[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

It has been months since my last update on the shipping containers. This was mostly brought about by some issues with the construction of the pad. The original shape of the land was made up with a series of raised mounds and valleys to allow drainage for the previous owner's citrus trees. Instead of cutting the ground out level we did a mix of cut and fill. The fill had a higher clay content and spewed up through the surface of the road-base material when being levelled with machinery.

Some months passed and more road-base was brought in and a similar thing happened. The more the road-base was worked the more the clay fill spewed up through the surface. I called a halt to operations.

Weeks passed by and I grew increasingly uncomfortable about where the shipping containers were stored. They were temporarily positioned right alongside of the water course's bank. This is in a lower area which frequently overflows when the creek rises up. It is also now the "wet season" here.

Having visions of a couple of shipping containers bobbing their way down the flooded creek I decided to act. I ordered a mobile crane and the shipping containers were carried over to the pad and lowered down onto the 160 mm high concrete blocks under each corner.

Now the next time it rains I can breathe a sigh of relief. Also, tomorrow I can start mounting the particle board for the pallet rack shelving. Once this is all done I can move all the stuff that is blocking ready access to the shelves in my main shed.

I am very happy that the shipping containers are in their designated place - at last

Future plans: I have engineer design plans being drawn up for a gable roof to span between the containers. The plan includes proper concrete anchor points into the ground. I had a soil test performed to allow the engineer to sort out the correct depth and diameter for the anchor points. After spending some time in the containers today - it is Summer here - a couple of whirlybirds are on the immediate agenda. The roof spanning the containers is a long term goal. . Depending upon how many roof trusses are needed, the roof will be done by covering the span between two roof trusses at a time - to form a series of completed roof "panels". The roof top ventilators (whirlybirds) are a much more immediate item.

Kind regards
Lionel