This blog comes to you slightly later than usual as a new routine is being imposed today and we'll see just how we both cope with is and how things change over the next few days. I'll crack straight on with it without any delay though.
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| Saying goodbye to a gorgeous day |
We'll go back to yesterday evening and the gorgeous sunset we experienced. This is the final glimpse of the sun that we were treated to. It had been such a glorious day with not even a single cloud spotted by either of us at all during the day. This is what summer in Bulgaria is supposed to be about.
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| Rinsing off in the barrel |
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| The lovely feeling of being clean |
The lack of water has really been getting to us recently mainly due to not being able to have a shower. Yesterday we both finally flipped and decided that we would just use the big oil drum full of water and have a wash out on the front patio. It is private enough with the trees having their full summer foliage so we both were able to pretty much strip off and clean ourselves.What a wonderful feeling that was and well worth it. We're actually considering doing the same thing again this evening, though it'll probably get too late by the time I finish the blog and A is out doing the watering rounds and sorting out the avian part of our family.
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| The new arrivals sticking together |
Before we headed to bed we went in to check on the chooks and take them another big tray to put water in and also to shut and secure the door for the night. When we went in we found that Ginger/Baker were in their usual corner but also Beaker and Balls had joined them, snuggling together. This is great to see. KitKat are still obviously ruling the roost however as both of them were in the coop sat on the roosting rails.
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| On the way to collect the men |
Not long after this we headed to bed and I think we both again slept really well. A was disturbed by Louise wanting out (I don't know why she goes to that side of the bed every time) but tonight that was it and they didn't wake us again at all. We had set the alarm last night but still woke up before it which is always to be preferred. After a coffee A headed off out the door to collect the men and left me behind to do final tidying to make space for them. I gathered the bathroom stuff together in a tray, tidied up the toilet in its new location so it is more comfortable, and generally made the place ready before settling down to work nice and early.
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| Sally back at it |
It was such a pleasure for me to see Bekir and Sally again and I went down to greet them with Louise and Thelma as they pulled up. We let them get themselves settled and change into their working clothes and then I showed them the designs I had come up with and explained the layout and we agreed that the water storage in the roof should be the first thing they work on. This is also going to be the hottest so I really hope it doesn't take too long; it's pretty steamy up there right now. After going through the plans A headed down to the shop to get a few materials with Bekir leaving Sally behind to prep the bathroom by chipping off the loose plaster. The facility with which he used the ax head on the ax-hammer to do this shamed me for the time I spent trying to remove this same plaster last year.
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| Helping Bekir unload the supplies |
Bekir and A were not gone long and when they got back I again went down to help them unload. They had bought metal reinforcing grids for the new beton which will go underneath the water storage tank, a load of pipes to get the water up from the ground floor into the roof, and some bags of cement. While we were unloading the little lady came over to check on the flock and I took the opportunity to show Bekir. It could be a while before we get any eggs, apparently, but that is fine for us; we're getting to know them and they are getting comfortable with us so there is no real rush.
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| Laying out where the reinforcing raft is going to go |
I was working all through the day so my chances to get up and see progress were limited. Bekir was careful to confirm with me the location of the tank. I would like it to be as far back under the eaves as possible as the plan is for the railway to go around between the two uprights however this depends on which tank we buy. If we have to have it in the middle run that isn't a problem; we'll just incorporate it into the layout when it finally reaches that point.
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| A really good burn going on |
And so A headed out to town to do some shopping, find a good vet, and try to get a quote from the carpenter for our double doors in the kitchen (and grab the free sawdust he gives away as well) and I settled down to work. Suddenly it was lunch time and A had returned with full success (well, we know where the vet is, but there was no recommendation as our friends at the garage didn't know him) and the carpenter had been shut but Lucy is now insured again which is good and she had a nice haul of food for the fridge. I had decided my lunch time today was going to be taken up starting to clean Julian so I got the hoover and went in there and now he is looking much better. We're limited again by water as I now need to scrub the surfaces clean. After doing this, which didn't take long, we headed onto the back bank to set another fire. The evening before Louise had barked at the torn up wardrobe cover in the living room which reminded me it needed burning and we had a fair few other bits going as well. We also did a short litter pick on the land and got quite a lot of burnable rubbish. It burned very high and with a thick black smoke which caused me to close the back window until it had died down; very acrid.
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| New food for the ducks |
Finally for lunch time is A off to check on the birds and taking some new duck food down for them. This has been mixed with water and so was pretty sticky. She looks happy anyway and apparently Ginger/Baker loved it, though we've no report on whether Beaker and Balls like it. Never mind, so long as they all eat and get enough water and other vitals they'll be fine.
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| Sweeping loads of dust off the rug |
Mid way through the afternoon I took another break and helped A as she cleared out Room 13 preparatory to us trying to tile the floor. I took the rugs onto the balcony and swept them all firmly, and have left them hanging over the edge to air. I also helped her lift the tables out and put them along the corridor; it's going to be quite tough while we don't have Room 13 in use.
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| Just enough hot water to wash up in |
The hot water also suddenly came on, though only this dribble which is pathetic and definitely not enough to run a shower. Anyway with this opportunity I did all the washing up and then realised "hang on" and we put a load of washing in as well; what pleasure it is to have even this little water pressure.
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| Sooty |
Finally we cleaned out the pipes from the petchka in Room 13 which was quite a filthy job. These were lent to us, including the petchka, by my friend so now we have removed it we can give it back which is good. I'll be trying to sort this out over the next few days.
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| Sunflower blooming nicely |
An aside here; the sunflowers which we moved onto the balcony are looking much happier there but the fruit tree was continuing its wilt so we have put it back on the porch where it'll be more in the shade. It's tough, this growing things lark.
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| Empty apart from the fridge |
And here is the end result after A finished up; I've got to disconnect the power to the internet and work out a way of reconnecting it while keeping everything up off the floor but that won't be too hard; I've got some old shelves lying around somewhere I think which I can easily fix to the wall and it can sit on there. I can't wait to get started on this but we're going to watch Bekir do the bathroom floor first (with plenty of videos and stuff) and then we'll know more what we are doing.
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| Sleeping in the sun, on a tray |
With this room empty the girls have found they get more sun and so have spent pretty much the whole afternoon in there. They have laid in different places but the best one was when Louise got onto a tray on the floor to keep out of the dust. She really is a princess, that one.
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| Dead, but still creepy |
This isn't the only thing they were doing in there and this next is not quite as cute. We have uncovered lots of insect corpses having moved everything out of there and they both love the taste of insects. This is one of the horrible scary house centipedes which had died over winter. Thelma got hold of it and chewed it in half. Suffice to say I put it in the humanure collection point.
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| Relaxing with a BBQ, Louise getting hopeful |
As is our habit when it came time to take the men home I got in Thomas and drove them back. It was really nice to do this again and I made use of the time coming home again to think and consider next steps. I even thought of something else I had forgotten (we need to get the spotlights for the guest bedrooms) and I also decided that this weekend I want to go swimming in the river. See, driving isn't wasted time. When I got back I found A up on the balcony with the BBQ going and a beer in hand. I didn't join her immediately but sat in with my beer watching the end of the tour de france stage. As soon as it was done, however, I was out there in the lovely hot evening drinking more beer and waiting for the meat to be ready.
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| "I'm under the bed!" |
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| "It was easier getting under" |
At one point Louise went missing and we found her actually underneath our bed. She had done this earlier today (prompting a round of running around shouting for her; the demons from Ralf do not depart easily) and that time she had to be pulled out but this time she wriggled free, showing some more spirit than we've seen for a while.
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| BBQ burgers and lovely salad |
The BBQ was outstanding; we had these burgers and then later we had the kyufte and a lovely salad with hard boiled eggs and olives and other tasty nom including tomatoes from the Little Lady.
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| Gorgeous evening on the balcony |
We stayed out there for a fair while after finishing eating and the girls got a kyufte each in their bowls to chase down the dinner they had already eaten. It was still so hot, even though it was getting on towards 8.30pm, and sat at this end of the house you can't hear the dogs barking in the neighbours quite as badly.
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| A distant Golden Oriole |
While we were sat there A noticed a Golden Oriole fly in and sit on a tree on our boundary. Now these are around a lot around here, you always hear them, but when you see them they settle for such a short time that normally it's impossible to get a picture. In true chasing hope style I pegged it inside and grabbed A's camera and got back to find it was still there! I snapped a few pics (which didn't come out) then handed the camera to A who got some then it flew but landed again within sight. Brilliant!
Finally I am going to leave you with some really excellent news for which I did have a video but youtube is taking AGES to process it so it isn't ready in time for me to publish; I'll put it up on tomorrow's update. Anyway, while I was typing this update A was out getting the washing in and she shouted me to come to the balcony. Thelma and Louise were up on the top bank and they were actually properly tussling and fighting! Wow! When they were sent in while she did the watering round they went straight to Room 13 where they continued their fight and Louise even pinned Thelma. It seems she really is on the mend. What good news!
So tomorrow is another day and I'm going to wrap this up now.
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