The end to the week

Well it's Sunday afternoon and time to start at this again; how time flies at the moment, probably an indication that we are starting to get busier again with spring just starting to show itself. It has been a busy few days, now I think back, so I'll get on with the pictures and words and you can read all about it below.

Thursday

Ahh Thursday, A's Saturday and my Friday. The day when A gets to go into town and shop and I normally do some cleaning around and put a load of washing on while she's out.

Pretty grim start to the day

Lunchtime task; plastering the holes in Sassy's room

Not a bad result, for a quick filling job

A is back planting seeds into seed trays

The weather really wasn't that promising on Thursday morning so the washing didn't get put on first thing. Typically it did brighten up later and it probably would have dried in the end but never mind. The shopping trip was started on time this week so she was back without too much rage. I was stuck inside working all day so there's very little else to say. At lunch time we did get to mix up some plaster so I could patch the walls in Sassy's room. We had fun trying to weigh out five kg of mix using some kitchen scales and now I've worked out a better solution for next time. The mix was pretty good and went on the wall well; in places I even managed to get it quite smooth. I had a little left over so tried to do the ceiling and it just slopped off on the floor. I'm not sure if I'm going to just go for a suspended ceiling anyway to make the electrical part of the job a bit easier. This was the last work on Sassy's room anyway for a little while as more important tasks were on the list. A went out in the afternoon and planted more seeds, strawberries included I think, and we did a watering round together in the evening which was lovely.

Friday

Friday morning there was no alarm and we took full advantage of it, getting a lie in until almost 8am which is unheard of. We're trying to train the puppies to stop sleeping in our bed at the moment which has been causing us some disturbance as they keep jumping up during the night. It was great to get to have some uninterrupted sleep.

Frying up our own eggs, with bacon, for breakfast

Thelma and Louise want some too

A hazy, and cold, start to the day

Tyres being changed for Thomas

Once we did get up and out of bed I made brews and then later on put some bacon and eggs in the frying pan for a lovely fryup. The puppies, who do get a rasher to share once we've finished eating, were starving and wishing that A would share some of her butty with them. Suffice to say that she did give them some bread - she's way too soft. The morning was another dull one and we headed off for our morning chore as soon as we'd eaten. I'd decided that the snow tyres should come off seeing as the temperature has been so high recently and I do not want these super expensive special tyres to wear out. When we got to the garage there was no one else around so we were seen straight away and it didn't take all that long to get all five tyres swapped over. Now we just have to hope the snow doesn't come crashing down in March like last year! At least, though, I'm no longer worrying about damaging the tyres.

Measuring and marking where the uprights will go

100 x 100 uprights cut and ready for fitting

Fitted and in place, with brackets top and bottom

We had several other chores to get done but before going out I dropped A off at the house, grabbed a butty, then headed off again. First I tried to get the car's preglet (the equivalent of an MOT) but the garage we use was shut. Then it was off to town to pick up some more items for my afternoon job, past the bank to pay myself and the accountant, and finally past the tool repair guy for my SDS drill. It is still not ready and now I am certain that he is being delayed waiting for a part. Never mind. I got back and got straight on with my job which was to make the wood store in the workshop. First of all I pulled all the wood out of the way from the back wall then I measured up and worked out the details of my design and finally cut the long uprights which would act as supports for the beams. This proved to be enough progress for one day and I ended the day with four uprights securely fixed top and bottom with brackets, ready for completion on Saturday. A had been far from idle since I dropped her off and had set herself the task of moving the firewood that is piled in the corridor to the firewood storage room in the flat roof building. This is a massive job which we just need to do a little bit at a time. After that she was quite tired and took a rest so I ended up with the puppies in the workshop with me to prevent them running around barking and waking her up. It was a satisfactory day, all in all.

The sun goes down, and barely a cloud in the sky

The lovely olives for starter nibbles

Three of us had the Lamb in the Oven, with A on Shashlak

A demonstrating the correct way to eat raw onion

The day had steadily got nicer and nicer though of course I was inside working through the afternoon. By the time I'd stopped and tidied up the sun was starting to go down. We had an hour or so to relax and then we were going out to our favourite restaurant to meet up with SandS for dinner. We got there a little early and ordered some olives to nibble on which were amazing. We had such a lovely evening with them and stayed out much longer than we do when it is just us, chatting and having a laugh. I had three beers so A had to drive back which was a nice change for me, and all in all it was a lovely evening. Really memorable.

Saturday

I woke up early on Saturday morning as I often will after having a few beers on the previous night. I lay in bed for a while and tried to get back to sleep but it just wasn't happening. One reason was a very exciting email from Chaz about our insulation which I was buzzing to talk to A about. I woke her by accident and then told her and then we were both awake so that was that. I did get up and do brews as an apology for the early start.

Two puppies keeping warm

One woodpecker on the oak tree

And then there were two

It was another cold damp and miserable start to the day and so the fire was lit in Room 13 for the puppies (not for me or A, honest). They cuddled up to each other and just before this picture was taken Louise was really spooning with Thelma. Very cute indeed. I was sat reading stuff online and sipping my third cup of tea before getting on with the day when I looked up and saw a woodpecker on the oak tree. I ran and grabbed the camera to get pictures and as I was doing so a second bird appeared and rested on the branch just below the first. I got a fair few pictures before they flew off. Later A came in from the balcony and said she had been out watching about four or five of them flitting between the tea trees and the front fence; I guess this is the breeding family from last year which has now returned from its wintering place. Excellent.

Keeping the brackets on a good level

Adding the first horizontal support

Some of the wood didn't match

Some simple bracing on the flat sheet storage shelf

Wood store full of wood

So the challenge for Saturday was to finish off the wood storage and this is what I did. I went in after breakfast (toast) and fitted the bottom level of horizontal supports, making sure to get them level in all directions. It wasn't such a hard task to do and it confirmed that the brackets I had picked up the day before were correct for the job. Of course, at the price per unit, I hadn't bought all that many so I had to head back out to pick up enough to complete the job. It didn't take me long to do this (though I went past the window company (shut) and the preglet place (shut) which did add to my journey) and when I got back I found A had been busy as well, making things one of which was a very nice first attempt at banitsa; that was lunch sorted. After lunch I went back into the workshop and continued putting up the wood store until I had enough supports. It was then a task of putting the wood from the bottom corridor into the storage, which A gave me help with. I also pulled the metal drainpipes from the men's room underneath the store; we're going to have to clear that room out and make it presentable as a matter of urgency now, following the conversation with Chaz, so this is a good start. I was walking around with a silly smile on my face at the result of this wood store; it's so much better than it was. Of course I have also worked out that I probably need another rack, of a similar size, so I can separate the wood out more to make it easier to access the correct type as they are a bit piled up randomly now.

Maggots under the hardwood

Ragu ready for freezing

Firewood from our land

When we went into the men's room to move the roofing hardboard we found that sadly it had been left for too long and the single sheet I had pulled out a few days ago is about the only one that is salvageable. Such a shame, but never mind; it had been sat there for two years near enough. It was so rotten that there were huge piles of maggots on the floor underneath and we just hauled it all up to the burning circle for a bonfire in the near future. I had distracted A from moving wood to help with this job and she'd also been active in the kitchen. The other day we used the last of my green tomato ragu sauce, made with so much cursing when A was visiting her parents in the summer, so A decided to make another batch but with red tomatoes so she got this done as well. The firewood store is looking quite full which is always nice though there is so much more to be moved from the small toilet rooms we're probably not going to be able to fit it all in.

Winter veg and garlic is growing out of the bed

Salads and flowers in the first raised bed bay

More seeds growing in the second bay

Slightly fewer here, apart from the beetroot

My first sagebrush seedling

I've thought for a little while about getting out to get pictures of the changes which are happening, now it's finally getting a bit more spring-like. I'm aware that there is every chance of more cold weather, and it certainly isn't past the "last frost date" so all of this could yet be lost however it's wonderful to see so much green appearing, and flowers also. First of all I took a stroll around the raised beds which have proven themselves over and over; I really do need to make more of these. We've got quite a lot of seeds showing now and most excitingly for me the first of the sagebrush seeds looks like it is growing. I've got SO many of these (as I want them to be all around the basketball court) that I need a good hit rate.

Japanese Willow showing green shoots

The tortoise garden has its bulbs flourishing

A surprise; Lidl bought Daffodils are still alive

The plum tree really is doing well

A's bulbs next to the driveway are also thriving

After checking out the raised beds I strolled round the rest of the grounds to check out the progress there. First of all the Japanese Willow I picked up for 99c from Kaufland (marked down from 99 bgn as it had looked so dead) has started to show some shoots which is just brilliant news. The tortoise garden bulbs have continued to put up green and there are now loads - this is going to be amazing when the flowers show up. The flags that are natural all over the bottom half of the land are also growing well though I don't have a picture for you. What I was most excited to see, and I hadn't noticed these at all until I was doing this pictures, was the Lidl bought daffodils that I put in the entrance garden two years ago have shown up again and are blooming really nicely. Further on the plum tree has real blossom on it now; here's to a good crop. A's bulbs, which she put in by the driveway, are also doing well. I took a careful walk around the orchard to see if there was anything good going on there and I'm a bit concerned that they aren't doing that well; A says she thinks they are fine so we'll hope I'm just worrying for nothing.

A's version of my spicy pork pasta

Storm clouds bubbling up over the horizon

A downpour, far to the north

For dinner A decided to try and make my Spicy Pork Pasta, using the recipe just linked to there. I don't know why she chose this but I was pleased as I love the dish and also it meant she was trying out the recipe steps. It doesn't take long to make and we were both feeling pretty wiped out so we ate it sat on the sofa and it was very good indeed. So good that maybe I can retire from cooking it. There were some pretty impressive storm clouds bubbling up around the place and towards the north it looked like quite a deluge was occurring. It never hit us here and we watched Space Balls and then went to bed.

Please do check out my recipe blog and if you DO make something from it (I know at the moment there are only two things on there, but they are both AWESOME) then put a comment up there. I'd love to know what you think.

Sunday

Ahhhh and so, eventually after many hours of typing (I'm not feeling under any pressure today) we arrive at this morning. Once again we were a bit disturbed last night by the puppies up and down trying to get into bed with us (I'm tempted to put them in their cage for a bit actually) and I again woke early and then just couldn't get back to sleep.

After a while I got up and got on with the day, starting by making a brew and then tidying the top corridor and sweeping through, down the stairs, and to the front door. I then did the humanure and emptied the food bin and finally scrubbed out all the dog food tins that were stood around by the trench. These we had been throwing into the village dustbin but the Little Lady was pulling them out and using them for plant pots which we thought was a good idea so we've started to save a few for our own use. I was feeling quite hungry this morning but I put off eating until I'd done that and then breakfast was the rest of the banitsa, slightly less salty this time which was good. A had cleaned through everywhere by the time I finished all of this and so our Sunday clean was done by 9.30am which isn't too bad.

A roll of swallow proofing

Snipping to lengths, which was actually dangerous

I only slipped once

Up the ladder and much safer

Now those swallows can't get in and out via the windows

With the cleaning done, and breakfast eaten, we got stuck into the only chore we were going to allow ourselves to do today. We had been so tired on Saturday night that we banned ourselves from a full working Sunday. For ages the task to prevent the wild birds from getting into the chicken house has been on the list and finally this week I remembered to measure the windows and go and get some mesh to put up. This is what we worked on this morning. It wasn't too bad, apart from me stabbing myself many times as I snipped it to length, and we got it all fitted quite quickly. I had some interesting balancing acts to do as I tried to zip tie it above the pond. Later we got the ladder out and this simplified everything as I could stand easily on it while it was in the pond. Now we have to make it so we can leave the door shut and still allow the chickens and ducks in and out; we've seen a clever idea using a toilet seat as a flap at the bottom of a door so this will be tried. Watch this space.

Rambo is so proud of his toy

A lovely warm afternoon today

Enjoying the weather, and her new smiley cup

Sassy came out to join us

Thelma is getting to be so big now

Happy in the sun

Rambo looking up at us on the balcony

Beer and puppies on the balcony

Louise looking slightly frizzy post-shower

And thus the working week ended. Since then I've been sat listening to music (from my phone via bluetooth to the new sound system - awesome tech) and typing away at this. I've not just been typing - A came in with a brew and we went to sit in the sun outside which was lovely. Sassy joined us as well and stretched out in the sun. She is so much happier being outside; the other morning when I fed her she allowed me to groom her for ages and I managed to get some quite large knots out of her mane. She just seems happier all around now. Thelma was also enjoying being outside and cuddling with A. While we were sat out there Rambo went on a walk around the land and said hello. After this A went in to make a cake (it's very tasty - pics some other time though) and then she brought a beer and sat in the sun again for a bit with the girls. They have been stinking recently, what with rolling around in the mud outside all the time, so she has also showered them this afternoon. They are very good and don't really mind however Thelma ran away from the towel, and Louise made a bed for herself in A's cardigan while she was out of the room. Bless.

So there you have it; a quite long update but it's just been nice to be able to ramble a bit and not be under pressure to finish the update. A few other things to fill you in on; we STILL haven't heard from the other builder about the basketball court however I've got Lyubo ringing him tomorrow to chase so we'll see. There's a chance that we'll have a completely different set of builders doing the insulation and soon (that's what Chaz may be helping us with) so that is very exciting indeed for us. We haven't heard from Bekir yet about when he can start though that must be relatively soon as well. It's all starting to pick up again.