A less frenetic day

Well after the productive day I had yesterday it is only right and proper that today should be less so. That isn't to mean that I have done nothing, but I just haven't done as much. Anyway, I'm late starting so onwards with the typing.

Rambo waits, Ralf has to have his held up

Sleeping was a dream last night though I was up in the night (barely able to walk) needing the toilet - I can't wait for the spiral staircase to go in so it is less far to walk however at that time that could be a risk to life and limb.When the alarm went off I snoozed but then, in the half doze after snooze number four, remembered I needed to fuel Lucy so jumped out of bed and got on with it. Brew made I took the food and had an OK time of feeding the boys. I do make them wait to eat until I tell them they can, as this picture makes clear. And yes, because I was taking the picture they did have to wait longer but that isn't a bad thing in their training.

After this I left them in their enclosure and headed out (without doing the morning watering round, due to my ill advised lie in) to the petrol station in town. I was perfectly on time and after filling her to the brim I headed back across town, over the narrow bridge and arrived back on the new road at exactly the same time as I do when I leave home on time. Perfect. I didn't stop at all to take pictures as there were no birds anywhere in sight, and when I arrived I didn't have long to wait before the men were in the car and we were heading onwards, not back down towards mine but over to the builders yard to pay the bill for the materials the other day.

I'm not sure why but we ended up sat on the cafe terrace again having coffee which isn't a terrible thing apart from it eats into the time I'm paying the men. I thought we were waiting for some silicon to be found but we left without anything; maybe he was out of stock and it will be delivered some other time. The puppy that had been about last time was there again but this time it was super playful. After coming to our table for fusses it ran up the stairs into a new part which is being built for the cafe and then, a minute or so later, reappeared with a roll of twine in its mouth which it had obviously stolen from one of the workmen. It spent the remaining time we were there playing with this and caused much amusement to us.

Fire takes hold

When we got back I didn't immediately let the boys out but had some breakfast (toast with the last of my spare jam, and then some with honey) while chatting to my Special Guest and then I decided to clear the massive pile of burning rubbish. I went to the drum and found that the men have started putting their rubbish in there as well which is great. It had been being left hanging in trees last year. Anyway, this meant that there really was a lot of burning to do and I got it lit with two matches and left it burning.

The fog hangs on in the valley

The mist which had been very thick this morning when I woke up and left to collect the men had burned off by this point but there was still thick mist in the valley. I liked this shot, from a slightly different angle to my standard for mist in the valley shots.

Getting a beam nailed into place

The men were hard at it already as usual and I looked up and saw Bekir clinging to a beam with his legs while hammering in one of the ribs. He is such a natural at heights and does things that I wouldn't even begin to attempt.

It is slightly straighter now

I had one thing in my mind to do today and that was to dig out the fence post holes for the little picket fence I want to build to stop Rambo from running over my flower bed. When I went to take some of the tools downstairs that were littering Room 13, however, before heading outside I decided to try and tackle a small problem where the catch for the door into the Living Room has been knocked out. I hammered it a few times and got it to sit a bit better however the lintel is so split and damaged that it needs some more serious effort put in to recover it I think.

Bekir cutting something by his feet

I went out front, taking everything including a cup of tea and the kneeling bench to put it on (so it wouldn't get knocked over again) and when I was walking back in to grab another handful of bits I saw that the men were now on this side of the roof and Bekir was balanced on a beam, chopping something by his feet, while Sally and Orhan watched on. You have to be seriously confident to do this and I was able to watch him achieve this without losing any limbs all day.

Can you spot them?

Before starting work (yes, I do put it off a bit sometimes) I went to look at the boys in their enclosure and sure enough both Jesus and Shiva were out and about walking through the grass. I have been watering this every day so the grass will grow really well in there, and also getting water into their bowls so they don't dehydrate, and it is good to see them so obviously moving around and appreciating the greater space.

Makeshift table, and holes dug

I used the fence post digger, and a trowel, to dig holes about once every 1.5m along the outside of each flower bed. I will do this at first in the hope that if Rambo can see he can't get through, he'll never walk on the bed at all however this is probably a vain hope so I will end up putting fencing on all sides. It occurred to me while I was doing this that I will also be impeding my weeding (I did some of this while I was out there as well) by having fixed cross pieces so I have come up with a solution involving being able to lift the cross pieces out of open holders. I cannot explain so will just show you when it is done. That could be one for tomorrow.

Ralf with lead wrapped round tree, and Rambo watching

Ralf was again on his lead pegged near me working and he variously came to see me and sniffed at the extent of his lead. At one point he managed to get wrapped around the tree again though and sat there looking sorry for himself until I noticed and unwound him. Rambo was loose and came to see me a few times and once, after having been down near the vehicle gate, came up through that part of the garden and, wouldn't you know it, straight across the flower bed, treading on the lettuce seedlings. Typical. That must stop.

All always smiling

I finished the fence post holes on both sides and packed everything away. I was expecting my friend and her/our guests to arrive at any point so after completing this I didn't want to get involved in anything else so my fruit stayed unprocessed and I didn't get the wood out to start making the fence posts and cross piece holders. I may have been sat around doing not much but waiting but the men were still hard at it and when I went upstairs again I was really impressed to see that they had nearly completed the ribs on the roof above Room 13. Here is a picture of Bekir chopping a beam down to size, getting it exactly right, using a chainsaw, with Orhan dodging the sawdust blowing into his face, and Sally watching on and laughing. I love these guys.

Just around lunch time, just after the men had gone for their break, I saw that my friends had arrived and the reason for their slightly late arrival was facebook had not delivered my message saying "yes, come over" until late. We spent a few minutes pottering around and then headed out with the dogs for their walk. Rambo was super excited but calmed pretty quickly and I held him, while Bob was in control of Ralf. We made our way through the village slowly heading towards the hill and the lake, stopping at the watering hole where Rambo did his normal dip and my friend got given a cucumber (she passed it on to me). We didn't get as far as planned as Ralf started making gasping sounds, almost coughs, and was so obviously overheating that we turned round and I carried him for a fair bit til he cooled off. Poor little thing. I really need to get him a set of clippers so we can thin his fur again as it is growing back fast. At least they got out though Rambo was very much "is that all?" and wanting to keep going.

When we got back the kong was thrown for Rambo a few times and then they headed off to do what they had else to do, and I went back to now wait for Bekir to be ready to go and collect my package. I have bought myself a sink for the kitchen as someone on facebook was selling them very cheap and I have always liked Belfast sinks. While I was waiting I decided to have a nap as I was exhausted so I went and lay down and went to sleep and five minutes later was woken by a loud call from Bekir. Thinking I had guests I went downstairs but it was actually them wanting a coffee which was fair enough. After the coffee it was time to go and we made it to the delivery office easily, though there were more diversions in town as MORE of the road is being dug up. This wasn't a terrible thing, however, as we drove past an animal food supplier that does for chickens, cows, lambs etc (not rabbits, though, Bekir was quick to tell me) and I got an idea of a good price so next year I will go there and see what they say. The parcel was well wrapped up and we transported it home and put it on the landing for me to open after.

The kitchen sink; lovely isn't it

I checked in online and then took my knife and unwrapped it. There was no drain included (though I had asked for one) but I hadn't paid for one so I wasn't too surprised. It was clean, unmarked, and undamaged and exactly what I want. In the absence of this chap sending me the promised drain I will just source one when I am back in the winter; there is no where to put a tap (standard) so that makes it slightly easier as we can have whichever one we want, mounted on the surround.

The last one they fitted today

I had another kip after this and it was a far more successful one, lasting about an hour and I woke feeling a bit bleary but not as bad as after my five minute one earlier. A brew and some ranting on twitter sorted me out and when I felt a little more awake I headed up to see how it was going upstairs. I don't know how I had slept through the sound of hammering and the chainsaw going seemingly right over my head but I did and the evidence of the effort was there to see. They were just putting the last small rib in on the section at hand, and only one more section to do. Brilliant effort in a day. I stayed up there for a bit and was told which columns were going to be removed and then they poured themselves a small beer (well, Sally didn't have one) and it was time for taking them.

Pretty tasty dinner

I drove them home a little faster than usual today as my plan was to go to my favourite shop for bread, eggs and some salad stuff and I knew they shut at 7. I got to the shop about ten to so that was OK, however they didn't have any lettuce which was a shame. I bought everything else on my list (two loaves of bread, four onions, 20 eggs, 3 lemons) for less than £2.50, and then went home at a much more sedate pace. My plan for dinner was a couple of the burgers I had bought in Lidl the other day so I fried them (I was not waiting for a BBQ to light at that time) and then also fried off an onion. The finishing touch was a tomato from my garden and they were lovely. Not as nice as the home made ones when my Special Guest was here, but tasty none the less.

What it looks like this evening

I had forgotten to take the progress picture until after I started writing this blog so I legged it outside and fortunately it was still light enough to see. I reckon tomorrow they will finish the ribbing and maybe start building the little walls between each rib. They aren't working Monday through Wednesday next week so it would be nice to make lots of progress tomorrow.

So I am tired, I'm going to sign this off and get on my evening chat then get to bed. The dogs next door are barking up a storm and have been all evening, while Rambo has been in the enclosure for being disobedient and Ralf has just been put away as he was farting. Lovely. Night.