Today we took our first load of rubbish off to the Waste Transfer Centre. Once we actually found the blasted thing because road signs are optional out there, we dumped off a small ute load. It was rather satisfying to realise that after all these years and only one prior clean out we've really had such a small amount of absolute and total rubbish to dump. We do have another ute load of stuff to go - all of which is recyclable. It was also fascinating to see the amount of GREEN MATTER that was piled up out there for mulching. Thank goodness there are some residents who aren't bloody bone idle and will take things out to the transfer centres rather than taking the slobs way out and burning absolutely everything.

So one, maybe two more trips and we should have cleared out everything that we've identified up front as not going to the new place. It looks like Adam's shed is packing up really well also (we've been a tiny bit worried about the great black hole that is his shed ). At least that's underway now and I'm starting on sorting out seedling pots and the things in the garden shed that will go. There's a small garden shed on the new place, but I'd like to replace that with a nice walk-in / walk-out shed that we can store the chipper and other things in. Building organic matter for composting is high on the agenda of things to be getting on with once we move.

The other thing we want to do pretty quickly is lay out some raised bed edging. There's an area at the front of the house that's already rabbit fenced off, and set up as a growing area - it makes sense to put one of our hot houses there - with appropriate adaptation to handle the very cold winters and the very hot summers. The raised beds we're going to build are going to be adobe style - we've toyed with a bunch of different methods and upon reflection we think this will provide us with what we need quickly and efficiently. Basically a mixture of cement and straw (and something else - can't remember / himself is sorting this out), and we'll build walls around some bedding areas that will be high and wide enough to have a little sit on. As a friend of ours INSISTS on reminding us all - we're not getting any younger, and frankly I'm over all that bending down.

Later on, if this method works, then we'll build up some herb gardens and other raised beds around the house - once I've figured out people / dog / equipment and other movements / energy flows and so on.

We also took the Shepherds off for another check up this morning. Gryphon's medication is going to have to go up another half a notch, so the degeneration is now moving pretty well slowly but constantly downwards. He's happy, and alert (well as alert as the great Doofus has ever been) and the pain is manageable if not the actual mechanics of moving freely. He's still playing and loving the cuddle he got from the vet today, so we're happy to keep helping him around if he's happy to keep going.