OP SHOPS

Do you need some clothes? Opportunity shops and bargains galore in Waimate.

This pure wool jersey kindly modeled by ...( well, let's keep that secret) only cost 50c.

Xelp with the Xouse

Delphine and Junko turned up separately on the same day only to discover they had bunked together in Oamaru at the backpackers. (NZ is a small place.) They were both fun loving, cheerful workers.

They helped complete the first inside wall both finishing the laying with Wal and then helping Rusty to set a row of bottles into the top of the wall.






Then they helped to lay the rest of the second inside wall and thus, were present for an historic moment....

da
da
da
da!!!!!!!!!!




The laying of the very LAST brick into the top corner.

Big celebrations!!!!

Champagne!!!

& fireworks!!!

THE LAST TRAILER

Jen, Cassie and River helped us make the very last ( really and truly) trailer load of bricks. To celebrate we had a small mud fight but decided that facials and a lie in the sunshine was more therapeutic!

So to any intending mud brick makers-sorry! you'll have to wait till we build our next adobe house.

FAIR DINKUM MATE

Sam and Alex, brothers from Aussie, came for 2 days and we got started on laying the 2 inside walls. 4 rows on 1, then 4 rows on the other. We found out after all this time we had been making two different sized bricks. Our bricks were from a 300mm mould and had generally shrunk to 297mm. The others were from our friend's 310mm shrunk to 305 or so. So, having realised this and sorted the remaining bricks by size we got remarkably straight walls.

YOSHI! YOSHI!

Yoshi came and stayed around New Year. His strength was instrumental in helping us complete the battery room. We ended up with a small gap at the top, which we filled in with a cob mix of mud and lots of straw.

Yoshi could compete with Shannah for tomato sauce consumption!

I used to say "yosh! yosh!" which is a play on the sound of his name. "yosh! yosh!" means go!go!-let's get on with it!

Waimate

A nice stroll is to walk up to the WhiteHorse on the hill, which is a monument to the role of Clydesdale horses in breaking in the countryside. Some WWOOFers have walked from our place there and back ( about 3-4 hours). Others start at the bottom of the walkway-about 40 minutes to the top.

Our house "Earthwood" can be seen quite clearly.