How are you dealing with the Covid 19 lockdown?

[Morrigu]

Thankfully the weather is a bit better !

[Tannin]

The iron for our new shed is finally arriving tomorrow. Yay! I've had the slab poured and the frame up for weeks but had been dithering about what sort of flashings to order and various other details. Went to see the man on Monday, he's made the flashings, picked up the roofing iron, and will be out with a truck to deliver it in the morning.

I know what I'll be doing on the weekend.

[stui magpie]

Noice. What size shed ya got, real or toy?

[Tannin]

This one is just a little, Stui. It started as just a cover for the bore pump, but then we though we could make it a bit bigger and put the fire pumps in it too. And why not make it an actual shed you could walk into, instead of just a weather cover? And ... well, we could put the garden tools in it. Hmmm ... and a wheelbarrow.

I ended up making it 2.2 x 4.5. We could have bought one way cheaper - less than half the price of making it. But we looked around at the quality of pre-fab sheds and thought about the winds we get here sometimes, and said "hang it!"

So it's a four-inch slab (more on the downhill side) and a 90 x 35 timber frame with 500mm stud centres, and it is s t r o n g. Should last longer than we do, that's for sure.

The (existing) big shed is full of machinery but we want to get a new one for the tractors and have the space in the big shed for other things - room enough to do some woodwork without having to move stuff out into the rain for starters. We won't build the third shed ourselves. Too much work for old buggers like us. We will get a builder to do that one.

[eddiesmith]

It isn't about the one day. Dan's rant was along the lines....

If your mother is elderly then she is more vulnerable to COVID19. If you see her face to face, then you expose her to everybody you have had contact with during the past 14 days which could kill her.

Then everyone will just visit their mothers on Tuesday and you have the same issue.

Most people have been out for the last two weeks, shops are busy again, the ones which are open anyway and the roads are busy all day long. No one cares anymore and a premier who wants to drag this on forever doesn’t help the cause. The problem is when restrictions are lifted they might actually have to go back to work and pass laws as normal instead of using his extraordinary powers to do whatever he wants.

Anyway on topic, I’ve been lazy the last two months, but finally now getting some exercise, have committed to 157kms in memory of the four police officers killed last month. Been a good motivation to get out of the house, can’t believe how bad my fitness has dropped in such a short time.

[think positive]

I get the fitness thing, you dont realise how much incidental exercise you get in normal everyday life. i feel like a blob! Been a full on couple of weeks, and last night i pretty much hit rock bottom! So today, i got up, had a coffee, a third of the oatmeal hubby made me, 15 min treadmill at a fast walk, ive been doing the occasional 1/2 hearted weights work outs, today i upped the weight a kg in most circuits, arms, shoulders, squats and 100s, then another 15 min on the cross trainer, just had 2 poached eggs, and about to walk the dogs! i feel so alive! And more importantly, my ankle is fine, and my injured shoulder is pretty good!

I like the 157klm thing, not sure if i can physically do it, but ill keep score, cheers, Go you! Physical exercise, for me anyway, is so so important to mental health! And getting my jeans on!!

[Wokko]

I'm back down under 3 figures (was up to 105 kg), weighed in at 99.7kg this morning. A long way to go but it's the first signpost on the way.

[Pies4shaw]

I've run out of great Collingwood victories to re-watch, for the time being. So, last night I took to turning down the colour on the 1986 Grand Final and pretending that all of the blokes in black and white stripes on that field who barracked for Collingwood growing up were actually playing for us.

Anyway, spoilers - Carlton loses. Doull has 6 goals kicked against him in his final AFL game, Rhys-Jones gets actually reported for one of his high hits etc etc. A game full of highlights.

Tonight, I'm going to watch the black and whites thrash Melbourne in 1988 (starting the 4 in a row to 1991).

[stui magpie]

This one is just a little, Stui. It started as just a cover for the bore pump, but then we though we could make it a bit bigger and put the fire pumps in it too. And why not make it an actual shed you could walk into, instead of just a weather cover? And ... well, we could put the garden tools in it. Hmmm ... and a wheelbarrow.

I ended up making it 2.2 x 4.5. We could have bought one way cheaper - less than half the price of making it. But we looked around at the quality of pre-fab sheds and thought about the winds we get here sometimes, and said "hang it!"

So it's a four-inch slab (more on the downhill side) and a 90 x 35 timber frame with 500mm stud centres, and it is s t r o n g. Should last longer than we do, that's for sure.

The (existing) big shed is full of machinery but we want to get a new one for the tractors and have the space in the big shed for other things - room enough to do some woodwork without having to move stuff out into the rain for starters. We won't build the third shed ourselves. Too much work for old buggers like us. We will get a builder to do that one.

It's nice doing stuff yourself but sometimes it's just cheaper and smarter to pay someone. So glad i got my new shed a few years back, i had the fun of demolishing the old one

[Tannin]

^ Yep. This current one was marginal from the point of view of pouring the slab. Lot of work. Any bigger than that and I'd have to get a truck in. And if you've got a whole truckload to finish all in one go, you need extra people to help ... and the whole thing is already out of hand before you even cut the first board.

The next one will be big enough for three cars to park in (not it will have cars in it, just saying around that size) and way more than I feel like doing on my tod. The company which built the existing big shed did a good job. Maybe we will get them to do the next one.

[stui magpie]

Noice. 3 car garage size enough for a workshop and storage.

So tonight is potentially the last of the sunday video calls, but need to have the chat to figure out what happens from here on.

It's amazing how things can change. 2 months ago the daughter lived in Ivanhoe and the son with kid in Sth Morang. Both about 15 minutes away.

Since lockdown they've both moved.

Daughter has a place in Glen Waverley with her partner, son has moved in with his GF and her 2 kids further north.

So we got some new logistics to sort out.

[stui magpie]

So, couple of weeks on, new normal taking place.

As the family has moved etc, we're still doing video calls but mixing it up. Last weekend I took the old girl to the daughters for lunch, this weekend I went to Toc then on Monday went and picked up the grandson for the day, took the old girl over for a visit when I took him back.

Dunno about anyone else but my days of spending 2 hours per day commuting are over. My current contract is up til end of October and unless something seriously changes that's when I finish up. So I'm planning on doing of much of that from home as I can and then take it from there.

Seek.com.au now has "working from home" (WFH) as one of it's location choices, companies have been schooled that it works and lots of people who've now done it have zero desire to go back to a physical office again.

I think I'm going to look at short term contracting, aiming at WFH and maybe even selling up down here and moving back up bush, setting up a home office and doing short bits for beer money.

[Morrigu]

^ I get that - I only have to drive 15 mins from home to our 2 main hospitals and that’s enough!

I just want to stop working full stop and could if we weren’t so fond of travelling - can’t give that up so suck it up princess!

Presuming Mum would go back to Toc with you yes? Keen?

We are desperate to escape the cold - sell up and move to warner pastures - currently looking at Hervey Bay not in the town but out a bit with some land and native bush and critters and the whales of course......

[stui magpie]

Mum would go back, no dramas but it's a more extreme climate than Melbourne. Hotter in summer and colder in winter.

Just more laid back. Now the kids are old and settled, I don't have much anchoring me here anymore.

[eddiesmith]

That's my only concern with Wodonga, I love it up there but I also had the benefit of disappearing over Dec-Feb! Colder in winter is better though.

I don't know about Toc, but I know Wodonga in winter the days are much nicer and a bit warmer but nights colder, just how I like it and its more settled weather than Melbourne.