Building a better back.

Continued concern from all of you well wishers has been heartening, so it's health update time. Apologies for any tardiness in posting this...

I went to see the neurosurgeon some 3 weeks ago and they did some prodding and poking, asked a heap of questions and declared that I had no need of their services. Yay. I get the all-clear ... they aint gunna / don't wanna cut me to pieces ... phew. I've been secretly concerned that I'd wrecked myself so badly that the flesh mechanics would want to slice and dice and tinker with the tricky bits of my neural pathways.

Close exposure to many who've undergone spinal operations has left me vary wary of such intrusive procedures. Of the 6 people that I know who have received spinal fusions, 3 are utter success stories. The other half, though, face a lifetime of failed back syndrome. 50/50 are not great odds in my book. Thankfully, I'll not have to roll those dice. Instead, I get the more conservative gamble of daily stretching, strengthening, rest and respite.

Week by week, I am definitely getting better. Pain is reducing, movement and strength is increasing and I am able to achieve more and more. But is is all happening ... very ... very ... slowly. And some days are far better than others. A bit like real, you know, "valid" life (as opposed to my current invalid status!). I grab strength from whatever little wins that I can: an extra half hour up and about; an extra repetition or extension in exercises; being able to cook an entire dinner; driving all the way to our beautiful hideaway, etc. Soon, I should be able to become a valuable member of society again...

Wait...this blog was intended to be all about building our paradise, not my gruelling rehab. Mmmmmm, building, where are we? As before, main house is on stop but we've spent a little time recently fixing up the shed. Our lovely new slab is unfortunately a bit proud of the stumps near the door ways, so Dana had to file out the latch holes on the roller door to allow it to close. That was the easy bit. Access door has been a bit trickier. I'd originally hung this about 10mm low and just ground off the bit of stump that fouled it's movement. However, new slab is a further 10-15mm proud of original height, so we've had to take the door off and remount it to open outwards. Me talking, pointing, demonstrating. Dana listening, trialling, doing. If nothing else, our communication channels are strengthening.

Next step is to finish the tank stand, roll into place and mount the tanks and get them plumbed together. We also have to get flashing on the roof soon. After, or around, that we will have to get our favourite rock(star) back to finish the walls. There is no budget for it but neither is there a budget for non-completion. Scrounging and scrimping will be the order of the day.

Bring on our Strathbogan existence...

What's in a name?

This will go down as the shortest post yet for this blog. I'm normally a bit wordy and try and fit as much info into every post but not today.

I got an email last night from one of our Bogie community group (SCOFF - Strathbogie Connoisseurs Of Fine Food) members. In it, she referred to our folks as "Strathbogans". There may have been an unintentional 'i' missing before the '..ans' but I prefer it without.

Dana loves it.

I love it.

We both wanna be known as Strathbogans.

Convalescence, patience and persistence...

I'm back on air! There have been more than a few worried enquiries from friends and family who've been following the blog and came upon my bad news via this medium. I'm heartened by your concern - thanks. So, I thought it only fair to update all on where things are at.

Progress on my back has been slow, painful and a bit frustrating. Been seeing the physio 1-2 days per week, doing several sessions of hydro therapy in the pool and stretching regularly to unlock some ugly muscles and relieve pressure on the affected nerves. Otherwise, I'm 90% couchbound and keeping the big pharmas in profit. I've had some good days and some not so good days but overall I'm on the very gradual improve. The last week, in particular, has seen a heartening amelioration of my condition. Whether the snail's pace progress is going to be enough to balance out the overall loss of muscle condition will have to be monitored closely over the next few weeks. Neurosurgeon appointment scheduled for later this month - we'll see what comes of that...

Some days I think "Oh boy, what a pickle I've gone and got into" but quickly catch myself and return to more positive thoughts. I see no point in dwelling on what-ifs and what-may-have-beens; we are living here and now and can only go forward. As Sir Gus Nossal so wisely noted recently: "You can't rewind the tape." To that end, I seem to be winning the mind battle. Current and long term health aside, my biggest concern is doing what little I can to assist Dana. She's working full time bringing in the bacon, cooking, cleaning, shopping, gardening, transporting and filling my hot water bottles. I'm stoked with how well she's coping with the load. Even prouder that, after 22 years, she finally got her license. Yay...and well done.

With Dana now handling the driving duties, we've managed a few trips to site to either do some basic upkeep or just hang out. I've worked out a way that, with laying the passenger seat flat, strategic cushioning and hotties, I can get to Bogie with minimal discomfort...even slept on the last trip up!

Our regular helpers, the KnJnFnHnMnS crew, came up on the Friday night as well so that we could make some progress knocking another item off the to-do list. The shed is finally getting a floor! Saturday morning we got a big truck full of slushy grey stuff delivered and I got to watch Jon, Dana and Karena pour a (6m x 6m) slab. After giving everyone a rough idea of what to do, I retired to sunning myself on the banana lounge and watching the team sweat. Given that Dana and Karena were popping their slab pouring cherries and it had been 25 years since Jon had pushed 5m of concrete into shape, it came out OK.

about bloody time we did this!

and they did sweat

bbbbbzzzzzzbbbbbzzzzzzbbbbzzzzzz

taking shape...final screed to go

The truck from Hansons had 5.6m of 20MPA 'crete on board. I'd calculated needing about 4.5-5m for the shed but decided to get a full truck anyway. There's nothing worse than being just a little bit short when it comes to pouring concrete! We had a backup plan in place for the excess, so got the driver Jason to do some light cross country work and back up to the house tank stand. Some time back, we'd set up some rough formwork to hold excess crusher dust while we worked out what to do with it. With a bit of luck today, we could put a 60-70mm skin over the whole area with the leftover concrete. Came up a little bit short so we (ahh, the royal 'we' worked so hard on the banana lounge...) put a board across 3/4 along as an end form. Dana and Karena then had some some fun screeding this lot flat(-ish!). 

this really gives a good sense of the scale of it all

After lunch Jon went back to float the surfaces. Good thing that the local hardware/hire store (Savilles in Euroa) had a bull float to go with the vibrator we'd hired. Bad thing that we'd left it a little too long and the tank site had pretty much gone off. Bugger...suppose that's what Jason meant when he said we were getting the 'winter mix' (cure accelerating add-mix in the brew to make it go off quicker in cold weather). No biggie though - we can put a skim coat over the top when finishing off the rest of the tank site (layer of malthoid under the tanks as well). This lot, we'll have to do with shovel and mixer. I can't wait to watch that...:)

I did, however, have to participate in the obligatory signing of the slab:

captured forever

Next day QC: "yeh, I can live with that..."

The next day, I watched the whole crew harvest our pumpkins. All 28 of the little beauties.

and still they did toil

bounty!

Guess we'll be eating a whole lotta punkin soup for a while yet.

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Now I've gone and broken myself...

After gloating a month or two ago about outlasting the brickie, I'm now a confirmed invalid. Seems like the constant physical strain has finally caught up with my back. The lay term is "compressed disc", also known as herniated, prolapsed or ruptured disc. Medically, it’s “focal left posterolateral disc protrusion … indenting the thecal sac and displacing the left S1 nerve root”. In other words, me back is farked. I now have to see a neuro surgeon to see exactly how bad it is and - hope of all hopes - pray that I can resolve this without any invasive surgery. Having nursed a loved one through spinal surgery and recovery before, I have no desire to put Dana through that torture. Nor do I want to go through it all myself for that matter. So we'll see what can be done with physio, stretching, trigger points and anything non surgical that may relieve the symptoms. Apparently these things are capable of restoring themselves over time but I don't have 2-3 years to lie around and wait for that...sheesh, what would I blog about then?

I know now that I probably should have stopped 4-5 weeks ago at the onset of sciatic signs but was uber keen to learn as much from Steve as I could while he was available. We'd never originally intended to, or budgeted for, a brick and rock layer but we'd seen his work at Marijs & Peter's cottage over Christmas and were wowed. So, we struck a deal to get him to hang out at Bogie for a few weeks and teach some of me the tricks of trade while we laid as much as we could. Intention was then for me and Dana to finish off whatever was left over. Well, I reckon I picked up enough tips as we went to be able to finish off the walls to a pretty high standard. Only one small hitch - I'm now stuck prone on the couch in Reservoir waiting on the quacks...bugger.

Moaning and groaning aside, Dana and I spent the weekend @ Chez Bogie washing off the work that Steve and I had finished off 8 days prior. Should really be cleaning those rocks within 3-4 days after laying but it actually went well. Dana got all kitted up and splashed the acid around scrubbing away and I followed with QC and pressure washing. Managed to work through the discomfort (thank you codeine!) with lots of laydowns on the dirty carpet pile. We got it all done in a day and, if I must say so myself, it looks absolutely fantastic!

armed and dangerous

this thing packs a punch

looking sweet

view from the bogger seat - we chose some very lumpy rocks for this

So, the project goes on hiatus for some time while I get fixed up. Apart from the physical pain, I'm mostly spewing because I was really getting into the whole being outdoors building stuff process. Sure, there've been hassles with weather and supply of materials and advice, getting people organised and motivated but they are small potatoes compared to the joy of looking over a well done bit of work on your own house. Dodgy back aside, I was also getting all fit and feeling great for it. Now I have to waste away for a while before taking the long slow road to recovery. One thing is sure - I'm not gonna give up too easily on this gig. I so much want to see this house finished and for us to be living in it.

old fossil now bedded down for a looooong time

this one came as a surprise - didn't see half of that detail before scrubbing

saw some art - couldn't resist

more reflected musings

I'll keep you all posted...

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