Building the New Garden - Fear of Power Tools!

Once Mary and I recovered from jet lag, we began to build the new garden. Our friend, Alex, removed the compost and flattened out the area a few months earlier. Now our task was to build 6 new beds that were 3 feet wide, 10 feet long, and 18 inches high. Thank God for YouTube and this Amish guy who showed us how to brace the corners. We used 12: 2inch 8X10 and 12: 2inch 10X10 boards to build our ten-foot long beds 18 inches high.

On Tuesday I went to Lowe's to get the lumber for our project. Being an office guy I had no idea even how to buy lumber. Luckily, a friend of mine, Dale, works at Lowe's and he told me to "take a few deep breaths and he'd find someone to help me." The next thing I knew a very kind Lowe's employee said he would help me "pull the boards." I'm thinking I've seen people pull taffy but never lumber. This was going to be interesting. He also said he was glad to help me but he was really a driver and didn't know much more than I did about lumber.

We pulled all the lumber and another friendly Lowe's guy cut all the wood for me and then helped me stuff it all into my van. It barely fit! After filling our garage with wood it was time to get to work.

The first order of business was to build our bush workbench.

Our workbench in the backyard

I had two saw horses and a popup workbench I'd inherited from Dad. We put an old piece of 4 X 4 plywood on the sawhorses and then piled up old garden bed wood I'd saved on the workbench. It was ugly but effective.

The first bed took us almost four hours to build. The second took us almost two hours, but Mary almost collapsed under the weight of the finished box when we hauled it into place.

Two beds completed ready to build number 3

It was only then that the thought struck us, "This was not a permanently installed workbench. We could move it." Here you see it in place for bed number three. Note the look of relief on Mary's face. The third bed only took us about an hour to build. Halfway done, we quit for the day.

Halfway to the finish line

The next day we knocked off the other three boxes with each taking about 45 minutes to build. The last one was a bit of trouble because we were left with all of the uneven pieces. So I pulled out the saber saw, also part of my inheritance, and cut three 2X4's. Glad I only cut the wood and not some appendage.

Here's our finished product.

Feelin' good - that monkey is off our backs

The next step is to fill each box with soil and compost and get planting. Let's see how this all works out.

The Wedding and the end - March 22 - 27

We loved every minute of our 31 days on the road here in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. Special thanks to Mary's brother Gerard and sister-in-law Susie who let us use this home while we stayed. We felt like real farmers without any dirt, sweat, or hard work!

Our home in Nathalia

The last big event was the wedding of Mary's niece Rachael and her fiance Troy. It was a destination wedding right on the Murray River. (FYI Americans: The Murray is the Mississippi River of Australia.) We arrived the night before the wedding and I tried my best to stay out of the way of all the preparations, basically avoiding any work. Unfortunately, a very large backdrop that Troy built from local lumber had to be moved into place and desperate for help of any kind, I was called into service. After a lot of heaving and some swearing, the three blokes got the backdrop into place only to discover it was the wrong place. (Three guys heaving a huge and heavy backdrop on their own, without any supervision, who could have guessed we would be WRONG?) Eventually, one of the bridesmaids, Brie, lifted up half the huge lumber construction on her own and ordered us to "MOVE IT!" Which we obediently did.

The three blokes taking credit for the move - before

Three blokes - after

The wedding venue was beautiful.

That's the Murray River in the background

The bridal party taking pics

Mary was very excited that there was a "mob" of kangaroos wandering around the venue looking for photo ops.

Mary and the Roos

The next morning, Mary's brother, Bernie, took over the barbecue breakfast. I offered to give direction and advice and am proud to say that I enjoyed his cooking without lifting a single finger to help.

Bernie's famous pepper ring eggs

As it had been a long time since Mary was together with all of her sisters they took the opportunity for a pic and the next day had a sisters night out on the town. I can only imagine the decibel level of the "cackling" in the restaurant.

The six sisters

The 29-hour flight from Melbourne to Dayton including the ride to Lima was exhausting. I think we'll stop in Hawaii on the way home next time and maybe San Francisco. Five days after we returned the jet lag is just lifting. But our wonderful experiences of Australia and family left us with long term memories that more than made up for this short term inconvenience.

Can't wait for my next trip with this beauty.