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!