End of the week

Good evening. It is a super late start to typing again, even later than last night, so I'm going to crack straight on with it. First of all though I apologise as that the video of the girls fighting STILL has not got through "processing" on youTube. Such a shame.

Blazing Ball

While I  was typing the blog last night A went onto the roof for the obligatory photograph of the sun as it set; it really was a glorious show and I enjoyed it from where I was sat tippy tappying away at the update for you. This is my favourite from the set that she took. We sat up a bit chatting for a bit into the evening then I headed to bed to read while waiting for A to join me. It was another warm night with no need for the duvet and we slept really well; I was disturbed once by Louise wanting to go out but A didn't even know this happened.

A lovely peaceful start to the day

We woke up before the alarm again but I was feeling really tired and planning a lie in as I did not have to work today. This plan was nixed when Louise, who had just been outside on the balcony a minute before, jumped onto the bed and weed everywhere! Cue much jumping and shouting and stripping of the bed before it could soak in too much. We think that she has decided she doesn't like "going" on the balcony now, for some reason, as she went straight outside the front and finished it off. It was a lovely morning again, but actually had some clouds around for the first time for ages and we took our brews down to sit on the porch with them.

Chasing each other through the long grass

The girls continued where they left off; fighting. They were straight down to the front to chase and bounce and growl and have lots of fun with each other. I really think that Thelma is a bit relieved that Louise has snapped out of her funk and is now playing with her again; she was quite forlorn while Louise was showing no interest in the scrap and really wanted a lot of attention from us to replace it. Now they just go off doing their own thing again and coming to us for cuddles whenever they want some.

This is his clever face

Rambo was sat with us being very sweet for most of the time so I got some snaps of him for you to enjoy. He really can be a lovely dog but he has also taken to drinking from a bowl we have put out for the puppies and he is really struggling to understand that he can't keep drinking all of that before ALL the other water bowls we have put out for him. This will be an ongoing challenge I am sure.

Getting as close as she dares

Louise continued her love affair with Rambo (which is about the only part of her character actually that didn't change at all while she was off colour) and today Rambo even paid her some attention. She was able to lick him on the nose and also sneak around near him a few times while we were there.

Nicely tidied, if not dusted

Before too long it was time for A to head off again to collect the men. I had two tasks. The first was to move the trailer out of the way in case a lorry arrived today to drop off sand; Bekir had mentioned that this may happen. I did this first then I gathered my tools and some bits and pieces left over from previous tasks and set to tidying up the tangle of wires by the internet. It didn't take as long as I expected and pretty quickly I had a make shift shelf which was keeping all the wires and boxes off the floor for when we do the tiling.

Lifting the cement to the roof

When A got back with the men I made breakfast for myself as she had bought banitsa again. I was in a hungrier mood than to just have a pastry so I wanted bacon and eggs. They were absolutely lovely as sometimes happens I just got the timings perfect. Once it was eaten I went to see what was going on with the men and they were on with taking cement up to the roof using the pulley system they had installed at the end of the day yesterday.

Slowly filling the water barrel again

The water situation today has been dire. We did have some water this morning as you can see but it was barely a dribble. It then went off completely and resulted in what I think were a few words between the one set of builders and the other. It seemed to be resolved amicably enough and our attitude was pretty much that they should have turned up on Tuesday like they said they would rather than taking two days off when they could have had sole use of the water.

All set for our shopping spree

We had discussed going into town with Bekir to get the reservoir and then popping down later to get the tiles but after a quick chat with Bekir we decided to just go on our own and get everything. This meant I had to turn the trailer round and pull it from where I'd pushed it just an hour or so earlier but never mind. We had quite a shopping list and needed the extra transportation room.

First stop was to pick up two single mattresses for the second guest suite. We also saw some tiles we liked and spent some time checking out the snow tiles for the roof. The beds went into the trailer and we were back off just round the corner to our favourite store where we had found our bathroom bits and tiles the other day. First of all we tried to get downlights for the bedroom but they were out of stock. The helpful guy stayed with us after checking this out and we went through our shopping list: Shower (we had the one off display), sink and mirror set, tap and then all the different tiles we had liked. We were again short of luck here as the tiles we want for the bathroom had to be ordered, the pattern tiles we wanted to scatter on the vestibule floor didn't have enough of the colour we wanted and the awesome tiles we had picked out for Room 13 were totally out of stock (but still on display.. hmm). The total came to a bit less than expected and we will be phoned when the ordered items are in stock.

Novel access method

We then went round the back to collect the tiles and as last time it was baking and A had to go hide in the shade. The technique with the forklift was a bit different to last time as he got a pallet and road up with it to the level where the required tiles were. After a bit of a faff around by the entrance waiting for the sink and other bits to come, where I blocked a road with the trailer and was asked to move by the nice security guard, we were on our way home.

Smoothing out the archway

When we got back it was getting on for lunch time but we made the men a coffee and sat down to relax a bit after bringing the stuff inside. Bekir seemed happy with our reservoir selection as well which was good. I did a bit of a walk round a bit later to check on progress and am pretty pleased with the archway. The one thing that is a bit questionable is the fixed up concrete beam that they had tried to remove before finding out it was structural. It looks like they haven't quite done it level. This may need to be done again I think.

Reinforced slab for the water storage tank

Bekir and Sally have also been cracking on and the reinforced slab for the water storage was taking shape nicely. This will give us plenty of space to expand our storage if we want to, and spread the weight well across two structural beams below. Exactly what I wanted to achieve.

A slight change in the weather

A had headed pretty much straight out again to go and order the curtains for the second guest room, do some food shopping and also buy some alternative tiles for Room 13. While I was wandering around taking pictures and trying to work out what job I wanted to do (one on my list was to sort through some of the stones in the waste pile before the truck comes to remove them but when I got there I just thought "oh, stones" and didn't care which ones we saved) I heard rumbles and saw a huge storm heading our way. This had been forecast so it wasn't a surprise but it did look like a monster.

Using a grinder as a blade sharpener

The peace between the two camps of builders must have been OK as at one point I heard grinding going on and found Bekir helping out Nikolai by sharpening his hammer/ax tool. This is the technique I will need to use to sharpen the blade on the scythe so I can attack our wilderness down the front so I grabbed some pictures and paid attention. He makes it look so easy though and I am sure it will be much harder for me. Maybe this weekend.

The girls watching Sally and Bekir mixing cement

The potential of a big storm didn't slow Bekir and Sally down at all and I took the girls onto the roof to watch them work down below. They were opening bags of cement to finish off the job upstairs. I watched them for a bit with Thelma and Louise sat on my lap and then Bekir noticed and pointed us out to Sally and there was a lot of laughter; they really love all the dogs, even Rambo (I think) which recommends them to me very much.

What are these?

After this, and watching the clouds rushing in, I went down and shut the windows into Julian and then took the girls for a brief stroll around the land behind the avian enclosure. There has been a lot of damage down here from the snow storms that I really should get in and clear up but today was not that day. I found these interesting looking berries on one of the trees which look like they have been ripening and then getting over ripe for quite a while. Any identification on these? Are they edible?

One of the two beds I need to make now

We went back inside and I finally snapped out of my funk and decided what to do. I would make the frame for one of the beds. I drew a picture of what I wanted, worked out the lengths I would need, and then got the electric saw up onto the top corridor where the light is best and set to. It took me most of the afternoon, including breaks to watch the cycling, greet A as she returned while it was raining as the storm had hit and hit hard, and an enforced break when the power went off for about half an hour or so; we took the opportunity to lay in bed for a bit and enjoy some peace and relaxation. By about 5pm I had finished cutting all the lengths correctly, including changing my mind on the design once, and now it is laid out in Room 13 to be screwed together when I have the correct screws.

Just a few cucumbers

A had bought lots of good food and she was struggling to get it all into the fridge. She decided a clear out was in order and so now our fridge is lovely and tidy. One thing we really never need to buy is cucumbers. We had this many at that point and now have two more as the neighbours brought more over a bit later. So funny. We have been researching recipes to use them up, including maybe pickling them, so again any suggestions would be gratefully received.

The men were working really late this evening to get the raft finished (which they did, and I was sure I'd got a picture but now I look at my camera and it isn't there; strange) but this was good as it meant I got to watch Cav finally win a stage on the Tour and celebrated with much noise. It took a bit of time to leave today as first I didn't have keys for Thomas then as I started him up Sally realised he had forgotten his phone but after this we scooted back very quickly with no incidents other than me almost killing one of Bekir's sheep and him nearly having a BBQ as a consequence. When I got back I was pretty hungry but before we could eat we had visitors from next door who wanted to see the progress, then meet the birds, and then spend a fair amount of time fettling with the tomatoes and other plants. They are so generous it is great but we were hoping to eat so it wasn't with regret that we waved goodbye to them.

Mince and potatoes for dinner

Dinner was mince and gravy on potatoes and was completely lovely and then for desert we had some gorgeous cake that A had found in town. This was eaten way too quickly for me to get a picture of it so sorry; maybe next time. Since then I have had a wash outside in the now re-filled drum (the water having only just got in there was not sun warmed so it was a bit bracing, but really lovely too) and shouted at Rambo again for drinking the girls water. There are some other pictures of the sunset but I'll subject you to them tomorrow.

For now; sipping the last of my beer then reading in bed. Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get my lie in!