Men no show day

S'gonna be a short blog today. I was joking that I should write "slept badly, headache, meeting in the morning then wood shifting then jam making now BBQ" and leave it at that but I know you'd all be so disappointed so I'll do a full blog. You know what is going to be included now though so you can just go through the pictures and not bother with the words.

So to last night and it was not a great night. When I went through to bed after publishing the post and watching the end of the quarter in my NFL my head was just starting to hurt. Through the night I kept waking up and it kept getting worse and worse. Quite early on Rambo was barking at something and I went to put him away (and see if Ralf was back; nothing) and it was really banging at this time. When the alarm went off it was snoozed and then we both lay there for ages avoiding having to get up. Eventually A got out of bed and fed Rambo and then headed to the men while I stayed in bed and slept on. When I woke up about 9 and got up (still not feeling great, but I had to go to my meeting I found that there were no men today. This was unexpected and A said they had all been there, including Bekir having his chainsaw and tools stacked up. I rang him to find out what was wrong and was told they would be working tomorrow and they had had to stay in their village as their had been a problem. Not ideal, this close to leaving and with stuff still to be completed up on the roof, but that is life.

Camouflaged birds

My first task of the day was to go down to town to meet S and S with a truck load of fencing supplies, and a bag of food and the extra tiles for Sassy, as we had a meeting. As I was going down the hill Usmivka was walking into town to get the bus to the big local city so I gave him a lift all the way to the bus station. He was very grateful and I enjoyed having his company. I was at our meeting place on time and S and S arrived a bit later so we had time to shift the fencing stuff to their car then we were just about to sit down for a coffee when the other party arrived. The meeting didn't take too long today so I was back and having a brew (it was actually waiting on the desk - thanks A) by 11. I had hitched the trailer and driven it up to the top bank as soon as I got home as I decided the last of the planks had to be moved. After finishing my brew I headed out to start the process of loading the trailer however I was first of all distracted by the sparrows which have been nesting in one of the large piles of rubble from digging out the drainage. There are two in this picture, can you see them both?

Planks into Thomas and for burning

I didn't start off working too fast and just steadily made my way through the pile, discarding those which were too rotten into a pile for bringing into the burning stack, and putting the rest onto the trailer and the truck bed. My plan was to do two trips to clear all of this but I was able to fit every plank that was salvageable onto the vehicles and I didn't have that much thrown for burning. Before coming inside to rest I threw all the burning selection into the pit near the back door and that will be a task for tomorrow morning to get it all lifted up and then stashed inside. What a greatly productive hour or so of effort. I was hot after it though; the mist of the morning had burned off by this time and the temperature was rising.

After this I had another brew then when A had a moment we went (set a kitchen waste fire) and unloaded the truck and trailer into the storage in the green building. It didn't take that long and straight afterwards I drove Thomas back up so I could load in the beams that were also up there. There were more than I thought so today I didn't get to finish it all however there are very few left over now and, with A helping again we got Thomas and the trailer unloaded again. Tomorrow this will be finished. Hopefully the digger machine will be in too which is what we are working towards.

Making rosehip jam

Around doing this I was also processing some of the fruits from the freezer as we are getting really close to leaving. I had about 700g of rosehips harvested through the past few weeks (there are loads more out there but I have to be sensible) however after simmering to soften then forcing through a sieve I ended up with only 150g of paste and this didn't even fill a whole jam jar. What a shame, and I can tell you it was massively hard work. I may go for something a bit different next year with the rosehips after that struggle. The jam does taste nice though and I'll be taking it back to the UK at the weekend.

Gorgeous golden light

Our plan was for a BBQ today and A had been defrosting pork chunks all day which, after being separated, were ready in time. I did the humanure and then had a shower and when I got back upstairs we headed out onto the balcony to enjoy the evening and watch the food cooking and appreciate one of the last evenings here this year. This is probably going to be the last BBQ of the year so that is quite sad. The sky was absolutely lovely and as A noted the sun is now going down in a different place as the seasons change which is why the drama hasn't been there recently.

BBQ started

The BBQ was up to heat so the kebabs and corn was put on to heat through. It was such a gorgeous evening we sat until I got too chilly (I had no t shirt on still) and then both of us came inside. I am so going to miss sitting on that balcony and listening to the sound of nothing happening. Even with the sun behind the mountain for all the time we were outside we lasted half an hour or more before the chill began. Middle of October, remember.

Red sky at night.....

The BBQ was absolutely lovely, as it had been cooked so long and slow, and not set on fire once. There was a 100% meat skewer for me as well which was lovely, but the onion and pepper and other stuff on the other kebabs was so tasty as well. What a great feed and now we're sat again sipping the exceptional port and after I get this out there we'll be watching a film.

It has been an unexpected quiet day and I really hope this doesn't mean the men want to work on Friday as I want that day clear for packing and getting ready for the super early start on Saturday morning. Anyway, better get this shipped.