Raining, so I had the men

My expectation for today was to have a nice quiet day. I had handed Bekir and Sally over to my friend for them to do the final work she needs them for, before they come to me (or maybe only Bekir) for the summer to do my roof and maybe some internal stuff. I was expecting T to be with me today, though, to finish off the dry stone walling.

There are mountains out there somewhere

When I woke up at my normal time and looked outside however I guessed that I might be receiving a telephone call from my friend to offer them to me as it was miserable; raining and low cloud and, knowing the weather patterns, almost certainly worse where she is. I made my brew and headed over to feed and water Rambo and spotted that someone had stolen the hills opposite. This view has not really changed once all day and as I sit here looking out I can see my Tea Trees and then just grey. This is definitely not what I came here to have as the weather; oh well, it'll clear soon enough.

Rambo and the locals, plus more Flags

I did my usual of letting Rambo out for a run around and went down towards the front gate as I could hear the little dog barking. It was a very funny moment as Rambo ran towards him he legged it away and then turned and barked and then ran and then barked again. Rambo did his usual of completely ignoring them. The big dog, who has definitely learned his place, just dragged his lazy backside off the road and walked calmly away without paying any attention other than to the presence of Rambo.

High speed doggy

Rambo, anyway, was far more interested in checking out each of the holes which had been dug for the trees. He jumped into each and sniffed then jumped out. I only managed to get one picture (as I had the camera on a strange setting) however when I checked my camera I was amazed at how it had come out. It gives an idea of just how fast Rambo moves when he is excited and I really hope I can learn this camera better (or get shown) so I can get more awesome snaps of him.

Breakfast

As I wasn't totally sure who was going to turn up I put Rambo back in his enclosure and headed back upstairs for another brew (I was REALLY struggling to wake up this morning again). About when I expected my phone rang and it was my friend. T had dropped the men and legged it however the weather over there was horrendous so she was offering to bring them, then we could pop into town to the market garden and she would buy me my present. This made a lot of sense to me as they could work on the second lintel, so I said yes and then realised I'd better eat so I went for a triple fry - Fried bacon, fried eggs and fried bread. It was really rather nice, though maybe a little too much oil on the bread.

The master at work

A while after T arrived and we had a good chat while the kettle boiled again and shortly after he was followed in by my friend with Bekir and Sally. T headed outside to crack on with the wall around the garden / chicken run as it was very lightly drizzling and I pointed the men at the task for the day (though they obviously already knew exactly what it was they would be doing) and me and my friend shared a cup of tea (for me) and coffee (for her) before we headed towards town.

Makeshift scaffolding, and Sally at work

While we were sitting there we heard quite a loud and strange sound from the corridor; my friend guessed that they were drilling but there wasn't any need for that. I checked and found that they had dragged the two old school desks from the attic along the corridor for use as a makeshift scaffolding. They did the whole job standing on these desks, including as you can see here Sally chopping out some of the wall to act as a support for the lintel. As we headed for the car to go into town I saw Bekir was back at his metal work, making the steel boxing which would form the structure of the lintel.

We headed first into my local town to pay my massive 6 lev electric bill and found the post office in there which will please my mother; I need to send her scissors back so now I can do this easily as there seems to be far less traffic into this one. I'll try and get that done next week if I can. Anyway, this was accomplished very easily and then we went to town, past the normal first stop for me to get the saw-guide I had decided I needed to assist with making the chicken coop. I also got a belt for the sander so I can attack the wooden furniture I have to renovate. After this we went to Kaufland to get a couple of things and I ended up walking out with a huge pile of stuff again, including a knife so I can serve Rambo his treat-meat tomorrow and a soap dish.

From there it was onwards to the market garden where we rang the bell multiple times (and found that if you held the buzzer in, the tone changed to an even more urgent one) however no one emerged to let us in. I could see the weeping willow that I am DEFINITELY not going to buy (I am) was still there however my friend couldn't see the large tree she was hoping to get. Oh well, we'll go back another time. After this it was a trip to Lidl to get some butter and again both of us walking out with piles of stuff (including, for me, more of the lovely sweet nibbles I had last week, a few lovely daffodils to plant out and two climbing flower frames for by the entrance) and then getting in Thomas to go back to the school for lunch.

Lunch was more ham and cheese salad butties but after my first I was persuaded to try the fancy ham my friend had bought at Kaufland and it was very tasty indeed. I am probably going to go off having mayo on my butties instead of butter, but not yet; it is a very civilised decision to make indeed. I was trying to be good so I only had a couple of butties however mid afternoon I regretted this as I became quite hungry and so a good proportion of the chocolate oat biscuits I bought were dunked into a cup of coffee and consumed to put off the hunger pangs.

We had a quick walk around the earthworks and discussed different options for my drainage; namely burying the pipes, or having an open concrete lined culvert running around the building. Now originally that was my plan, but then I was persuaded that the more traditional method was going to be better. I quite like the idea of little bridges over the drainage, however, and am now back to at least considering the second option again. It isn't a question for soon however, as I have to wait for the weather to dry out and then maybe get the digger back to go a bit lower towards the back wall (which is looking like it needs a bit of work too to make it safe - oh well).

The (over large) frame

After a coffee and more chattering my friend left and it was as she was leaving the village that I noticed she had left her shopping in my car so a quick phone call and she headed back up to the centre while I legged it up the lane and gave her the bag. I returned to the house and decided that I would crack straight on with making the frame for the chicken coop. My plan called for a 2m or 3m by 1m front panel so I set to making this first. What you see here is the 3m version which, after thought, I reduced to a 2m x 1m and then decided to walk away from it and think again as I was not happy at all with the design. I will revisit this over the next week as I'll not be getting the chick til next Saturday now.

Thomas on the top of the land, with T

As I was playing around with my saw and electric driver (and being laughed at by Sally for the quality of my work, oh well) T came in to say he had completed the surround to the garden and needed more work. I set him to doing the same as he had been doing, but around the long perimeter fence. When I had walked it before I had found a few places where it was quite loose so I asked him to just identify those places and build short lengths of stone wall, using Thomas to shift the stone. I took a short break and saw that he was up the top unloading stone and cracking on as per usual.

Bits for a "rose arch"

As I had thrown my toys out of the pram about the chicken run I decided to have a look at the arches I had bought. I opened the first one and the pieces spilled out across the rug, but no instructions. I checked the box again and yes, it definitely said there were some. On further inspection there they were, crumpled into a ball and squashed at the bottom of the box. I took one look and worked out what was obvious and set to. It did not take me long to get the two halves constructed and then carried outside to be put together. I had bought two of these without looking at the dimensions on the box as I wanted to fill one side of the entrance porch with lots of flowers. You'll see later why one would have been enough.

One cleaning, one finishing off

The men were meantimes cracking on with the lintel and the next time I grabbed my camera to get a picture Sally was on tidying up duty and Bekir was putting the last concrete in, then fitting and fixing the props which have to stay for the next few weeks.

Now to renovate it

The last thing I wanted the men to do was help me with the green unit upstairs. Bekir was off doing something else so Sally was the one who volunteered. Tutting the whole time (he is a carpenter and probably the thought that I was going to use such a run down piece of furniture pained him) he swept it out, then helped me to heft it upstairs. It only took the two of us, which surprised me, but there was quite a lot of amusement at the crazy Englishman who is making use of such rubbish items. Usmivka Mush appeared and was laughing along too.

Rather a large arch

I waved the men off and snapped a picture of the completed arch. I am going to put the other one opposite it, and maybe even get a third to grow some flowers over the front door. They are really huge! As soon as the men were gone I let Rambo out then headed to my bed for a doze; for some reason I was feeling really exhausted. An hour or so and I felt a lot better so I've come in, had a lovely pizza, a pint of beer and put him away again for the night.

Now for the favourite part of my night.