Welcoming new arrivals

It's been another day where we have both struggled to motivate ourselves to do anything very much that we were supposed to, me probably worse than A, but still it's amazing to be here and these couple of days of slightly worse-than-expected weather and slight lack of energy have caused us both to comment on how different this year is to last; last year bad weather was a terrible thing mainly because we were going back to England. This year, however, we have no such plans and so the over cast and intermittent rain is less of a problem. We are now so focused on the home we are building that the weather is secondary. Anyway, that's the philosophy over with, on with the blog.

Making sure the rodents cannot nest in the cooker

Back to last night and there was one chore which A had been planning on which she got round to before dinner. We want to seal up the cooker as we're worried that rodents may have got in it while it was stored outside since March. I suggested taping tin foil to it but we decided this was probably overkill so A just got the packing tape out and sealed up all the holes she could find. As of this morning this had not been disturbed but we'll keep an eye on it just to make sure. I think if rats killed another of our cookers I would go nuclear and fumigate the whole village!

Superb roast just before serving up

For dinner yesterday we put the chicken in that had originally been planned for Sunday. It was cooking away as I was working in the afternoon and distracting me with how amazing it smelled. We didn't have much veg in so it was roast tatties, peppers and some marrow on the side which while not traditional ended up being gorgeous and the potatoes were just exceptional. I'm making myself hungry now just thinking about it.

About to let the new arrivals loose

We didn't stay up that late again last night; these early starts are prompting early finishes, and I think we both slept pretty well and we were up before the alarm went off. We had time for one brew before A was prompting us to leave to head to market. We took Thelma and Louise with us and walked them on their leads up to the chicken seller which did provoke some strange looks. I left the choosing to A but then named our two new additions myself while she was popping up the road to the shop for eggs and bread; soon we won't need to buy eggs I hope.

Ginger and Baker - our new chickens

So let me be the first to introduce you to Ginger and Baker, or two new (final two?) egg laying chickens. The introduction to KitKat seemed to go well and we've popped in a few times since and they haven't been pecked yet I don't think so fingers crossed they'll settle in easily and not cause problems. Ginger is a very friendly bird who seems to like company and she tried to follow me out of the compound a couple of times bless her. Our next feathered additions are probably going to be two ducks and then I think we'll be done for this year.

She's remembering the left over chicken she got last night

While we were in the enclosure letting them out and making sure they were eating (they got straight to pecking at the food) the girls were obviously outside and KitKat were hovering checking out the new arrivals. Louise was particularly interested in the birds behind the fence as you can see. Just out of shot, Thelma is laying in the sun and relaxing and ignoring all the excitement. She is such a chilled out puppy.

Nearly to the ground

As we walked back past the windows into the kitchen we watched as Nikolai used the big pneumatic drill to attack the stones in the last of the arches to be done. They had arrived while we were in town at the market and just got stuck straight on with the work. Once again progress has been pretty good today and the room is really taking shape; more pictures to come.

Tasted as nice as they looked

I made some bacon and eggs for us both mid morning which set us both up for the day; there was no desire at all for the melon this morning from either of us mainly because it wasn't that nice weather. I can see if the temperature does rise this week (and it is forecast to be a scorcher tomorrow apparently) we will probably chose to have the water melon but for today a good honest bacon and egg butty (with extra brown sauce for A) hit the spot.

Stacking rocks from the interior wall

Only two men had arrived first thing and no truck so rather than delay starting they were piling the rocks up in the window waiting for the van to arrive so they could load them in. This is the kind of thing I like to see in a workman. I think maybe my Bulgarian let us down here a little bit as they may have asked to borrow Thomas and the trailer to load with rocks but after a few minutes of miscommunication they gave up and just did this stacking thing. Never mind.

It's slowly taking shape!

The weather hasn't been all bad today and we even had enough water to run the washing machine and wash the sheets I had brought from England. We hung it out in strong sunshine over lunch and then on our walk back went in through the kitchen to see progress. What a brilliant thing and this look of happiness on A's face is certainly not made up. The arches (even if they are lower than initially suggested by these builders) are just so brilliant. They are exactly what we wanted.

The chimney which we may need to reconfigure

The chimney has been damaged by the knocking down of the wall next to it; there are now cracks and gaps pretty much all the way up. This does show that it wasn't very well constructed though and looking at the bricks we both think that they are not actually fire bricks. I don't know how much "finishing" the builders will do in this section of the work (I only employed them to knock the walls out and dig out and replace the floor) but this may give us the chance to reconfigure the fireplace so we can actually have the open fire we originally wanted. We'll see.

This will be the end of the kitchen

So it got near the end of the day and I popped out to check the chickens (they were fine) and see what was going on. I found that the nice smiley workman (I need to find his name out) was getting well on with putting in the new wall in the corridor which will be the end of the kitchen and will have double doors (insulated interior doors) that will mark the edge of our "heated apartment". It's great to see the shape and size defined and I am so pleased A had the idea for extending the kitchen like this; it looks absolutely fabulous!

Three archways nearly finished

I also popped into the kitchen main and got a picture showing all the arches, and how much light they are letting through from the back wall (the sun goes down in that direction, not matter how cloudy it is you can still see the shadows) and again it highlights and reinforces what a cracking layout this is. Realise as well that the windows on the back wall are hopefully going to be extended so there will be even more light coming in. I'm very excited and as I type this I can hear A going on her own round of inspection, with the girls, and exclaiming out loud just how epic it is.

Another tomato plant

With the working day over I suddenly got a burst of energy and followed A out the house to go and do some more interesting things. The first on the list was to transfer the tiny tomato plants which have recently appeared in the raised bed into the hugelkultur. We found four of these surprise additions and they are now safely bedded in down one side of it. I have loads more clearing to do on it and I really need to decide what else to plant, if anything this year.

A toad just in the undergrowth

The rest of my energy was taken up with finishing off the humanure collection point. While I was rushing around gathering tools and the final lengths of wood so I could cut and fit the middle dividing wall A got the camera and followed the girls as they went bouncing around in the long grass near the front fence. She disturbed one of the many inhabitants of our wonderful land just by some fallen logs and snapped a picture. This one is a biggy; I doubt he's been inside the house yet but who knows.

Really close to finished now

The humanure divider didn't take much time and while we were on with this the little lady came over with more cucumbers and she stayed to check the chickens (she's very happy with the progress that KitKat are making, and liked the look of Ginger and Baker as well), see the progress made on the kitchen, and watch as I fitted the divider and then used zip ties to secure the Ralf-proofing to an old window frame for a gate. It turns out that there is a little bit more work needed to ensure the puppies can't slip down the front into the collection point but it is very nearly done indeed.

So now the potatoes are bubbling away next to me and my beer is waiting to be drunk so I'm going to sign this off and get on with my evening.