Half a week of progress

After my last update, which ran to 90 photographs and I don't know how many words, I have decided to pick up the update baton a little earlier this week and get a quick one done this morning. It is now Wednesday morning and A is out collecting the men. I've finished my morning chores (fed Sassy, done the washing up, lit the fire to take the chill off) and thought I'd get this done as well. So here goes.

Red sky in the morning...

The broken wheel is removed

Sally making use of his new machine

Coal shed being dug out into Thomas

Up the top of the village throwing the dust into the dump

Yulhan gets the ceiling painted white

The wheelbarrow is fixed

This update begins with me writing the previous post as it took me all day, on and off, to do that. So let's go back to Monday and the glorious sky that greeted us when we got up to collect the men. It was not very long lasting, indeed it had faded from its initial colours by the time I had the camera, but while it was visible it was stunning. Indeed it was quite an efficient morning photograph as A, heading downstairs already, heard me walking across the living room and guessed to pass the camera up the stairs to me. Teamwork. The workmen got stuck straight in, and we had an extra body starting to do my job of digging out the coal shed. Bekir ground off the old broken wheel on the wheelbarrow and welded a new one on so we're back to having two builders barrows which is great. Sally, after a little nudge, got the mixer running and since then he has seemed to be loving it. As I say our new guy, I've not caught his name accurately yet, is doing the disgusting job of digging out the coal shed and was straight in there chucking the dust into the back of Thomas. When we did the first empty we dropped down into town and bought him a new shovel as our old one wasn't good enough. Finally inside the painting had started on Room 13. What an exciting time!

Sally laying more bricks as the house grows

A bucket full of flowers to plant out

Border flowers

Three tonnes of sand

After Sally had done his mix he got straight back into building the housing for the reservoir and the generator. The big cement bricks that we bought are making this go very quickly and should also have some insulating properties as well I hope. I was out to the shops a couple of times and one of those times A headed out into the garden and did some planting out. We had been given some lovely bulbs by the Little Lady the other day which had kept well in a bucket of water but now they are planted along the border near the garden, with my ice follies, looking beautiful. The busyness of the morning continued with two truck deliveries, one of sand and the other of stones, which have replenished our diminishing stocks. We also did two trips up the mountain in the morning to empty Thomas; this new kid is really doing well.

Bekir measuring for the drain

Tiles laid

Sally getting close to done here

First course of the next building laid

Half way down the wall

There was even more progress in the afternoon as Bekir got into the downstairs shower and laid the tiles in there. He suggested a nicely patterned layout which I immediately agreed to and I think you can see just how well it looks. Outside Sally finished the walls for the first housing and moved round the back of the building to make a start on the next and at the end of play the first course of bricks was done there as well. The painting inside was also cracking on and we could finally see the colour I had selected on the walls; I am very pleased with it indeed.

Clouds and rain on its way

The sweetcorn seedlings, getting covered

Courgettes under custom made cloches

A very happy sight; a pea seedling

All afternoon the weather had begun closing in with heavy clouds and some wind picking up. I headed out with the cloches to protect the sweetcorn and courgettes which A had planted out earlier on. I also found a wonderful sight of the peas finally starting to show; we've yet to have any success with these plants; hopefully this year we'll get a crop. They are in the old spud beds which means we can easily build a framework for them to climb up. Because of the wedding our Sunday roast occurred on Monday night and it was superb but I ended up having a bit of an upset stomach and had a bad nights sleep.

Bekir measuring the metal

Cutting up our sections

The light fittings being moved out 15cm

Already made good by the end of the day

A damp bricklaying day

Over half done by the end of the day

Tuesday had a rainy start, Sally was able to get a mix done and begin work but then it started to rain quite heavily. I headed out with Bekir to the metal yard to get the materials for making the legs for my work bench in Room 13. It took a little bit of time but eventually we were served and came home with enough material to do the job. By this time the rain had largely stopped and as it happened Sally could work outside all day. Inside Bekir was grouting in both bathrooms, as he's also put the tiles around the window in the upstairs one, and then at the end of the day I suddenly realised that the light fittings above my bench would be too close to the wall as I've gone for really deep shelves. Without a grumble Bekir was up and channeling and moving these fittings. This morning he's moving the final two and then a small amount of paint will be required. Yulhan completed all the painting in Room 13 and the colour is just perfect; it was glowing so much that I thought a light had been rigged up. Perfect colour. Sally, meanwhile, had made some good progress again outside and the second little house is coming on well.

Some of my scenery, set up for a game

Louise waiting to go to bed

Looking towards the quarry

The coal shed is getting clearer

After a dinner of an absolutely superb lasagne we set up and played a short game of SBG which was a lot of fun. A was quite tired, after working all day, but as she's going away tomorrow for a holiday we both wanted to get a game in as we haven't done it for a while and also we've been sat watching TV programmes a lot recently. It was a good game and I enjoyed it more because I finally beat her! We had a quick brew before bed but Louise thought this was very much an unnecessary delay and sat on the stairs waiting for us to go up. This morning was still very overcast but we've had a few glimpses of sun every now and then. Sally is still able to work outside currently while Bekir is shifting light fittings before getting on with all the rest of the electrical work in there. Yulhan is tiling the vestibule outside the upstairs bathroom and outside the young kid is cracking on with his job; this was the state of play first thing this morning and you can see he is about half way done. Excellent.

Right, that was a good idea, getting this blog written now. That's a much more reasonable length. See you at the end of the week.