after the first coat. You, dear reader, can imagine the rest.

Good wishes are extended across the country to all the people I care about. Brother Joe in the far north, Sister Nell in the middle, Father Ron (who was heading home from hospital today), and Mother Nicki and the rest of my family and friends in the far south.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to Christmas madness of  the usual kind….With Sistern Nell and crew coming over for a (mostly) seafood lunch.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Cheerio!