More Progress

Today was a busy and important day. I was out for almost the entire morning at the bank but let's get to that in a bit.

Bekir slotting in an angled piece

Frosty over the burned area

Fristy frost on the gate post

Ducting in for cables

The men were a little late in today for some reason, my guess is their car wouldn't start as it was very cold last night and this morning. First thing they were straight into the roof to continue with the walls and filling in the slots at the very top. I wasn't able to watch much as I had to go to the bank to sign a mortgage to buy the first of two flats we are getting. It was still very frosty when I left so a couple of arty pictures were in order. It took far longer than it needed to for various reasons but everything was signed and agreed eventually. When I got back I found that the men had done the little bits of filling in and also had run all the conduit for the lights in the first two storage areas. I'm so pleased with how this is turning out, there's going to be loads of room!

Bekir slotting a piece into place

Funky angles at the top

The sun goes down

The rest of the afternoon was spent with the men cutting blocks to size and fitting them into increasingly odd shapes and spaces. There are some that require only very small slivers and others that are carved to angles to fit with the eaves. The right hand side is getting close to completed now. After the freezing cold fog of the morning it has been a glorious sunny day today with blue skies all day and the sunset was special. Much better weather than that miserable rain and thankfully winter has arrived.

So there it is; a busy day indeed. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.

Very busy weekend and Monday

I am starting to write this update at 2:40am on Tuesday as I've had the worst day ever with tourn.ee and work... Just crazy. Anyway, I want to get this written before bed so let's get stuck in.

Scraping Thomas' windscreen for the first time this year

Chicken house ready for a sweep out

Nice clean hen house again

Xena the escape artist

Lovely clean and tidy Glass Room

Can barely move down this corridor

A barrow of kindling to start our fires with

Some little bird nested here

Corridor nice and clean now

An awesome celebratory meal

Saturday was a super busy day. I started early going shopping and had to scrape frost off the car for the first time this year. When I got back I unpacked then got stuck into my chores. The first chore was to clean out the chicken house which I managed, after a minor panic when I couldn't get the power washer to work from two different plugs. I got there in the end though. While I was working in there I could hear Xena yipping and I found that she had managed to slip through a gap in the fence to the outside! This gap is now filled. With the chicken house done I tidied up the Glass Room then brought all the pots that Angela wants inside, inside. I wasn't done yet, however, as next I attacked the Green Building and cleared all but a few stray twigs from the far corridor. I did two barrows full of kindling into the container in the garage, two barrows to the bin and shifted everything else out of the way. I also found a nest. After this I was exhausted and rested for a bit before cooking an amazing steak dinner.

The sun rises, and Xena watches

Beautiful dippy duck eggs

Old window ready for glass removal

I made a level base, which was very hard work

How I left it at the end of the day

A very well welcomed Sunday Roast

Sunday was a day of two halves. The morning was a bright start without frost which Xena clearly enjoyed, and I really enjoyed my dippy duck eggs for breakfast (which I didn't over do this time). I then did a few bits and pieces of hobby and wasted time relaxing before deciding to go and do some more clearing in the Green Building. I sorted a few of the old windows, removing the glass as safely as I could, when suddenly the urge to build a tree house for Rosie overtook me so I went down to the tree house tree that we had picked (the one Rosie was climbing in over summer) and set to. It was very hard work, some of those beams are incredibly heavy, but I managed to get three support beams level and then put planks over about half of the floor before I had to call it a day and get my chores done and cook dinner. Dinner was a roast chicken and I was so hungry by the time I ate it. It was another celebration dinner and this time I had a Belgian Beer.

Bekir takes some Ondolin for the roof

Starting to lay them back out again

Louise and Xena on the roof saying hi to Bekir

Thelma dancing for Bekir

A touch of silicon to seal

Halil cracks on with the splitting

Bekir making good progress on the Ondolin

Grinding the gap

Roof really starting to look good now

Halil surveying the completed splitting

And so we reach today. First thing the men went down to the shop and picked up a box of silicon sealant and then they got stuck in to fitting the Ondolin into place. I was not so busy first thing today and got to go and check a bit, including letting the puppies out onto the roof to go and see Bekir which was awesome. Halil was helping with passing up materials and spent free time splitting the rest of the wood. It was a good day of progress and about 2/5 of the roof is now done. By the time I became so busy I couldn't leave my desk Bekir was grinding a slot into the wall into which the Ondolin will slot and that will prevent any water getting in and under. Amazingly as well today Halil finished all the splitting!

And there it is. My plan was to finish the tree house today but tourn.ee put paid to that. It's just past 3am now so I'm going to publish this and go get some sleep before work in the morning.

Thanks for reading! Back tomorrow.

Outer wall complete

We've reached the end of another week and today was cold and wet and nasty for a lot of it.

Beautiful sunrise over a foggy valley

Frosty with a touch of pink from the sunrise

Very cold start to the day for the men

Planting the walnut tree in the orchard

Working on the wall

Shaping a block

Smoothing over the backfill

Working throuhg the rain

Finishing off the weatherproofing

The day started with heavy frost and an absolutely beautiful sunrise; Rosie joined me in the living room to look at it before she headed to school. The men arrived on time and started working in the sub-zero temperatures, clearing away shuttering from yesterday and then getting started on their tasks. The new guy was in the orchard for a chunk of the morning digging the re-sited walnut tree (that had self-seeded by the hugelkultur) in with the rest of our trees. Bekir and Halil were focusing on getting the rest of the outer wall built up to a completed level. This involved more cement and lots of blocks. They made great progress and towards the end of the day (I had lots of calls and was busy. again) Bekir was chipping away at the blocks to make the sloped back retaining wall that follows the line of the land. The new guy was backfilling behind the now completed supporting wall and smoothing off a path for us to reach the gate again. The final task for Bekir, all of this while it was raining quite heavily, was to fill in the gaps in the tops of the wall with cement. They wrapped up after it was dark. It's late season for building work.

Storm blows away to the North East

Rosie in the play area

After school and a bit of play time at home we went to our favourite restaurant for our dinner. The storm had blown over and the stars were coming out. Rosie absolutely loves it there and was in and out of the play area eating her dinner and having a really really fun time. We like the food as well and the staff are lovely. Rosie was very tired by the time it was home time and was into bed very nicely indeed.

So there it is; once more the week is done. Back on Monday, thanks for reading.

Another freezing day

 The title says it all.

Frosty and frozen start to the day

Lifting the long ladder

Working on the eaves

More Christmas trees

The day started early for me as I was having a paint and chat with some American friends which was a really lovely way to start the day. It was getting light when I stopped and woke Angela and Rosie before I had to go to work. It was very frosty and the cloud stayed a long time today, not clearing until quite late afternoon. Cold work outside for the men and they were out all day, first of all getting the long ladder and fitting in the final short lengths and finishing up along the stretch they worked on yesterday. Inside Angela was having a tough day (my work was also being difficult; it wasn't an easy day for anyone today) but she did manage to get the smaller tree up downstairs and this despite the opposite of help from Madam. It is looking lovely though.

Halil cutting by hand

Fitting the boards

Working on the ladder

Using tools to better effect

We had run out of wood (I think Bekir didn't measure to include the apex end which is a bit strange as I certainly said I wanted it done) so my lunch was taken up going to get more wood which was cold and unpleasant enough but at least I could get back to a warm office to fail to write software while they were outside fitting more wood, this time short lengths so it looks nicest. They also had to stain a load of the new wood which they did in the outbuilding. Halil had been cutting by hand so I pulled my mitre saw onto the balcony and this sped the whole thing up, though he was probably getting warmer with the manual sawing. They did have a good rhythm going though; Bekir would measure, Halil cut and start the nails into the wood, then Bekir just had to offer up and hammer them home without needing to hold them straight.

After work once again Rosie asked to see the "choo choo" and we had a lovely time watching it go around and spending time playing in the lounge. Lovely. A tougher day today but we got through it. thanks for reading.