Photos from the saddle

Went on possibly my last Black Mt ride as an ACT resident today. 

Photos from the saddle

Start of the One Tree Hill climb. Stunning day, glorious views, great ride.

Block/house progress

 Garage slab formwork 

Floors all cleaned ready for the carpet and laminate boards to go down

 Dining/kitchen

 Lounge, what a view!

 The spine of the house where the 2 halves were joined, now you can barely tell 

 Dining

Our 132,000 litre water tank taking ownership of the land!

Free throw

Will showing some good shooting technique here with a couple of free throws last weekend 

Woohoo!

Lucas here with a visual representation of how excited we are all feeling with the prospect of moving to our dream home in the very near future!

Although he does keep saying he doesnt want to move anymore! (could be something to do with me dragging him out there every day to meet up with tradies in the mud and cold!)

Updated home and block pics....

 Some of the lovely view from our lounge room

 The mains trench from front gate to switchboard

 Lucas teaching Kevin how to dig properly

 Freshly oiled deck

Fixed front gate

Water tank pad ready for delivery next week

 New gas bottles for cooking and heating water

 Painted skirting looking good!

One more day to go before the house itself is completed from the builders point of view, then its just a matter of getting power/lights/fans, water and sewage connected, floors layed, wood burner installed and shed built. Then after getting all that inspected and approved from council as an official occupancy, we are good to go. Getting close!!

Rice boys school photo quartet

Handsome/cute alert! 'For the first time in forever' (thanks Frozen) the Rice boys had their school photos taken all together today. I managed to sneak this one past the official photographer!

Anyone order a house?!

Well, the day finally came where our house (that we had never actually seen prior) arrived on the back of 2 huge trucks from Wagga Wagga 200+kms away.

We watched the entire process from the trucks turning up on the street, to them connecting the 2 halves together and joining everything up, really amazing! We are absolutely stoked with the product and can see many happy years spent as a family in our new home, on our beautiful 4.8 acres of paradise!

 The levelled site a few days before the house arrived

 And here it is!! The long wide load was tricky to manoeuvre around some of the trees

 Official arrival on our land!

 House hydraulically jacked up so the truck can drive away from under it

 The 2 halves slowly becoming 1

 The back

 The front

 Kitchen

Home!!

Keeping up

Another sit down rest for this little cyclist

Its tough being the youngest, trying to emulate your big brothers and for the majority of time being well out of your depth. Its easy to forget Lucas is only 4.......although he will soon be a big brother too and be showing the new addition to team Rice all sorts of clever big boy things!

Cycling challenge # 4

My cycling challenge number 4 consisted of riding 100kms while still cilmbing at least 1000m.

Being on the bike for almost 4 hours is a challenge in itself for me, but adding the strong icy winds we had today it turned into a real battle to keep pedalling after about 75kms or so. By the end of the ride my hands and feet were numb and muscles were much more sore than they should have been.

I didnt quite get the 100kms and although it was a slow cold and windy slog towards the end, I still loved the ride and it was good to be pushed by a different variable apart from distance or terrain this time. It turned out the weather was the true challenge for number 4.

Strava ride stats - http://app.strava.com/activities/137127945

 A beautiful river crossing at the foot hills of the Brindabellas

The lovely rolling hills out near Uriarra village

Granny Ivy and Nanna

Just recently we had a visit from the Hunts, Granny Ivy and Nanna Diana down from Newcastle. It was lovely to see them, especially Ivy who has turned 88 this year and is still going strong!

ANZAC day

We have wanted to take the boys to the ANZAC day dawn service for a few years now, so this morning we decided to all sacrifice a bit of sleep for the diggers, get up at 4.15am and head to the war memorial.

Its a very big ceremony here in the nations capital and this year we were lucky enough to not only be joined by Jems granny Ivy, who actually served in the 2nd world war, but also the royals - The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate.

I dont really understand or necessarily agree with war, but it sure is powerful and moving to attend something that means so much to so many that have fought to protect our country. Lest we forget.

Photos from the saddle

Interstate sunrise 

Photos from the saddle

Tura Beach holiday bikes pose -

 Lovely Mandeni, just a stones throw from the Lanes new house

Its been a while, but my Camber and Rich's Anthem had a lovely romantic date together on an early morning MTB adventure in Bournda reserve

Tura Beach holiday

We just got back from a lovely few days in sunny Tura Beach with Dad and his new neighbours, the Lanes.

 Beach play a must for us inland dwellers

Morning stroll to the healand with Dad and William. Nice photography Will!