Whip cracking and sunburn

Welcome to this update. I've just looked through the pictures and I think I'll be able to keep this brief, even though lots has gone on. This would be best as we're having a BBQ on the balcony in a bit and I don't want to be stuck at my desk for too long.

Friday

I can't really remember Friday. I do remember that I took the morning off from graft as I was aching on Thursday and so I had a slower start to the day; much needed. I think I may even have got a slight lie in as we snoozed the alarm a few times.

Early morning peach reflected in the mist

A slight glimmer announces the sun

Golden glow as it rises past the ridge

The new scaffold/ladder combination set

The sunrise was, as always stunning and I got a few pictures while I was putting together the new ladder/scaffold combi unit that I had bought. It took a little bit of time to do this but I got it set up and then was able to get on with taking the curtains down in the living room before A got back with the men. I'm not great with heights and I did struggle a little bit at first but it's actually pretty stable so it wasn't too bad. I was worse when it came to changing the lightbulb as this is no where near a wall that I could hold for assurance.

Using a pulley to get materials up the scaffold

Also beginning to put the panels on the end wall

Working hard in the heat

As the title of this post suggests there has been a surge in progress on the insulation following our realisation of how soon it is our guests arrive. Ideally this would have been completed before they get here but we don't think this will happen now. Anyway, Ivan has been really working the men and they've made excellent progress on the next part of the building. It's just such a huge task to clad all the walls that it is never going to be finished quickly. The benefit is that the weather has changed and so after those few days of storms we've had glorious sunshine and not such high winds and this has definitely helped.

Sally makes a start on the windows

Wide angle shot of the kitchen being worked on

The bathroom stuff moved out the way

Bekir works on channeling for lights

Okhtay scraping away still

He stole some polystyrene to finish these

Final touches; a new window ledge

In the kitchen progress was also exciting. Sally was working around the windows and holes in the walls filling in wherever he saw them. There was a tidying job to do as well to move all of the bathroom stuff out of the kitchen and into the bathroom where it can be out of the way until this work is begun. They really are working on the kitchen in earnest now and Bekir was continuing to channel for cables while Okhtay did odd jobs and scraped the walls. We had some decisions to make around where light switches and lights would be but they were quite simple choices in the end and now everything was decided apart from the specific location of the lights in the kitchen.

The chicken house really needed a good clean

A armed and dangerous

Just making sure I hadn't made a mistake

The shelves with their tomato seedlings

A found the joints were a bit loose so tightened them all

Putting stain on the bottoms

Both A and I were busy as well with our tasks. A was out in the chicken house giving it a good clean as it had been a while since this was done while I was inside putting up a shelf underneath the middle window in the living room to put our tomato seedlings on. After she'd finished sweeping out the chicken house A dragged the patio furniture out to do the finishing touches on that, just the feet of the chairs needed doing, and then it was time for a bit of a rest as it was rather warm.

Happy in my shorts and vest top

The lawn needs mowing again

Stepping out; it's a full on workout

Took a long rest at this point

Finally it's done and looking great

Lots of bits of metal that got stuck in the blades

For my part I pulled the lawnmower out and slowly but surely worked through getting the right hand lawn mowed. I wasn't in a hurry and just did a bit then rested then did a bit more. At one point Ivan demanded to have a go and did a stripe and a half but then he gave up. I don't blame him really but it's getting easier the more I do it. My hands are toughening up as well and I don't even have any blister photographs this time. What I did have is a pocket full of bits and pieces of metal that had got stuck in the blades as I was going. So much of this is from the old fence; I hope I finally pull the last of it out of the ground soon; it damages the mower.

The nicely cleaned chicken house

Rambo loves to get involved

Thelma and Louise with the ring toy

Working away under Ivan's watchful eye

The sun sets, after a beautiful warm day

In the bar, eating cheesy dessert

Before relaxing we finished off the chicken house, getting a couple of barrowfulls of hay in there and spreading it around for them. It looks so much better now. The workmen were still cracking on and had been told that they would be working late today to get a certain amount done. We sat on the bank watching, with Ivan, and playing with the puppies before it was time for me to go in and start preparing Spicy Pork Pasta for dinner. I left this sizzling when I took Bekir and the guys home and when I came back the men were still outside working away but nearly finished so I got on and made what turned out to be a very good example which both Chaz and Ivan said they enjoyed. In a break from our normal routine we went down into town after this for a beer in a bar and Ivan ordered a dessert. It was a lovely way to end the day but we were all pretty tired afterwards and headed to bed when we got back.

Saturday

There was no rest on Saturday either as we rushed to get things done. That includes A and I.

A few more clouds around, but the sun still shone strongly

Dismantling some scaffold

Nicely swept out kitchen, thanks to Thelma of course

All the living room curtains are in this vacuum bag

The units are marked, though we narrowed the aisle slightly

Lights above the island

We had a little lie in but not much of one and were up and about for our brews as the sun rose. It was a cooler start to the day, a little overcast and breezy, so the workmen outside were wrapped up as they took down some of the scaffold that they would need round the back to finish that wall. I had decided the night before that I was going to sweep out the kitchen and use spray paint to mark the rough locations for the kitchen units so we could then decide where the lights would be. Thelma "helped" as I did the sweeping with her stick which I did throw for her a little bit. A was tidying around upstairs including putting the curtains into one of the vacuum bags I'd bought the day before. When this was done we made another brew and took ourselves down to the garage with a tape measure and a spray can and we quickly marked everything out, then changed our minds and moved the island a little inwards, and finally marked the light locations. I'll be popping in to pick up the lights that we have chosen this week.

A cutting another shelf to size

New life in the walnut trees

About to start digging out a new flower bed

Narcissus ready for planting

A gets stuck into the raised beds

All the new bulbs in the ground

Another veg bed full of produce

Our original plan had been to have three shelves in the living room, under each window, but we found that we actually needed six planks as it took two per window. A was away into the workshop to cut down, sand and stain another set of planks ready for me to fit next weekend. As I'm typing this I've realised that she only did two so we'll need another one done. Never mind. I was outside in the garden while she was doing this making a start on digging out another flower bed for the Narcissus that I had bought a few days ago. I worked slowly without hurrying and got it all dug and them planted much quicker than I expected. We had a visit from The Little Lady and the kmet's daughter while we were both working outside (A planting sweetcorn in the raised bed and then preparing a bed in the fenced garden to taken peas and broccoli) and we took them on the tour (the kmet's daughter hasn't seen inside for ages). It was a lovely visit though the Little Lady scolded us for our lack of watering so we're going to go to twice a day from now on. Talking of water, the ViK has gone off yet again so we're onto free water in the house.

They had better speed this up

Getting there now

Finishing touches on the front

Two teams turning the windows

Thelma and Ivan

A wrestling Rambo who is loving the attention he's getting

Sisters fighting over a toy

The whip was well and truly being cracked over the backs of the insulation team as Ivan was sat staring at them to make sure they didn't slack off. Chaz headed off home mid afternoon, taking both of our sinks with him so the kitchen unit man can make the supporting unit to the correct dimensions, and strong enough. Hopefully next weekend I'll be able to go and collect these from this guy and bring them back. The jobs that the men were doing was finishing all the back wall that they had scaffolded and then coming onto the front wall to put the finishing touches there and turn the windows. Ivan had wanted them to completely finish the windows however they didn't quite manage it. It's such a complex job. A and I went and sat up with Ivan during his vigil listening to the music they were playing and having a laugh. The puppies were with us and playing hard, including Rambo who A had a really good wrestle with.

This lawn now needed mowing

That's better. Now they are in synch

This is A eating a very hot chilli

Ivan is excited by his dessert

There was no rest for me as I had another lawn to mow. It only took about an hour and a half for me to do this, at slow speed again with lots of breaks, and now both lawns are looking lovely. I'll probably have to start thinking about the irrigation plan for this as the temperature gets up. I've got the nozzles I need, I just need to buy hose and cut it to the correct lengths. Ivan was continuing to push the men hard but about 6.30 they finally called it a day and he legged it to the shops to get their dinner. While he was out I went to get fuel and had the amusing experience of the fuel attendant talking to me in French while I replied in Bulgarian. We had decided early on that tonight was a meal out night so we headed to our favourite restaurant and had a lovely time. We ordered our food slower this time and it worked well, though they didn't have the meal I wanted which was a shame. The chilli that came with my meal was so hot and I got A to take a bite and she almost killed me for that. Ivan got dessert of frozen yoghurt which came in a little pot and was very tasty; that'll have to be remembered for summer visits. We were again tired when we reached home and so after a brew it was time to go to bed.

Sunday

And so we come to today. I've typed super fast and while the BBQ is lit it isn't quite time to go eat so I'm going to get as far into this as I can before heading out to join A and Ivan on the balcony.

The sun rises between the mountains and the clouds

It was a seriously angry looking cloud. It blew away

The tomato plants enjoying their new home

Louise's little friend. I saved it though.

A lovely breakfast on the balcony

Loving the sun, and cuddling together

I slept like a log last night until I was woken up Louise crying to come through at about 6.15. After this point I could not really drop back off so I was up and going by about 7am. We had so much cleaning to do today, after doing none last week, that this was no bad thing. When I first woke up there was a raft of black cloud right over head, with the sun shining through below it, but as the morning went on this cloud blew away to the north and we haven't had a cloud in the sky since. I did the washing up, emptied the humanure buckets, cleaned Sassy out, and was making a start on tidying the corridor while A had a much deserved lie in as she had done the opposite to me and had a disturbed night then finally dropped off after I got up. We spent the entire morning cleaning, breaking only for a lovely scrambled eggs breakfast on the balcony. I'd been putting the washing out while this was being cooked and saw Louise with something in her mouth. When she dropped it I found a baby tortoise, the first of the year. I recovered it and then hid it in the undergrowth so she'd leave it alone. They were loving the warmth and cuddled up on the bean bag while we ate. Adorable puppies.

Louise waiting to be able to eat her food

Resting in the sun

We really enjoyed it out in this

With the cleaning done we went out onto the balcony and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon out there, roasting ourselves. A little word about the first picture above first, though. Louise came running into Room 13 carrying a biscuit in her mouth. She started to lick floor then dropped it and stood looking at us. She then picked it up and walked around with it in her mouth until I went and got her bed at which point she promptly jumped on it and ate the food. Silly puppy. Anyway, the temperature was really getting up out on the balcony and we got even warmer than the picture suggests, up to 40 degrees when I went in for my shower and took the thermometer with me. It was just stunning and I brought the rocking chairs down for us to lay on for the first time this year.

A very happy fisherman

Their catch

Gutting the fish ready for cooking

BBQ fish is on the menu

We had the day to ourselves as we gave the men the day off entirely. They have worked very hard and really needed some downtime to put in the big effort to get the rest done in two weeks. They went out early, with Ivan, to go fishing and returned just as A and I had come in from the balcony so I could start doing this. They had had a really successful trip and caught fifteen fish which they brought back to cook on the BBQ. Right now they are up there frying away and having a great time, from the sounds of it. It's lovely to see them smiling and happy after how run down they all looked yesterday evening.

It doesn't get better than this

Now I'm going to stop this update and I'll fill you in on the rest of our evening in the next one, on Tuesday. I'm off to the balcony to enjoy the evening and our own, meat, BBQ.

Ciao for now.