Weekend and more rain delays

 We're back, a day later than expected due to very heavy rain yesterday. Onwards, no delay. Let's get this written.

Rosie exploring the neighbour's garden

Staining the pallet for her flower garden

The network points are in

Rosie with the baby tortoise

Making its way into the undergrowth

Rain stops work. Again.

Saturday is Daddy day and this Saturday I took Rosie into town briefly to go to the shops to pick up a few bits and pieces that I wanted. She loves getting out so was very happy indeed to be there. We had a picnic in the sun on the lawn and spoke with Grandma and Auntie Nods and after her nap I took her over to the neighbours where she played with the grandson and ran around the garden, then disappeared off with the Little Lady to see the sheep and chicks. It's so good to live somewhere safe. Sunday is Mummy day and Rosie helped Angela to stain up the pallets that will be being used to do a garden for Rosie. For my part I managed to get the network cabling done to connect the balcony to the main network. Later on the Little Lady and her granddaughter came over with a baby tortoise they had found. Rosie was fascinated but eventually we put it carefully into some rough ground on our land. Hopefully it'll survive. Yesterday it was miserable all day, with very heavy rain pretty much all day. Unsurprisingly the workmen didn't come.

Starting shifting. Again

And then the sun came out

Sisters snuggle

Bekir grading, Halil shovelling

Stones by the ramp

Incoming storm

The puppies did not like the storm

I had a very bad night sleep last night and was very busy at work but today the workmen did come in, though I expected them to stay away again. It was overcast and cold at first but then it cleared towards lunchtime and was quite pleasant at times. The task at hand was the shifting of more infill material, heavy work still, and then sorting through what had been spread to move the bigger stones that were causing unevenness and stacking them by the ramp. It started to get more stormy towards the end of the day and when Angela went to collect Rosie a big storm hit right over head and scared Thelma and Louise, who proceeded to prevent my quick after work nap. It blew over relatively fast, though, and now there's barely a cloud in the sky again. Such changeable weather.

Tomorrow morning I'm having my first vaccine so hopefully I'll be OK to do the update but if not I'll be back as soon as I can. Thanks for reading.

A day off, then a rainy day

 Friday once more, and a day off yesterday from both men and, therefore, blogging. Time to crack through now, though.

The sun rises over a misty valley

Angela clears the overgrown bushes

It is now SO much better!

Raining as I finish up mowing that first section

A storm blows past

Enormous fun on the balcony

A hole in the clouds

Yesterday was a lovely day through the morning and Angela got out into the garden to do a job she's been eying up for a while; trimming back the Lilac Bush. I helped a little with cutting down the larger trunks but what a great success and such a huge improvement. At lunch I dashed outside (literally) and pushed the mower around to cut the first section before it started raining. I did get rained on while I was finishing the final few bits but at least I got it sorted as after that it rained heavily, then cleared but that meant the grass was wet. It was nice enough after work to run around a lot with Rosie on the balcony and play catch and kick ball and catch you. Great fun.

Very messy wood room

Old racks are falling apart

Cutting old roofing beams to size

Floor to ceiling dividers

The wood gets stacked

It started raining in the night and rained heavily right through until morning so I text Halil to say that they should still come as I had a couple of jobs inside to do. I took Rosie to school and was very happy to see that they were there when I got home. The first job was to sort out the inside wood store such that we could clear the outside woodstore and access the toilet pipe. It was a mess in there, and the temporary stacking I'd made were starting to look ragged. They spent the morning and reorganised it all, stripping out the damaged pallets and rebuilding some before assembling a really strong floor to ceiling framework and lining it with pallets. Halil then grabbed a wheelbarrow and, through intermittent and occassionally very heavy rain, moved the wood from outside to inside.

Bekir drilling through for network

Grinding metal to support the wood storage

A much neater job

So much better

Yuck rain

With this job completed Bekir moved to the second task - helping me to run the network cable onto the balcony so I can maybe work out there a bit during the summer. I had worked out the plan for how the cables should run but asked him to fit a plug socket for the router, and also drill through and run the cable down onto the balcony. It didn't take long and now I have the cable there ready for me to find time to wire it all together. I am really hoping to do it this weekend. After this I asked them to replicate the wood storage on the other side of the room and they did another fantastic job so now we have plenty of really solid wood storage inside that will last a fair few years, until we finally get in and do the garage and associated rooms "properly". It really was raining hard through the afternoon but as I type this now it has cleared and the forecast is for 30 degrees and sun for the next week.

Thanks for reading; I expect to be back with an update on Monday.

Electrics and Stud work

 Welcome back, and to another busy day for me at work, and for the men on the renovation.

Sally covering up the cables

Bekir running the network

More cement work

Bekir on his ladder, after falling off it

I woke early and got a little hobby time before Rosie and Angela were awake, then was at my desk when the men arrived. Bekir did a little electrics work so that Sally could follow behind and cement over the cables and after that Bekir finished running the network cable into the Art Room. Now I just need him to fit a cover over the model railway hole and I'll be able to get in there and clean it before our guest arrives on Friday. The rest of the morning was taken up with me being on calls and the men working away to finish up the electrics and cover over all the cables with cement. Bekir fell down the stairs off this incredibly unsafe ladder; I've no idea why he isn't using the one you can see just at the bottom of the picture as that has a stairs mode that is super secure. Crazy times.

Sally and Halil putting battens on the wall

A grey day

Flowers on pepper plants

The afternoon was Bekir doing more electrics and Sally and Halil with the wooden battens attaching them to the wall which will have my model railway on it. Very very exciting times to see this coming along so well. After work, and that moment couldn't come soon enough today, I spent time with Rosie, we went to see the Little Lady, and had a lovely time outside and then inside. It has been a really gloomy dull miserable day today, but still the flowers grow on our plants. Incredible, this late in the year.

And there goes another day. Thanks for reading, catch you tomorrow.

Another weekend and Monday

 Welcome back to another update and I've a fair amount to cover so let's get stuck in to it.

Sun sneaks through the trees showing the frost

Rosie exploring the early morning

We go for a lovely walk as a family

The tower, ready to be lifted into place

Rosie spots the moon

Network cable into the Games Room

I was up super early on Saturday, deliberately, as I got some painting done before everyone else woke and then Angela got a lovely lay in as well as Rosie was having fun with her Daddy. It was a frosty one, the first frost of the year, but the sun came out and when it was showing it was pretty warm. Rosie was determined to be outside so we wrapped up warm and she ran around enjoying the freedom. When Angela woke after her much deserved rest we again got ourselves together and this time all went for a walk through the village, the puppies came as well. We took a turn down to the field below our house and found a huge high power tower laying on its side ready to be fitted in place. Rosie walked the entire way there and back; she's got so much energy both Angela and I were exhausted. I got the network cable pushed down through into the Games Room ready for Bekir to run through the conduit (which is way too high for me to even consider going near) and Angela assisted to guide it away from the lights. Later on we were outside running around and spotted a crane lifting the power tower. Rosie and I went onto the balcony to watch as they lifted it; you can see a video above. All in all it was an absolutely awesome day.

Autumn flowers are back

Sunday was less of an awesome day as I woke feeling quite unwell, just a slight cold but it really battered me. Angela got the shopping done and I had a lovely morning with Rosie again but then I was mostly in bed sleeping or wishing I was in bed sleeping. I did get one picture, of the beautiful flowers by the tea trees. I was only thinking about these the other day and now they are here.

Sally putting a second coat on

Halil plasters while Bekir considers power requirements

Channelling for the power

Bringing the cable down from the roof

Halil cracks on with plastering

Power on the middle landing

And so we reach today. I woke still feeling a bit rubbish but have steadily improved through the day; I am however looking forward to bed now. Onwards. The men were in and straight to it with Sally up the scaffold putting the second coat of plaster on while Bekir and I headed straight out to the builders merchant to get supplies, including cabling for the power which he measured out carefully while Halil continued plastering as well. The rest of the day was very noisy, and really difficult to work through, as Bekir was channelling for the power on the stairs that required a lot of work, including drilling down through from the roof space to bring power to the landing. Halil and Sally cracked on all day with the plastering and even started to go down the stairs - very awesome progress. By the end of the day a lot of the power was in, including for the switch to the light that will go outside the back door, and we're looking good for maybe even pushing through to the downstairs area this year! We shall see how quickly the carpet fitting tools arrive.

Stock on the petchka

Beautiful sky over the Old School

After work it was time to spend time with Rosie and Angela and another lovely evening was had. Today Angela made some stock from chicken and left over vegetables from our lovely Sunday Roast and was able to stick it on the top of the fire; this is one of my favourite things about winter and I can't wait to cook my Spicy Pork Pasta on there again soon. Rosie also spent time outside with one or both of us and it was a lovely evening, though the wind is still cold.

And so there you have it; the weekend and Monday. Thanks for reading.