Waterproofing like mad

Today the sun has shone and the rain has stayed away. This is a good thing after the dreadful storm yesterday and it has given the men a chance to get the roof more waterproof before the forecast continuation of rain tomorrow and over the weekend. I am, as per usual, getting ahead of myself here though.

Not a very promising start to the day

We'll go back to last night after I published the blog post and went up onto the roof with some torches, the bedside light, two buckets and to shovels. Myself and A were on the roof for an hour and a half without a break putting water over the side; we reckon we shifted about 700L between us and when we came back downstairs, soaked from splashes and pretty exhausted, I had a small whisky (Bunnahabhain - very nice indeed) before heading to bed. We slept well but woke tired and aching from the effort and I actually laid in slightly like a lazy person, without going out to help feed the boys but I was up and about before A left to get the men. It was a really overcast start to the day which did not bode well for our sodden concrete ceilings.

Rambo's pond is back and bigger than ever

The lettuce are growing very well indeed

My trip onto the balcony first thing to get a picture of the overcast also provided me with an opportunity to get a photograph of Rambo's pond, which having finally dried up only this week is once again a dramatic size. Rambo is pleased, me less so. Also the lettuce plants are still going great guns and are outgrowing our ability to eat them, which is the best way I think.

Gratings not branches now on the humanure

While A was out collecting the men I decided to make use of the hot water (finally today the water pressure has been OK) to do all the washing up that was piled up and then I headed out to do the humanure. With the tortoises having all gone away I followed up this process by replacing the old branches that were acting to protect the heap with the metal gratings that were over the tortoise hotel. This should be far more effective at keeping large animals (Rambo, basically) from pulling things out of there. On a side note it appears the composting process is starting as I gave it a good scrape before putting the new stuff in and the lower levels are looking distinctly soil like. Secondly the only part of this which made me feel even slightly funny today was the rotten food in the waste collection container from the kitchen.

We have (tiny) melons!

While I was heading over to get the gratings I noticed something really rather cool; we have some fruit on the melon plants! Only a few and they are still very small but still that is brilliant; even if none of these get to ripeness next year we will plant these and get a good harvest. When A returned I straight way showed off my new humanure cover (she was less than thrilled) and the melons (she was over the moon, and even spotted one I'd not seen).

Archery inflicted injury

The bruise from where my bad form first shot yesterday with the bow caught my biceps had really started to show nicely so I have a picture for you, taken this morning. It is now much darker and is itching a bit so it will probably be gone very soon. It is a painful lesson to learn, when you don't hold your bow arm in the correct angle, and you really don't make it often.

Ralf soaked, and unimpressed

I was sitting in the office doing some work when Ralf burst in on me suddenly and when I turned round I couldn't stop laughing; he was totally soaking wet and he did not look very impressed with this state of affairs. I made him sit still on the rug while I got a number of pictures to capture the moment. He was resolutely not looking at me here as you can see. He did keep the pose though like a good boy should.

Blow drying a puppy

A came in shortly after and told me that Rambo had run into his pond and Ralf had followed him, not realising how deep it was now, and jumped when the water hit his belly. Poor little fella. It got a bit worse after this as A got the hairdryer out and attempted to dry Ralf with it; he was having none of it and ran off.

Part of a doorway

And so, to the men and a few pictures. First of all every time we walk past the hole knocked in for the guest suite door the new vista is really obvious. It is interesting just how used to the normal layout one becomes so quickly and how something like this, where that has changed, can be so obvious. We sadly have lost some of our graffiti in this process so I am glad I took all those pictures a few weeks back.

Waterproofing like mad (as I said)

For today, however, as the title of the blog suggests the men were straight up onto the roof and putting waterproofing on. I had had a quick chat with Bekir today and suggested this as the best path as tomorrow the forecast isn't as good. He agreed fully and very quickly the mokava started getting onto the flat roof and then was passed up through a hole by Shengen to the workmen on the roof. They work so fast! After a little while Bekir came and asked if we could go to the builder's merchant to get some of the thin wooden strips they use to hold the Mokava down so we dashed down and back very quickly and I got some more screws as well.

Final wood delivery of the year

Not long after we returned the wood delivery arrived which was ironic as the uncertainty of when that was due was the main reason for heading to the builders yard. No matter, this delivery contained the wood I need for the guest suite wall as well as the final roofing wood we would need and I was happy to settle the full bill right there and then. This did, however, bring it home to me a bit how close it is to the end of my year here and the whole day has been tinged a little bit with this realisation.

Wood for the wall on wood for the bed

Orhan and Shengen unloaded the wood while Sally got ready to spread the black glue stuff on the roof and Bekir walked around the various parts of the garden I have worked on showing the delivery driver and his mate what was happening; there was some amusement at the raised bed but when it is situated I am sure it will look great and be a feature of the garden for years to come. My wood was a small percentage of that delivered but when I came to a break in my work I headed out (while A had a lay down as she was suffering today from the stomach cramps I had had the previous night and was resting up between jobs) and carried all of the wood into the guest room. It was quite wet (understandably after the rain yesterday) and the new wall around the window needs finishing off so I will leave this until next week to dry and give Sally a chance to finish up in there.

Waterproofing process continues

The men were singleminded from this point on and we didn't see much of them until home time. I popped up after lunch (tuna mayo and onion on toast) to find they were back to it only being quiet as the complicated process of joining the bitumen laid on the middle section to the new bitumen on this section was ongoing. I didn't go up to disturb them after this but they cracked on with one more coffee break all day.

All set to start cutting

I decided that after not doing any woodwork of my own yesterday I should really crack on with cutting some of the wood that had been brought in the day before yesterday to avoid the rain so I chose to cut all the lengths I would need to finish the raised beds. I took the extension lead from the men (they had batteries for the radio) and set up the saw in the downstairs corridor. For the next few hours, on and off, I cut all the lengths that were needed. It was hard work lifting the long beams into place before I asked A for assistance with the last one.

All stained and drying out

With everything cut down I painted the preservative on all the long pieces, and the cross pieces which aren't going to be cut on the diagonal, and left them to air and dry in the kitchen. This also took me a while but I wasn't able really to stop as my hands became quite stained themselves. I am happy that this is done and now next week the whole thing will be assembled. We need to get up into the woods above the village to collect loads of leaf mulch to put in for over winter.

I am so close to having a roof!

Some more paid work filled the rest of my day and then it was time to take the men home. We had a nice drive there, though at one point Bekir talked to me and my mind was so on other things I didn't realise at first; I have been doing this more and more - disappearing into my own thoughts and not paying attention to my surroundings, and a lot really is on my mind. I dropped Shengen at the bottom of the hill, took the men up, and then he was only just getting in his mate's car when I was back down and he waved really cheerfully to me. Once again it seems I have been blessed with an excellent worker who is super friendly; people here are lovely though. When I got back (after being greeted by the villagers who were out sitting by the road, and the kids who were playing in the road)  I read for a bit and then remembered to get out to take the status photograph. Tomorrow may be a day for going to order the new roof tiles, buy all the electrical stuff that we need, and generally spend loads of money but I hope while myself and Bekir are doing this that the rest can maybe crack on and waterproof the final part of the roof. It is set to be rainy this weekend.

Anyway, it's been a quick blog post today really and with A still slightly unwell and me hoping to wake up for the NFL kick off game at 3am, I'm going to go to bed now.