Shade House

The galvanised stirrups for the shade house posts have been concreted into the excavations and I’m now waiting on a suitable time to purchase the timber for the framing and the shade cloth.

The area in the front left corner of the house currently looks like this

It’s a piece of wasted space but will make a good area for Jan’s vegie patch once it’s enclosed with shade cloth.   The plan is to enclose the two open sides and the top thus allowing some sunlight to enter whilst restricting the heat build up.

It’s will eventually look something like this

I’ve also discovered the metal garden beds Jan purchased from eBay are too wide and won’t fit in the shade house.  Consequentially I’ve had to disassemble them and cut 30mm out of the ends with the jigsaw.

Job half completed.

Meanwhile, it has been reported on local media here in Perth that a person suffering from the coronavirus in Manchester has been cured.  Do any of our UK readers know how many rolls of toilet paper this took?

We haven’t been panic purchasing and have instead introduced our own measures.

I asked the question in the last blog post about the duration of the current pandemic suggesting it might last until July.  Today one government official stated on TV that it would likely last six months.

A week ago our political leaders were criticising those who were “panic” buying essentials stating there was no need to do this.  A week is a long time in politics and by last Friday our State Premier had done a 180 telling the public to stock up.  It’s little wonder the public doesn’t trust their political leaders.  There’s little point in now attempting to “stock up” as the shelves are empty of essentials.  Don’t ask me why toilet paper is essential.  The ancient Romans managed with a piece of sponge on a stick.

I also mentioned the UK strategy in the last post.  Yesterday the Australian PM advised the nation of their new strategy and it looks very similar to the UK’s.  It appears Boris got it right!  The Australian politicians have finally agreed the impact of the crisis needs to be reduced and spread over a longer timeframe which will (hopefully) enable the public health system to cope. 

There will be some advantages for those continuously cruising on a narrowboat.  Although it might be difficult to store all those boxes of toilet paper!