I thought I'd have an easy day but all the small jobs turned into consumers of much energy.
In the afternoon I visited the Samins to find out where I could buy gravel and sand. the answer was that everyone in Barraba gets their gravel out of the river and that sand has to come from elsewhere. The best advice they could offer was to talk to the gravedigger who moonlights as a landscape gardener.
We needed to buy stuff from Woolies that we cant get in Barraba so we went to Tamworth. The shopping took quite a long time but we got to the Homestead in time for lunch. I downloaded a lot of software which would have taken a long time on the new modem.
We took advantage of the Fathers Day offers to buy some new camp chairs at about half the normal price. I hope I can find room for them in the Motley!
I had bought a new battery for my mobile phone. It was completely discharged when I got it and no amount of charging did anything for it so I took it back. The guy said they sometimes get duds so he would replace it. Unfortunately he had none in stock so I'll have to go back another day.
I arranged for the gravel to be delivered tomorrow.
The rest of the day was filled with office work.
Two cubic metres (three tonnes) of gravel arrived in the morning and I had to move a fair amount of it into position. I realised that I had not set up proper levels for the finished job and when I did I found more digging had to be done. I don't do too badly at moving gravel but digging has to be done in relatively short spells if my back is to stay working. I will be so glad when this job is finished and I can get on to some less physically demanding tasks.
In the morning I did a lot of work on the spring cleaning of the Motley.
The second load of gravel arrived in the afternoon but I deferred the work until another day.
I had to do the pedestrian trip to the hardware shop to change a big gas bottle. I tried to use the Terios but the lady in the shop said that both she and I would be liable to big fines if I were to transport a 45 kg gas bottle inside a vehicle (and not upright to boot).
The day was very cloudy and it threatened rain until well into the afternoon. I finished moving the gravel and set about making a water level to get the finished job ready for a big heavy water tank.
As we are going north next week, I put a hold on the delivery of the doors, the bathroom and laundry fittings, and the water tank until we get back. I also put a hold on the mail.
I continued the preparation for the next trip. Among other jobs, I repaired the step in the Motley and I changed the water filters.