Winter arrived today

Welcome back and after a quite busy weekend it's been a miserable day today; let's talk through the weekend first though.

Rosie very excited about the tree

The sun rises again on Saturday

New sunglasses and huge smile

Grandma's gift

Hanging on the front of the shopping trolley

Rosie and the Grandson in the tree house

Tinsel up over the pictures

Friday night as I said in the last update Angela and Rosie put up the tree in the library. Rosie is getting very excited indeed for Christmas! Saturday morning dawned bright and it was a lovely day throughout. As Daddy Saturday I had fun with Rosie, first of all playing for a fair while with her and her dolls before we headed into town to pick up a gift for Grandma and do a bit of shopping. When we got back we went to the neighbours and she brought the grandson back to visit for a bit; they went into the tree house among other things, before a nap, then going back over to play with the grandchildren again. It was a fun day. Sunday I was up very early (think 3am) to drive our friends to the airport. I got back in plenty of time but I was exhausted so the only picture from the day is of some tinsel I put up in the library. Rosie and Angela had been putting the main tree in the lounge and it looked great but I didn't get the picture.

The mesh at the start of the day

Damp nasty working conditions

Not outside working weather

Rosie, her presents, and the tree

A huge bounce

Painting black on the sand

The forecast for today was for snow and when the men arrived I suggested they start one of the winter jobs inside and let the weather improve later in the week however they were insistent to finish this up. It was miserable and cold and damp but no snow arrived. They worked steadily to add the missing mesh over the remainder of the chicken run and then went round the entire area again adding more zip ties to hold everything really securely in place. As always they have done a very good job. Tomorrow they'll be starting on the roof including fitting the solar heaters I hope. I do hope the weather holds out for that work on the roof. Angela had another great day and among other things she got all Rosie's presents wrapped up ready for the tree (and there are a LOT!) When Rosie got home from school I showed her the Christmas Train that Angela and I had put under the main tree (though she was more interested in the presents) and then she did some bouncing on her trampoline before we came in here and did some hobbying. A lovely early evening indeed.

So there it is; thanks for reading as always and back tomorrow.

A short day

After the epic update yesterday today is going to be much shorter. Let's get to it.

Time to finish this tree house off

Bekir starts his day on the roof

Halil stacking the firewood

Thelma and Louise enjoy the sun

Stage one of Rosie's Tree House is complete

I woke about 8 after 4.5 hours sleep and I've pretty well got through today ok. Before doing anything else I was straight outside and working on the tree house for Rosie. The men arrived and went to their jobs, Bekir up on the roof and Halil in the inside wood store stacking the logs. I went back to my task, accompanied by the puppies who were loving the warmth of the morning sun. I had to finish both because I had work to be doing and also the battery in my driver ran out. Mid morning the men suddenly dashed off in a terrible hurry saying that they had some work to do at home and they'd be back after lunch. At lunch I spent a final half an hour or so and I've finished the first stage of the tree house. The men never did come back.

A brief pause in the mayhem

This tasted superb

And so the rest of the day came and went and I cooked a lovely sausage and mash dinner for myself, cuddling the puppies and trying not to fall asleep while we waited for it cook.

I do hope the men are back tomorrow but either way, Angela and Rosie are and I'm very excited. Thanks for reading, 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.