Another huge grinding day

Today has been another glorious day, with one short shower just as I was about to mow the lawn (but more on that later).

Moon rises above sunset-lit clouds

A photograph for Angela (wait for her to paint this!)

And the morning comes round once again

Let's start off with moonrise last night; just as I finished up publishing the blog and was doing some work into the evening I saw the moon rising over sun-set coloured clouds and grabbed the real camera (most pictures now I take on my phone) to get this shot, and another of a distant storm cloud also lit by the setting sun. Glorious. It was also beautiful this morning as the sun was just rising. I was awake early and got to enjoy all the stages while sat at my desk on the balcony.

Bekir grinding out the wedge

Needs a little more trimming to be perfect

Halil fits the new crocodile clip

Working hard on a production line

A little brush fire is kindled and then extinguished

This day can be truly summed up with two words: "Grinding" and "Welding". That is what Bekir and Halil have done all day. It has been a very efficient production line with both of them constantly busy. They went to the shops before arriving to pick up a new crocodile clip for my welder, and a bigger circuit breaker for the chicken house fuse box. Then they got to work. Bekir was first of all tasked with cutting a wedge out of an 80cm long length of pipe and bending it into the exact same angle as the exemplar. He was doing this free-hand, I've got a video a bit further down. When these angles were correct Halil then took the part and welded it together completely. This took all the morning and into the afternoon. Just before lunch there was a bit of a fire as a spark from the grinder caught in the dry brush but it was put out really quickly.

Getting stuck in removing overgrowth

Cucumber frame in place

Angela got out into the garden for a good chunk of this morning and into lunch; she trimmed back all the tomatoes and refreshed them a lot and also put a frame up for the cucumber plants. This garden is looking amazing now, and we are already eating carrots and peas from it. Superb.

Welding like a champion

Loads done, more still to do

Now Bekir is tidying up the welds

All afternoon the grinding and welding went on and on. Halil was cracking through the angles while Bekir finished off making them and then, once he was done with the last one (the video above is one of the last ones he had to do) Bekir went to the little grinder and worked on cleaning up the welds that Halil had done. It was non stop and relentless and really hard work! Today was a tough day for them.

A beautiful vista from the balcony

Vine is growing really well

Moving the remains of the manure off the lawn

I had a crazy busy work day but today I was able to get away from my desk for 5 minutes and tend to the vine. It is growing really well and needs training every few days to keep it growing as a shade. I really do need to get another vine planted and established next to it as only half of my trellis is being covered (the one I did plant died a few years back for some reason). After work, and before Rosie got back, I tried to mow the grass but the push mower didn't start and then before I could look into why it started raining so I put that back and got the wheelbarrows and shovels and shifted the manure pile over to where Angela wanted it. Rosie helped when she got back from school as well.

Halil still welding away

I'll leave you with this picture of Halil on his final task of the day (and what he'll be working on tomorrow as well). Here he is attaching the angles to the top of each upright. What a hard day work.

So there you are; a really productive day for all, and hopefully tomorrow will see this welding and grinding task completed so they can get onto less noisy and unpleasant tasks. Thanks for reading. Back tomorrow.