22nd July 2010

Thanks for the request for Photographs - they will follow!

22nd July 2010

Having had my fingers burnt and my knuckles rapped over the usage of the Internet, I will now prepare what I want to say in MSWord and then copy and paste.

Over the past week there has been a big change on the building site.
The new gates are in place and the fence is ON.
The platform for the buildings has been cut at level 87 (87 meters above sea level?) and the car-park at the back of the site is nearing completion. It slopes from the entrance gate down towards the Salt Rock Road side of the site so that one can easily walk into the complex.
Today and tomorrow the road leading down past the offices to the Rectory will be moved about three meters closer to the office fence, so that the final cut can be made to the building platform.
On the west of the platform – the view side – Peter B has had a mound constructed onto which the Rugged Cross is going to be moved. This means that it will be a focal point from the complex verandahs.
Peter Matkovich is busy with concepts for the landscaping of the property and is also pushing hard for the new borehole.
In front of the Rectory Denis Fortune and his band of gardeners have been creating an amazing vegetable patch which is now planted with 2000 seedlings! Soon there will be carrots, cabbages, beetroot, celery, etc. in profusion. Of some concern are some new arrivals – a pair of Egyptian geese – who seem to have settled on the vegetable area as their evening ‘roost’, I do hope they don’t view the veggie patch as ‘meals on wheels’! Denis has also brought the little ‘Wendy house’ up from the church and placed it on the veggie patch site – makes it look like a very English allotment and not at all unpleasing to the eye.

19th July 2010

I am afriad that I have discovered one of the big drawbacks of blogging - you use a LOT of gigs.
We have been wondering why it is that we are being 'capped' on a too-frequent basis and have discovered that loading pictures is the challenge. On top of that we have a wireless link between the office (the source of the ADSL line) and the rectory. The direct line is through a coral tree, which I aam told is not good as wood and leaves absorb radio waves. All of which means more 'whatevers' are gobbled up.
We are going to change to a new service provider who is going to give us ADSL 'uncapped' at less than we have been paying our present provider, so soon we will have pictures again.
Until then I am afraid you will have to visit the site to see what is going on! Sorry Peter H. - just keep on praying for us!

More blog follows later.

15th July 2010 at 10.30pm

Just walked the dogs - we have had 15mm rain!
Great for Dennis Fortune and his vegetable ministry!
Going to be interesting watching the machinery tomorrow!

15th July 2010

No photograph today, tho' I must admit it would have been good to have taken a few. The guys on the machines worked flat out all day and the "87" platform on which the Phase 1 project is going to be built has more-or-less been completed.
Tomorrow the men will make a start on the "88" platform on which the carpark will be situated.
I am amazed at the sheer volume of soil that is being moved.
I was chatting with Andrew Slevin whose company is doing the earth-moving, he told me that the the reason that the pile of removed soil looks so much greater than the hole from which it was taken, is that, when the soil is loosened it takes up 1.4 times the space it took up when it was undisturbed. We have a veritable mountain of the stuff which Peter B is going to have spread out for the landscapers to get busy with.
Why no photos? The wind - and how it blew! Nett result is that there is dust EVERYWHERE!

14th July 2010

As you can see from the main picture work has now started in earnest as the platform for Phase 1 is dug.
The soil is being removed to the far corner of the site where it will be stock-piled until it is needed for fill for Phase 2.
The topsoil haas been saved and will be used for the landscaping of the property once the platform is complete and the building gets underway.
The new gates will be arriving today or tomorrow, so the site will soon be secure. Last night we had a night-watchman guarding the machines as diesel theft is rife.

This is an exciting, but dusty, time!

12th July 2010 - The project team

Here is the team -
Rob (author), Peter Berkley (site manager), Angela Plekker (architect), John Cook (project leader) and Keith Duane (finance)

12th July 2010 - Turning the first sod

This morning we turned the first sod.
Sadly Bishop Rubin was unable to be with us.
We (about 30 of us) enjoyed the time of prayer and blessing and digging out the first sod near the foot of the rugged cross.
The spot we chose was approximately where the altar in the Phase 1 church will be. Here is one of the prayers we prayed -
Almighty God, the heavens cannot contain you, yet you are pleased to dwell in the midst of your people, and, through your Holy Spirit, you have moved us to set apart a space on which to build a house of prayer.
Accept and bless the work which we have now begun, that it may be brought to completion to the honour and glory of your Holy Name
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever.
After the service and photographs we escaped out of the wintry wind into the offices and enjoyed coffee and muffins, thanks to the Waterberry.

9th July 2010 - IMPORTANT INVITATION

You are invited to join us on Monday morning at 8.00am for prayer on the new site.

The earth-moving machinery is due to start work once the surveyor - Rohan Kullin has completed laying out the pegs.

Bishop Rubin will be joining us for the prayers and will symbolically "turn the first sod".

8th July 2010 - Look what arrived today!

Now we are getting closer to the exciting part!

8th July 2010

Yesterday the site was a hive of activity!
The containers arrived and were placed in their locations.
There are two containers - one is located at the top of the site, near where all the building will happen. It is to be the accomodation container for the members of the builder's team who will live on site during the building operation to act as guards for all the material that will be on site.
The other container is located between the rectory and the offices and will be a storage container to be used as a change-room for - the men clearing the grounds, the gardeners, and the guys who are going to start making the loffelstein-type bricks for supporting the banks. We are planning to run a hosepipe to the container and fit a sink so that the men will be able to wash at the end of their working day. Two porta-loos are also going to be delivered to the site.

Meanwhile our very own vegatable ministry, run by Denis Fortune, is well underway in front of the rectory. Ground has been cleared and the soil turned in preparation for the planting of seeds. Denis is planning to use about an acre of ground to grow vegetable for sale to church members.

The electric fence has been completed and today, after the final connections were made, has been 'energised'.

The young men clearing the ground have been working very hard cutting down weeds and brush. There are piles lying drying ready to be burnt when they are dry.

Peter B really is doing a great job getting all the preliminaries done.

Angela has been trying to 'energise' the Muncipality into giving permission to start the earthworks - but to no avail ... yet.
Peter has asked Rohan Kullin, the surveyor, to come and mark out the platform for us, which he will do early next week.
Nigel Slevin is due to bring his machinery on site on Monday (12th).

As you can see we are 'poised for action'!

6th July 2010 - Letter to the Muncipality

I am posting this in full as it tells that things really ARE happening!

Dear Njabulo

UMHLALI ANGLICAN CHURCH – plan no 10/07/580

Permission to Start Earthworks

With regard to our conversation earlier today, please find above the Plan number for the submission which was lodged on Monday this week - 5 July 2010.

We are hoping the council can assist us by allowing us to commence with the earthworks portion of the project. Since our earlier meeting in Feb this year, the rezoning has been finalized, and now we have been able to formally submit the plans.

As discussed we are still hopeful of getting greatly reduced earthworks rates from one of the church parishioners. This is Nigel Slevin, who is still working in the near vicinity, but is expecting to have to relocate his plant shortly. Your assistance in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Angela Plekker
EWALD PLEKKER ARCHITECTS

4th July 2010

The final submission document was signed by Mike Jahnig at lunchtime.
Tomorrow we will submit to the Municipality.

(Today we met our new Rector and his wife - Peter and Clare Houston - they will be starting in the parish on 1st April 2011)