Pepper preservation

Today in an effort to regain an evening of sorts I am starting this update as soon as I finished my day job. It just gets too much to work all day then take a few minutes then take the men and then type all night and go straight to bed, which is pretty much what the last two days have been. So on with the typing.

Very pre-dawn

Last night A was again already in bed when I finished typing so I fed Sassy, did some watering of plants and then joined her and not long afterwards the light was out and we were sleeping. A had decided to not light the fire earlier in the evening in the bedroom but as she went to bed she found it was just too cold and so we did light it. It heats up so quickly that this has given us the idea that we won't preload as much and will light it just before bed time. The puppies were quite disruptive last night and kept jumping on us in bed though I don't think they disturbed A. I was up for my own toilet break just before the alarm and the view from the balcony at that time was so amazing I again ran out there naked with my camera. It was cold, but worth it. Wow.

Full bucket of wood ash

Dug in nicely

Planted the seedlings and glass over

We actually had a little lie in after the alarm went off which was nice but then it was up and at 'em once more. A put the kettle on and let the chickens out while I emptied the ash trays and sorted those things out. I then did a load of washing up and then it was time for A to head off. While she was gone I was going to shovel dirt for the orchard however first of all I took the full bucket of ash from the fire and dug it into the raised beds. I then took the few winter greens which survived my inattention and planted them in one side of the raised bed and finally I covered it over with the window to make a little hot-bed.

Frost kills pepper plants

The hot pepper harvest

As I was finishing up down there I looked up and noticed that all of our pepper plants were wilted and battered and suddenly it hit me that we'd had two or three days of frost and hadn't been out to harvest these yet. I grabbed a bucket and headed into the garden to grab what I could salvage. Fortunately most of the fruits hadn't gone off yet and I collected quite a lot. I left the plants in for another time as there is now no rush.

A rock on ice in a bucket

With these two extra tasks completed I finally went round to the orchard and started shoveling the soil but only got two or three holes done before A got back with the men and came to see how it was going. I finished off the one I was filling then went inside to the warmth. Today the puppies had come out with me so I'd locked them outside and they had a lot of fun on the top bank but as soon as A got back they were inside and lying inside in front of the fire. It had been very cold the night before, though, and still was.

The sun rises over the Greek Mountains

A had not taken her camera with her this morning however the camera on her phone did a really good job of capturing this stunning view across from the men's cheren put towards the Greek Mountains. This is from roughly the same place as yesterday's picture and what a beautiful spot that is. Amazing.

Lagging the pipes in the roof

So anyway I headed up to see how Sally was doing in the roof space insulating the water pipes. He'd made a good start yesterday and today was just a case of finishing off the fiddly curves. It'll be good to know these are not going to burst on us, though they were good last winter and were full of water even then as I hadn't been able to empty the system so maybe they would have been OK.

He'd just found a leak and wasn't happy

I went to see what Bekir was up to and found him outside where the pipe comes up out of the ground to feed the building and he wasn't happy as the drainage people had damaged a pipe and it was leaking a bit. I agreed that we should fix it and so he wanted to go to town straight away. As it was so early, and I'd reached a break point with my work, we headed straight to town. I forgot to pick up the broken SDS drill but remembered as we were going along the front lane so he kindly dashed in to get it.

Strapped on tight to the tail gate

Safe as houses

We had a very successful trip as I picked up the washing line I needed, and a load of preserving kilner jars, and he found the plumbing bits he needed in the first shop then we went to a machine repair shop really close to there where the SDS was dropped off and finally we went to get two 1000L water storage tanks for the roof drainage. We did ask if they could deliver these but they weren't able to so with some fiddling, and the use of my straps,we managed to get them both onto the back of Thomas. They were really secure and didn't even move on the way home.

She made me wait while she did her hair

The men having a laugh

I was working away just before lunch when I heard conversation downstairs and went to see what was going on and it was Usmivka and the Little Lady bringing over some Turkish Coffee for us all to share. We welcomed them in and took them up to the living room and all sat in there sipping away and chatting. The Little Lady told me off for giving Usmivka a lift the other day when he was drunk and told me I should make him walk if he has had rakia. Bless them. I really hope they come on Friday.

A lovely afternoon break

We were both working really intensely today at our paid jobs but mid afternoon A finished a file and I was also ready for a break so we headed onto the balcony and sat in the sun and enjoyed ourselves for a short while. The puppies were running about the top bank playing together then separating to sniff around and then running back together to see each other. It was so quiet all we could hear was the bees and wasps buzzing around. Nothing else. Amazing, and in November too.

Bekir keeps adding insulation

Sally had finished his insulation on the pipes in the roof and moved on to tidying around. Bekir had fixed the leak in the pipe outside and was working on insulating it. First of all he wrapped it in the pipe lagging but then he went a step further and cemented in polystyrene around it. This is the technique which he will use when they insulate the entire building which may be a job for next year.

Ready for chopping and deseeding

Pickled peppers I picked................

I finished my work and so did A so we got ourselves into gear and started processing the peppers from this morning. We just quickly cut them in half, deseeded them, and then stuck them into the kilner jars which we then filled with vinegar. This should last us over winter until next year and it was such a pleasure to be once again saving our own produce. I hope next year we have even more to preserve.

Very pleased that one of our peppers is saleable

One of our peppers actually came out looking like one you'd buy in a shop which was quite exciting. I was more excited than A but she did a good job of looking like she was excited here, as she had planted it. The late peppers, which the Little Lady had brought over, produced not a single fruit which was a waste of watering but they were very late going in.

Super clean roof space ready for me to floor

He even swept the stairs which is excellent

As I said Sally had been upstairs tidying away and after finishing the preserving I went up to see what it looked like. It was amazingly clean and he had even swept the stairs out. They are so conscientious with how they leave a workspace which makes a massive contrast with the other building firm, another stash of whose food waste I found today buried in a ditch under some rooks. Not cool.

Burning branches on the rubbish fire

All of the rubbish from the roofspace had been brought down and thrown onto the fire by the driveway and I had earlier put a load of the thorny wood on it which had burned away. We headed down there towards the end of the day to take a look at things and while we were there A fed the remnants of the branches back on top of the fire. The whole place is looking so much cleaner and tidier now and tomorrow, if possible, the orchard will be completed and all the soil spread and that'll be another job completed.

Sealing for winter to stop rats

Sally came over while we were sat out there to say he was done and ready for another job so I gave him a very small but important task that wouldn't take him long. The hole we have knocked through to the utility room from the kitchen, in hindsight now not actually required until next year but still, is a clear path for rats so I asked him to put wood over it and all the way up the channeling so off he went and this is now done. This was a job I had earmarked for myself so it's great to get it off the list.

This won't freeze now. We hope

The pipe outside was finished now as well, fully skimmed with cement and everything. I got a picture downstairs then went upstairs to get a shot of the sun sinking and shining on the distant hills and spotted Bekir climbing my old ladder at its fullest extent and with no one footing it. I offered to go and help but he told me off and said he was fine. Crazy.

Sun shining across the distant hills

There has been barely a cloud in the sky all day today and while I was on the roof terrace I got a lovely photograph of the sun shining across onto these hills. In the summer this is where the sun disappears which shows just how far it moves to the south this late in the year. I headed inside after this to start this update and was called to give the men their lift a little earlier than usual. It was a quite uneventful trip apart from me overtaking in a bad place and missing an oncoming car by about six inches. Not clever. Bekir was stamping the floor to find the brake pedal. Oh well I didn't kill us all so it was alright in the end.

When I got back I got straight back onto this and then we ate pizza and chips for dinner which isn't a regular occurrence but sometimes lazy is best. Now I'm going to get this update posted and we may go through to the living room so I can sort the rest of the vinyls out. We'll see.