The Bagga Machine brings a friend

This is the latest I have started writing a blog yet this return and so much has happened this is probably a bad day for such a late start however the reasons behind the late start to blogging are excellent so I am not complaining really. I got to spend about half an hour on skype with A to my parents as it is my Mum's birthday today so happy birthday Mum!!! It was lovely to chat and I think we are all very excited about their impending visit; not long now.

Before I start on the day I have a video I have trailered to you for a few days. It turns out that the problem was not with youtube but the video; it had somehow got corrupted. I re-rendered it today and uploaded it and was very happy when it finally went through processing. So here I give to you the first time we saw Louise start to fight back with Thelma after her extended period of moping and giving us a huge scare. Since then she has got more and more bouncy and is now tearing around again as she always used to.

Beautiful silhouette of my favourite tree

So. The blog. As I was typing last night A was outside having a wash in the oil drum. It's such a shame that we have to do this but believe me it is a relief to get clean and in the heat we're experiencing it isn't that much of a hardship. The sunset was stunning so as soon as I had finished my typing I went with the camera to get an arty shot on the sky behind my favourite tree. What a view.

Puppies wanted to follow me

When I went to take these photographs I was chased up by Louise who ran right to me but Thelma got as far as the sandpit and stopped to roll around. They really love sand. You can see just how chirpy Louise is looking here as she bounds towards me.

I'm glowing

The sunbathing yesterday really had left a mark and I was glowing but not hurting so I stopped just in time. It has pretty much turned brown now but I've been more sensible today and will be keeping to the shade a bit more in future; it isn't like a holiday where you soak up the rays then go back to indoors for the next 11 months; I can go out in this heat for hours every day just doing my daily chores and wandering around. What a life.

They are IN THE POND!!!

But they ran away when we got close

And so we headed towards bed time. At one point we were out on the balcony for some reason and looked over towards the duck pond and suddenly huge excitement spread as we could see Beaker and Balls were actually in the pond having a swim!!! After what we said yesterday about not seeing them in there as well, just a few minutes after typing that I was grabbing the zoom lens and trying to get a shot. None of the pictures came out, even when we went down to closer, as the light was too poor and the exposure too long even for my relatively steady hands. Never mind, the concept was proven and we were over the moon.

Christmas dinner anyone?

I didn't sleep all that well last night for some reason; I just kept waking up feeling really awake and then this morning when the alarm went off I was exhausted. Frustrating, but I've been sleeping so well for ages I suppose I should just be grateful this isn't as regular as it used to be. I followed A out of bed pretty much straight away anyway and put the kettle on while she was out letting the birds out. We chilled for a bit until it was time for her to leave for the men and I got myself very involved in my work trying to solve a really hard problem that was also interesting. I encouraged her to take the camera this time for photos of the mist in the valley but it had burned off by the time she went however she did see a particularly impressive turkey on the way.

Sally doing some channeling for pipes

When A returned with our two hard workers I was still nose to the grindstone and I didn't really pay much attention as I was so focused. I came up for air enough to get a brew and snap a quick picture of Sally as he chopped out the channel for the water to come down from the water storage to where the boiler will be.

Bagga Machine returns with a friend

A little later Bekir shouted me that he needed to go to town to get some bits for the day so I was off down there with him. We picked everything we needed up, and I bought A a little present which you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see as Bekir has taken it to fix up. On the way back the long pipes shifted as I drove so we had to stop and reattach them. We also saw the train at the level crossing which is a rare occurrence. When I got back and was about to pull into the drive I saw the gates were open and had to get out of the way of a huge kamion which was pulling out. The longed for bagga machine and truck were here to remove the masses of rubble and stone and soil and other assorted rubbish from around the land!

All of the birds, and Thelma

A had grabbed the camera and taken lots of pictures for me as I was out and had also taken the chance, while she was down near their enclosure, to refresh the water for the birds. The girls had joined her again and again proven themselves pretty much to be trusted with the birds. Apparently Louise showed a lot of interest in Beaker and Balls who just ran away; but at least there is no blood.

Mindful of my responsibility to you I took my phone down to get a nice long video of the Heavy Plant Porn which you can see above. These two worked so hard today, without a break, and the truck made 20, yes TWENTY, trips up to the dumping site just outside of the village. That is a lot of effort and now it is cleared it's all so much better. Talking of dumping sites that's a funny thing; Bekir had a word with the kmet who said to just chuck it all in a canyon just up from the village; no charge, no problem. Gotta love this place.

This is Louise's chair, A is merely perching

I really was busy today with paid work and A was pretty glued to her desk for large parts of the day as well. The girls were super chilled throughout the day and spent large parts of it sleeping. At one point Louise asked to come for a cuddle with A and then proceeded to crawl around behind her and almost push her off her seat. Louise knows who is boss at least.

Channeled through to the outside world

Plenty of other work went on while we were distracted. The channeling which Sally had started first thing now snaked its way all across the floor of the vestibule, under the wall into the wet room and across there to where the feed for the shower would need to go and finally back and round to where the drain will feed out through the wall. There was a bit of a waste of time when I didn't tell them the correct location for the sink but A sorted that one out. They got the hammer drill and spent quite a bit of time getting through the outside wall as it is quite thick but it was done by just after lunchtime.

I don't think Bekir has noticed this yet

This picture is purely here to annoy anyone with OCD and is a gift from A.

The Bagga has big jaws

On and off through the day, when I went to check on progress outside, I had pulled some stones out that would be usable along the driveway. For some reason the driver of the bagga had decided to dump a load more stones on my pile and when I went to check I found that most of them were massive and not really suitable. That was my exercise for the day, spending fifteen minutes shifting +50kg rocks around in 30+ degree heat. If I do that every day I'll definitely lose weight. I stacked the unnecessary rocks to one side and they were put into the kamion for dumping.

Emptying the Kamion into a ravine

Talking of which I made a snap decision as the kamion was leaving for one of its dumping trips to ask if I could come along with the camera. The driver said yes and I jumped in and we bounced through the really narrow lanes in our village and up the mountain to the dumping site. What incredible driving. He spoke a little English and we had a disjointed conversation which was lovely; he complimented me on my Bulgarian also. Finally he asked me if I'm jewish which I get more often than you would expect around here.

There are four people digging this hole...

.. oh no, five, plus the Kmet giving instructions

As we pulled up at the dump site I saw a cluster of villagers including the kmet who came over to see me as I jumped out of the cab. He pointed to the other men and told me in no uncertain terms that I had to take a picture of them and they all stopped and looked so super proud to be in a snimka (photograph) that I took a few. I went up to investigate what they were actually doing and realised there was another of them down in a hole so deep he couldn't be seen over the edge, and this dug by hand in the heat of the day! They were digging down to a pipe and the kmet made me understand that it was cracked and they were trying to fix it. This is the free water which comes down the mountain and could explain why we've had such weak supply recently. Anyway, with this problem I was not expecting any water at all and sure enough we've had none; we haven't even been able to do any watering which is not good; I hope we don't lose crops over it. The kamion was rushing to leave as I was inspecting the hole so I gave my respects and rushed over to hop in.

Bekir with the old hammer drill

Getting stuck in

And now a moment for my father. The water supply and drainage for the sink will need to go through several of the noggins in the partition wall. I heard Bekir looking for tools in the store room and found him picking up my dad's old Black & Decker drill. Now this thing has been around for ever, I'm sure he said it was about as old as I am, and it has been involved in building my recording studio previously as well. It works like a dream and never misses a beat and though I didn't photograph it or comment on it, I used it just the other day when putting the consumer unit up on the wall. What a machine, and yet more of your tools that I have, Dad.

Eventually, and really rather late, it was time to take the men home. I was up on the back bank with Bekir sorting out the cash and chatting to the bagga machine driver to make sure everything got done. Now I don't normally comment on the cost of things (we have a spreadsheet that we can look back on for that) but to give you an idea of one of the priciest of tasks over here, but how cheap it still is, the Bagga and the Kamion for a whole day cost BGN1000 which is about £350. Amazing. Once they had been paid I drove the men back, past an accident on the new road where a Romanian car (shock, not) was being lifted onto the back of a truck using a grabber; it was not in a good way. The fire engine was just leaving as I arrived and further up the road was a police check point. I wonder if the car had been stopped there and then was speeding even worse than they normally do to make up lost time.

Louise getting hopeful

Anyway, Bekir had a phone call on the way about a free meal in the town near us which we were also invited to. I struggled with the decision but when I got back I decided that with no water and therefore no shower I didn't want to go, and A didn't really mind either. She had been BBQing while I was driving and the chicken and sweetcorn were cooking away nicely. It was late, as I've said, and so I got stuck in helping by feeding the birds and Sassy. We also had to make time to speak with my parents which we managed easily and that was a lovely break. After that we went out for our food on the balcony which was just lovely; the BBQ had banked itself down and everything was still warm but it had cooked very slowly during this time so was moist and gorgeous.

Just before it disappeared again

Late as we were the sun was still setting as we ate and gave us a glorious show once it had passed past the raft of cloud on the high horizon. It was forecast before to rain, and the other workmen had covered their new load of sand (completely destroyed from where the girls had played on it earlier while the Little Lady visited to see what was going on; they are curious) and so the clouds coming in were not a surprise. They passed over us however without a drop and it is now a lovely clear night again.

Louise again getting hopeful

As I started on this update A went out with food for the girls and Rambo, as we have continued to feed them their dinner all together. The food apparently disappeared in record time and they didn't come up for air and then when they had finished theirs they stood around looking at Rambo's bowl and hoping he would drop some, which he did. Louise's appetite has definitely returned and she has eaten loads this evening.

Insulation over the main part of the floor

Concrete going on over iron gridwork

It was only as I was typing this that I realised that I hadn't got any pictures at all of the other men's work. They have made GREAT progress and the email I sent to their boss yesterday with a few questions has born fruit as they have put plastic down where I wanted it and have also been evening up the beams that were previously a little wonky. Hopefully this will be finished soon and ready for Bekir and Sally, should they get time, to put the spiral staircase down. I may explode from excitiment!

Anyway, it's late and I want to go to bed now so I'm going to wrap this up. Tomorrow is probably going to be another super busy day for me so I need my sleep. Night.