Vika, Tok, windows and doors

I am just home after another excellent day at the school, with many things happening but I am going to start off by going back to last night where we legged it over to the small restaurant in the nearest town where my friend has friends and we were made to feel very welcome while stuffing our faces with Shopka Salad, lamb kufte (well, that was me), cheesy chips, chicken wings and 'drop' (liver and onions). An outstanding meal and with several drinks each (and a couple of beers for me to take away) came to less than I would normally spend on one main course.

The fire, just lit

The fire had been lit at the house and was jumping and sparking and happily warming us up and this was still just about lit when we got home and finished the evening off with one of the beers I'd brought (and some mastika for my friend).

All in all a great way to end the day.

The weather was checked by internet while we were at the restaurant and accuweather said it would be cloudy but dry. The TV which was on in the bar however told us it would be raining all day.... so.... we would see...

So to this morning, after a good night sleeping like a log I woke to find it was 10 mins after I had wanted to wake and that the alarm I had set the day before had been a 'once only' alarm which didn't go off this morning. Oh well, my internal clock got me up and I made the morning brews for a change and then we were off to collect the men.

The trench and deep hole

Today we were straight to the school with no visit to the town and the men got straight on with digging the trench and trying to find the mains supply which purported to run down the middle of the track by the front of the property. By about 10.30am I was starting to feel a little jumpy as we were approaching half way through my building week and nothing had been done at all on the roof; which I consider to be the number one priority of this trip. My friend suggested that we make ourselves useful by sealing up some of the windows which had been letting rain in the previous day.

The goats having a go at one of my walnut trees

Within a few minutes of getting the car out across the trench (not an easy task) and heading down the hill I started feeling better; after all we had only received the materials for fixing the roof at the end of yesterday so really this was only a half day extra and it would mean all the digging of the previous two days had been worth while.

After a bit of an exploration and visits to a few shops we returned with some corrugated plastic sheeting, a tape measure, a frying pan, some other bits of food and most importantly a box of fish fingers for lunch.

While my friend was preparing lunch I turned right round and went back out with Bekir to the shop as they had found the pipe (WOOOO!) but the bits they had bought previously were not the correct size. We were able to swap the wrong bits for the right bits and I got myself a craft knife for cutting the aforementioned plastic sheeting and were back within half an hour; it really is very convenient to get to the local town from my school.

Mmmmmm fish fingers for lunch

Those fish fingers were AMAZING and we polished the whole lot off in bread with mayonaise.

After lunch we set ourselves to putting the plastic over the windows and this was a massive success. We were able to cut them down to size and use batons to support them and the difference this made to the wind and temperature inside the building was incredible. Oh, did I mention yet just how cold it was today; I have had to put a fleece on! There were jokes (or at least I hope they were jokes) about it snowing tomorrow.

One window covered and batoned

Getting ready to do the others

Looking at a covered window from the inside

We covered over three windows at the back of the property and then went on through the afternoon to put some polythene that was lying around the roof space into use to cover a couple more at the top of the stairs in the main landing. These aren't quite as secure but we will address this tomorrow with some more polythene maybe.

Bekir getting a dip sorting the plumbing

Whist this was going on Bekir was out getting his feet wet attempting to connect us to the mains supply and within a few minutes this was achieved and we had mains water from the pipe on my property.

Water Vika everywhere, and not a drop to drink!

Then it was just a case of pushing the soil back into the trench and covering up the new pipe which was achieved very quickly indeed.

The trench filled back in

Around this time the husband of my neighbour came over for a visit; he is such a lovely and smiley man I hope this picture does him justice.

My smiley neighbour

We had another visitor around this time too; EVN turned up with two men to look at the property, decide where things were going, and explain the next steps. We decided where the supply is going to come in, and Bekir gave his number so he can be called when they are going to come and do the actual work. This could be in ten days or twenty but it will happen soon. Awesome.

Proudly displaying our handiwork

The final task of the day for us was to go around and fix as many of the windows as we could with nails, and cleaning out the flaked paint to get them to shut. My friend had also managed to encourage another couple of doors to close so I have to get some more ring-bolts and padlocks tomorrow to seal these up. The idea is that over winter each room be as secure as possible so any weather has the least impact as possible. It will also keep it secure from intruders.

The frame being built

The men's final task was building a frame which they will use first thing tomorrow to pour concrete around and put the Vika clock in (water meter) and this was also achieved quickly.

After this very quick task in the morning they will be up in the roof finally starting to secure it.

So now I am back here, about to go and make myself an omelette and pour myself a beer, and then settle with my book near the fire and have a quiet evening and an early night.

Oh, and regarding the forecast, it starting spitting with rain just as we were driving home; so the website was more accurate than the TV.

Cheers