I got a cube of soil delivered on Friday so that I can begin to back fill the retaining wall beside the shed. I had to cover it with tarp because they predicted storms and rain over the next few days, however I thought it would be better to get it delivered in case the ground got too soggy.

So first thing this morning I began to shovel the dirt a wheelbarrow at a time and then I used the sledgehammer to compact it. I need to raise the level as much as 200mm in places. I worked for about three hours and was pleased with the results, but I’ll need another few hours to finish it. Because of the predicted storms I covered the area with sheets of bubble wrap just in case the rain washes away all my hard work.

The first storm hit at 1pm, and was fairly loud but not fierce. The second one arrived around 3pm and that packed more of a punch. I sat out on the deck keeping an eye on things while being serenaded by the young butcher bird. The Noisy Miners were trying to shelter on the deck too, but I took great pleasure in hosing them away. For the past few weeks they have been feeding their young and making one hell of a racket and so I’ve been using the garden hose to move them along. It’s getting to the stage that I just need to show my face and they bugger off. However when the rain is battering down they always seek shelter on the deck, now if they just sat there and shut their beaks then I would not need to remove them with the hose 😁 But I enjoy it!

So that was it for the day really, watched TV and ate, checked the house for any problems. Some water came in to the garage earlier but I managed to fix that and it didn’t cause a problem. When I insulated the wall a few months back I deliberately kept the sheets off the ground just for this scenario. Sometimes I might just be smart.

The third storm of the day arrived at 8pm and this one was fairly mild although the rain was pretty heavy for a while. We’ve been lucky here but a few miles away there has been a lot of hail which had caused a fair bit of damage. There were people hospitalised because they got hit with hail. They are predicting more storms through the night so I’ll be keeping the windows closed and my toes crossed that everything will be OK in the morning.

Sunday morning and all is well. No further storms to report and it looks like it will be dry. The humidity is rampant after the storms, however it’s only 26C so I’ll head out on the bike for a wee run. I only cycled around 17KM but because I have been able to use the large front cog again then my speed has increased somewhat and it my cadence feels a lot more natural. I’ve increased my speed by about 5kph and I’m not even trying. Of course this will allow me to cover a greater distance. Today I wanted to get a few other things done so one hour or so was sufficient.

Click the play button above……Not the big green one but the wee one on the left 😁

After lunch spent a bit of time in the garden filling the green bin and then moving some pavers that Mick does not need anymore. I’ll need to get back into moving the soil by the shed and once I’ve reached the desired levels I’ll use the pavers that I’ve pinched from Mick. It should get drier closer to the end of next week and then I can move on to other things. Glad to see that the bubble wrap worked a treat, so I’ll just leave it in situ until I can get back to finishing it off.