Goodbye to Julian

What a day! I haven't stopped all day until now. But now I have time to write a quick update for you all so let's get into it.

The best hair style I can do

Grinding down another length of steel

Making sure everything is square

Putting another column in place

Drilling to secure with another pin

This morning I had to do Rosie's hair before school which went far better than expected. It stayed in all day as well! When I got back from dropping her to school the men were already in and working on the next column. There was trimming required, and now we are starting to run out of discs for the machine so probably need to get another couple I think. They worked on fitting the middle two columns, as well as having to spend time with me taking Maisie from the garage where she has been for the past two weeks having nothing done over to a new place in the main town. 

Julian getting worked on again

Julian has gone, and the columns look great

Looking at Maisie in the garage

Rosie drinks apple juice while we wait for the bike

Burger and chips for dinner

Julian was being worked on when we got back from dropping Maisie at the garage in town. It turns out that the fuel pump was just a bit stuck and after hitting it with a hammer it worked again - that is proper tech. After school I collect Rosie then collected Dincher and we went back into town, via an appointment for him, and then on to the bike shop. The guy did a very quick service on my main bike (though I've got some more to do here if I get time) and Rosie and I had a drink at a cafe next door while we waited. We left the other bike there, probably to collect tomorrow, and we dropped Dincher back at his office then went for a quick bite to eat. We got home just in time for book reading and then bed. What a busy day.

So there it is. What a day. I'm exhausted now. Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.

Second side, and Julian

I'm home alone with Rosie for the next few days as Angela has gone to an art course for a few days which is awesome. Today has been super busy as well so let's get to it.

Starting to measure everything out

Measuring at the top end

Working out the height of the front column

Halil gets to grinding again

Welding the caps on the column

Bekir fitting the second column

Towards the end of the day

It has been a lovely sunny day today and the men were in nice and early and got started on the thing that took most of the day - lots and lots of measuring. They were working out exact heights for the second side of columns, and we had a long discussion about whether they would need to do any cement work to build new footings but after some discussion and working out they have been able to avoid doing so. They used string to get the exact shape (it looks awesome and we have loads of space) and then we discussed tipping the front corner down a little just in case we do end up building another roof for more parking space. It may or may not happen but it'd be annoying to not have taken it into account at this stage. Then it was down to cutting steel again to get the correct lengths and they got two of the columns raised and fitted into place today.

Xena and Punduk get to playing together

Rosie and the puppies run off to play

I couldn't pick which picture I preferred

Xena and Punduk play with the ring

Lots of fun with the ring

Next up is a group of photographs and videos showing just how quickly Punduk (I misspelled his name yesterday) is fitting in with Xena particularly. Suddenly this morning, while I was talking with Bekir, Xena came flying past me playing REALLY hard with him. It was awesome to watch. Thelma and Louise are still very unhappy, though they've had many more years of not having other dogs around. It was so cool to see Xena being playful and I have told Bekir to just keep bringing the puppy if he wants to. When Rosie got home from school they continued playing right up until the men left.

Jump start attempts

Checking the fuel pump

I'll wrap this update up with a couple of pictures of the efforts put in this afternoon by Halil's friend who came to attempt to start Julian so they could drive him away at the end of the day. Sadly the fuel pump was having problems so they were not able to get him running. We're wondering if there has been some chewing by mice in the electrics so tomorrow will be another attempt. It may be that they end up putting him on a trailer after all (which I would far prefer, to be fair).

So there it is. Another day done; we'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Busy day

Today has been crazy busy and I've not got many pictures. Let's get to it.

Halil gets cracking on cutting the rest of the wood

The new aerator being installed

Tasty leek from the garden

Toot Toot drove there on his own

All the wood chopped, now to split it

The men were slightly late today as Halil's car had a lot of problems on the journey in. I did offer him to borrow Thomas to get home but he decided to risk his car instead. Halil ended up spending all day finishing cutting up all the wood and then he got stuck into the splitting. Bekir was working away on making the metal frames and has completed that task now. In the morning Angela headed into town for some things and came back with an aerator for the fish tank which is working really well. At lunch time she made potato and leek soup using potatoes and leeks from or garden! After lunch I went with Bekir to do the paperwork for transferring Julian and it took far longer than I expected. At least it is done, though. The wind today was really gusty and strong and Toot Toot took a little solo-drive because of it.

Rosie wearing Angela's helmet

After school Rosie had lots of fun on the patio with her scooter and I got down Angela's roller blades and skateboard and she had a go as well - it was great.

Today we bought the other Mountain House

I'm doing a quick blog tonight to make sure that this date is remembered as today I went through the purchase process for the house next door up in the mountains. Now, I hope, these purchases are done. I need to start saving again.

I've a few odd pictures to go through as well, I forgot to check my main camera for the last update so that's what they are.

We were so sure that was a bird of prey

Swift on the wing

First of all a couple of pictures taken one morning sat on the balcony for our breakfast tea. We were both sure that a bird was sat on the top of a tree on the edge of our land, so sure I ran to get the main camera and the long zoom. Of course after snapping a bunch of photographs it was clear that it was only a particularly shaped section of the trunk and not a bird at all. The swifts flying around, however, very much are birds. I'm pretty pleased with this shot.

The beautiful rainbow effect is on the right

I zoomed in but only had my phone with me

Next up one evening while our last friends were here there was the most amazing rainbow effect on one a cloud during the sunset. I've never seen something like this and forgot to add picture to the last update so I wanted to share it.

Pink fluffy clouds

Fog in the valley

Morning cuppa

Right now autumn has struck with a vengeance and there's no sitting on the balcony for morning brews however we had a good run of lovely starts to the day and I got into the habit of snapping a picture of the beautiful sunrises. I'm considering doing another year of photographs next year, with a morning photograph every day of wherever I am at. We shall see.

A lovely place for a spot of reading

Bekci hiding from the heat

Spot Louise

Cracked waterproofing layer

Applying the new coat

Hot work, and uncomfortable

My new book for SBG arrived so I took it up onto the top bank to read while Bekci sheltered from the heat under a nearby tree. Even Louise made her way up to join us. I've also ordered some stuff to put onto Thomas' roof to seal him and prevent the damage from the water that has really got bad this year. It was VERY hot doing this, and now it has been so windy that I've not got to do the next coat yet.

Last evening of summer - BBQ

Burgers and chicken nearly ready

The sun starts to sink

I love how the cloud is outlined here

An awesome shadow cast by the cloud

The red moon rises

Ghostly behind clouds

Bright full moon

We have our final guests of the year with us now, John and Dawn, and they arrived in time for a BBQ on what has turned out to be the final summer evening of the year; since then it's been blowing a gale and the temperature dropped 20 degrees from one day to the next. The BBQ was lovely, the sunset stunning, and the red moon that rose over the hills was amazing.

A winter cocoon for the puppies

If you want evidence of how the weather changed, check out these puppies!

The view, with the property we bought today on the right

Our neighbour, his cows, and the house we bought the other day

The new property; one falling down house and a solid barn

A celebratory dinner; very nice it was too

And so we get to today and some requested photographs of the views from up at the mountain house. I did the notary thing just after lunch, it look about 15 minutes from walking in the door to walking out, and then headed up the mountain with John and Dawn. On the way we picked up a lady from our village and gave her a lift up, for which she was very grateful. It was very blowy up there, though I think down at the Old School is actually gustier, and we spent some time walking around enjoying it. The neighbour greeted us and then as we were leaving gave me a bag of chicken eggs; these people never fail to blow me away with how generous and welcoming they are. This evening we've been for food and now I'm going to sign this off and go and sit with them for the rest of the evening.

Cheers for reading.