More wall

 Today involved a stinking headache/near migraine which sent me to bed for a large chunk of it however I did drag myself out of bed a few times and managed to get a day done somehow.

Rosie with her basket of eggs

Eggs hanging in the tree

Rosie finds the first egg

It is Easter here, as Bulgaria goes on the Orthodox calendar, and this meant that yesterday Rosie came home with an easter egg in a bag and today Angela arranged an easter egg hunt for her. After hanging a load of eggs in one of the front trees I took over and Angela hid the eggs while I distracted Rosie then it was time for the hunt. She had a great time walking around looking and Angela did such a good job of hiding the eggs, but making them easily findable, that Rosie loved it. It was a really lovely way to start the day.

Collecting sand for the cement

Working on the humanure walls

Another course going on

End of the day, over half way

And so to the building progress and I don't have much really to show here as it was all about the wall. They are over half way done on that now, and did get the first courses done by the humanure so I can now empty the buckets over the weekend and not cause a problem there. I do still need to test the pumps, however. I hope they do still work!

On the balcony for dinner

I'll leave you with a picture and Rosie and I on the balcony eating (well, she is; Angela was just bringing up the rest for us to have) it truly is a blessing to have that space.

Thank you for reading

Building a wall

 Another tiring day but more progress, and I did get a bit more of the grass cut though not as much as I hoped to as you'll see.

Preparing a pipe to run through the foundations

Mixing up the cement

Bekir laying out the lines

Halil assisting

First course going down

Filling the center with cement

The men were in on time and got stuck in to finishing the foundations, going up the side of the patio towards the house. I've asked Bekir to put in a water pipe that will run the width of the patio just in case we do get a bore hole; this will mean we don't need to dig it all up in the future. With the foundations completed Halil drove Thomas to get some more materials and then they got mixing and started on the wall and they worked on that all day. At lunch time I went to post some parcels to some friends and smacked bang into the final holdout of terrible Bulgarian service and stubborn rude refusal to provide the service they are paid for by the mini-hitler at the post office. She refused to take any parcels demanding I open the VERY well packed (wrapped in gaffer tape and very secure because they contain delicate models) parcels so she could see inside; then she made up some excuse that where I had written the addresses was incorrect and she wouldn't accept it because of that; I wished her a terrible day and now I wish I'd taken her name so I could complain; it felt like a racist incident which is not something we experience here often and not something that occurred to me until afterwards. This not only means I've got to find an alternative to sending these parcels but also took my lunch time mowing time away from me. As you can tell I wasn't happy.

Rosie having fun with paints

Three courses done

When work finished I went out and got a load of mowing done, while Angela collected Rosie and went to the park for a bit. Then it was time for some painting on the balcony before dinner. I snapped a quick shot just now of where the wall is up to and I'm realising tomorrow I need to get them to complete the wall in front of the currently in use humanure collection point as I'll need to have that available to empty buckets into; they've taken longer on this than I expected so we'll be on the bucket toilets a bit longer than I thought.

So there you are; no school for Rosie now until next Wednesday as it is Easter here and hopefully the men won't take that time off as well else we will be in trouble for the toilets! Thanks for reading.

Lawn mowing, long weekend, and back to work

I'm pretty tired for a Wednesday as I sit here typing this up so this update will probably end up being a bit short and skip some things; we didn't have the men for a couple of days as they were doing work on their own house hence the gap in updates.

Making her way through the long grass

Beautiful clover leaves

Rosie found a daisy

Climbing the back bank again

Dinner on the balcony

The sun goes down

Louise got a shitty neck

First tortoise I've seen this year

Cutting very long, wet, grass

First let us fly through the weekend, Monday and Tuesday. Saturday was a cold and damp day but I still got out with Rosie in the morning for a bit but it wasn't much of a great day for doing very much at all. Sunday was far nicer and I got to go on a walk with Rosie where we went up the back bank again which she loves. We also took a table onto the balcony and ate our dinner out there for the first time and we have done this now every evening since; even with sometimes there being clouds or strong winds we can now really enjoy the fresh air and views. It's amazing. I saw my first tortoise of the year on Monday as I took Rosie to school in Thomas in the morning, forgot to swap the car seat, and had to go and collect her when Angela only discovered this too late when already at the school in her car. Silly us! With the weather now finally improving I've been able to get out every day this week and mow some of the lawns. I've nearly finished doing the first pass to get the crazy overgrowth down and then I can run over it again with a lower setting to tidy it up.

Halil gets the mixer running again

Back to making strong foundations

Very happy puppies in the sun

And continuing round the corner

Breaking rocks in the hot sun

The men were back in today and continuing on the foundations work. They completed the run along the front wall and then got a fair way down the side up towards the house. It's slower going than I expected but from tomorrow they say they will be starting to build the wall which is awesome. I need to test the pumps for the toilets and work out where this pump house is going to go if we are going to try my enclosed collection point idea. Something for tomorrow maybe. I got out at lunch again and mowed more of the lawn and the puppies were loving the sun. Today was a warmer day all round and I didn't envy Halil breaking up rocks with a sledgehammer.

So there you are; short but sweet and I'm going to take myself to bed! Thanks for reading.

A rainy birthday

 The update today is going to be short but sweet. It has been a memorable day for a couple of reasons, adn the progress outside has been steady but all the same thing so there aren't a lot of pictures.

A lovely birthday picture

Where the men finished yesterday

Overcast over the orchard

Getting started

Nearly to the humanure

In the first collection point

Extra blocks delivered

The first reason for today being memorable was being greeted this morning when I went downstairs by Rosie saying "Happy Birthday, Daddy" which is just the best thing ever. Rosie gave me a rose, and Angela some awesome hobby supplies, and it was a lovely way to start the day. Rosie was off to school with Angela and I got a picture of where the men got to before hanging out the washing then going to my desk for the day; the day started off overcast and didn't really get much better all day. Today was another day of cement mixer and laying foundations for Bekir and Halil and by the end of the day they had done across to the second humanure collection point. We also had a second delivery of cement blocks so now I think we have enough for the job.

Angela plants the Rose that Rosie bought me

Beginning to cut the grass

First section of lawn is mowed

Sat watching the rain fall

Angela did some research and worked out where to position the rose for best survival chance and then went out and planted it for me; I will be REALLY making sure this survives and grows huge; I may even get a net for it so the wasps cannot get to it. She then pulled the fixed mower out and managed to get the first section of lawn cut, though it was very hard work being so wet. It began to rain as well. Not ideal lawnmowing weather. When Rosie got back from school she came to sing Happy Birthday for me, which was awesome as well, and then we went onto the balcony to play and sat for a bit watching the rain falling.

The second thing that made today so memorable was getting to watch the Crew Dragon launch to the ISS; so inspiring and amazing to see. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back for another update on Monday.

I dig, and cement work begun

 Today was a lovely day all day, sunny and warm, and I was very jealous of Bekir and Halil being able to be outside. Rosie also was well enough to go back to school which was a very good thing indeed.

Lovely early morning start

Humanure steaming in the morning air

Dug out and ready for the men

A lovely bright airy morning

Angela digging over the potato tower

Cutting the door, and raking out rubble

I woke early as planned and went downstairs, made a cuppa, and headed for the humanure to start to dig it out so the men could get their task done without having to face smelly digging. It was not a long task, and it was great to see how warm the compost is as it steamed in the morning sun. With that completed I headed up to my desk and sat and enjoyed the sun streaming in the open window. I really do love it when it is sunny! Angela dropped Rosie at school and came back and went into the garden, clearing one of the old potato towers to put some plants in. Bekir and Halil were happy to see the humanure begun and got stuck in to digging out the trench again. Bekir used a chainsaw to trim back the door that is being used to keep the humanure from falling around the base of the tree.

Overgrown Hugelkultur

I did this during lunch

Starting to mix cement

Foundations being laid

I took Bekir down to the shop to order cement and cement blocks as early as I could and then was at my desk until lunch time; my desire to be outside prompted me to grab the fork and a wheelbarrow and start weeding out the hugelkultur. We will be putting the soil dug out by the men onto here and then eventually into more raised beds. With the trench finally finished along the front the cement mixer was dragged out (they also finally fixed the mower and proved it was working so that's great news!) and with Halil doing the mixing and Bekir piling stones into the trench in between layers of cement, they made a good start along the front. I don't have a good "end of day" picture so I'll get one for the morning before they start.

Halil unloading the cement blocks

Thelma and Louise helping out

Cement blocks for the front wall

Cement for the foundations

As soon as work was over I was back outside to continue digging over the hugelkultur. Shortly afterwards the delivery truck arrived with our blocks and cement and that was unloaded while I continued to dig, ably assisted by Thelma and Louise as you can see. Hopefully we have sufficient blocks for this part of the build. We worked out the order in which things need to be done while I was driving Bekir and now have a good plan to get the patio poured in one go without joins that can get damaged by frost or weeds.

Louise giving Rosie kisses

On the balcony with Rosie

Sun going down behind the edges of a storm

Angela got back with Rosie just as I finished doing the digging over and it was time for Daddy Time. She is getting so much better with the puppies and understands now to wait for them and not chase them as much. We spent some lovely time on the balcony as it was a glorious warm afternoon but just now as I was walking up after her bedtime I could see what looked like a storm blowing in; let's hope it stays nice tomorrow!