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| Chilling out in Room 13 |
We'll start today with a glance back to last night. After the blog post dinner which was lovely and then the pictures put in place and the whole thing published. We then put the NFL on (Andrew Luck leading the Colts as they thrashed the Jaguars) and watched that until near enough half time when the streaming failures started getting too irritating and anyway we were both tired so we headed to bed. I slept well apart from one moment when I woke up thinking I had heard something rubbing something else outside. I sat up to listen but then A woke and said she thought she could smell weed so I was out with the torch checking all the windows and outside but nothing so it must have both been in our dreams.
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| Super foggy again first thing |
I for one got back to sleep OK but when the alarm went A said she had not slept well at all and we were both pretty tired. No snooze, just a slow rousing of energy for getting out of bed, and then the kettle was on and I was out onto the balcony to capture just how misty it was again this morning. Every day at the moment is starting like this; a function of being so close to the river.
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| Not much lettuce left, but the root ginger is doing well |
While I was out there I got a picture of the root ginger (looks like it is doing well) and the rather denuded lettuce which we have eaten well off over the past few weeks. The mint and parsely are both still going well as well but I didn't get a shot of them for you. We'll either have to take the ginger back with us, or ask my friend to look after it.
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| Sassy and her breakfast |
While A went out to feed the doggies I stayed inside, cuddled my brew, and then went to feed Sassy. She was being super friendly again this morning but when I returned with her bowls full of water and food she had hopped up onto the top level to wait. I put them in, gave her a stroke, and as I turned to leave she picked up the food bowl and tipped it over as I was watching. I don't know why she does this but she has always chucked it out of the way and then eaten the food off the floor. Bless her.
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| Rambo won't be able to get in here now. I hope |
My main task of the morning, to be carried out while the men were being collected, was to improve the Rambo-proofing on the humanure. I got the saw outside so that I could cut some wood to make a frame but then I changed my mind and decided to use two of the empty window frames stacked outside as the frames and just attach a sheet of the Ralf proofing to each one. This didn't take me that long, though we did run out of good fixing wire after the first one which meant I was reduced to trying to straighten a length of chain link fence and managed to stab my finger. Anyway, I got it done and in place and hopefully now he can't get in there.
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| What animal dropped this? |
And so, as if this blog hasn't had enough poop updates, here is more poop. First the back story. For the past few days A has been getting a bit concerned that the rats we are pretty sure are living in the green building have moved into the main house. The reason for this concern is there have been some pretty large droppings in the room which will be the kitchen. Anyway last night when I was checking out the strange noises I disturbed another toad and then this morning, while I was pottering around just as A was heading out the door, I suddenly had a brain wave to check out what a toad turd looks like. After some interesting google searches I was able to confirm that these poops are definitely from a toad and not a rat. This is excellent news.
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| Really getting ready for closing up for winter now |
My other task after making the humanure safe from Rambo's depredations was to tidy the downstairs store room so I made a start by putting another old school table in there and putting tools that had been on the floor onto them. The other part of the clutter was the fact that the chairs for the dining suite were still in there and had been moved for the window fitters to a position where they could not stay. I got a couple of them up before A got back with the men and then with A's help the other four were lifted into the guest suite which will continue to act as the secure store room over winter.
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| First task of the day completed |
As the men walked up the stairs I grabbed Sally and asked him to do the curtain rail in the guest room however a few minutes later Bekir came down with Orhan (who had to put up with Mastika jokes from A when she got to the village and when I saw him on the stairs when they arrived) and set to the task without any complaints at being distracted once again from the main task of putting the roof. They did need to move the bed in the end and got the scaffold in (a great purchase, that was) but it only took about half an hour and it was done, using the tried and tested methods of a wood plug rather than the plastic wall plugs.
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| They are a little short |
The one funny thing we found was that the curtains were too short and left about 18" of gap at the bottom. Bekir offered to take out the turn up at the bottom but I told him to wait til I'd spoken to my friend whose curtains these actually are.
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| The sun just starting to break through |
While I was watching Bekir putting the rail up I noticed through the window that the sun was just starting to appear through the clouds. I ran to get the camera and was able to catch it as it got slowly stronger then finally burst through. Well, I stopped looking at it before that happened of course.
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| Swept and now lovely and clean |
While they got on with finishing this off myself and A went into the corridor and shifted the final bits of clutter out of the way which then opened the way for her to push the brush around to sweep up the dust and rubble that has collected up here over the past several months. I have swept through here many times however I've never been able to move everything out like we have now it is close to leaving for the end of the year time. What a great feeling it is now to step out there and feel once again just how spacious that corridor is.
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| Bekir looks like he has had a spray tan, with tile dust |
Bekir happily completed the small task of the curtain rail and made his way straight onto the roof to get on with what he had turned up for; tiling. He was at this all day, cutting tiles to fit them into the angles of the roof (and because of the complexity of the roof lines up there there are loads of them) and at one point he came down stairs and he was SO covered in orange dust it looked like he had had a spray tan! I offered him a shower but he declined and headed back to carry on. What a man.
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| So many weeds |
We hadn't put the washing machine on over night due to forgetting but A found a quick wash which she put two loads through during the day, both of which dried (though we did have to run out to get the second in as it started raining) which is good. After lunch I needed some fresh air having been stuck in front of the computer doing paid work so we went outside and collected together a load of burnable rubbish that was still laying around the front of the building which A then took up to burn while I went into the fenced garden to weed around by the vines.
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| Loads of growth in our veg garden |
I don't know why but over the past couple of days the growth in the garden has just gone mad, and not just the weeds. There are now about ten melons on our honeydew plants, the beets are still growing like crazy but now the turnips and radish have shot up. The cabbage is also doing well and our one surviving sprouting broccoli is also thriving. We may yet get a good harvest out of this experiment.
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| Final touches to the guest room |
I only did half the bed (there is nothing else growing in there anyway and I really only wanted to clear around the vines) and then went back inside. It was really lovely and warm at this time, A said it was up to 28 degrees on the dash thermometer in Thomas as she was driving him round collecting more burning stuff for the bonfire. We both went in to do some more work and then decided to make the bed in the guest room and put the pictures on the wall. We are now fully ready for the guests (we could probably do with some more extension leads to get power in there and allow the men to have power as well, but yeah) which is great a whole day early.
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| I never expected toads in a pond out back |
After running out and getting the washing in when it started raining we took it through to the bedroom to hang on an airer to finish the last bits of drying so I went onto the balcony to look at the rain falling into Rambo's pond and saw one of our toads in its more natural environment than our kitchen, floating across the water as the rain splashed around it.
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| Ralf about to demand a belly rub |
The rest of the afternoon passed in paid work and then a nice hour long kip as we were both really tired (and I am trying to be sensible what with the exhaustion I have been suffering with) and we both woke up from this feeling very much better. We were then back to working and then I started writing this then stopped and chopped the pork for dinner (I was cooking, remember) which was put on to fry until crispy while I took the men home. Ralf has been super cute again today and actually has mainly been obedient. Here he is having just been woken up from one of his naps in which situation he always demands a belly rub.
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| There goes the sun |
When I got back from taking the men (nothing to report there, other than heavy rain during the day in their village so some amusement there) I found that the pork strips were perfect so on went the butter and mushrooms and then I noticed that the sunset was almost over so we both dashed onto the roof and I was lucky enough to capture this most outstanding picture.
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| Loads of progress over here too |
I have shown what Bekir was getting on with all day and you already know that Sally and the others were by no means idle. Indeed they were working on the other side of the roof putting the wooden frames up to support more tiles and from this angle (sticking my head out through a hole they had made in the roof to allow access) it looks like they have got a fair way along to the end. This would mean they are more than half way done to the roofing tiles being put on.
And so the evening has been a really rather good one. My pasta dish was a raving success as always and I might have had thirds to finish the lot off. We watched another Father Ted and laughed all the way through it, then we've have Pink Floyd and now Tito and Tarantula on to serenade the evening. It is now nearly time to take put the boys to bed and then take ourselves there. Night.
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