No heatwave here

After reading about the ultra hot weather in the UK during the past few weeks it was interesting to note the difference on the other side of the world.

Last night we experienced yet more strong wind gusts and heavy rain.  I think this was the fourth storm in the last 10 days.  The grass turned white with some of the locals claiming they were experiencing snow.  It doesn’t snow in Perth, Western Australia.  Yes it was hail!

When it comes to stormwater drainage Perth is very similar to Riyadh.  There’s almost no stormwater drainage system as 90% of Perth is built on sand.  Any stormwater is either directly absorbed into the ground or diverted to local soak pits.  Of course there isn’t much in the way of annual rainfall anyway.

We arrived back in Australia at the end of May 2017 just in time for winter.  That winter didn’t appear to be very cold.  This winter is about the same but we are certainly feeling colder.  I guess our blood has thinned.  Mine has….. the cardiologist placed me on blood thinning medication.

I can envisage next winter we will be keeping warm by running the reverse cycle air-conditioner on our free solar electricity.

Have I previously mentioned removing the third gumtree in the front yard.  We had the first two removed professionally at $1000 a tree.  I decided to save money and remove the third myself.  Its taken weeks, but slowly I’ve cut the tree back to the main trunk disposing the cuttings into the weekly rubbish collection.

With just the trunk left I started digging a trench around the base sawing through all the major lateral roots as I went.  Digging was reasonably easy (sand) however the task then became complex when I identified the gas main, electrical main, data, telephone cables and ground reticulation pipes all ran under the tree.  The service that worried me the most was the gas.  Once I had dug down to a level where all the pipes and cables were exposed either side of the root system I used the garden hose and water to wash the sand out from under the tree.  It’s a gumtree which I hoped would mean there wasn’t a vertical tap root.  Of course the washed out sand filled the trench which meant several cycles of washing and digging.  I then decided to take a break, which proved to be rather fortuitous as the tree fell over in the hole shortly after I’d left.

Now I need to cut the trunk into smaller rubbish bin size pieces before filling in the hole.

Maybe I could find employment with Fountains.  I rather like the idea of operating a ride on mower!

Meanwhile the glass splashbacks have been installed in the kitchen.  When I fitted the splashbacks in Waiouru I used Sikaflex.  These installers used silicon sealer. 

Is that eggshell blue or baby powder blue?

I’m not in favour of using silicon sealer, unless the plan is to remove whatever it’s holding at some future date.  Silicon sealer tends to degrade and fail over time.  However the installers informed me they had to use silicon as it was a ‘neutral’ product.  If they used Sikaflex it would ‘eat’ the paint off the reverse side of the glass.  That’s when I realised they painted to colour on the glass whereas the colour was baked on the reverse when I fitted the splashbacks in Waiouru.

Just a few minor jobs and the kitchen/pantry project will be finished.  The air-con man arrives tomorrow to move the exterior half of the unit.  Then the new French doors can be fitted.