We have had a few fine days so I have been outside enjoying  the sunshine and doing jobs in the garden. We are on holiday until January 7 and have children  coming up soon after new year so five year old grand daughter will keep us amused and busy taking her to the zoo and swimming pools.
I have been tagging monarch butterfly as part of a tracking programme here to keep an idea on their health. We mainly want to see what happens to the late autumn butterfly's and where they winter over.
Here In New Zealand we are in the middle of  summer although it has been a bit unsettled



For all your hand and power tools try http://handpowertool.com 

Christmas is now over for most of us. We had a a quiet meal at home with friends. We had planned going to picnic on the beach and it got so hot 31c,we decided to open all the doors at home and have an outdoor meal indoors. Our friends have a two month old baby so we were on baby time.
the work on the back yard cottage is progressing well and I am working on complying with council requirements, the latest has been duck bill ground anchors to  secure the cottage to the ground so it wont blow over in high winds.
I am off work until the January 7 and have children  and granddaughter  visiting in the new year so hope the weather is fine for them.

We have been working on locating the little cottage on the back section for a for while, We had to make level ground by installing two timber walls. The walls are 12 meters long by  1.5m high then fill in the hole. We then drove in the cottage which is on wheels and leveled it up so it sits on blocks.

Raining here today so sitting inside watching it and drawing up plans to add a bathroom to a cabin/ sleep out for a dependent relative.

Had a morning tiding up the grounds of a block of flats for my Rotary club cutting back trees and clearing weeds and cleaning down the buildings.There are eight flats in three buildings built in the 70s to assist less well off to get accommodation.
This afternoon went to our monthly jazz club performance had a 35 piece band playing a good variety of  music from 1911- Michael Bublie recreations.

What were the first tools of man?
We have our hands and teeth  just like all other animals then we found that a sharp stone would be useful for cutting and that if one stone is harder than the other it can be u to shape the softer stone to the desired shape whether it be  utility or decorative.
We have continued to develop them through the ages the wheel then the axle stone was replaced with metal and in some cases ceramics have replaced tool steel for machining metal into components for common use.
The Egyptians must have had some good tools and craftsmen who fashioned granite into tombs in the pyramids where the joins between the stones are perfectly straight and and parallel.





Hand and Power Tools

Twisted my ankle a week ago so taking it easy while it repairs itself.

Repaired pot holes in the tar seal drive way this morning using cold mix tar not hard to use but have to make sure it doesn't get carried to places it shouldn't the little tarry stone easily get carried about about on our boots to the garage then into the house where her indoors get very annoyed at blacks spots appearing on the floors. http://handpowertool.com/

I have spent a lot of time tidying up and renovating houses over the years. Started out as an apprentice fitter /Turner repairing ships, then as an operator in power stations dairy factories and chemical plants and now with a power company GIS team updating the company maps.