Day of rest

The unexpected day off from the men today has been a really lovely break and just what we needed actually. Having a lay in this morning was lovely and then not having to collect and drop off the men shows what a fantastic thing it'll be when the place is finished.

Accidental super long exposure shot

Lovely moon

Last night was a lovely clear night and when I went through to bed I took the camera with me and out onto the balcony to take pictures of the moon. The milky way was really clear as well and despite the light pollution which does impact our night sky more than I would like it was still completely gorgeous. I went back for my zoom lens after the first attempt failed with a SUPER long exposure and am actually quite happy with the results in the end.

Magical early morning

As I have said it was so lovely getting a lie in, particularly when I woke to check the time (and saw that again the phone wasn't charging so fixed that) and was able to roll over and go back to sleep. Brilliant. I hadn't slept all that well through the bulk of the night so when A got up to feed the boys after they began howling and barking finally, she left me to it. She even brought me a cup of tea which was great. I dozed a bit but didn't really drop off and then felt lazy so I grabbed my camera and got a stunning picture of the sun just starting to appear over the horizon.

Stunning shot of sun and mist bank

I popped back in to put the kettle back on for A then returned to the balcony to get more pictures as the sun was now risen and shining gorgeously through the top of the fog bank in the valley. I was doing my best to capture the shape of this in the photograph and you can just about see it arching out of the valley on the left and rising above the sun line. A was putting the washing out by this time and me emerging onto the balcony disturbed both Ralf and Rambo who came to see me; fortunately they returned when called as we're back in boot camp and obedience is a high priority.

Planks being loaded for storage

After breakfast (initially going to be posh scrambled eggs but laziness dictated that it would be toast and jam) and A heading down the hill to check out a mini market we had spotted in the next village which proved to have bread and coffee sachets (the emergency was running out of coffee) and lots of assorted alcohol we decided to go outside and do some stuff. When I say "we" I mean A said "come on we're going to do stuff" and I followed. First of all we started the fire going for the kitchen burn and then we hitched Thomas (which was harder than it should have been due to the eight minutes of loading I did yesterday) but once this was ready it took about twenty minutes to completely fill the trailer and Thomas' bed with planks.

These nasty plants are now being burned

I have mentioned before about the huge number of "spikes" growing across the land, brought apparently on sheep and cattle as they graze. It has been a huge labour to keep on top of these and recently I have realised that the really large nasty looking burs that are bothering Ralf and Rambo (they are the only ones which stick to Rambo's short hair) come from these plants. For this reason we are now going to burn every one that is pulled and so I put the ones I collected yesterday in the fire drum, along with a load more I pulled out while we were loading the wood.

The planks are put into storage

We pulled Thomas and the trailer round to by the windows into the room in the green building (jelena barack, according to Usmivka who went past asking what we were doing and where the wood was going to. The Little Lady brought us ice tea which was gorgeous and a pot of ayran as well) but there was quite a lot of excitement when I unhitched the trailer and both the fly wheel collapsed and it started rolling onto Thomas. Between us me and A were able to stop it rolling and put stones in front of the wheels and disaster was averted. A then went inside and I passed the planks in the window for her to stack. It didn't take that long and we were back up to the top bank with the trailer and then inside for a brew.

Another load in Thomas and the trailer

With the brews inside us and a little more energy gathered we decided to go out and do one more load before lunch so it was back up onto the bank and shifting wood. The spikes had completely burned away in the burning drum and we loaded more plastic and old burnable rubbish that had been thrown off the roof to burn. This was really smelly and smokey but it burned eventually. Before heading in for lunch we took the vehicles down again but this time wedged the wheels on the trailer (and double checked the fly wheel) before unhitching.

Maybe they'll be warmer inside

Lunch was the chicken thing reheated from yesterday with cauliflower cheese on the side for me and it was really lovely.  We took our time and relaxed a bit but then decided to get out and carry on with our outside tasks. Before going to unload the truck and trailer we moved things around in the entrance hall so the dog kennel could be brought in there. With the temperature dropping dramatically at night now we are going to experiment with letting the dogs sleep in there rather than their larger and colder outhouse. We shall see how successful this ends up being.

Super proud face

From there it was round and chucking wood through the windows again while A was stacking it up. This again didn't take that long but it is quite hot work especially in the sun which was still beating down hard. I finished chucking the wood through and then went round quickly to help A with the last few bits but paused long enough to get photographic evidence for those who won't believe she was getting this stuck in. What a woman.

Manure into the raised beds

After the second load of planks was all stashed away we worked out we may be about 1/4 of the way through moving it all; this could be a task to do once a day just to slowly shift through it. A was now able to go and chill while I had to get on with paid work which sucked. I was sitting here working away and feeling less and less happy about the return to the UK and other things which are on my mind and after a while I decided to snap out of it and go outside for a bit. I found A dozing on the swinging chair in the sun and sat down against the pillar to wait for her to want to move. The task I had selected was to get manure to put in the raised beds and then fill them up with soil. We went together four times to the manure pile to fill the wheelbarrow and bring it back, the third time Ralf found a way out and chased us which was annoying but he came when we called and was then put into the enclosure so he couldn't try again.

See I was working as well

With four barrow loads of the manure in the two beds I then set to with the shovel and started filling the barrow with the dug out soil and then tipping it into the raised beds. The physical exercise was really helping me and I could feel my bad mood lifting as I put effort into shoveling and lifting. With the beds filled as much as I wanted we scattered the horse manure and Sassy poo over the top and then the job was complete. For the rest of the afternoon the smell of manure wafting in through the window kept reminding us of the progress made.

Lovely way to end the day

A went out onto the balcony while I stopped inside talking to S about our plans for tomorrow. She came in to see where I was and poured me a beer which she then took with her and so after a few minutes more useful chatter I wrapped that up and went out to join her. It was lovely out there, still really warm and gorgeous, and we sat and sipped our beers and enjoyed the view.A bit later on we went back out as the sun was setting and the colours reflected onto the mountains opposite were just stunning.

And so I have spent ages typing this as I have been regularly distracted this evening but that is fine. Dinner was a lovely potato omelette which really hit the spot, and now I am going to chill for a bit before bed. The men (who knows how many of them though) are back tomorrow and we are rapidly dashing towards going back to the UK time. Very Sad Face.