Overcast and drizzly

Today I'm in a largely grumpy mood. I'm feeling a bit dismayed, but I'm not sure why. I woke up feeling harried and that feeling of "so much to do" has changed into one of  "I didn't get much done" which is always going to make me feel a bit down. Never mind, onwards and upwards.

She was literally quivering while she watched me

The puppies basically spent the entire night last night curled up on the bed and this morning it was so dark when the alarm went off that I felt correct in my decision to not let the birds out straight away with the puppies. They came back to bed with me after their toilet anyway (I leave them outside and in they come and jump back up and curl up next to me) for my snooze time as again I was not in the mood to do any work outside this morning. By the time I did get up Thelma had woken up fully and was doing her complete quivering wreck thing at me with her chew toy (kindly returned by SandS yesterday) and demanding I play with her. I did for a little while but then the earliness of the hour got to me and I sent them both to bed.

Heavy low clouds

I realised when I got in Thomas that I had forgotten to go fuel him up yesterday but I was already pretty much on the normal leaving time by then. Shrugging and deciding to be late I dashed across the new bridge to the petrol station, fuelled up, and then dashed back over and I was still on time to collect the men. This is useful to know. It started raining on the road (which gave me the chance to tease them that it was raining there and not in my village) but that rain has been drifting around on and off all day anyway.

Yet more digging required

So, to the men's work. Gyuner and Sally were straight out to the back patio checking out the cement (it had gone off very nicely over night) and then working out the next steps which is the drainage. I had miscalculated and this was pointed out to me that really we would want a slightly longer section of the slatted drains and Gyuner set to digging this new area out. After that they worked together to widen the area as we are now going to have a slightly deeper patio here, allowing for better drainage.

Getting the light switch in

Bekir was working on the living room electrics again and when I went through he was fitting the switches for the light above the stairs, both upstairs and down. This progress hasn't been as fast as I was hoping and this could be something contributing to my feelings of frustration today. I really hoped all the electrics would be done by today but it will be the end of tomorrow probably at this rate before we're done. The new door, bought in such a rush and taking so much time, is still laying on its side in the living room as well.

Collecting together split wood

Hikmet has been out all day in the drizzle swinging that axe and splitting that wood. It has been a joint effort between myself and Bekir to keep him stocked up with splittable lengths. I went out mid afternoon into the rain to chop wood and cheer myself up as my new development machine still wasn't working. It is now so tomorrow I should be able to get back to work properly, though really I should have the day off so maybe I'll just leave that til Monday.

The columns for the garage door are revealed

The other men were on with taking the boards off from around the uprights for the garage door and it is looking pretty good. It certainly does look wide enough and tall enough so now I'm just worrying about where Bekir is going to find good enough wood to make a garage door for the space. I'm even starting to consider getting a cheap up and over door fitted for now to take the pressure off as I'm almost certain we'll not get the wood we need in Bulgaria.

Puppies dashing across the living room

I headed into town first thing this morning to do some shopping. I had left the puppies playing on the top bank as they were having so much fun but as I got out of the vehicle gate and was just about to close it Louise came bounding up to me. I couldn't leave her so she came along. It was a super quick trip because I'd got her with me but I bought everything I had planned. When I got back Thelma was still playing on the bank but she came running up behind Thomas as I parked up and was very happy to see us both. They really are the most lovely creatures and I can tell you this time without A would be much tougher without them.

A little fire to keep the men warmer

It really was a much cooler day today and the men working on the driveway and garage had a little fire burning most of the day not to BBQ on (though it was used for this purpose again today) but to stand by every now and then to keep warm. I do feel for them having to be outside all the time but then I also do get outside myself and work alongside them in all weather so I don't feel all that terrible about it.

The birds gather, waiting for their bread

Today I had to refill the birds' main food bowls so I headed out there with a bowl full of bread for their morning feed. Kat was firmly ensconced in the nesting box when I went out so didn't get involved but the other five were stood by the door waiting for me. I did the bread then took their feeders and filled them up with seed and ground corn. By the time I went back Kat was out of her nesting box and there were two eggs (one warm from today, the other from yesterday) waiting for me.

Fitting the light fitting

Lunch was a blur of fighting my attempted linux installation and eating cold potato salad which was very tasty indeed. I wanted to get out and have a doze but this never happened. I'm now tired and want an early night. Bekir was carrying on with the electrics and after lunch was up the scaffold over the stairwell putting in the fittings for the light to go there. A little later on I went out to find him sat having a chat with the other builders and this decided me that it was time to go to town so off we went for the few extra building related items we needed. We got everything we wanted and were back within the hour.

The last row of big logs to be cut

I went back to fighting my laptop and when next I had a chance to step away I gathered my tea, my camera and myself and went out to do some more chainsawing. Hikmet was starting to run out of splittable logs so rather than get straight on to the walnut tree I set to and did about a third of what you see in this picture. After this I went to the walnut tree and split and chopped about a big bucket of wood before deciding enough was enough and packing up.

Pigging puppies

When I first went out it wasn't raining that much if at all but the drizzle set in quite a lot as I was working. The puppies were out playing on the flat area that was the dust bowl but now is a mud bath and so when I came back from tidying up I laughed a lot to see what a state they had managed to get themselves into. They were filthy. Filthy but so happy that you really just had to laugh and couldn't be angry at all.

The first light in the living room

When we got back from the shop Bekir got a shift on and managed to get the light above the stairs fully working, with the switch downstairs and upstairs operating it correctly. After this he headed up into the roof again to do the wiring to get the wall lights and other two ceiling lights completed and I really do hope he gets this done tomorrow. At the rate it went today, though, it probably won't be.

Explaining what needs to be done for the drainage

There are always distractions and as Bekir is the foreman and I ask him to oversee the other builders as well this does take some time. An example of this was as Sally and Gyuner got closer to installing the drainage by the back patio Bekir called the other two workers out to make sure they were going to do the drainage on the driveway to a good standard. They do get on well which is good but he did appear to be laying down the law a little bit in this discussion.

As I mentioned before the puppies have really been having a ball on the top bank recently and today was probably the most fun I've ever seen them having. I was outside watching them race around for ages without my camera with me so when I saw them chasing again later on I shot a short video of them. They are getting so fast now it's amazing.

The big tent is now up to keep me dry over the weekend

With the weather set to deteriorate over the weekend even further and me having made so little progress with the kindling collection for A I decided that I would put up the very big tent I own out where I'm cutting at the moment so I can work in the dry and, more importantly, collect in the dry as most of what I cut today was soaking when it got into the garage. I didn't get time to do this during the day but, after I dropped the men off which was uneventful, I went straight outside with the puppies and started putting it up. It took me about half an hour, and the ground is not very good for pegs so I've used a lot of stones to hold it down, but if it is still there in the morning this will be a definite benefit.

Potato based omelette for dinner

I got in from pitching the tent actually feeling quite hungry so started straight away to cook up the meal I had decided on for today. I fried the final left over potatoes in oil, pepper and hot things then added pork (I think?) to it to fry off along with some of the lovely red pepper. Finally I made this into an omelette and while it may not look all that appetising it really was very tasty.

So despite the distraction of the tent I've managed to finish this update nice and early so I can have a good early night tonight. A is out with one of her friends back home so I probably won't hear much from her this evening which sucks but at least she's having fun. Tomorrow I'm going to refuse to have anything at all to do with paid work; the last two days have really been enough for me. Night all.