Socks and shoes!

Good evening everyone, it is a late start this evening for various reasons but never mind them just now; let's crack on with the update.

Grey start to the day

I slept pretty well last night, though apparently I snored towards the early hours which of course I don't remember at all. When the alarm went off it was still dark and A went to let the puppies out and the birds. The girls did not stay out very long at all and as soon as they had done their business they were straight back upstairs and into their bed. Bless them, I didn't blame them at all. It was a miserable morning with rain falling and a heavy overcast and when I got up I wished I could go back to bed as well.

Proper shoes for the first time this year

After most of a brew I decided to make a move and get my blood moving by getting outside with the chainsaw. I chopped a few bits and pieces up by the chopping block but then took myself down to the wild area by the entrance where the dead tree has been standing making me feel guilty for the last year. When I got down there I found that it was quite cold and wet and the footing wasn't great so I came back and put my boots on. I even put socks on! This was such a shock that A left to get the men as I was doing so. This means the official start of autumn was today, 10th September. Shocking.

Dead tree to be removed

Wood brought up to chop

With my feet properly shod I headed back to the long grass and spent the next half hour trimming the tree as much as I possibly could without assistance footing a ladder or pulling a rope. Once I had finished this I set the task of dragging the wood up to the cutting up area and this took me until just before A got back. I had just put the chainsaw and tools away when they arrived.

Playing in the sandpit with a chunk of wood

The puppies had been in close attendance to me all morning, rummaging through the undergrowth (and every now and then having to jump out of the way as a chunk of wood fell near them) and after I returned to the top they went into their favourite playarea; the sandpit. They had found a chunk of wood from somewhere and were playing with it, digging away and pouncing. Such fun.

A start is made on the duck pond

For the last few days Gyuner has been working to help Bekir as he has been putting the pipes and wires in place. Today however he became free and was able to get on with the job we really want him for; digging out the pond for the ducks. He knew what to do as I'd talked him through it before so as soon as he had got changed he was out there swinging his pickaxe and appreciating the slightly cooler day.

Once more, we tidy the garage

For ourselves A had decided to tie up the remaining kindling as it was getting quite wet outside however this led us to look at the garage and decide it needed a bit of a tidy first. It didn't take all that long, and the only hard part was moving Thomas's lid, and pretty soon we had cleared it all away and once more we have space in the garage. For how long, who knows, but when they have finished on the balcony I'll be getting them to start on the driveway and garage so it's good to have it done.

She turned her back for one minute and they stole them

With the garage tidied I went upstairs to get on with my work and A went to do the tying together. At one point she came up stairs chasing the puppies and showed me the ball of string and the scizzors. They had both been dragged up onto the top bank by the puppies! Even while we were stood there Louise grabbed the string and started playing with it again. So cheeky.

Relaxing for a bit

The rest of the morning was pretty restful for A as she had the day off and was feeling quite battered. I had to leg it out with Bekir to the shops not long after I started to get stuck into work and it ended up being quite a long trip out to the electrical shop first and then the normal builders merchant where we also picked up loads of pallets for my wood store. When I got back I found A sat on the chair reading with both the girls sleeping on her. That is the best way to relax.

The completed wall with cement reinforcement

I popped onto the balcony when I got back to see what was happening out there. They had removed all of shuttering from around the cement they had poured the day before and it was looking really good. This will be nice with the tiles on it though I'm worrying now that we may need to get more of the wall tiles to go on the top and the outside. They were by this time well on their way to putting all of the wood up to pour concrete on the remainder of the wall so they are well on track for starting the tiling tomorrow.

Getting ready for lunch

There was a smell of burning when I got back with Bekir but I quickly tracked it down to the BBQ that they had lit, burning wood and not charcoal, in the corner of the driveway. Bekir told me they would cook up nardenitsa on this and having eaten it cooked I reckon that tasted lovely. It is good that all the workmen are getting on so well, as I said yesterday.

Cleaning up the floor

One of the main reasons we had gone to town was because Sally was running out of betonkontakt. As per usual he didn't stop to wait but got on with other tasks including sweeping all of the dust and scrapings up from the floor of the living room. He just keeps going and keeps going. After this he also cleaned out the chimney in there which was completely clogged with so much ash and soot it looked like it had been used for about ten years since the last clean. This chimney is the one that currently finishes in the loft and Bekir is aware it will be the job after the living room to get it done.

Wiring up the living room

Bekir was cracking on with putting the cables down from the roof and fixing them in place. He has nearly finished this however as I was checking out the end of day situation I have noticed that he has not put enough cables to the switches. We want there to be two double switches at each end of the room, one at each end controlling either the main lights or the wall lights. He has only put one cable down to the light switch box and I am kicking myself that I didn't spot this earlier, for example when I took the picture as it is clear there is only the one cable to the switch.. Hopefully this will not be hard to fix.

Doesn't look like much, but it is a start

I spent most of the day working but mid way through the afternoon I was waiting for my boss so, getting fed up of sitting around waiting, I headed out to start clearing up where the wood store will be. The burnable stuff got taken up to the burning circle (on the way back I slipped on my backside down the bank and smashed my foot on the wheelbarrow; it's bruised and sore) and I raked and shoveled the stones to be slightly flatter. I then wasted about half an hour stood in the wood store in the green building trying to decide which wood to use for the frame before giving up and telling Bekir we would have to start off together. He laughed and understood, which was a relief.

The next bit I don't have any pictures for or video of as we were all too involved in getting the job completed. It was the end of our working day and I for one was feeling pretty useless as I'd struggled to get much done at the end of the day. I asked A to give me a hand cutting down the rest of the dead tree so I took the chainsaw and the ladder and we managed to get a bit of it done however we were left with the main trunk and the large branch on the left. Gyuner came and helped us as we threw a strap around the branch to hold to stop it falling on the fence. I cut with trunk with the chainsaw and then started pushing and wouldn't you know, the cut was totally unnecessary as we were able to push it over from the rotten base. Typical. Anyway, this is now added to the huge pile of wood I have to cut up tomorrow.

Lots of sawdust for our toilet

It was then home time for the men so off we headed but on the way I remembered we were going to the woodyard to arrange for our purchased burning wood. We got there and managed to arrange it and then I asked if I could have some sawdust (something of an obsession recently as our supplies have been getting a bit low) and they obliged and filled up the six empty bags I had so full Bekir could barely shut them and I struggled to lift them when I unloaded at home. The burning wood should arrive tomorrow which is excellent but this does add to the urgency to get the wood store completed. It took quite a long time to get all of this done which is why I was so late starting this update.

Good bye sun

This photograph is a sad shadow of what it should have been, if I had been home a couple of minutes quicker. The sun had been shining through the clouds but in such a way that it was very dim and so looked like a really huge moon; no rays, just the round shape. It was still there when I got home and I ran straight to the roof terrace with the camera but it had gone. Never mind, it'll happen again I'm sure.

He's dug a big hole today

Gyuner has done a cracking job again today and he has near enough completed the digging out process. There is a large chunk of stone in the middle which we've told him to leave so the ducks can stand on it as some kind of shallows. Tomorrow maybe he'll get to putting the wood rafts in and pouring concrete but we shall see. I cannot wait for this to be done.

Last section of the wall done

Finally for the photographs is this one of the balcony wall taken this evening; all of the concrete has indeed been poured and is drying ready for tomorrow. I really hope they start laying tiles, that'll be SUCH an exciting thing to see!

And so the evening ended in the best way; with a lovely omelette thrown together by A followed by some cake that she had made today. I'm going to head out to shut the birds away for the night in a bit and then relax into bed time which is sooner than I thought.