Friday and Saturday update

Well then it's a later start than planned to this double update which is irritating. Our evening of watching a film together has been scuppered by the fact that the person we paid Link+ for our year's internet in march trousered half the money and only put on 6 months. We have just got back from town where I shouted at the man in the office until he gave me the remained 6 months. He tried offering me 4 months but that was an insult and I think when I reacted so strongly he saw that he'd better give in. Though we'll see in a few days if it goes back off again. Anyway, on with the double day update as quickly as I can, and there is a lot to go over.

Mist in the valley

I asked: Hibiscus

Friday started off once again cold and overcast. It was a bit of a struggle to wake up again as it is now dark in the mornings; we've got several months of this, and it'll get worse first, before it starts to get lighter again. We were outside for a bit before A headed out to take the men and so I got a picture of the gorgeous flowers on this plant which has done so well this year. I can't remember what it is called though; I'd better ask A but she is out doing the chickens.

More wood chopped

My first task of the day was to empty the humanure and food collection bin which as always didn't take long at all. I then went on to the chainsawing and cracked on with that doing quite a lot of thicker logs until A got back with the men. At this point, feeling quite tired and hungry, I headed inside with A for a brew together.

Final bits and pieces being done

The other workmen had arrived earlier and were busy taking the shuttering off the final bits of the wall they had done. I wasn't sure what they were planning on doing after this, I hoped maybe they may start the tiling, but when I asked they shrugged and said I'd have to speak to their boss. I would love to do this as I've emailed him several times and had no reply. No matter, it's only one day wasted and hopefully I will get in touch with him over the weekend.

The correct number of cables

Drilling for more cables

I had suggested that A get her shopping run out of the way as early as possible as normally it seems that the time shoots by and she has to go in the middle of the day when the crowds are mad. She headed pretty much straight out because of this and left me in to do other bits. I was hoping to get started on the wood shelter today with Bekir but there were loads of other jobs that he needed to do which are very important so he got on with them first. The very first thing he did was to sort out the extra cable down to each light switch in the living room as I had explained to him the issue. He then made use of the (not working very well now) SDS to put the cable through for the downstairs switch for the light above the stairs.

Starting off the hole for the lintel

A got back after about an hour with lots of stuff which was great, including the mop so we can clean the floors easier as the dust is still pretty mad here. I had been out chainsawing again and when she got back she took over for a bit. We have a lot to get through and our paid for wood was also due today. The men were now working on knocking through for the lintel which will go above the balcony doors; they had marked up roughly where it should go and Gyuner got the drill out again and made the first hole.

Always smiling, he's a nice chap

Our balcony workers were still hanging around even though they weren't really doing any work however the really nice smiley one was getting stuck in and giving Bekir, Sally and Gyuner a hand with the work they were on with. He is probably my favourite of all the group though over time I've gotten to know them all and he absolutely loves the puppies which really does recommend him to me.

We have a slot for some reinforced concrete

The hole for the lintel was now completed and it gives me ideas, actually, for other places in the building where I want more natural light to come in without having too many huge windows. For now this was only going to be open for a while before being filled in again.

Four cubic of oak

There was some degree of excitement just after lunch when our delivery of burning wood arrived. I hadn't been sure if I had ordered it as split wood or just logs and so when I heard the truck driving along I strained to see and saw that it was logs. When he unloaded it onto the dust bowl I saw that it wasn't just logs but some of them were really very large and I would probably struggle to cut them with the chainsaw. He could only get four cubic into his van so about half an hour after the first drop he came back with another load which was dumped on top of the first. This picture is only half of it.

Here we have BB

For some reason I had struggled quite a lot during the morning, feeling a bit blue and lethargic to such an extent that after a while of chopping wood I had gone in and read and cuddled the girls while waiting for A to get back. When she did get back she said that she had a surprise on its way that would put a smile back on my face and so when a delivery person arrived mid afternoon she came running up the stairs and almost threw the box at me to open it. I obliged as quickly as I could and found that the wonderful woman had bought me a BB8, a droid that I had been admiring on the internet only the other day. It is controlled from your mobile phone and also has a "patrol" mode where it moves around and learns a room. Apparently more skills will be updated to it via your mobile app. It's really cool! Look at the video we took later in the day as well.

Starting to work on the wood shelter

Bekir came to me shortly after this and said he was about ready to help with the wood store. We picked out some wood (not that which I would have chosen) and then worked out an initial design. We would dig some post holes for four posts along the front and then set this uprights in them, probably with cement to keep them sturdy. We shared the task of digging but stopped when one of the holes hit rock almost straight away. He said he would get the SDS to chip it out easily but this was being used by the other workmen who were doing the drain through the garage.

Putting in the drainage pipe

I popped in to see the progress and they were nearly done. This will probably eventually be boxed off or maybe even in the wall but for now just getting it in place so in case of rain the water is taken outside to the drainage is most important. They have put a bit more of a downward slope on it than I expected but this will mean it empties nice and fast.

A getting her chainsaw action on

While I was on watching them A was up again chopping more wood with the chainsaw. We really are getting on with this task well now and with the eight cubic of wood that had been delivered we really need to get even better!

Reinforcing bars in place

Bekir hadn't got back to me on the wood store but that was fine as he had many more important things to do like bending all the metal to make the steel reinforcement for the lintel. He has so much skill with that and doesn't make any mistakes. We stood and watched him for a bit and then went to get on with our own task which was to stack all the bought wood up into a neat pile so we could cover it with a tarpaulin. After a little while he the metal assembly was taken up onto the balcony and fitted into the gap where Bekir spent a fair while making it level and then waited for the wooden frame to be put on his side.

Wood covered up, and more of our own

Storm clouds building

Meanwhile A and I were hefting huge lumps of wood around and stacking them up into a big pile in the middle of the dust bowl. I just worked away at it steadily while A went and got a drink for us and together we finished the job. We have the biggest chunks in the centre underneath the green tarp and the blue tarp is covering the slightly smaller logs which we will cut first as we continue to improve our skills with the chainsaw. With these stacked (and the rain beginning to fall) we didn't get a picture of it uncovered but immediately put the tarpaulin on. We also spent a little bit of time dragging more of the tree we had chopped down the other day and then were pretty much exhausted and so stopped.

She's got a great set of teefs

We sat out after finishing as we had our drinks and sat and watched the men work. The girls were out with us and so we were playing with them as well. Thelma's grip has really developed her grip recently and we have been laughing at her a lot as she is now able to hold onto a stick and swing from it. This time I had my camera with me and managed to get a picture as she swung by her front teeth.

As we were sat there relaxing a truck arrived and it was the mini digger again from the other building firm come to clear away all the rubble. I made sure to get a nice long video for all of you out there who like the machine porn when it occurs. It was a great little machine and now I really want one for myself.

The children having fun

Of course with the mini digger here again A had to jump in and sit in the drivers seat and this time I was here to get a proper picture after the driver had failed to operate the camera the previous time. After she'd had her fun she put the puppies in the scoop so they could get involved also but they didn't seem to be as impressed.

Playing with the puppies

Dancing Louise, Springy Thelma

While we were sat watching the digger the Special One came over to see what was going on. He watched for a while then started playing in the sand with the girls. He had seen how A would bury her hand and then let the girls dig it out and so he started doing this too. He also go the green stick that at that point was Thelma's favourite thing in the world at that point and played with her with that. It's good that he is now looking after Teddy as he obviously does love dogs.

The digger was still going when I left to take the men home. It was quite an interesting drive because of the weather as it was raining very heavily for a lot of it. As per usual, however, as we got close to the men's village the rain stopped and the sun even came out. I offered to drop Gyuner at his house and he pointed out that it wasn't raining so it was fine. When I got back to the house the digger was just about to leave having cleared everything away. Fingers crossed this firm will be back soon to put the tiles down and then work on the driveway.

Pork shoulder in the slow cooker

We had lovely roasted pork strips for dinner and then when it was time to bed I slept pretty well, though there was a massive storm for most of the night and it disturbed A enough to get her out of bed for a bit. I woke at the same time with a pretty bad headache but refused pills as usual but when I woke again in the morning I was really suffering. I stayed in bed after A got up and rested some, finally giving in and taking headache pills which kicked in after a while. A had gone out to start bringing the chopped wood inside and when I got up I was surprised to find she had finished as there was LOADS to move. It was only later that we realised she had done the chopped wood next to the chopping block, but not the huge piles up on the bank. A had also spent the morning getting our dinner ready which was put into the slow cooker to cook all day.

It tasted better than it looks, just

Breakfast was fried bacon and eggs (our eggs, once again) and tomatoes on toast and was lovely. We had talked about heading to another larger town today to look for a wood splitter and a few other bits and so we got ourselves ready, left the puppies in the bedroom, and headed out. We went via a shop in our local town and got a quote for the wood splitter, then hit the bank and finally drove the hour or so to the bigger shop with me singing along to Whitesnake the whole way. Poor A.When we got there we found even this big shop didn't sell the wood splitters, but we did get new beds for the girls and the curtain rails for the living room so that was a success. We stashed this loot in the car and headed in for a much-looked-forward-to dinner at the cafe. We were terribly disappointed when we got up there and found it had been refurbished and no longer had a proper cafe but was a "fast food joint" with pre-plated food which, when it arrived was cold. Not great. It was very very cheap, though, and did taste very nice so we ate it none the less. It was not the awesome huge kebabs that we were expecting.

First stack, with more to go on

Just a little bit of wood

We were both really tired and talking about having a doze when we got back but the clouds looked threatening enough that we decided to crack straight on and shift all the chopped wood inside onto pallets. It was only while doing this that we realised quite how much wood we have chopped. I put a few more bits on the pile A had done in the morning but then we moved another pallet into the room next door and this was finally enough to take it all. Bear in mind this is only wood we have cut from the fallen down trees from over winter; we have MUCH more of that to chop and the wood that was delivered as well. I feel quite confident that we have enough wood for the winter.

Lovely sunny end to the day

While we had been clearing the wood the weather had got better and better, enough so that we got the washing and hung it out to dry while we were working. We had to stop mid way through as it got quite hot and thirsty work however eventually we had done it and could sit for a little bit and enjoy the afternoon.

By the time we came in from doing this it was 5.30 and I was about to get started on the blog when we realised that the internet was not working. There was a page showing up in Bulgarian which we couldn't really translate but it had a lot of exclamation marks on it and the date (6 months since we bought our internet) tied up too much for it to be anything other than the person we bought our internet from in March had not put the full year on the system. To cut a long story short we legged it to town, after waiting outside the office for a bit I banged on the window and got a man who opened up for us and I proceeded to shout at him until he gave us the missing 6 months. When we got back the internet was back on so we'll see how long that lasts.

Amazing pork dinner

By this time it was really late so I was put in charge of potatoes which I did very well while A went and fed the chickens and did other things outside. I got going on this super long update and finally dinner was ready and wow was it not worth the wait! This has definitely gone on the list of "dishes to do again".

Stunning sunset once again

We were able this evening to sit on the roof terrace to eat which was lovely. There was a bit of a cooler breeze this evening but it was still plenty warm enough and towards the end of our meal the sky turned the most amazing colour as the sun set behind the far clouds. This place just never fails to deliver.

Quite a large storm in the distance

I headed back down and got on with this while A has been out and done the chickens and ducks and fed the animals and generally got on with the things that are actually important to our lives, other than telling our story on here. While she was doing this she called me to the roof terrace again for pictures and the storm clouds appear to be gathering once more. We're hoping for more rain this evening as it means our watering rounds aren't needed. Fingers crossed.

Wow what a long update that has been. I'd better get those pictures put in place so I can get to bed. The farm is playing very loud music (the unreliable young one has come back, hopefully not for long,and has some mates over) so we may well end up down there telling them to turn it down soon however let's not hope for the worst. Night.