Animals and a bed

I've been a maker today, and the target I set myself has been well and truly surpassed. This is mainly because it has been horrible all day and my planned walk for Rambo was scuppered in the face of driving rain and quite high winds. I was happy to take him while it was just raining but getting totally soaked through had no appeal at all.

Anyway last night the clouds which had gathered as the sun was setting cleared slightly when I was going to bed and you could see the moon though it was very hazy so once again I decided to not take a picture. There'll be plenty of chances (as I keep getting told) but I will certainly grab the next one that comes along. I slept so deeply and well that I woke up with a numb ear from not having moved off of it for too long. It got better quite quickly, thankfully, as I have had these where they have hurt for hours. I was pretty thirsty so I went in and drank my tea before seeing to Rambo. It wasn't raining however looking out the window it seemed that would not last long so I didn't feel the urge to do any more watering of the outside plants. While I was drinking my brew Sassy started banging away so I went to feed her. Yes I know I made Rambo wait but he isn't as noisy as she is.

Jesus on a mission....

... and Mo making progress

It wasn't just Sassy who was active this morning; both Jesus and Mo were out and about exploring and munching away (the cabbage that I had put in for them the other day has all been eaten; I hope they shared it!) so I snapped pictures of both of them as it has been a while since I've taken any. I'm pretty sure Jesus is older than Mo and I'm tempted, once the weather brightens, to put him out as he is healthy and would probably do fine in the wild. Mo, with his crippled back legs, I'm less sure about and feel that I should look after him until he is bigger and I can see if his legs get stronger.

Rain causing creative drying methods

After feeding Rambo, then myself (with bacon and egg on bread instead of the chili beans I wanted as my pan still had the pasta in from last night) I faced up to the fact that yes, today was going to be a complete washout. The rain was pouring down and there have once again been rivers on my property. Water has also come in through a section of wall that I hoped was going to be dry what with the drainage ditch I had dug. It shows I need to take that further down all the way around. Anyway I had to hang my washing to dry inside so the dryers were put in the bedroom again but my bedding had to be stretched out over the dining chairs in the downstairs store room. When I checked the clothes a bit ago they still hadn't dried as it has also been quite chilly today.

The weirdness in his eyes are them JUST opening

Rambo really has taken to that tray of mud and I sneaked down to get a picture as he was curled up with his head under his tail but unfortunately the flash snapped up on my camera and disturbed him so he's caught here just moving his head and opening his eyes. A bit later on I checked on him and he had take one of the rugs (which I had put on the chair next to the door) and pulled it onto the floor and was laying on it. This is a much better thing and I think I need to move that tray so he stops digging all the soil all over the place.

New power tool and the chopped wood

Other than doing my paid work (which took most of my day and is REALLY boring to write about so I'm not going to) I had set myself the task of trying to put the frame for the bed together. To do this I needed to get my new Mitre Saw working and, after a few minutes trying to work out how to unlock the action, I did this and cut my first two bits of wood. I then did some other stuff and eventually got round to cutting the other two lengths and there we have the main materials for the square frame for the bed.

The sawdust collector doesn't really work

The saw came with a "built in sawdust collection device" which was supposed to keep the mess down however it doesn't really work that well. This is the amount of sawdust I swept up after cutting the four lengths in the previous picture. It was everywhere!

And it all fits together

After I had done this tidying I then took the lengths and offered them up in the layout that they were to be in. Surprisingly they fit together perfectly though I should have been confident as I had measured two or three times before each cut. I did find out that my floor is not totally flat which made the next few steps a little more tricky.

Drilling the recess holes

Before I was doing any fixing together I had worked out a cunning plan in my head. I don't have any super long screws in the wood screw box I brought with me and anyway I wanted to recess them out of sight so my plan was to get the big drill bit and put a wide hole about half way through each beam into which I would place the screw and then complete the fixing. I was expecting this to take quite a long time but the power drill just chomped through the wood and, with a bit of tape on the bit so I could make sure each hole was the same depth, I soon had four holes in the end of each end beam in a diamond pattern ready for the screwing to begin.

And the mattress fits perfectly in place

The first couple of screws went in easily using the driver but then for some reason the power tool was not man enough to put the others in and so I had to go and find my manual screwdriver and put the last 12 in by hand. I got a blister as it was really quite difficult, but with a small amount of effort (and the decision to lean the frame up against the wall for the last screws at the bottom which made it much easier) I finished the frame. I then dropped the mattress on top and it fitted perfectly as we wanted.

Now it has feet

After this I worked for another couple of hours and then, once a decision had been made with my partner in crime about how high we wanted this bed (not very, is the answer) I went back out and used the offcuts from before to make four 200mm feet, one for each corner. This was done very easily and quickly (though with the same massive amount of sawdust everywhere as before which I had to sweep up) and I used the same method to drill recesses, then secure using long screws, and then I flipped it over onto its feet (which was quite hard as it is VERY heavy) and found that it was completely sturdy with no rocking at all. Wow.

Bedroom now sealed from the outside

Just after I finished this I went back into Room 13 for something and noticed that the window people's van was driving down the lane and away from my gate. That isn't what I wanted to see. They parked up just past the little track and I ran downstairs to get Rambo and put him in his enclosure as that is probably why they hadn't driven onto my land. That, or the fact that there was a river running down out of my gate from all the rain. Anyway, the Special One was with them and came in to watch as they replaced the broken window, and fitted solid slats to the bottom of the door. Now I am sure that I asked for a fully glass door however I was more interested in having the thing sealed so next time they are here I'll raise this point and get another glass unit for the bottom.

While they were working I swept up and then had a brief chat about the internal window which will be the next one for them to fit. I want a panel at the top of it that will open, to allow for a really lovely breeze through the bedroom and into the corridor beyond and we discussed the dimensions and then they left when we had agreement. I need to get the bricks put up the side before anything can happen but maybe that will be the week after next when the men are back to do the roof.

Doesn't that look amazing

And so they left and I finished tidying and then I decided to try and make the bed for a final "this is what it looks like" picture. I succeeded with everything but the sheet which was a double sheet and not a king size (which is the size of this bed) so that's something else I need to get before I can use it. I did have a quick lay down on it over the duvet and I was very pleased with how stable and comfortable it is. I think I'm going to put one more supporting beam in, down the middle, just to make doubly sure that the mattress frame doesn't break at any point. That'll have to wait until the beam I propped up outside is dry again and THAT will have to wait for the sun to come back out.

Right now I'm going to publish this and then go and rest in Julian for an hour or so before my evening conversation of happiness begins. I'm feeling quite tired from all the effort I've put into everything today and also the fact it's been grey and miserable all day probably isn't helping. I've been told from various sources that tomorrow is going to be the beginning of a change but right now, while the clouds look like they are lifting a bit, it is still completely solid grey out there. So depressing!