The men are back, finally

It was a few weeks longer than expected, but today we had the men back and working in the roof which was a relief. There are LOADS of pictures I've taken in the weeks since they were last here, however, so let's get to them first.

Getting the first full use from the push along

Rosie offroading her police car

Mowing the top bank

A lovely evening sky

Angela sets out the new decorations

Glowing eyed tortoises

Two frogs on a log

Snail with gnomes

In no particular grouping, these are just as they happened. I took out my new push along mower to cut the bits that the ride on can't get to and it was very good indeed. While I was doing this Rosie brought her police car down the ramp onto the lawn, across the grass and then up the driveway. The next day I pulled the ride on mower out onto the top bank and got all of that done. Half way through Rosie got home from school and she jumped on and road with me, which was fun. We have had some mixed weather, of course, but at least one evening was glorious. Angela has been picking up more ornaments for the garden including a cool glowing eye tortoise thing, two frogs and also a snail that is sat next to the gnomes.

Rosie working on her princesses jigsaw

Rosie sat in the boss chair

Sat out in the tent for our lunch

Now that is what I call a family tent

Lots of tug fun going on

Just a little bit of rain

Daddy Saturday (one of them, anyway) involved some fun with the jigsaw before we headed into town with Maisie to get a new part fitted on her engine. This didn't take any time at all, but Rosie did enjoy sitting in the boss's seat for a bit. On the way back we found out about the circus (see the previous update to find out about that!) and picked up our new tent from the courier. It is a bit big; it barely fit into Maisie's boot! It was also really easy to put up, which we did and then had lunch sat in it. I actually slept in it over night as well and it's very comfortable. Then we have a random picture of Rosie playing tug with Thelma and Xena and finally we have had some torrential downpours in the past few weeks as well.

Rosie blowing bubbles

The Tortoise Garden looking great

Out for food with Steve and Rosie

Rosie doing some painting

I walked in the room to find her like this

Rosie planting sunflower seeds

She just spotted one!

Weeding time in the spud garden

After the rain cleared Rosie got to go onto the back steps to play with her bubbles which was a lot of fun. We have also been enjoying all the flowers and bulbs that have been blooming now. During this time our friend Steve can for a visit which was a lot of fun, though I was sick for part of it. Rosie loves him being here and I got to play a few games that I've been wanting to and we got to take Rosie out for dinner as well. Rosie had time for art, for acrobatics and for planting sun flowers and then it was time for the easter egg hunt which was awesome - Angela did a brilliant job hiding the eggs and Rosie ran around squealing whenever she saw one. We have also been active in the garden, trying to get on top of the weeds in the spud garden here.

Rosie with her fairy decorations

The bird feeder waiting for birds...

... and here is our first one!

Rosie doing her own easter egg hunt

Little Tiny has come back

Rosie pretending to be a puppy dog

Getting a few games of Pitch n Plakks

Hanging more solar powered decorations

There were more non-plant related additions to the flower bed, these lovely fairies which Rosie placed herself. We also had a lot of excitement with the first birds arriving to use our bird table however now it is getting a bit annoying to have hundreds of "you've had a visitor" notifications that are just more sparrows. Gotta love our greedy sparrows. Rosie enjoyed her easter egg hunt so much that for several days afterwards she was "hiding" her eggs and then taking her teddies to go and find them. We had some excitement as well as I think Tiny has returned to the farm, no sign of Gizmo tho sadly. Rosie had some fun copying Xena who had been rolling on the grass and we got to play a few games including Pitch n Plakks which we hadn't done for a while. And Angela had bought some bee lights that are now strung out along the fence line.

Halil gets started on the plastering again

Bekir trimming and fitting the carpet

Working away together

Successful grafts

And so we finally reach today. It was great to see the men back and to get some progress upstairs again. Halil spent the day applying more coats of plaster to the walls and made a lot of progress. Bekir, for his part, was in the crawl space fitting the carpet properly along the front edge. This is not a quick process as it involves a lot of drilling and making plugs for screws into the blocks however he got it done. Angela also pointed out that the grafts that Bekir did by the Green Building have taken really well and are starting to grow!

So there it is; what an epic update. Back tomorrow, I hope, and thanks for reading.

Bird Buddy, plastering and painting

We've reached another Friday so let's get to this update and get into the weekend.

Beautiful start, but it didn't stay beautiful

The day started with a lot of promise, a glorious sunrise, however very shortly after this the clouds rolled in and they have stayed all day. We have had some quite strong winds as well into the afternoon.

Bekir cleans up an old pipe length

Digging a hole

The dug hole

Welding two pipes together

Cemented into position

I took Rosie to school today and when I got back the men were already in and measuring up for the steel we need to mount our Bird Buddy. They got back from the shop quickly with some metal of the correct diameter and set about cutting it, then digging a hole to hold the pole, then welding the narrower diameter pole on top of the long pole and finally they set it in place and cemented the base. It is perfect as it is within WiFi reach of the house, but close enough to where the birds are naturally that hopefully they will enjoy visiting it. The men also cleaned up the weld and painted the pole with the rust proof paint so hopefully it will last a long time.

Bekir and Halil both plastering

Halil painting in the crawl space

Removing the electrical box to plaster behind it

With the pole installed the men headed back into the roof and were back to plastering the ceiling and the left hand back wall of the room. Once Halil finished the section he was working on he shifted to painting the ceiling in the right hand crawl space, which is the first area that I want completely finished so I can start to move things into storage in there. Bekir, for his part, was continuing the plastering and was inside the left hand crawl space doing that back wall, which also involved detaching the electrical box from the wall so he could plaster behind it.

Digging a hole to plant a tree

Two trees are planted

Bird buddy on a pole

After work I went outside and planted out two trees for Angela into the flower bed I was sifting soil into for the last few days. They went in really well, and the ground there is really very good, very deep and rich, so hopefully they will do well. I also went and got the Bird Buddy and mounted it onto the pole and later on put bird seed in and checked the camera and it all looks good.

So there it is. Tomorrow we will be going to the garage to collect Maisie who has been in there for about five months so that's exciting. Thanks for reading and back on Monday.