Second Week of Demolition Progress

Hello again, back with another update (focused on the Mountain House again - I will get the generic update done as well soon I promise; I have lots to tell you, mainly about Rambo and his eyes, but that will have to wait a little more).

I've just gone through and edited and uploaded all the videos for this blog post, which took long enough. One of them the sound cuts half way through; don't know what I did but never mind. Let's get this blog started before I pop out to the shop with A.

Day Four

Monday morning was cooler and damper and I headed over to the Mountain House a bit later than I originally planned. 

Arriving at the Mountain House

Day Four state of play

Bekir stood on a wall...

... and from inside

TIMBER!!!

Looking down from the top bank

The workmen prefer the temperature a little lower, like it was, and were cracking on when I arrived. Bekir was doing his usual thing of standing on top of walls while knocking them down and I was doing my usual thing of watching him and laughing. I strolled around for a little while taking pictures and shot a couple of videos and then, being very busy with work, I headed back home again. It was a flying visit but the main purpose (paying the men) was accomplished.

Day Five

After being later on site than planned on Monday I headed off before breakfast on Tuesday and followed Bekir and Mesut up the Cheren Put as they arrived at exactly the same time as me.

Absolutely stupifyingly gorgeous view

The building is reducing

Hills in fog

White stone being saved

Bekir at it again

The walls are very thick

In contrast to Monday it was an absolutely glorious day on Tuesday and I really wished A had joined me. Unfortunately I couldn't stay long again but I did stop far longer than I had originally planned, mainly walking around a taking in the stunning view, the clear air, and the peace and quiet. We were going to be down the two local helpers on Tuesday as they had to go do some paperwork in town but Bekir and Mesut were there all day.

I also shot a couple of videos as you can see above. Progress is always slower than you expect doing this kind of demolition because more time is spent in the clean up than in actually knocking walls down. There is so much material now scattered around the plot that yesterday I was even semi-jokingly talking about buying a mini digger to help shift it all.

Day Six

Wednesday was a non working day as Bekir had other things he had to do so Day Six is actually Thursday.

State of play on Thursday morning

Big timbers, and big stones

There is no wall

Glorious Autumnal view

Bekir working on top of the wall. Again.

Hard at work taking these walls down

I once again headed up really early and this time I was gutted that it was before breakfast as I wanted to stay and help; I decided to come back on Friday instead with supplies. I was a little grumpy due to the fact that the helpers from the village were stood watching so I asked Bekir if, while they had nothing to do, they couldn't start tidying the rubble and maybe getting it onto the lane where the rain damage is worse. As I left I felt pretty bad about this as they are working hard and you'll have to wait for the next section to find out how I made up for that.

I also took a few vidoes, which I'm enjoying doing more as part of this blog series. I think it's good to have moving pictures, and my words at the time, on top of this more reflective process of typing an update a few days removed. Also you can really see just how crazy Bekir and the lads are as they work on this project.

Day Seven

Day Seven was my day for earning my keep, for proving that I can still graft like I could a few years back. I was going to spend the whole day up at the Mountain House helping to labour and specifically moving the rubble onto the lane as I had requested the workmen do on Thursday. This is part of my mantra of never asking an employee to do something you are not willing to do yourself.

Read on to find out how I fared...

View across a foggy valley on the way up

The beginning of the day

After one of my barrow-loads

The pile that must be shifted

I'm far more exhausted than I look

It was a really foggy start to the day and it took quite a while to rise above it on the drive up to the mountains. At one point I actually stopped to get a picture from the road as it was so beautiful. I got to the site after the men, having stayed to eat breakfast and get ready, and got myself stuck straight in to taking a few pictures Then I started on the challenge I had set myself. I was going to finish off filling in the particularly bad section of the track with rubble from the demolition. After four or five barrowloads up the hill I was seriously struggling and had to literally lie down in a recovery position for about five minutes before I could walk. Even then I was whiting out as I made my way back to the tent for a drink of tea from my flask. I was going to have to take it a bit easier and steadier if I was going to survive the day.

The progress has been really good

Saving more of the white stone

Stairs down but no walls

One room completely cleaned

Lovely strong cup of tea

Lunch time rest

To be fair to myself I recovered and realised that I had just been overloading the wheelbarrow. I now knew how much to put in and was careful to limit myself to that amount. I also alternated this effort with doing other tasks like shifting stone and wood into suitable piles, making cups of tea and coffee, and sitting down enjoying the area. The men were going great guns and were now all getting stuck in with very little standing around watching (apart from me). Lunch arrived and the requisite rest was taken in the sun of the field next to our place (Mesut got bitten by an ant and jumped a mile) and then it was back to grafting.

Beginning to pull the floorboards up

Such a dusty day

The slope the wheelbarrows had to go up

The lane with the final load on it

A tired but very satisfied Beard

Only one wall remaining

Another fire to burn rubbish

A staircase "choked with rubble"

The day ends

The afternoon was more of the same and I kept plodding on and eventually, just before the end of the day, I had completed the target I set myself. It took about thirty or so trips but I did it. What a satisfying feeling. The workmen had also been doing a lot of work and while we aren't as far as I hoped by this day it still is very satisfying to see how far we have come. We may need to get machinery in to help shift the rubble, though. There is just so much stone and dust. The end of the day I spent chatting a bit with the men stood on the top floor then took some pictures of the state of the building as of now.

Beautiful sunset on the way to rescue the men

Bulgarian Pigeon Transport

I said good bye and drove home but before I reached home I had a call from Bekir that Mesut's car had broken down so I had to head back to collect them. The view on the way was so lovely, again, that I stopped, again, to get a picture. It turned out that the suspension was damaged on his car and I dropped them at the garage so they could go and get recovered then later, after popping home to have dinner, I went back out and collected them again to take them home. All this time Bekir had two pigeons in Thomas, trapped under an old mine-filter fitting. Only in Bulgaria. Hopefully the car can be fixed but I'm still waiting to hear about it. With this all done I spent an hour in a bubble bath to relax and I am happy to report that I am not feeling any aches or pains even now, two days later.

I have again collected the videos here at the end rather than scatter them through the day. One of these the sound cuts; sorry.

So there you have it; another week done and we're getting closer to finished.

Catch you next time.