A look back at our 2020 big project

 Each year here at the farm we try to tackle  one major project each year. It doesn't always happen as smoothly  and last year was no exception.

The following post as usual contains many photographs,( hopefully not too many) but that is what I do, I love to look back at all our photos that record our progress through the years.

The plan for early last year was to remove our old carport which had seen better days, and to replace it with a much bigger covered area which would be much more user friendly.

Brian dismantled it piece by piece with the help of the tractor and bucket.

All the pieces have been stored to rebuild later as a cover for the tractor in a different location .

The excavation work then began to create a 12mtr X 8mtr area for the new carport.

The metal rio was delivered and Brian marked out his area, all nice and level ready to be concreted.

And then Covid-19 happened, and we all went into lock down and nothing was able to be done for several months.

As soon as we heard that restrictions were being lifted and the number of people allowed to gather had increased our concrete friends contacted us and said "Let's get this done".

So the following weekend, over they came from Dubbo, our friend and his step son who is also a concreter.

Our son  and my brother also arrived ready to muck in and help get the job done.

The first of our two concrete trucks arrived,

Between really worrying showers of rain, we finally got it all laid.

I supplied a cuppa for all the workers.

Our friend's stepson,  then worked on the surface finish for hours, battling more showers of rain, eventually he and his helicopter finishing machine won and it came up beautifully.

The next morning Brian and my brother cut  lines into the concrete to help reduce any cracking  in the concrete in the future.

We let the concrete cure for a few weeks, and organized delivery of the steel for the carport structure.

Brian started to attach the steel brackets to the house which in turn would have the  new carport beams attached to them also.

My ever wonderful, hardworking and helpful big brother returned to help Brian erect the framework.

Followed shortly after by my other brother from Sydney, although not 100% well was determined to get away from Sydney for a while and lend a hand where he could.

Once again they worked between small scuds of rain , but made good progress.

Finally the last of the big cross beams was lifted up.

After two days of hard work by the boys, it was really taking shape.

The next morning the boys did all the smaller joining bars in ,

And then, stretched the chicken wire right across the top of the structure ready for the foil insulation and roofing.

It had been a huge job and was really starting to look great,  many thanks to all our wonderful helpers.

We had a few weeks break for the boys to recover a bit after all their hard work and my brother and sister in law arrived for the weekend to help get the insulation and roof on.

Another short break followed and some decisions on what to do in regards to a retaining wall.

Our concreter friend had a great solution of using  metal posts with concrete panels slotted between the posts into special grooves.

So we picked up  the posts from the steel manufacturer.

Then, once the concrete panels had been made to order we picked them up.

They were loaded onto the truck with a forklift and were  unloaded easily using the tractor and special lugs lent to us by our friend.

My brother returned on queue ready for another heavy weekend's work, he really is a treasure.

The boys worked really hard, digging holes, and  cementing the posts in after knocking them down to the correct depth.

The got the first level of panels completed the first day.

The next morning, they started  early on the second level, some of the panels needed to be ground down a bit to fit into the grooves on the steel posts.

After a few hours work the boys had the second row complete.

We then took another good break, and only recently we have started filling in behind the retaining wall, We are doing this slowly and leaving it until it rains and then adding more soil so that it begins to settle well. My brother from Sydney returned for a visit and I took a photo of him pretending to work to send to a friend of his.

There is still a bit more work to finish off the ends and neaten it up but we are very pleased with our final product. It houses the caravan, car and utility with still plenty of room to spare. we feel it is a real asset to our house.

This project was a huge undertaking that was thankfully made easier with help from some great family and friends for which we will be forever grateful.

So until we meet up again next time,

Take Care,

Stay Safe

Cheers

Jane and Brian.