I heard my first cuckoo

I'm starting this update early on Friday morning as last night I just wanted to rest and not be completely focused on typing for an hour or two after finishing work. Last night this seemed like a good idea but now I wish I'd just done it. Anyway, while sipping my first brew of the day, here goes.

Wednesday

If anything Wednesday was hotter than Tuesday and it actually had quite an impact on the workers. We've been suggesting that they take a siesta type break during the hottest part of the day and they actually did this a bit today. I'm particularly glad as I don't want them causing themselves damage working in 40 degree heat in direct sunshine.

A beautiful sunrise, as always

It was quite nippy though

Thelma wasn't impressed and wanted heating up

Louise just went back inside to her bed

The mole has dug A's spuds; it is WAR!

This is going to be a riot of colour

The orchard is flourishing

Thelma with her stick, and the area I covered

It dawned an absolutely lovely morning with a glorious sunrise that I saw happening from the window in Room 13 and dragged all of us onto the balcony to watch. It might have looked lovely but there was still a definite bite in the air and we didn't last long out there. Thelma was on my lap looking for warmth while Louise had just given in straight away and gone to her bed inside. Once A left I went out to do some morning chores and today I actually did shoveling onto the orchard. The first thing I did, though, was the morning watering round and I found that our mole had been back and this time had actually dug up a spud and an onion; not good. The flowers that A planted are growing really well next to the parking area and the orchard itself is flourishing. I was quite happy with my progress but haven't done any more since. The chickens were loving it as well as I dug up about 20 of the grubs that they love and threw them in for them to fight over.

The day begins for Sally

More cables being run

Okhtay cleaning the chimney

Bekir, Sally and Okhtay were all on good form when they got back and were straight away stuck in to their jobs. Sally had left the first application of cement around the huge picture window to go off and was back to working around it today while Bekir was still running cables,this time along the wall of the dining room to get to the nook. We'd decided to not separate these two rooms into different circuits which saved a lot of cable. Okhtay had pulled the short straw and was acting as a chimney sweep and clearing out all the accumulated rubbish and dust from years of neglect. He always has the hugest smile, though, and didn't seem at all bothered with being balanced so precariously with his arm in a chimney up to his armpit.

The final skim on the back wall

Painting on primer over the front wall

Asen on his own on the side window

Primer painted on the side of the porch

On the insulation front they had quite a challenge ahead of them for the day. Most of the walls had been finished with their skim the day before but the big one at the back needed a final skim before it was finished.The other walls had the thick primer painted over the top and Asen was sent on his own to work on the single large window (for the lab) on the end wall to finish the turning while the rest of the guys were working away. It was getting very hot and they were starting to struggle again so at lunch they had a good long rest and waited for the temperature to drop which was wise.

Sally smoothing off the wall below the picture window

The chimney breast

Okhtay pulled a lot of ash and rubble out of it

Filthy but happy

The rogue pipe, being removed

Sally was working away quietly and efficiently as always and had made a massive difference on the state of the wall below the picture window already. He was being left alone largely by the other two as the chimney cleaning exercise had become quite a large task. Okhtay had cleared out a lot of rubbish from inside the chimney below while Bekir went onto to the roof with his weight on a string and dropped it down to disturb anything stuck inside the pipes. A was trying to get some rest during this and the noise of it clanking down the chimney next to her was quite disturbing but it had to be done. After lunch they came to me to say they'd found a problem and we discovered that the petchka pipe in the bedroom had managed to become wedged right inside the chimney, to all intents and purposes blocking it. It's a good thing we hadn't needed our bedroom petchka or we could have found ourselves in a very smoky room. Bekir wrenched it out of the way and now we are good to go.

It must be summer!

The mole scarer in its hole

Buried and buzzing away

Another lovely nature shot from A

For ourselves I was working at my desk all day until 4pm when I legged it into town to the bank, and to pick up batteries for our mole scarer. It was a quick trip in and out but I'll have to repeat it to keep getting cash as the amount I asked for had a ridiculous charge to get in one hit. Strange. A had gone through our summer clothes which have been stored over winter as it's getting close to the time when we'll need to swap everything over again. When I got back I found A relaxing on the balcony and so she should, it was really hot; the thermometer showed 27 degrees in the shade. I went out and immediately "planted" the mole scarer and now we hope that it will work. A then took my camera to get some pictures of the men working but as is her wont she also captured a beautiful nature shot of a beetle on a dandelion head on our front lawn. Beautiful.

Drask is scraped on the wall

This place is starting to really pop

A clever solution

They are always so super clean

Sally works so hard

Channeling for over-sink lighting

This huge storm hasn't come out well on the photograph

The picture she had been sent to take was the men applying the drask skim on the wall next to Room 13. I had felt quite disconnected from the progress all day as I'd been busy and I kept looking round and seeing that I had missed progress. This is very unlike me as I'm normally running around with the camera all the time. Inside there was also some awesome progress to report. Bekir had run some string guides so we could see exactly what our chosen location for the island lights looked like. After seeing this we both agreed to move them 10cm across and now we are happy. Sally was tidying up around his work area in preparation for getting off home; I love how tidy they always are. There was also another little item I almost missed; Bekir had channeled out to the location for the over sink and over cooker lights. The journey back was easy enough but there was a huge looking storm developing to the west which felt threatening for a while.

Temporary meat storage for the neighbours

I went for Lamb in the Oven this time

A and Ivan sharing pudding

During the afternoon the Little Lady had popped over to ask if she could store some meat in our freezer. We of course said "yes" and so she came past with three huge bags of processed meat. This is from one of her cows. We headed out for dinner at our favourite restaurant and had a lovely time other then when Ivan had to rush off back to the Old School as he'd locked the workmen's bread in his own car. This is where the sensible insurance situation over here which insures the vehicle not the person was very useful; he just jumped in Thomas and was back very quickly. He didn't miss pudding, which he shared with A. When we got back the Little Lady came back over to collect the meat; we had thought it would be in there for longer but I think their plans changed. They were very grateful but asked if I was drunk as I had a sore toe (better now) and was limping. I don't limp when I'm drunk? Do I?

Thursday

I was so very extremely crazily busy all day on Thursday that I barely got away from my desk other than for chores. This means there are far fewer photographs than usual. It was also the reason this is being written on Friday morning.

Lifted the seed trays onto the floor

Sassy and Louise having a good sniff at each other

The duck pond ready for cleaning

Silver birches are doing well

We woke to another beautiful morning but didn't go onto the balcony to watch the sunrise. A headed to get the men having given me my task list for while she was out. First of all I went round and did all the water. Because of the threatening looking storm I'd asked A to put the seed trays on the floor just in case it blew in badly but that turned out to have been unnecessary. I lifted them up and watered them while Sassy and Louise renewed their friendship. I then emptied the humanure buckets and cleaned them out before finally getting over to my real job which was the duck pond. This had been emptied over night and I scooped not that much duck poo into a bucket before beginning to refill it. The collected gunk I poured next to the two smallest silver birches and I paused to appreciate just how well they are all growing now, even the broken one which had no green on it at all a week ago has burst into life.

First mix of the day

The side wall is completed

Onto the back wall, before lunch

Once again the insulation guys had a big ask on. Ivan gave them a friendly challenge to complete all the "drask mazilka" application before lunch time. They were up and at it early and worked really fast; as I said before I kept turning around and finding that they had started and completed a task before I even knew it. They went onto the back wall which is very big and Ivan was pleased to report that they beat his target by over an hour. This meant they got a much longer rest at lunch and I certainly feel this is fair; the heat was really up again and working then wouldn't have been good anyway.

Bekir chipping out channels in the wall

A very shallow pond to swim in

It is a measure of just how busy I was that I only have one picture of Bekir working in the kitchen. Lots went on down there but I just missed it all. We've got channeling going to the island lights, Sally has finished below the window and done a few more bits and pieces as well, and Okhtay assisted Bekir all day. I got out mid afternoon to check on the duck pond and found Balls stood on the back of Beaker. I didn't get the camera out in time but it was very strange. The pond was hardly worth swimming in but they were obviously really hot.

The building is looking so much better now

I don't know why but I really love this angle

All of a sudden we have a painted wall

The second coat is applied on the back wall

BBQ with baked spud

A cloudier end to the day

I worked until 4 when I legged it into town and when I got back so much had suddenly been done. It was wonderful to look along behind the neighbour's house and see the paint on the end wall. The house looks so well now! The workmen didn't stop there, though, and after a short rest they went over with the second coat of the paint, while I was sat relaxing on the balcony. It was then time to take the men home and this was without any drama and finally it was time for a BBQ on the balcony as the sun set into a hazy cloudy sky. Briefly we discussed moving inside as the temperature was dropping a bit but then the wind stilled and it was a beautiful evening to eat good food in good company. We had a brew inside after dinner before heading to bed at 9pm which actually felt quite late.

Clean glass on the petchka

And so I'm going to head off and get on with my friday chores, of which you shall hear more on Sunday. I'll leave you with a picture I meant to share earlier in the week but forgot. A was cleaning around and tried out a method of removing soot from the glass on the petchka by using ash from the firepit and it worked a dream. Look at how shiny that is! And for those who are concerned, Ivan's foot is much better now.

Ciao for now.