The year began with the two year anniversay for dad. We all met up on Cottesloe beach, with Bec and Luke, Bridge, Graham, Charlie, Isaac, Louis and his girlfriend Glenda, some of his old beach mob and even Andrew and Odile Glenn turn up. We each go into the water and released a small paperbag of Dad's ashes . . .
Suzanna leaves mid January for 4 weeks in Europe, while I chase up some opportunites to do with Rottnest, which I visit twice and also manage a trip to Margaret River with Peter to speak with Brian.
Graeme and I get to paint the fibre cement boards for number 9 . . . there is over 100 of them. Paul from London came out for a couple of weeks and we dine at Bec's with him. In April, Bec and I catch to the train to Mt Lawley to meet with Bridge and Graham for dinner to be followed by seeing Ben Elton at the Astor Theatre. It has been decades since we all saw him at the Concert Hall in Perth. We are all getting old . . . der. Movie of the year was Mickey 17 which we saw with Phil and Janice also in April. May sees me finally getting surgery to have the implant removed from when I broke my wrist a year ago. This operation was in Fremantle and while Suz drove me home, we walked back into town to see a movie later that day. I drive up to Wooleen Station (about 250km north east of Geraldton) with Rebecca, meeting up with my other sister Bridge and her husband, Graham in Mullewa in August. Details here. In September, the Berliners turn up for 3 nights one Monday. We dine here on the Tuesday along with Phil, Jacinta and Maureen. On the Wednesday, we have dinner at Robert and Catherine's with the Berliners. Graham has organised a gokarting session for his birthday and I join him, Bridge, all their kids along with Bec, Andie, Luke and Mathew mid September, followed by dinner afterwards. The following night is The Big Bike Film night at Luna SX and we watch it with Tamantha. I am already looking forward to the 2026 edition.
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Cycling
We continue the rides around the river and have found a quiet but steep way of getting back home once across the river now that the old bridge has been closed to pedestrians and cyclists.
I manage a few rides with Tamantha with the Santa Cruz on the Forrest Trails in the cooler months, while Graham and I ride a lap of KC in June.
On the 23rd of August, we pack the car with the Enigma bike with 33mm knobblies and Susanna's mountain bike with knobblies on the front and drive out to York. We overnight in Faversham House though I remember little from being there as a child a few times on church camps.
Up way too early and hoping the weather holds on the main street of York
The time of year, The Canola Classic.
About half an hour into the ride, I am looking at the road surface and all the other bikes around us, and I realise that it is not a gravel grinder ride. The road is sealed the whole way round. Ups, sorry, Suz.
Three days later, Tim picks me up and we drive out to Bunbury in his brand new ID Buzz. After charging there, we drive to Collie and go mountain biking.
The other side of the hill on Collie River
SkyFarming
I began the year by spending a bit of time on a tender for Rottnest with a Dane who had the secret sauce, basically a sychronous condenser (a generator + motor setup) to allow the windturbines, solar and to all work and work well, together.
Unfortunately, we were too late and the tender requirements too onerous. Electrifying the hot water systems and cooktops of all the accommodation will increase the electricity demand which is currently supplied by a bank of 7 diesel gensets running way too often. The 600kW solar system and single 600kW Enercon wind turbine are both currently derated as the diesel controls cannot handle higher penetrations of renewables. Rottnest still needs a solution. And at some point, the ferries to Rottnest will be electrified and they will need charging during turn around at the jetty, there.
We drove down to Denmark mid year to meet the new board of directors and talk about a second stage. With electrification of private vehicles and the replacement of hotwater systems and cooktops with electricity, demand is expected to grow dramatically, and with it, new opportunities.
There were a couple of trips to Mt Barker to meet with the landowners about the sale of Mt Barker Power Co and it went through in early September without incident. We continue the work but now have a new boss with minor differences in how we do things.
Number 9
Most of the year was spent on renovations next door. We ended up replacing the roof with white tin (colourbond). This required scaffolding all the way around the building. Cladding was fibre cement boards painted sky blue with a darker blue trim on the edges. Same colour as the guttering. The room between the studs in the walls were filled with insulation. The replacement of the roof meant a 3 week delay and $3000 in another planning application when a council building inspector turned up in April.
We removed both renovations at the back of the house, and had new walls replace the glass lourves. A channel was cut into the existing concrete for more support for the rear walls. We also built up this floor with concrete before laying jarrah. The roof now slopes down more gently to the rear wall.
Susanna in the first renovation, the black plastic covers the second.
The windows were replaced with double glazed UVPC framed windows. The house was built around a very heavy cast iron bathtub which Graeme took 5 hrs of patient sawing to release. The surrounding masonry was removed, along with the floor and tiles. A new floor was poured and a toilet, vanity basin and shower is to be installed in it's place. The old window was replaced by a skylight.
Myaree Ceramics had a 40 year celebration deal on, and so we made them stay back on the last Friday to order all the tiles. It took 3 consecutive trips out to their warehouse in Bibra Lakes to pick up all the tiles to store in our garage a few weeks later.
The plumbing was replaced to the street and we installed a heat pump to supply the hot water. The fire place will be filled with a reverse cycle air conditioning console. We are trusting that it is sufficient to heat or cool the house as necessary.
The heavy masonary in the kitchen was also completely demolished to allow more room for a L shaped kitchen. An 80kg piece of concrete lintal was dragged out the back door and buried under the entrance to the second toilet. In November, we had the jarrah floors in the old part sanded and polished. They look fantastic. Susanna spent alot of time designing the kitchen and after an hour with an Ikea 'expert/handler' one Friday in December, we ordered the parts which then turned up on the following Monday. This included an induction cooktop, oven, dishwasher, ventilation fan, and lighting.
The car
We drove down south less frequently this year and the kilometres show this, only 14,000km. The car has not exploded or burst into flames and we have only had to wait once to charge.Europe
We left for Europe for 6 weeks in the middle of September as we wanted the sale of Mt Barker Power Co out of the way. We also needed number 9 to be sufficently finished (walls externally cladded and windows installed) that it could be locked up. Graeme moved in to take care of number 7 and during this time, our tiler tiled up the old bathroom. Our time in Europe is here.
We return and have bees making comb in a large tub left unpside down. The boxes goes to Mario, a friend of Phil's. We extract honey a week or so later, 24 very full frames and a nice improvement on the 14 not so full frames mid March. Then the bees swarm again. This time the box goes to Mario's father in law.
Phil and Suz putting comb into boxes . . .
Stayovers
Graham Wallis stayed over now and then, and as with last year housesat while we were in Europe.
Christmas in Mandurah. Bridge had hired a BnB for a couple of days, I drove down on a very hot, 42 degree day, for 4 hours.
Wishing you all an excellent 2026!
Andrew