A demic day for me

This could end up being a short update. For the last few days my middle finger on my left hand has been hurting a little and today it got a lot worse and has swollen up. I'm typing this having attempted to lance the swelling and while soaking the finger in salt water. So yeah, if it hurts too much I'll have to stop typing.

The "big logs" pile as of this morning

This isn't the only pain that I'm going through today either; when I went out this morning to do the chopping (after a lovely time spent on the balcony sat on the old plastic deck chairs like the olden times pre-patio furniture) I found that my right thumb tendon is quite sore and I did not enjoy myself at all chopping the wood and using the axe. As suggested yesterday I cleared away all of the wood that had accumulated around the chopping block and then did a small amount of trimming and breaking of twigs into kindling. I really was not loving it this morning and as soon as A got back with the men I retreated towards the house. You're going to have mornings like that I reckon.

Breaking the slab with a machine

The other builders had arrived just after A left this morning with their pneumatic drill machine (brought in a van as it is so heavy) and had got straight up onto the roof to continue breaking the top layer off. This went on all day, other than a few times when they decided to go down to disturb Bekir and Sally by sitting and chatting to them, and I reckon by tomorrow this will be completed. I have been having thoughts about the drainage situation up there, and Bekir has also been talking to them a lot, and I reckon between us we have it sussed. They are going to put drainage holes all around the wall, make sure the slope is significant on the new floor, and I am going to ask them to put a drainage channel, covered with a grate, along the front of the bedroom door and the base of the wall so water cannot pool there. Hopefully this will prove sufficient.

Finishing the wood for the hand rails

Inside Bekir was on with routing out the bottom of the trimmed down planks he had taken home the night before. The smell was awesome from this lovely hard wood he calls "dup". I'm not totally sure what it actually is but I think it is Oak. It is the same wood as we ordered for the steps the other day which we're still waiting for, incidentally.

The trench takes a snake

Outside Gyuner was hard at work as well with pick axe and shovel extending the trench. It was a super hot day to be working outside like this and I really felt for him, telling him to take lots of rests and that I would try and get out to help tomorrow swinging the pickaxe or doing the shoveling. Bekir had identified a route for the trench to take to get it all the way to the chicken house which is a bonus as I was only expecting to take this to the end of the building and then stop until the other builders did the driveway with their big machine. Anyway this means I'll get Gyuner to keep on digging and do the pond I think; I did ask him if he could do woodwork, to build the wood store, but he declined so that stays on my list.

First tentative steps

I have had a much better day work wise today, having been unblocked towards the end of yesterday, and I shipped the code I needed to by mid afternoon. A has been pretty much tied to her typing all day as well so these pictures are all taken, as usual, in brief forays away from the desk to keep ourselves moving. Once such short trip around to see progress was particularly exciting as the stairway is getting so close to finished; there were some bits of wood on it which the men have been using to climb it so A went up while I took a picture.

Beautiful, but painful, sparks

A large part of the day for the men has involved finishing off the joints before the wood is put on for the steps and hand rail. I went down to make a morning brew for them and found Sally with a flannel over his eye and Bekir working with the grinder with eye protection on. It seems that a spark from the grinder had got Sally in the eye. He said he would put a potato on it tonight and it should be OK however he did not do any more grinding today that I saw. Not good and I really hope he is OK.

Puppies found this corpse\

The puppies have been in and out all day today, out more than in to be honest. They really do love sniffing around and chasing and digging and generally getting out but a lot of the time they are just laying in the sun enjoying the heat. One time I found them sniffing really intently at an area so I went to see what they had found and it was a long-dead baby lizard. It looks like they didn't kill it, at least today.

Infected finger in hot salt water

After I finished work I went to have a short lay down. I didn't think I slept though when I went in I was so tired I was sure I would however A said she came to see me and I was snoring away like a trooper. Either way I was very dopey when I came through afterwards and it took almost a whole glass of water to make me feel awake again. It was around this time that my finger was hurting so much I complained and soaked it in the hot salt water. It did seem to help however not long after I took it out the swelling went back up again. Not cool.

Fitting the final uprights

The thing that had woken me up was Bekir with the SDS just on the other side of the wall drilling a hole to put a length of rebar in onto which he then welded the three short uprights which finish off the metalwork on the stairway. I was vibrating as I lay in bed while this happened but it really does look good so I forgave him fast.

How it was at the end of the day

The next steps for this will involve concrete and wood, I hope, and then the upstairs rail will need to go in as well. Actually, that rail may end up being first on the list which will be a good introduction to starting work on the living room. As the men on the balcony had gone for the day I was able to get into the consumer unit and fit the two circuit breakers for the lights and plugs so now all that is ready for the planning of where things will go and wires to be dropped down.

The moon through the linden tree branches

And so it came time to take the men so off we toddled and it was a boring journey there and back with the usual incredibly stupid driving on display. When I got home I was feeling pretty battered so I got straight on with this update. I had noticed the moon on the way home, while the sun was still high, and remembered to go and get a snap of it in the twilight which I think is the best time to take pictures.

Chicken and mash; nom

While I was climbing over the guest bed and trying to get the camera to focus correctly on the moon and not the trees our dinner was ready so I came back to find my beer and a plate and went up with this to join A and the puppies on the roof. After quite a lot of complicated meals recently it was really nice to just have a huge pile of potatoes and some very tasty chicken. Super lovely food.

Sun gone from the roof terrace

It had been another absolutely glorious day all day, with barely any clouds in evidence at all. The evening was again gorgeous and we sat out until the sun had completely vanished before heading back inside so I could finish this update. A tried to do a watering round but after a few days of plenteous water today there has been none and so that goes on my list for the morning. To be fair I'm going to take a couple of days off wood chopping because of my wrist and finger so it's good to have some other jobs to do.

So it'll be an early night for me I think, maybe take a brew onto the roof terrace before heading to bed though. We'll see.