Starting to put it up

Well once again the weekend has been and gone and I'm sat here with three days to get through so let's get it done.

A planet with two moons - awesome!

Rosie having the snuggles

The sun is about to rise

Sat in the boat that no longer moves

Waiting on the train, but it never went

The first pictures I took Friday night as Saturn (I think? Maybe Jupiter? :D) was very bright as it rose so I grabbed my main camera with the long lens and put it on a tripod to get a picture. I'm pretty pleased as I think you can even make out two of its moons! This makes me want to get a telescope all the more. Saturday morning we were up and about early and I was sent again by Rosie, who was cuddling teddies and the puppies, up to get a picture of the sunrise. After getting ourselves ready we headed out to once again try for the mini railway however despite sitting and waiting for about an hour and a half the train never moved. There were other people waiting as well but they all gave up also. I don't think I'll bother trying again.

Rosie being helpful

I have only one photograph for Sunday, of Rosie helping Angela with the shopping, as I spent the entire day stuck to my computer doing tourn.ee work. How boring.

A beautiful and dramatic sky this morning

Meet Pundik, Bekir's new puppy

Trimming out the edges of the mounting point

Lifting the first column into position

Pin front right is in place

Welding the column to the pin

The next column in its spot

And so we reach this morning. Once again it was a very dramatic morning sky so I grabbed a picture out of the window of Room 13. When Bekier and Halil arrived they had brought a new helper with them - meet Pundik the Jack Russell. The task for today was to raise the columns by the house and then get the cross beam on and they made a cracking start trimming away a flat area in the correct position on the concrete base and then lifting the column up. They held it in place with some large rebar drilled into the concrete and then welded the column to each of the four pins. In next to no time they were working on the next column which was the short one at the other end of the drive sat on the wall.

Xena very wary, with hackles raised

A much calmer picture

Halil drills for another pin

All the columns are in place

Just before I helped lift the cross beam

First cross beam perfectly in place

Needed a 10cm trim

Of course eventually our three would have to meet Pundik and it went about how you'd expect, with Thelma being very put out at its presence, Louise being the most accepting and Xena with her hackles up however with some patience and calm words they all settled in well and we were able to leave Thelma, Louise and Xena outside unattended after not very long. The men, while laughing as they watched us introduce the dogs, were cracking on getting every column raised and fixed into place and this was achieved in record time. I helped them to lift the first cross beam into place and I can tell you it was super heavy! We got it positioned and then found it was overhanging by about 10cm and then remembered - the 12m beams are actually 12m and 10cm and we'd forgotten about this. We left this first one a bit too long but they got the cutter out and trimmed down the other two for this side to fit perfectly.

The second beam is in place

Getting ready to lift the middle beam

I had to leave them to it after that and when I went back out I found that they had lifted the second beam into place on their own and were about to do the middle one. They were using ropes from the balcony (an idea I had suggested to them so that's cool) and I got a video as you can see. It's so great they made such good progress today and I'm hoping they can get the crane this coming Sunday to lift in the main 7m sloped lengths, but we'll see how this week progresses I suppose.

When Rosie met Pundik

Sat on the step together

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Rosie playing with Pundik. She refused to come inside after school as she was running around the garden and playing so much with him. Xena was interesting as she'd be OK with the newcomer all day but when Rosie arrived she got very jealous and a bit aggressive and had to be put back inside.

So there it is; it's always a longer one on a Monday. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.