We have electricity!!! What a luxury to be able to have the kettle and the toaster running at the same and know that in a few minutes you will be able to turn on the hot water in the bathroom for a steaming shower (along with lights and ventilator fans)! We take so much for granted...

We are now minus a few more trees - this time removed by the professionals - no mishaps this time around. We can actually see the neighbours now - hope they don't mind the view! The clay has hardened in the dryer weather and we no longer have to change shoes to enter the house. I did however have to abandon the pram the other day at the top of the drive after a visit to the park and squeeze past the chipper truck in the driveway with L. in my arms. Phew - bit of a tight squeeze - but we made it.

One small hitch has appeared on the horizon... we have been told that there is no water mains to connect to on our side of the road. The water connection for the new house will have to be connected to the other side of the road! This is just a small matter of boring under a four lane highway and trying to avoid the communications cable that runs between Sydney and Melbourne! We have been told by the builder that all this is 'not as bad as it seems' - who knows what that means... we have no choice but to grin and bear it and are now waiting for a quote for the extra work.

The miracle of eggs! In the evenings I often volunteer to tuck the hens (4 beautiful black Langshorns - named Ava, Loki, Tesh and Vara) in at night and as I do I peer into the corner of the hen house to see two perfect eggs resting in the nest hollowed out of earth. The hens watch me from their night perch and cluck gently as I lift them carefully out - sometimes still warm - and carry them up to the house - dreaming of yummy omelettes and cakes...

Well, we've had quite a week since the last time I wrote! The cowboy continued his rampage around our property and managed to break the water mains, the sewerage pipes of the downstairs toilet (luckily we haven't been using it lately) and bend the metal pool fence. Some people just shouldn't be let out. Here is a photo of his handiwork...

On Saturday we managed to get out of the house and struggled through the dirt without too much damage in our best outfits for a photo shoot to celebrate L's first birthday.

Over the weekend the generator died and we had no power whatsoever for a whole day and night. There have been no baths for the babies for four days... Our kind neighbour let us plug the fridge into their supply so we'll be saving up for thankyou presents once this is all over.

Sunday was the day of N's fifth birthday which we held at a friends house and which was said by all to have been a success. Here is the cake I made for her - complete with five cute kittens (her favourite animal).

The kids had fun on the swings, exploring the nearby bushland, trying to eat jelly snakes hanging from the clothesline with no hands, pinning the horn on the unicorn and generally stuffing their faces with more lollies, chocolate crackles, chips, frankfurters and cake.

The cat escaped the night before last and was outside for hours. By bedtime we were really quite worried and went all over the place with the torch calling 'puss, puss, puss' and 'wudda, wudda, wudda'. After about half an hour of searching and looking in holes and ditches I was outside the front of the house when I saw something black streaking across the lawn. The generator was blasting away around the side of the house. I shone the torchlight over and caught two shining green eyes looking at me nervously. I crouched down and called her and she came over - shaken by all the commotion. We went to sleep content with the knowledge that she was back inside safe and sound.

An apprentice plumber on his P's managed to get his truck stuck in the big hole at the top of the driveway. He was stuck for a couple of hours and probably had to get towed out. Somehow he got in and then he was trying to reverse back out - I wish I had taken a photo!

Yesterday the driveway turned into a quagmire. The rain turned the clay into a thick slurry and we got taller and taller as we made our way up to the main road.
Here are my boots after an outside excursion... we had lunch out - yummy italian pizza (really authentic - Il gianfornaio - I recommend it) and spent the afternoon and evening at my parents place which felt amazingly cosy and comfortable in contrast to our beleaguered abode!

This is the third day of the building work that has started on our driveway. It can't get any worse. We are using power from a generator (that keeps running out of petrol) and the water lines were broken yesterday. On the first night I had to give my one-year old son his dinner by candlelight (romantic - not!) and his bath by torchlight (luckily we have one of those torches you can strap to your head).

The cowboy on the excavator got a bit gung ho on the first day and decided to do a bit of pruning along the driveway. Two huge trees and many shrubs later the power lines had been pulled up and broken and the neighbours' tap had been flattened.

We will probably be without power for another week or so - so the adventure continues... Just as well my sister has found another venue for her daughter's fifth birthday party on Sunday. It would have been mud pies and dodge the ditches instead of pass the parcel and pin the tail on the donkey!

We are putting in a new driveway with a view to subdividing the property into two lots and then building on the second lot behind the existing house (belonging to my sister). My husband, son and I are sharing the house with my sister and her three kids until our house is built. We never thought we would be sharing the house for so long - in fact I thought we'd be in our new house before my son was born - talk about naive! We've had a very long settlement complicated by drainage easements, over-zealous engineers and elusive builders. 2 years after putting an offer on the property the ball is finally starting to roll...

I'll post some pics with the next entry.