I have not posted for a while, and for this I apologise, but life is busy in the fast lane. I am looking forward to the break over Easter – here in Tassie, we have a week school holiday before another month or so of Term One. Then we’ll have a three-week holiday! Everything seems to drag; first the never-ending summer break, then the first term!

We were grateful to have Monte’s brother, Chris, and his dad, Gordon, to stay last week. Together, the boys, including little Matty, worked hard on the house, putting the trusses up. Whilst the boys were hard at work (Matty was hard at play), Georgia and I were at school.

Although I was working for the majority of their visit, I very much enjoyed the “dance of the truss.” I will try to describe it.

Chris and Monte took the ends of a truss, and walked it over to the house (making it look very easy, I must say!). They lifted it onto the ceiling height, which is over 10ft from the ground, and slid it so it rested across the ring beam. Gordon stepped in, holding a stud to support the truss at the peak, where it would sag somewhat (the trusses are flexible to allow for some movement). Meanwhile, the ladder dance began. Monte took his ladder to the centre, where he lifted the truss up, relieving Gordon of his “pole duty.” Monte held the truss upright, whilst Chris took his ladder – first to one side of the house, where he put it into position and nailed a beam across to hold it upright, and then the same on the other end, thus relieving Monte of his truss-holding duty. Both boys took a ladder to their side of the house, where they fastened the truss with special staples. The shortest truss dance took just twenty minutes, and was very impressive indeed.

Here I should apologise for the ‘girliness’ of my posts. I cannot help but heave some emotion into my writing. Mills and Boon, here I come!

It took a few days to secure the trusses. The boys worked very hard! Now things seem to have halted drastically. The weather has not been conducive to building, and without the extra help, things are moving slowly again. We have discussed employing someone to help with the roof. We still have roof beams to put up and the roof sheeting, as well as some staples between the frame and the trusses. However, we think that we (ie mostly Monte) will just ‘plod along’ for the time being. I will be working full-time until the end of term, so even if we did complete the roof, baling would be a slow process with Monte baling on his own, looking after Matty at the same time! Our plan is to have the roof complete by the end of May so we can bale in the June holidays.

Other news on the home front: Georgia *finally* lost her tooth! She has now lost 6 teeth, and has 3 big teeth already. This last one was particularly pesky, with the big tooth beginning to grow in front of the baby tooth. On two occasions in the past, Georgia fell and knocked her teeth. We were worried that they would die – one even began to grow grey, and then changed again. Obviously her teeth are beautifully strong, as this one did not want to budge at all! All types of bribery, including an Easter  egg, Ben10 movie and a Barbie did not get the tooth out! It was not was not until this morning, when Monte was twisting it (again) that it popped out. Even Uncle Chris had a go at twisting her tooth, to no avail. We are so pleased that the tooth fairy can finally come, after nearly a month of this business  (the tooth is probably now worth about $10!).

It was lovely to have Gordon and Chris to stay. It was especially lovely that Matthew got a lot of time with Poppa; exploring on the farm and finding toadstools was great. Uncle Chris and Poppa got to help Georgia with her reading. We had a bbq under a pink sky (pretty, yet offputting, as the pink/red sunsets are synonomous with forestry burnoffs). We had a picnic lunch at the house site, overlooking the building process and the view. Actually, it was our first picnic lunch at the house site!