Posts by David Haywood
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Southerly: Bricks and Mortar, in reply to Creon Upton,
why is it so necessary to “Fell cabbage tree” before that happens? Poetry? Spite?
The cabbage tree was blocking the house from being removed. It nearly killed me (psychologically) to cut it down.
Turns out that I'd rather have a house than a cabbage tree...
-
Southerly: Bricks and Mortar, in reply to Russell Brown,
The prodigious lifting ability you see in Ian today was honed carrying entire PA Systems up the steep, carpeted stairs of Melbourne pubs and RSLs as the roadie for the legendary Toy Love.
I hadn’t looked at it this way before, but I guess maybe I was doing a favour to Dalziel in getting him to volunteer to lift 75 tonnes of bricks.
You know, keeping him in shape for a possible reunion tour...
-
Southerly: Bricks and Mortar, in reply to Islander,
Thank you! I hope to live-blog the next installment -- starting around 8 am tomorrow (Thursday).
Cellphone connectivity permitting, of course...
-
Oops! Forgot to activate the discussion thread -- very sorry about that...
-
Many thanks for all the kind birthday messages! Things are going well at the earthquake village (no resemblance to a Stalag at all); Bob has already joined the local scooter gang.
Perhaps being a gang-member has given him a bad attitude as I'm still trying to get him to sleep. It's been a long day and further messages from me will have to wait until tomorrow, I fear!
-
Many thanks for the birthday wishes people! (on the 21st)
My biggest consolation in terms of birthdays is that no matter how old I get I will always be three months younger than Jolisa Gracewood.
My biggest non-consolation is that Jolisa looks about 20 years younger than me. The smug bastard.
-
Oh, now I get all the comments about the photo of Saint Dalziel! I thought they were just postmodern criticisms of his visibility in the image...
-
Southerly: Deconstruction and Construction, in reply to BenWilson,
Was 5907 pavers hyperbole, btw?
Alas no! But a whole bunch of them are just regular bricks, so it's rather less area than it could be...
My informed-by-experience estimate is – a working mate will help you get a job done in one 1/3rd of the time
That's about the ratio I get when Saint Dalziel assists. It's like having the job on turbocharge. Mind you, some of that might be attributable purely to Dalziel's inherent full-of-beans attitude to life.
-
Southerly: Deconstruction and Construction, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Short-term shelter: tagasasate/tree lucerne is hard to beat. It’s surprisingly good firewood (and stock feed), very high calorific value wood, but hard; nitrogen fixing, fast growing, wood pigeons love it. For firewood, acacia dealbata is fast, coppices well, and easy splitting when it gets big. Some of the eucalypts grow like grey-green rockets- not so sure how they coppice, but they are popular, and high calorific value firewood too.
Thanks for the info, Rob. It seems hard to find a good coppicing tree that is also not considered an invasive tree weed! People seem to be tending towards the coppicing eucalypts in Canterbury these days.
-
Southerly: Deconstruction and Construction, in reply to BenWilson,
If it goes swimmingly, it could also be something others in your plight could do? How many others are have done, or are doing it, that you know down there?
Thanks for the very kind message, Ben. The land covenants make it almost impossible to relocate a house within an hour’s drive of Christchurch. I know of one other person who is moving her house, but she is going to her daughter’s farm (you are allowed two houses on one rural section if you are a parent/child of the owner). The system set up by CERA also makes it nearly impossible to move a house for most people – since CERA will only sell the house back to you at a price way above market value for a relocatable. I doubt many other people will have my persistence in fighting to get it done.
EDIT: And, of course, most people can’t get new insurance once their claim is settled (which they’d have to do in order to relocate their existing houses) – and won’t be able to until long after CERA has demolished the house that they want to move.