Day 1.127: Ungravelling community

In the heat of a sunny late-morning all five of us went to a community work day at the girls' school. The task we undertook with another parent was to spread this huge pile of gravel around the play area. Or make a start at least. In the end we moved a lot. There is a lot still to be moved. It was heavy work shovelling the gravel into a wheelbarrow, transporting, dumping and then raking it out. We kept it up for about two hours in the heat of the day then went in search of some lunch. You can see some of our efforts below.

After lunch Exile #2 reminded me that I had undertaken to look at the garage door openers. Our house inspection noted that they did not seem to auto-reverse when obstructed and with ever taller children both living here and visiting - with potential access to the controls - we decided that we now needed to do something about it. I now know a lot more about these devices. I have turned down the closing force on both of them - that was the easy part. One of them had much more significant problems however - a very dodgy coupling between the motor and the door (which turned out to just need a screw that was hidden in a nearby mass of cobweb refitting), a mis-wound sprung return-cable and a bent rail. With these things addressed (with varying degrees of difficulty), both doors now open and close smoothly and also reverse if they are obstructed as they are closing - result!

While I was tackling the doors, Exile #3 went off with the six-year-old girl from two-doors away. When I went to get her at tea-time, the neighbour from the house in between was also over there. It is really nice to have adults and children alike in and out of each other's houses and happily tramping through the front yards inbetween. In fact, it's real neighborly!