The boys are back in town!

Well today there is once more some major progress which is great to report. I am chuffed to bits to have Bekir and Sally back working here and they are doing what they do best; making progress faster than you would believe. Anyway, in the interests of continued swift blogging I will move on and you can hear about that later on; for now I go to yesterday evening as stuff happened I want to talk about.

Road stone lapping at my track

You will remember (or maybe you won't) that S and S were over making use of my internet and after they finished we went out for a meal. Because of the work that is going on at the moment on the road, and putting in a new water pipe, they weren't able to drive up to my house so parked at the corner, at the same place my friend did. We walked round to the car and I was impressed to see that the new road is extending further than I expected; this is just near the gate into Usmivka and the Little Lady's house.

The evening sky over the valley

As we walked round the corner the vista across the valley opened up and the late night sky was stunning. We all commented on it and I stopped walking to snap a picture. Our plan was to go into my town for dinner however the place S and S had seen that day was shut for evening business so we ended up going to the normal place by the river. We sat outside and ordered food and drinks and had a great time, even when a massive storm blew in and we had to grab all our stuff and take it inside as we were at risk of being blown away.

The lightning was flickering all around while we were eating, and was super dramatic on the drive back, and I stood by the gate filming, then walked to cover under the porch, so you could see. The best bits of this are at about 1 min 30 and onwards for about 30 seconds, if you are in a hurry for some reason. After this I went upstairs to Room 13, leaving all the lights on as I climbed (thanks again The Electrician) and had a lovely and brief conversation before heading to bed where I lay watching the flickering and dozed off pretty quickly as the storm was passing by then.

Sun rise this morning; shot one

And shot two; I loved them both so you get both

This was a very good thing as my alarm was set for 6am because today (as I have hinted in the blog title, and made clear in the opening paragraph) I was off to collect Bekir and Sally so they can start work on my roof. I snoozed when it first went off but actually got out of bed before the snooze expired. Looking through the end window I could see that neither of the boys was up yet waiting for me; I had beaten them awake, but this did not stop Rambo howling as I walked away to make a brew. The sun was just rising at this time so I went onto the balcony to snap a photograph as the kettle was boiling my brew. Stunning and amazing and that will be our view out the bedroom window.Wow.

Mist came up very quickly

As I sat sipping my brew and waking up prior to going and feeding the boys the mist rose very quickly, as it had done the other day. It was good to be awake and able to watch it this time though. It got quite thick in patches, such that on my land it was hazy but you could see sun was still striking the field across the lane.

Poor starving Ralf

So it was time for feeding and this was pretty easily done today, using my new technique of stopping whenever Ralf barked as I was carrying their food and water across the patio. This made it take a fair amount of time however he needs to learn to not shout for food. Ralf was pretty good once I put the food down, waiting for the bowl to at least hit the floor before diving in.

Rambo being robbed

Rambo also dived head first into his bowl and at first he was pretty tidy, growling as Ralf prowled, however towards the end he started pushing it across the floor and Ralf spotted his chance. By the time Rambo noticed Ralf had eaten most of the food on the floor and Rambo didn't even make any sound, presuming maybe that it wasn't his food anyway. Rambo did look a little nonplussed at the apparently small portion he had been served. Stupid dog.

It had flown out about 10 minutes before

There was one swallow left in the next in their building and it was sat quietly in the nest (allowing me to get the inset picture) until Rambo started bouncing around and then he went a bit nuts trying to catch it. I distracted him and it flew out. He then ate his food and after finishing, went back to keep looking for the bird so he could chase it. Bless.

All my water containers are now full

The water was still off this morning and so before heading out to get the men I filled all my available water collection devices, including both watering cans, though I didn't do a watering round considering the volume of water that was dumped last night.

The storm (or a car) knocked the sign over

So I was on the road to get the men,driving past the speed limit sign which had not survived the storm the night before, and turning up about on time to collect them. They both got in the car looking very well and we drove back, again largely in silence. I really do dislike my lack of ability at the language as I wanted to chat about how they had been and I have had a thought that maybe I can find a Bulgarian language course in Manchester for the winter so I can really force myself to learn conversational Bulgarian for next year.

Bekir and Sally working on the roof

Lobbing the waste off the roof

We got home and Ralf introduced himself with Rambo renewing his acquaintance and then, with a "you want us to work on the roof, yes?" they were away up and going for it. The picked up where I expected them to, starting to remove the tiles from the short length of roof. They weren't sure what to do with the rubbish tiles so I said to just wing them off the roof onto the back bank; I will collect all these up and pile them with the broken tiles I carried down.

So much dust

It is such a super dusty environment up there, mainly as the old way of building the roof involved using mud to seal the cracks. Everything they move is caked in the stuff and now to walk around barefoot up there is very pleasant as there is a deep layer all over the floor.

Fantastic breakfast

I left them to it and went to have breakfast, initially peeling one of my oranges for a healthy option but then finding it was a blood orange and so not something I wanted to eat for breakfast. I put it on a plate in the fridge and proceeded to fry up bacon, eggs, mushrooms and bread. If I can't go healthy, I'll go hearty.

Another area scythed

After successfully putting the new blade on the handle I was going to sharpen and use the scythe today and I found that it looked already ground so I just used my stone on it a fair few times then cracked on with the next section. I have decided to leave the area which proved to be fatal to my last blade as it is just a massive tangle of trees and other thick foliage; I will go there next year and remove what I don't want before the growth gets this high again. I was scything for about 40 minutes to achieve this and then went in as I had paid work to be getting on with and I also really wanted a cuppa.

It's RAAAAALF

Having a good roll

Happy Ralf in the back

Ralf found a bone and started destroying it

Above is a collection of pictures of Ralf that I took during the day and wanted to share with you. He has been pretty well behaved today, even slightly antisocial including jumping off my lap to go and lie down but maybe, as we suggested to me, he is still feeling a bit ropey from his eating mistake yesterday. He is still hungry as he went out at lunch and was fed by Bekir, then when I let him out again later he went straight to where they had been sitting and sniffed around looking for more. He's a cutey though, and seems to be really settled now.

Progress by lunch time

And so, after a fair bit of time spent on conference calls and other things for work, it was suddenly lunch time so I popped outside to grab a picture of the progress the men had made. I have picked a spot on the top bank where I can get a picture from every day they are working up there, to satisfy the excellent suggestion from a couple of my readers to record from a standard place. I also need to find somewhere in the front where I can do the same however the elevation isn't as easy from there. They really had cracked on very well, anyway.

Don't jump, Jesus!

While I was munching on my cheese and tomato butties I heard some scraping going on and looked over to see Jesus was trying to climb up the vertical wall of his enclosure. This makes me really keen to get him outside. A bit later I looked over and he was hanging right over the edge of the end of the wooden beam. I snapped this picture before he managed to turn himself round and go back down. I'll build his enclosure next weekend when my special guest arrives.

Back to it after lunch

Bekir had a good long snooze in the shade today and Sally was up on his own working after lunch and then Bekir raised himself and they set to again. They declined the offer of coffee for now and instead set to again clearing the tiles that they had piled up for keeping, which they stacked down the middle of the attic. I also noticed that they had taken the really dodgy looking chimney stack down to a level with the line of the roof. I need to make it clear that I do actually want to keep all my chimneys, so I can use petchka's to warm a room which has access to one.

This is a BIG storm

I returned to working and then noticed a change in the weather. All day it had been lovely and warm and the sun had remained out enough to cast shadows, though there was a high overcast haze that was lingering from mid morning all the way through. I noticed that the sky was blue, but the wind had begun to blow quite hard (enough for me to close the windows in Room 13 as it was blowing the chili plants quite badly) and then I heard the dreaded rumble of thunder. I checked on the men and they were chilled out but when I tried to take a picture of the storm it was more than three photographs wide. It was huge and looked like it was heading directly towards us.

Bekir and Sally ignoring the storm

I had more meetings so I went back to being tied to my desk and the next time I was able to move around I noticed that the storm had actually dissipated before it hit us, which is incredible as it was so close and moving so fast. Bekir and Sally were still at it on the roof and they laughed when I commented that the storm hadn't hit. They don't seem bothered by much at all.

Clearing access to the green building

I decided to do a little more towards progress myself in the afternoon and in a snatched twenty minutes I went out and scythed in front of one of the doors to the green building, then cleared all the broken glass (there actually wasn't that much in the end) our of the hay rooms. I am not going to sweep them out (my initial plan) because the hay I am making is not good enough quality to risk Sassy getting ill over again so I'll just pile all of mine in there. If we can avoid any rain tonight I will do this tomorrow.

Loads of plastic for burning

I pulled a load of plastic out of the area I scythed and piled it up next to the burning drum. There is so much of it I think it will take a concerted effort to get it all burnt so I have left it there til my special guest arrives as she loves burning things. It is like a gift to her.

After turning up in their van and then not coming to see me, but going into Usmivka's to fit a window (a fitting that they only got because of me) the window people finally arrived today and I took them through what I want doing including the internal window for the bedroom, swapping out the bottom panel in the door to the balcony for glass, and everything under the flat roof. This is a large amount of work for them to fit so I hope they keep to their promise of "next week" as I want that window in so I can move into the bedroom.

Some more working and it was suddenly time for the men to go home. I grabbed my stuff, put the boys away (Ralf wasn't impressed as he hoped to be fed again by Sally) and then we scooted over and I dropped them off. There was some large plant right in the centre of the village on the way out which took some maneuvering to get past and as I went down the hill the top is much smoother now with a finer grain of gravel over the top of the stones that were there before. It is making progress.

The end of day one

When I got back I let the boys out, put my pork belly in the oven to roast, then went into the attic to get a picture of the progress. It is so open up there now and it almost makes me want to think about getting many windows up there eventually. I am really looking forward to getting a picture of the sunset from between the open beams this evening. I also went to my spot to take the picture and you really can see how quickly they have worked. I have asked them to continue to throw all the waste material out the back, and none over the front, so it is easier for me to collect. I was going to do that this evening but now I think it may be a weekend job when nothing is going to land on my head, and I will have time to devote to it.

So my dinner is nearly ready so I'm going to stop typing now and complete this after I have eaten (and the sun has gone down so I can get that picture which isn't going to be long now).

Super lovely dinner

I am back to finish the blog. A fair amount has actually happened in that short space of time. First of all my dinner was incredible; roast pork bell strips (with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil), boiled tatties and butter friend cabbage and onions. Wow. I have enough left over for a fantastic cold salad tomorrow as well. I ate this while putting the pictures in place and also keeping my eyes peeled for the sun to go down.

The sun setting

I popped up to the attic a couple of times to take pictures, this was from the first visit, and when I was up there the second time I heard my name called and it was the Other Brother, with the Special One and they had two older gentlemen with them. I went down, put the boys in their compound, and greeted them in Bulgarian and one of the older men responded in very good English. It turns out they are the Uncles and the English speaking one left 50 years ago and now lives in New York. He was able to tell me that the old school (that he went to) was behind where the water tap is now, but his brother (the other man, who was taller) had finished his education in my building. I showed them round, and was able to explain my plans well to the english speaker who then translated for the Other Brother and the Special One, so finally they have a really good understanding of my plans. I waved them goodbye and then came up to finish this.

So there you have it. Tomorrow I am able to go out during the day as the window people have finally been so I'll be going to get some food and getting a few chores done in town. We're going to go past the big building yard in the morning too to order the stuff that is needed for the men to put the roof back up. All go. Exciting.