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Removing a tree to gain a garden

It’s something of a tragedy that these beautiful large gum trees are having to be cut down from no good reason. We never have new tree in our yard, and it was such a pleasant surprise to see these tall trees grow with the family. It was amazing to see my children playing around them, and the youngest praying under the birch of one. It was amazing to behold the awe and wonder in the girl’s faces, as they’d never seen trees that big before. It was a quite a sight and to be honest I’m a little sad that my wife is having to get tree removal, Oakleigh power lines are far too low if you ask me. We need to get some arborists over here to remove them. I mean yes they are taking away from the precious view of the city and have started creeping into the underground pipes. I’m most upset about getting rid of the one that the kids are playing in. They don’t seem to mind but my youngest is having a hard time with it. It will be sad to see them go, but if it must be done. Goodbye dear trees, I will miss your beautiful presence. The smell from sawdust makes me think of home, when my father would chop the firewood and mother and I would sit on the balcony and watch over him. I miss her more everyday that she’s not with us, and not with Father. He needs her now more than ever.

I’m so glad that the tree felling company and tree surgeons gave me such a reasonable quote for the trees trimming. Melbourne has some incredibly old trees scattered across its landscape and they need regular maintenance to keep from becoming a hazard. We have decided to keep one and having it trimmed. Trees help cut down on the oxygen demand by more than 30%, they’re also great for morale. I mean yes, it was my idea, but I need to thank the stump grinding team for giving me the inspiration for it. They did a wonderful job and I want to thank them. Now that we’ve moved to Melbourne we need a beautiful botanical garden, the children will feel better once they have a place to play. I feel about taking away their favourite trees to play in, I want to make it up to them with a hedge maze.

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Together Through the Plumbing Crisis

Eight people in this place, and somehow I feel like we share the load equally. Loads of different schedules, several floors and a single kitchen that honestly needs to be just a little bit bigger, but still, it works out pretty well. Helps that we all get on, some really good friendships have formed and…well, we have a pool. So it’s not like the place gets crowded in summer; everyone is always out there.

Plus we’ve been through a lot. There was the termite incident, where a majority of us were down here in the middle of the night trying to sort out this massive insect infestation. And lately, the great sewer crisis. Well, we still needed a plumber because of the blocked drain. Melbourne has really old sewer pipes, fingers crossed that it’s not sewage leaking up through the carpet. Generally, this is not considered a good thing. You may even call it…a bad thing. Howie was the one who found it! He said he was looking over some notes in the lounge when he smelt the stuff.

Like, has someone been abusing the pipes or something? This place is old, but I didn’t think the plumbing was so bad that it would leave our lounge as a sort of swamp area. Surprisingly, all eight of us are still here after almost three years. Anyone else might’ve left with the stuff that’s been happening, but we’ve developed a camaraderie. Driven together by the many crises, you might say, and also did I mention the pool? The pool is awesome. It’s pretty much the only part of the house that isn’t eighty years old. There’s also a barbecue, and when you have eight young guys together in close proximity with limited cooking skills, you can bet that one sees a lot of use in the summer.

So, the swamp was sorted out, new carpets and all. I found out that there are 24 hour plumbers in Melbourne who do drain camera inspections. Melbourne Seems nuts, but maybe because I work in an office and as soon as it hits five everyone splits. Nice to have decent plumbing services around, though. And pest control. And…pool cleaning.

-Vaughn

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Part Time Party Planning

My dad told me it would be good for me to get a job. I’ve never had a job and to be honest don’t really see the point but he thinks I should develop my work ethic, whatever that is. He said I should try and think of an innovative way to earn money. I told him I didn’t really need to earn money because I have enough but he said if I didn’t at least try and get a job he would stop giving me money. Anyway I figured I’d give it a go because I do really like money so getting more wouldn’t be a bad thing. My friend Allie used to get paid to take her neighbours kids to the ice skating rink on weekends. It turned out that the Dad was having an affair and just wanted the kids out the house but whatever, money is money. I figured if Allie can get paid to look after kids I could do the same.

I checked out gumtree and found a woman who wanted help planning her kids birthday party. I’m really good at parties, I go to them all the time and people always love inviting me to them so I figured this was kind of the perfect job for me. I mean how different can kids party venues be from adult party venues. I wrote to the woman and told her how much I know about parties and how my dad told me to get a job. She replied pretty quickly and said she wants to meet me to talk through some ideas. My first client! I told her that I bill by the hour and my going rate is $150. She hasn’t replied yet but fingers crossed! I told dad the whole story and he was super proud of me so he told me not to worry about the job, he would pay me the same wage and I could take his credit card on my shopping spree! Sometimes a little effort is all it takes!

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Heating The Office Masses

Coming into summer all you can think about is staying cool, and coming into winter all you can think about is getting warm again. Trying to convince yourself to get out of bed when it’s freezing  cold is no easy task. The temptation for ‘5 more minutes’ is strongest when your bare feet hit the icy tiles and you just want to wrap yourself back up in the blankets.

It’s an endless cycle that just reinforces how much of a slave the human race is to the change of the seasons. I don’t want our business to be like that; I want my team dominate all the seasons. I need something that can help us during the dead of winter to stay warm in our building.

It’s time we got the heaters fixed. It’s something that management has been avoiding because of the costs involved. I know I’ve been saying this for a long time, but the ACT buildings that we have in our nation’s capital are not that warm on their own. They need help, and so far, the help has been lacking. I know that we had ducted heating at some point, but it broke more than two years ago. We need to fix it again, and I’m calling on Teddy and management to speak to some local and trusted experts for ducted heating in Canberra. Hopefully, with their help we can begin to warm up this place and start to see a happier and more productive workforce in the dead of winter. Normally, due to the cold, everyone sort of hibernates on the job and little gets done. with my plan, we can get back up to spring-level productivity.

I spoke to the crew from the company that does ducted heating repairs, Canberra has been one of their busiest locations as the mercury drops to its lowest levels of the year. I’m most surprised that there were no budget cuts in order to pay for the new heating system. You hear horror stories of being railroaded into unintentional decisions, and I’m glad it’s didn’t go down like that.