Usmivka Rojen Den

Today is blog number 400. Wow.

Shifting old windows

Last night was slightly warmer than the previous two, which was nice, but I still stopped in bed for a while after A got out of bed. She went to go and sort Rambo out and do some other stuff and by the time I got up she was outside throwing the kong for Rambo. There was no need to put the fire on first thing so we didn't bother. Today we had arranged for S and S to come over and they had said they would bring Sassy so we had to get her room ready for her. I was working for our food again so A was in there carrying the old windows into the lab to store for a while, and I helped her out while I was waiting for the updates to run on the computer.

The floor has lifted in the Lab

This was the first time we had been into the laboratory since we got back and I was very unhappy to see the damage to the floor. The water coming down from the roof terrace has been in here a while and the whole floor has lifted. I think that this whole room is going to have to be taken apart completely when we get to the renovation. For the time being we opened the windows to air it out and just stacked up the windows for another time.

Dusty work sweeping up

I went back to my desk and kept at it, pleased that my boss appeared online and I was having a lot of fun coding and solving problems with him. This job is really good at times, other than a few issues, and today was one of the really good days. A was out in Sassy's room with a brush sweeping up all the rubble and glass left by the window fitting at the end of last year. I was called into action to take the wheelbarrow down the stairs and chuck the dust out the back door. I was also out there cutting wood with the hand saw ready for the petchka. The one thing with the wood we have stored up for this year, from the old roof, is that it is burning incredibly fast and we were running out of wood of the correct size to fit in. We had lent the electric saw to S and S (who would bring it back today) and so I was having to cut more wood by hand. This really did bring me back to last year.

Clematis coming back to life

Of course I have shown you lots of photographs of damaged trees because of the snow however now I get to show you something positive. The Clematis had just been left for the winter and I must admit I thought it would be dead, what with having had no water at all all winter. Imagine my surprise the other day when I walked past it and saw green shoots appearing. Today there were even more and I even remembered to take a photograph. With so much carnage caused by a once in a lifetime fall of snow it is a relief to see some life.

Setting a fire, with LOTS of snow still around

In our tidying we had gathered together a huge amount of burning material so A went out to the burning drum to set a fire. It was raining, as the forecast had foretold, but she still gave it a good go to set a fire. It lit but I think it went out again shortly after under all the rain. The most important thing, however, is to get these things out of the house so they don't attract mice or rats.

Rat droppings under the cooker

Talking of mice I had gone down to the front room downstairs to get a jumper as I had stored all my winter clothes down there and I found a rats nest in my jumpers. Only one was destroyed, thankfully, but all of them had been pissed on and were stinking so will need a good wash or three when the water comes back on. We also pulled the cooker forward and found a big pile of rat droppings under there, and also they had been in the shelf underneath the cooker. The outcome of this was a lot of hoovering, burning some underwear and one jumper, and a lot of cursing by A. The good thing is that they have taken a nibble at least out of every one of the poison sachets we put on the floor yesterday.

Getting the BBQ on the go

I had had my head deep in my code all morning and through the afternoon, which caused some annoyance as I forgot to empty the last wheelbarrow from clearing Sassy's room, but I had made lots of progress and I am well set to finish my task tomorrow. It was getting close to when S and S were expected to arrive and so I went to get the BBQ together to take up to the roof; A had the idea of setting it up just inside the roof terrace which was a good one. My phone rang as I was taking it up and it was S and S parked waiting for us so we got ourselves together and legged it through the snow to go help them carry everything back. They had brought Sassy and the electric saw and a few other bits and we struggled back through the snow carrying everything. Straight away A was up to the roof and I went back to working as I had a problem I really wanted to solve. I never did.

S and S assist at the BBQ

As usually happens no matter how nice you try to make the living room (and I put up the recliner and tidied Room 13) the crowd always gravitates to the kitchen and this is exactly what happened here. This despite the fact that in this case the kitchen was actually right next to an open double door out onto a balcony with snow or sleet falling. S and S were up there helping with the food, turning it when it needed to, and they had also brought some lovely dauphinoise style potatoes which we heated up on the petchka.

Dinner is served

I bowed to the inevitable and we brought table and chairs up to where the BBQ was set up and this ended up being a really good decision. We sat around chatting and drinking beer and watching the BBQ. We had started off with the chicken but it was setting on fire again (an A specialty) so we pulled it off and put all the other meat from the BBQ tray we'd bought from Kaufland yesterday and this worked out well as it cooked quite quickly. You have to love a country which sells BBQ trays even when the snow is 1m thick.

A plateful of food

Dinner was outstanding though we had too much so some of the chicken is now in the fridge and will probably be fried up with rice tomorrow. The potatoes were just so tasty we ate everything and even scraped the pan. After eating we packed up and repaired to the heated Room 13 and sat and chatted for a fair while more. It was really nice to spend time with them and I know that A is pleased that S will be around while I'm not here.

We've got the band back together

While we were walking S and S back to their car, carrying the bits and pieces including a job lot of Lyles Golden Syrup, we were hailed by the Other Brother and his wife who had a gift for us. As we were talking the Little Lady came trotting over and announced that it was Usmivka's birthday today. He was stood at their backdoor and waved and smiled as we shouted greetings to him. We managed to slog our way towards the car but half way Rambo suddenly started bounding along the path after us! I dropped the yoga mats I was carrying and grabbed him and kept him under control until we waved S and S off then A took over and controlled him on the way back. He was only being excited to be with us but still he has to be obedient. Sassy was a little jumpy having been transported once again but as of now she seems to have settled in well including using her toilet tray provided by S and S.

So I've just watched England beat Scotland as I've been typing this and now I have a small glass of port to sip on before bed time. Tomorrow will be more working and more tidying and maybe even some sledding which we didn't do today.