Quotes for the roofing wood

I woke up this morning at my normal time of 6.55 and dragged myself out of bed at 7.05 to go and feed and water Rambo and then make myself a brew. I was so dozy this morning however that I had my shower pre-brew to wake me up and ensure I made it correctly. This did the job and I was able to make the brew right, pour cereal into a bowl and even add the correct amount of water.

A more promising start to today

The pleasure of today was waking up to a non-rainy non-low-cloudy and non-cold morning. The sun was actually breaking through every now and then and this made me wonder whether my friend would rather postpone our plans for today (going round wood yards to get quotes for the roofing wood) until tomorrow as it could be a good day for working outside today. I had a quick chat with her on facebook and it was decided that it was too late to change plans. T had also messaged asking if the men needed collecting but I was too late to reply. Imagine my surprise when he turned up and I heard voices and it wasn't him talking to Rambo (who had been left out this morning again) but Bekir was there having a cigarette.

No matter; it didn't really effect my day as I was off to collect my friend (to help as translator and give moral support to both me and Bekir, I think) and had then planned on collecting Bekir; it was he who was put out as it had disrupted his morning coffee. He didn't seem that put out and we hopped in Lucy (well, he hopped in once outside the gate and over the worst of the bumps) and we headed towards my friends. I quickly noticed that the fuel gauge was hovering around, and often actually touching, completely empty. Oh dear; it was about a 10km drive to the nearest petrol station. I nursed her, going ever so slowly over the bumps as well, and we arrived at an empty station except as we pulled up, two cars nipped in front. All of a sudden we were at the back of the queue. Typical. They didn't take long to get out the way though and soon I was fuelled and comfortable again.

We arrived and my friend was just as surprised to see Bekir as I had been. A short review of the work completed on the garden by the men last week and then we headed to our first wood yard. It was a fair drive, being the furthest from home (we were going to visit another couple as well, depending on how well this went) and we drove through some areas of great beauty on the way. I had my camera but as we were on a mission I didn't stop to take any pictures, which is a shame.

A tangle of stuff

The yard was as you'd expect it; lots of trucks, LOTS of piles of trees and a load of interesting machines for making planks and other stuff. There were also huge piles of tyres everywhere you looked including some monsters that wouldn't look out of place on a Worlds Strongest Man being used for one of the competitions. There were a group of men sitting around smoking near the entrance and it turned out one of them was the father of the owner and he took us through the yard and into a shed which had a little office in the corner. We sat in the office and discussed what I wanted and were given a price. This didn't take long. Then we were told that his son was coming and that we should wait so we did. And we waited. And waited. Then I needed the toilet so I went into their long drop which was minging! How anyone can prefer that to my Humanure I will never know. I'm not describing it here!

After a bit more waiting I got bored and went for a wander. It was cold in the office and the sun was out. I snapped some pictures around the place and then went back in and waited some more and then almost decided to walk out when Bekir returned from having a cigarette with a younger version of the first guy. We sat down again and went over the figures and found that yes, the dad had given the correct quote. He gave us a price for delivery and that was it. We had waited the best part of an hour for that. To be fair we had had a good chat, and I had learned something about the sequence of stuff to be done on my build that I hadn't realised before (I'll go into that later) and also I had once again enjoyed the pleasure that is enforced chillaxing when things don't go at the speed you wish them to and this slows you down and makes you take breaths and not rush everywhere.

From that yard we drove a short distance to another but they said immediately that their truck wouldn't get to my village; I'm not sure why one yard can and another can't but whatever. Bekir's son in law was there though which was nice and just goes to show just how family gets around over here; you have to be careful to not irritate the wrong person I think.

Loading cutoff wood into the tractor trailer

From there it was a slightly longer drive, but always heading back towards our finishing point. This was a smaller yard just tucked next to a road and I thought it was a bad option. My friend noticed that one of Lucy's tyres was slightly down and I happened to have my pump with me so I sorted that out while we waited for the man we needed to return from doing a delivery or some such thing. Shortly we were ushered into a dingy room with a bed in one corner and a picture of Gorbachev on the wall; it seems that harking back to the communist era is a common theme amongst these wood yard people as the first guy had said he thought communism was better than Europe. To be fair, who am I to argue.

The dog is the same colour as the wood!

I didn't last long in that office and returned leaving Bekir to do the negotiating. There was an incredibly cute dog running around the yard which was almost exactly the colour of the sawdust and had been sleeping on a huge (and I mean huge - probably 20 feet high) pile of sawdust when we got there. She was really friendly and came over to be fussed a couple of times but this was the best picture I got of her as she was camouflaged sat on some sawn timber.

After a few minute Bekir emerged smiling and saying that this was the best place to buy from, with the lowest price and free delivery. I'm happy with both those things so that is decided. We hopped back into Lucy and went back to his village to drop him off. As we were sat having a coffee in his little cafe we were discussing the bagga machine bill and, after a not-very-successful telephone call about it, we decided that it would be good to get this sorted out and get a final amount decided. We headed into the town local to my friend which meant I was happy as I could pop in and get some eggs and fresh bread from my favourite shop.

Then we waited and waited, and it started raining and we kept waiting and eventually Bekir got bored and rang the guy and we had to drive up the road to another location where we waited again and then, just before I was about to say "this is ridiculous, let's go and if he wants his money he can come to me" the digger machine drove round the corner and myself and Bekir went out to negotiate. Long story short we met in the middle and he should be coming past mine tomorrow sometime to collect the cash. That is a success as far as I'm concerned.

Clouds piling up over the mountains

That was our last chore and so we piled into Lucy and headed back to my friends, dropping her off and picking up two grape vine seedlings, and then proceeding to Bekir's where I dropped him back by the cafe and then headed over the Cheren Put to the new road and home. On the way I had to park up and snap a couple of pictures of the clouds piling up by the mountains which have Greece on the other side. It was a magical view and well worth a few seconds pause.

Nearly done with the unit

And so I got home and parked Lucy off the land as the drive is getting quite churned up and I knew I had to get T back to his house later. Talking of T he had been cracking on with his task and had put shelf ledges, and made shelves, for the green unit. He had also taken the doors off and attempted to sand them down however the sander was not working and kept chewing up the belts. No problem there as I don't need the doors for the purpose I have for it now.

Daffodils planted

There then followed an incredibly frustrating period where I was attempting to help my paid job out with something really urgent but no one could unblock me. I sat at my desk, basically achieving nothing but just poised to crack on, looking out of the window at the sun and nice weather that we haven't had for weeks, and slowly getting to boiling point. After several hours of frustration I snapped and went outside and planted the daffodils that I bought at Lidl the other day. There are eight of them now planted in a nice row at the top of my entrance flower bed. After this I returned to my desk and nothing happened to unblock me for the rest of the day.

Unit in place and about to be utilised

I passed some of the time by picking the little tortoise up (who had managed to beach himself on a twig in his water bath and had fallen asleep stuck half up in the air) and carrying him around with me for half an hour or so to warm him up. I tried to feed him another grub but he was having none of it and eventually I had to put him down so I could drink the cuppa I made for me and T to have after we lifted the unit in, and before he left. The unit looks great and fits exactly where I wanted it to. We had our brews then I took him home in Lucy and returned, via the railway crossing in the hope of picking up the two puppies but they weren't there, and then back up my hill. On the way I came across the kmet so I gave him a lift up and first of all he told me he had sorted the telephone problems (I didn't even know there had been; I thought we hadn't actually damaged anything important) and then I asked him to come and sign the papers for Lubo. He said he would tomorrow so we'll see when he arrives.

So I am sat in the warmth of Room 13, having eaten an INCREDIBLY pasta meal which used up the rest of the pork belly from yesterday and some mushrooms and olives and some of the really hot chili and was so nice I ate the entire dish I cooked, though I had planned on some being saved for tomorrow. Whoops. Talking of tomorrow that is the last day before my guest arrives so I am going to be spending it tidying and making it look like my place is not actually the mess it normally is.

To quickly end this post I found that the insulation for the outside of the building should be left until after the windows are done so this means that, after the roof, I'm not going to focus on the insulation but on getting all the windows and doors in. This will be such a good thing and also clears up the other tasks that I would like to queue up as "nice to haves" including getting the bedroom done, and maybe getting the guest suite built. I talked this last through with T who has done a lot of dry walling before so maybe that could be a win.

Finally my package arrived today with the heavy duty carpet/rug for under my chair, new bedding and some other bits and pieces kindly sent on via my guest and just beating her here for two days. The floor under my chair is obviously disintegrating beneath the wheels so having the rug will make a big difference.