A very well timed rest day

Today was a rest day, with no workmen around and nothing really in my day at all that I had to do. I had a few chores that I wanted to do including going out to the shops to get some things but even that wasn't a must and I knew I could make that decision as the day went on. With Thomas still full of sheep shit the shop trip was looking very unlikely indeed to be fair, particularly with the weather as it still is.

I had been woken in the night by rain so heavy it was shaking Julian with the force it was hitting the roof. I have never heard rain like it and I was tempted (for about five seconds) to get my camera and set the video to record to capture the noise. It was like Armageddon and I lay there for a bit listening before managing to drop back off to sleep. One good thing though, despite all this rain Julian hasn't leaked recently; I haven't been up to fix the roof so I don't know why it has stopped happening, but my little bucket under the leaky spot hasn't had water in for ages. Maybe he's just dripping somewhere I haven't discovered yet :D

As today was a day of rest when I woke up at 7am (as normal) I rolled back over and went straight back to sleep. I only managed to sleep in til about 8 but that was still nice and I stayed in bed til about 9 before my stomach demanded I get up and make breakfast. I was feeling slightly rough with a small sore throat and headache and the first two or three cups of tea didn't really seem to shift it. Breakfast was bacon bits fried til they were crispy, and then mixed in with scrambled eggs. The eggs I bought from Lidl the other day aren't that great so I'm going to have to get some proper ones from a real local shop, and maybe use these for omelettes; they aren't yellow enough for fried eggs sadly. You get what you pay for huh.

The sparrows taking the swallow nest apart

I was watching the weather closely to see whether the rain would stop but it just kept on coming and so the third cuppa became a fourth. I attempted to join the morning meeting for my paid job but Skype was playing up so I gave up on that and just enjoyed relaxing and not feeling pressured. It was around then that I spotted something awesome. Yesterday when we had been having lunch together in Room 13 my friend had spotted that some sparrows were flying near a swallow nest. We wondered whether they may have been moving in however today I saw that the nest was being dismantled by them. I grabbed the long lens to get a good close up and this was the best shot I could get. I have never heard of something like this before?

Where I chose to access the garden

I put another hour or so into my paid job before deciding that the rain was stopped enough for me to go out and start shoveling that sheep shit onto the garden. It wasn't going to move itself after all. I went out to check on the lay of the land. First of all I needed to gain an easy access into the fenced area I was going to use as my garden next year (and maybe as a chicken run this, but more of that later). There was a section between two of the fence posts that had been largely cleared by the cows, and my little neighbour when she was assisting me with planting the large tree (which is now brown and unhappy; I will leave it though - they are hardy plants, fir trees). I attacked this and very quickly had removed all the brush, and the large branch and I could almost have reversed Thomas right onto the land. Almost, but not quite.

Thomas and his solid load of sheep shit

I backed Thomas up to the gap, leaving enough space for me to access both sides of the drop-back with with wheelbarrow. Thomas has proven his worth in this as the weight of the load must be huge but he hasn't even struggled once to maneuver, not even on the slippery and muddy land I just drove him over. When I dropped the back down the shit had been so well packed in that it didn't fall out at all and kept its shape.

The first load, and the tiny area it covered

As I hadn't been able to fit Thomas between the fence posts I pulled the wheelbarrow over and filled it as full as I could and then, with a bit of a struggle, pushed it over the bumpy ground to the top corner of the garden and emptied it. The amount of ground it covered highlights just how much of this stuff I need to get!  It was still raining quite heavily at this point and my waterproof and rain hat were coming in very useful to keep the rain from going down the back of my neck however with the effort required to load, push, and unload each barrow load first of all I removed my hat, then I went inside and took my hoody off from under the waterproof; I was overheating.

This is all I shifted, and all it covered

After nearly an hour of shifting I decided to have a break for a bit; I was feeling worse and worse and getting cold as well as overheating as the rain was not letting up and if anything getting worse. I had emptied about a third of the back of Thomas in maybe six or seven wheel barrow loads however I hadn't even completed one single row and I was not achieving the depth I had originally aimed for at all. I think this task could take a fair amount to finally complete; I certainly need to find a larger supply of manure as I can't be clearing Bekir's pile completely. He must need it for something?

A few leaks

I made my way inside and decided to sort out something I had spotted earlier while feeding Sassy and playing with her; water was dripping through the ceiling in her room. This is not something I have spotted before and really does highlight again just how crazy the weather was last night. I put a couple of buckets under the drips so the water didn't then cause additional damage to the floor. I am very glad that I didn't tell the men to start dismantling the roof and this validates my decision to only start this work when we are ready to keep on with the job and put the new roof on immediately. There are a few places where the water comes through and this one, just on the stairs near the ground floor, has also allowed more water than I've seen it do so before. This will be fixed by the drainage ditch being dug on Monday though.

While I am near the subject of Sassy it is good to mention just how friendly and cute she is being at the moment. The other day she came running across when I was stood at the door and went up on her back legs against the barrier by the door, sniffing and allowing herself to be stroked and petted. She is also running around me whenever I am in there and it's great to get such interaction as she is an independent little creature that only allows you close when she is happy.

By this time I was starting to feel really rather unwell with my headache building so I made myself a quick cheese and tomato butty, grabbed my laptop, and went into Julian to eat, watch a film, and rest until I felt better. The butties went down well but my head kept getting worse and worse and after about 20 minutes of the film I turned it off, put everything away, took two ibuprofen and went to sleep. What a great decision. Nearly two hours later I woke up feeling a whole lot better though still really tired. I got myself out of bed so I wouldn't spoil my night tonight and went and made a brew. The meeting I thought I had slept through for my paid job had, upon checking my diary, been rescheduled so even that worked out really well. It hadn't, however, stopped raining.

Rambo with his tree

Before coming in for my brew I had let Rambo out to run around the garden and when my brew was made I went out to join him. He came bounding over to me when I called him, and then I heard a whistle and saw Usmivka Mush standing at the gate. Rambo went over a few times to say hello (in a friendly way, unlike with the herder yesterday) but kept very close to me as always. I snapped a few pictures and then went over to have a quick chat with Usmivka. He asked me about the tor and then we both stood and laughed as Rambo started trying to pick up what can only be described as a tree. He could lift it, but not move it and eventually just started chewing on it. He's a mad dog.

A mad dog with his huge stick

I picked him out a slightly smaller stick and he immediately fell in love with it, running around and then dropping it and then picking it up and running around with it again. We slowly made our way round the land and up onto the top section where I muttered to myself about the location of the gate I'm considering getting put in next week and then we continued on down past the basketball court and towards his run. The only problem with the stick I had found for him was it was so long he kept whacking me as he ran past close by (as he loves to do) and at one point he was very close to taking out one of the wing mirrors on Thomas.

You can't argue, though, with a dog as happy as he looks in this video. He was chuffed to bits with his stick! As I was taking his water bowl to fill up he dropped it in one place, then moved it along a bit, then ran past it towards his house, thought "my STICK!" and went to the first location. Stupid dog haha. I think I may cut it in half for him tomorrow so he can carry it a bit easier though. It'll be good to throw for him then as well as it is a bit too big really to lob with any ease.

After this I put him back in his run (I'm not confident to leave him out all night yet, I hope to soon though) and came back inside to start preparing my dinner and warm up. I had decided on another attempt at chips tonight, and pairing them with some of the chicken legs that were in the freezer. I followed my instructions a bit closer this time, rinsing off the starch after cutting and then frying them twice, once to cook and once to crisp. They were much better this time and the chicken legs were nice too, just roasted in the oven. I am again off the beer tonight, with my headache, so it was washed down with a glass of water.

I'm sat now with the fire going (after a few attempts to light it) and the clothes I had worn to do the shit-shoveling hung near it to dry as they are soaked through. It'll not be a late night for me tonight as the men are back tomorrow and I need to feel at peak form but at least it is Saturday after that and another day for me to do very little and have no one around.