Sooooo – our floors could get laid over the top of that weird waterproofing membraney stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

But it was obviously better to get some waterproofing layer that did the job properly (you can see the nice shiny smoothness in the background):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sooooo - 4 and a half rooms all lovely wood floors to look at and love J in the first week.  Half a room…mmm, the jarrah floorboards we picked up (from the Salvage yard even though they are brand new – seconds, that is) had some character and we knew we would be lucky to get away with the tight square metreage amount that was available.  We took all the 72m² available at the salvage yard - for the 68 m² flooring we needed – so only 4m² to ‘play with’ and we ended up about 5m² short now.  We were so lucky to find enough locally to finish off, and Michael got to install them too (I helped a little, it was hard work!)

Soooooo – 39mm of rain one night last week – plenty to water in the septic tanks and leach drains - again – but dang, one of the septic tanks developed a lean – so it needed to be levelled out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So much work that doesn’t really seem to be a step forward!  Oh well, there *is* always good isn’t there?  Our lovely neighbour, Terry, leant us his brand new sump pump and Michael was able to rig up the block and tackle on some planks suspended across from the tractor to the far bank, and he managed to get it all straightened back up again, after 3 days of work.... but yay! 

And Michael had already had the leach drain all beautifully levelled too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And had got onto the pick to take out some more of the clay wall so they could sit in a straight row:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 But we still had to call in the big digger – again (this is Jo, our neighbour's, dad):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The leach drains were about 1m too short (only because we changed over to the plastic ones and you need 14.7m compared to 12 m for concrete) – we knew we were close – and even though Michael is certainly no stranger to hard, digging work, there was no way he could dig through another metre of mud and rock hard gravel.

Best news though – Kent, the plumber could come back yesterday, so all the plumbing is connected and the shire will do their inspection on Friday morning so we can get this all buried and stop the pits flooding!  We sure will be happy with that!!!

Sooooo – still plenty of rainy days lately and still very high humidity in the house.  The doors were being kept open of course as wood flooring got cut etc – but Desmond has Kenny to help now – so the humidity drops right down to ~55% overnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that is enough to encourage the lice to live outside instead!!  With a life cycle of 21 days we need to keep the humidity down for about 3 weeks to see if they really are dying off – it’s a lesson in patience for me :-/!  It does look like there are much, much fewer bodies on the tiles over the last couple of days – but I am needing to see zero to believe they are gone!

I love bugs – I really do.  I appreciate the teachers who have taught our kids about mini-beasts.  I appreciate all that bugs do in our world to pollinate flowers so we have food, to compost and clean up, to provide entertainment in their antics.

But…

I do love it so much more when they do all that outside and I only have to be involved as I choose.  How selfish of me!

I am having to remind myself that we are imposing our environment into theirs – and I will need to bide my time until a new equilibrium is reached where we happily co-exist.

I had to remind myself that finding two types of spider and two types of black bugs on the silverbeet you have picked for dinner is fine!!

And so…the Dept of Ag have told us we have barklice in the house.  A slightly bigger relative of booklice – or the same thing depending on local naming.  And of course, they are not really lice, but arthropods (like earth-bound crayfish!).  There is always good news though, isn’t there?  Since it is known that they feed on microscopic algae/fungi/mould associated with plant stuffs, they are a good indication of too much humidity in an indoor environment – so we are grateful they have brought that to our attention.  Unfortunately for them, knowing this now means we will do something more about it – and their ‘perfect home’ will be uninhabitable for them – but perfect for us!!  We have already ordered a dehumidifier online (not a one single one available locally L) – and they should die off within a few days of us plugging it in. 

I put our temp and humidity gauge in the house over the last weekend – and we are averaging about 17^oC inside at about 78% humidity.  It does feel quite nicely warm compared to the outside temp of about 12^o.  But indoor air humidity should be around 30-50% according to asthma guidelines – so we have quite a bit of moisture to pull out of the air – and help those walls dry out!!  Last nights' reading was down to 68% humidity - and it was a rainy, wintery ol' day - so hopefully those damp absorbing granules are already working too!

Wish us luck!  Pray!!  Send good vibes!  We could do with this going well for us.

Oh, and a lousy house is not because of the strawbales!  These bugs love any humid house and have been found in many a pantry (plant) foodstuffs or even new houses after ‘standard’ builds due to the moisture in plasterboard before it has dried out.