They really are back now

Last update I was supposed to link to this excellent blog about the grey water system but, as I was typing those last few sentences, dinner became ready so I forgot. I've gone back and edited the post so the link is in it correctly but most people will have already read it so I though I'd link again on this next update as well. So consider yourself linked up. And now, on with the real update.

The end of Sunday

I left you all as I was rushing to finish the update as dinner was rapidly becoming ready. It was a good thing that I rushed as A was in and making a start on eating hers before I finished publishing and publicising the new post.

A plateful of awesome Sunday roast

Two puppies squashed together in a tiny bed

Super-sniffer

The sun goes down on Sunday

Louise doing her bad dog impression

After playing, Louise has a kip

Dinner was absolutely superb, as per usual. As we have run out of gravy granules A has had to fall back on the old way of making our roast dinner gravy and I personally far prefer it; there isn't any on the picture as I hadn't poured it yet but the gravy was wonderful. This plate disappeared rather fast, I can tell you. The puppies slept in Ralf's old bed, even though their much larger one was just next to them, strange creatures and then when we had finished they jumped up for post dinner cuddles. Thelma in particular was very keen to investigate the empty plates. We ate so early that after we'd eaten we had a really long relaxing evening, watching the sun go down and then playing with the puppies; Louise's toy, having lasted ages with just her playing with it, broke after ten minutes of both having a go. Typical. They were pretty tired after that and to be honest so were we; we headed to bed relatively early as we weren't sure whether Bekir may not call to say he wanted to work on Monday or not and the alarm was set for the earlier time to allow for collecting them.

Monday

The alarm went off at 6.30 on Monday morning after we'd had a really good nights sleep, but were already awake prior to said alarm, and we stayed in bed and weren't disturbed by a phone call from Bekir. This wasn't completely surprising as there had been a bank holiday last week so he was still in his "four more days" and it was nice to have the illusion of a lie in, even if we were up at the normal time.

Sun trying to break through the clouds

The sun won

Lots of muck to clear out of the pond

Beautiful early spring flowers

More scattered flowers by the entrance path

Extra daffodils as well, on the edge of the lawn

It was quite an overcast start to the day however the clouds blew away quite quickly and the sun was really warm when it wasn't hidden behind clouds. We got ourselves started working and then A came in from checking on the birds to remind me that the night before, when I shut them in for the night, I'd opened the valve to empty the pond and Beaker and Balls were very unimpressed at not being able to swim. I took the bucket, shovel and brush out and got nearly 25L of duck poop from the bottom of the pond. This was put around the trees in the orchard and I was able to confirm that some of them are doing OK, though most still haven't shown any signs of life. I'll be watching this and replacing any that are dead.  On the way back I took a short turn around the front garden to see how the flowers are doing and they are great; even the ones I chucked in carelessly to the flower beds by the entrance path are coming up and looking fantastic, and the flags are getting very big; I'm very excited for when they start to bloom.

Punching drainage holes with a bradawl

The fixed up door hinge

Mixing duck egg and mayo (and onions)

I was a bit busy on Monday but A's work was dead so rather than waste time she popped downstairs and started to drill holes in the bottom of the dog food tins to turn them into plant pots. This wasn't as easy as we thought so I found the bradawl so she could make a divot for the drill bit to catch in and it went straight through really easily. She punched out all of the holes very quickly indeed after this. She also popped down into town to pick up our ekonts and found that the door for the fireplace had been returned, and was fixed. It was such an excellent looking fix that I went on facebook and said thank you to the handyman publicly; people deserve to be thanked as they get so much abuse if they do something wrong. We've continued to build up our egg collection, despite giving them away, so I suggested egg mayo butties for lunch however made with duck eggs. I was in charge of this and while they were not quite fully hard boiled they were lovely and A made up a wonderful egg mayo; there was so much we even had some left over for our dinner.

Seedlings doing very well

A few of the dog tins with seedlings in them

Filling another tin with compost

Lots of beetroots seedlings under plastic

Nicely weather proofed

At lunch time, after eating our superb egg mayo butties, we both went outside and did some potting out. The seedlings, begun under glass in the raised beds, have done so well that we realised it was probably time to separate some of them into bigger pots and put them on windowsills around the house. We made use of all the dog tins that A had prepared in the morning and then continued into normal pots. These are now distributed between Sassy's Room and the Men's Room windowsills, on the south side of the house. My task was to separate out and plant the beetroot seedlings, of which there were very many! This is typical as I don't actually like beetroot. I put them in the bed that we did have the Orek growing in and then covered them with the plastic on hoops as there is some cold weather forecast. hopefully they'll be OK. Some cauliflower was also put out under cloches as they were very well advanced seedlings but we've hardly dented this task and when this cold snap passes we'll be spending more time potting out and planting up. The rest of the day passed with working and then I went into the front room and did some more painting on my model which was very therapeutic but the light went which forced me to stop. It wasn't a late night again as this time we knew that Bekir and Sally would be back to work and we would need to be up early and no laying in this time.

Tuesday

Today is the first day of the excitement of having workmen on site and getting stuff done; it's really exciting to have them here so early, a few weeks before they'd normally begin, as this means that we may get the kitchen complete before my parents arrive. Of course I had plans to steal them for my own purposes before allowing them into the kitchen but that is only a short task.

A wet start to the day

The sun breaks through quite early though

Bekir checking out the first job

Thelma and Louise with Sally

The alarm went off but once again we were both awake before it; this is a benefit of the days getting brighter earlier, and the fact that the curtain is broken in the bedroom. There was no lie in and we were up and pouring coffee into A so she could go and collect the men. When she left I headed downstairs and cleared out the bottom corridor, bringing the ceiling plywood up into Sassy's room (it'll have to be painted in there now) and then clearing all the rubbish away as well. I had just finished when I heard Thomas coming along the front lane so I went down to say hello to Bekir and Sally, back here for the first time this year. It was lovely to see them and the puppies were very happy about it as well. The job I have got for them first off this year is to fit the double door we collected on Saturday from Chaz and Ivan so I showed them the door and then let them get on with it.

Sally makes a start at removing the frame

Just after the big crash

Tidying up the rubble before continuing

The last sentence isn't strictly true as I was actually bouncing around like an idiot, so happy to have the two men back here. I did have work to do but the less said about that the better as I ran a wrong command and managed to flatten one of the databases, causing my colleagues extra work. I spent quite a lot of time looking out of the door of Room 13 to get pictures of the door frame being removed. At one point it was clear that the bricks above were really not going to stay in place and there was a huge crash as they just yanked the wood out of the way. It didn't take long for there to just be a gaping hole in the wall, and a pile of rubble on the floor. This last was rapidly shifted by Sally and a shovel; they do like to work clean.

Bekir widening the hole

The hole, completed

Sally smiling as he reinforces the beam support

Heavy concrete post

Trimming it down to size

Cutting the rebar

The first beam fitted, with space for another

It was clear from the looseness of the bricks that a lintel would be required in this situation and Bekir started off talking about heading out to get the metal that would be required however he then discovered some old concrete fence posts outside and realised he could make use of this, costing less money and time in the process. He worked out the dimensions and finished off the shape of the door then together they opened a slot up to accept the concrete beams. It was then a task of shortening each post (using a hammer to chip away the concrete, and a hacksaw to cut the reinforcing bars) and they fit in perfectly. Brilliant.

Sally getting start filling in the gap

Three oak planks ready for sanding

A with her happy sanding face on

A large delivery of sand

Finishing touches being applied

Stained and looking good, I think

The next job was to finish off around the beams and fill in the gaps so Sally got on with this while I went down to the shop with Bekir to get more concrete, and then to order some more sand for delivery. We got back to find that A was on with a little task as her work had dried up and was sanding down three of the planks we had bought last year for steps but which turned out to be too small for the spiral staircase. I was at my desk working away when I heard the kamion coming along the lane and it was our sand, delivered in record time. It was emptied, and the bill was paid, very quickly indeed and now I have four tonnes of sand for future use. Great. Sally had been hard at work and nearly completed bricking above the beam and A had got the wood stain and tested it out on one of the planks; she thought maybe a bit red but I think it'll dull down as it dries.

A ladybird in the roof

Glorious sunshine for the afternoon

A bunch of flowers for A from our neighbour

Sally slapping concrete in place

The doorway is nearly ready

Bent metal holding the forms in place

I headed upstairs as the afternoon went on to go onto the roof terrace to get a picture of the glorious weather; it really had changed since the rain of this morning. We've had a continual problem with flies on the door to the roof terrace which very strange but today was even stranger as there were quite a few ladybirds. I let them all out then took a picture of the sky. Lovely. Then it was time to do the watering round and then just as we got upstairs we saw the Little Lady stood at the side gate waving and she had a bunch of flowers as a gift for A for International Woman's Day. Lovely. Sally was hard at work still, putting cement up the side of the door where the frame would fit, while Bekir swapped jobs and took over cleaning. They carried on until nearly 6pm and tomorrow they should be ready to actually fit the door. I then took them home and it was lovely to be back into this routine. I'm sure after months of it I won't be thinking it is wonderful but for now it is great to be making progress again. I've asked Bekir to provide workers to finish the insulation in the roof space as well so maybe we'll have more tomorrow, maybe not. It'll be good to get that done as well. On the way we saw a rainbow and some really massive thunderheads in the far distance; the forecast of ten days rain, and maybe even some snow, looks real.

So there you are, it IS going to be worth my while increasing the regularity of these updates to Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. I'm really reluctant to go back to a daily update as it eats so much time but that will remain under review. Thanks for reading, I'm off to watch another episode of the Italian language series "Corleone" about Toto Riina we started last night; later.