This heat

Hey people I'm back again, against all the odds writing another update. Will try and keep this short after the length of yesterdays.

The view of the sunrise from the roof terrace

After dinner last night we went to bed with the fan on as the temperature was still up so much. I slept pretty well but was disturbed once in the night by Rambo going absolutely nuts at something under the trees. We can't find the torch recharger at the moment which meant I didn't bother going down to check but we think it was probably a rat which has managed to get into the humanure; this is going to happen I think, I'm not sure how to avoid it. Anyway, I dropped back off and when it was morning I was up relatively soon after A went and we made our brews and took them onto the roof terrace again. As promised I took the camera and so here is a picture of the sunrise from up there.

Wood production line

When A went to get the men I went out to chopping wood again but this time I remembered the ear defenders and they are great, keeping the volume down; I can hear different sounds while I'm chopping and some of the higher pitched noises that get through now are most interesting. I chopped up all the wood I'd prepared yesterday then got stuck into trimming more. I also put more kindling onto the pile for A to sort tomorrow. Our paid for petchka wood will hopefully be here in a week or so which makes me want to get started on the wood store this weekend also. We shall see.

Girls on their personal beach

The puppies were really really playful this morning, particularly Thelma, and they were around me a lot of the time I was working up there. Thelma has now completely destroyed the sperm toy, beyond my ability to fix it, They have settled in here so well and just now, as I type this, we talked about how they are able to play outside all day, coming in every now and then, and getting loads of exercise and fun. Earlier I saw them burrowing into the pile of wood I have yet to sort, chasing each other around. What glorious puppies they are.

The bedroom won't flood, the garage might

I had a few photographs that I wanted to grab of things around the building before the men got too into their work and maybe did something new. First of all is the drainage as it empties, currently, directly into the garage from the channel outside the bedroom door. This will have pipes attached and it will be taken out, somewhere not defined yet, but for now I think we'll have to put a bucket under it in case it rains (it is forecast to this weekend or Monday, maybe). Rather it go into a bucket underneath than run into our bedroom.

Water will come in here

The holes for the water into the utility cupboard (I'm going to stop calling it a room as it is way too small for that) were completed yesterday but I didn't get a picture before it got dark. This shows the other end of the big hole I showed yesterday, and the newer hole which will bring our drinking water in from the direct ViK connection avoiding the water storage tank. This room will have the washing machine in, the boiler and the consumer unit for the kitchen, garage and chicken house. All of this is only being done because we wanted water for the duck pond but it is all tasks that would only have been needed to do next year so we're getting ahead even more.

Tidier cable

The other day I noticed that the front door no longer had power cables going underneath it stopping the door from opening fully. I have no idea when this was done but someone, probably Bekir or Sally, has got annoyed at this silly arrangement and decided to fix it so they've taken the plug off and fed the cable through an existing hole in the door-frame. Brilliant. I love these workmen.

Me with my lovely puppies

It was a yoghurt morning for me today and after this, and working for a bit, I sat on the girls' bed and they jumped on to have a cuddle. I haven't got that many pictures of me with them so I got A to take a snap. She grumbled but did it as you can see. We had decided that first thing this morning we would be off as early as possible to town to do our tile shopping and get me to my follow up visit at the hospital so as soon as we could we were in Thomas and on our way. We went past our little shop at the bottom and they had the tiles we wanted, and enough, in stock so we said we'd pop back later to collect them. From there it was to the curtain shop then the bank and then the other tile shop before heading home. A wasn't feeling great so she decided to head to bed while I went to the hospital with Bekir.

Slowly the gammy finger gets better

We went straight down to the hospital and were welcomed directly into the room by the nurse. I showed her that the bandage had come off and then she made very encouraging noises about the progress she saw. It may not look like it but it has definitely improved. The swelling is reduced and there is even some puss finally showing which means the infection is being drawn out. I am to go back again on Monday and then maybe once more and then it should be better. I had the same green gunk put on it and a bandage applied which was extended around my wrist so it won't fall off over the weekend.

Loading tiles into Thomas

From there we went to the little builders merchant and I found that the white tiles we had chosen were not for outside so the fact that she was out of stock ended up not being a problem. She did have enough of the lovely blue tiles for us so Bekir and the shop man loaded 27 boxes of tiles into the back of Thomas which should be enough for the roof terrace. We'll go looking for white tiles for the walls another time. We also picked up some byalo to go on the walls in the living room and it was a pretty heavily laden Thomas which went back home.

More sloping concrete on the balcony

When we got back I checked out the progress on the balcony; they had an extra body on site today who was mixing the cement. There has been a lot of discussions through the day about angles and water run off which Bekir has been involved in very helpfully and I'm pretty happy with what is going on. The tiles for the balcony are arriving some time on Wednesday however I got Bekir to ring through to ask them to deliver in a truck so that will now happen on Thursday. I think they need to build the external wall, and the regular concrete columns and a belt in it, so that should work out well.

He just works and works and works

Sally has been cracking on all day quietly as usual and he finished off the tidying up of the window surrounds during the morning then got stuck into stripping the roof of loose paint and plaster. The walls and ceiling in that room are actually really solid though there was one hole which needed filling and that was done as well. He has made excellent progress all day and it even prompted me having to talk about where we want lights and plugs and switches to go as he will soon be starting to put the byalo on the walls. So much progress.

Now my bandage is secure

The bandage which was supposed to be secure and not fall off had, during the day, come a little unraveled so I asked A to put a safety pin (not the drawing pin she originally offered) in to secure it. Now I am pretty confident that barring ripping it this will not come loose over the weekend. I cannot wait to be fully recovered and able to wash up and have a normal shower again.

Bathroom drain no longer empties into the stones

The cut drain pipe has been replaced

Bekir had looked at the drainage which the other builders had cut and realised he didn't have quite the correct bits. He also wanted to hook in the drain from the bathroom so it would run without getting blocked and he needed some bits to sort that out. In the afternoon he and Gyuner had unloaded all the tiles and carried them all into the roof which was a task and a half but it meant Thomas was no longer overladen. It was a very quick trip down to the shop to collect these plumbing bits and then I felt very tired so I had a bit of a nap. When I woke up A told me I had just missed out on them fitting the drains but she had got some pictures so here you are.

Officially marked as today's egg

Shortly afterwards it was time to take the men home which I did with little fanfare and no excitement. When I got back A was sat on the porch just finished feeding Rambo and so I came up to get on with this. A little later on she appeared holding another egg, our seventh so far, which Kat had laid earlier. We had been out to check for this at our normal time of about 3pm and found Kat sat in the nesting box and refusing to move. She had actually been laying as we watched; how epic!

Our egg is in the middle

We always struggle to choose our dinner and today was no different however A came up with the idea to make an omelette and so today we made our first use of our eggs. I got lots of pictures of her breaking the first one but the best shot is it nestling in amongst the other shop bought eggs. It is a bit yellow and not as orange as we expected but this would be her first ever egg so I think that is to be expected. How exciting again to get to eat our own eggs!

Little caterpillar on our tomato

The decision around dinner was based on having some chicken left over from the other night, and a bucket of tomatoes from our garden which I am not willing to put in the compost; I want us to eat every single one. A was just sorting through them when she found a hitchhiker in the form of a little green caterpillar. This did not make it into the omelette.

Excellent omelette and wedges

Eventually the omelette was ready, it took a bit longer than A had thought, and so we headed onto the roof terrace to eat. We had completely missed the sunset and it was getting dark by the time we finished eating but still lovely and warm and what with the lights in the roof it wasn't a problem. I forgot to add before but as I got back from dropping the men I saw one of the window fitters leaving and he has actually fitted the windows up by the roof terrace. They look brilliant and now at least, after a small amount of work for Sally to finish around the windows, we will be fully weatherproof up there this winter.

So after eating we went straight out and watered in the dark and now I'm going to finish this and drink a brew before bed. ViK has been on and off today and right now we have none; I hope it is just them working on it and this isn't how it will be long term. Either way a bigger reservoir in the roof is almost a must have.