Toilet done, men away for a while

The men were back in today, for the final day of working with us for a couple of months, but first of all let's go through the weekend.

Camping time with Roo

A quality early morning sky

Setting the stones under the bench

Old bench and new

Rosie on the swings

A party display at the park

Picnic in the garden

Friday night was awesome as I pitched the tent and me and Rosie camped the night. She just loves camping, and slept really well. I was up super early, as usual, and went out to do the final tasks on the bench which involved bringing up stones and spreading them, and shifting the big pile of spoil left over from digging out the footing. It looks great and Rosie has been sitting up there loads. She really likes the heart shaped stone that I dug out and have leant up against the fence. We headed out to the courier midmorning and stopped off at the park for some fun before heading home in time for a call with my family and then we took the blanket into the garden and had a picnic lunch.

The huge tent is set out for erecting

Rosie fits inside the bag for the tent

This tent is just superb

Excited to be back here again

Louise is grumpy that Angela isn't around

In the afternoon Rosie and I took down the small tent we'd stayed in, and then put up the huge family tent as Angela and Rosie camped on Saturday night. It went up really well, despite the wind picking up quite a lot, and then we rushed out the door for dinner and playtime at the restaurant up the road. It was a very lovely time, and we met a Bulgarian couple who live in the UK and were over for a holiday to visit family. They had a daughter the same age as Rosie and we invited them to visit next time they're in the area. That evening the camping was a relative success (though it rained heavily) and I had the puppies up with me who were sulking a bit that they weren't able to cuddle with Angela.

Smashed hatch glass!

This was so tasty!

A stunning sunset

Sunday was super busy for me but there was some drama. I was working and Angela was cleaning when I heard a huge crashing sound and went running to find out what had happened. It turned out that Rosie was trying to put the hatch down and it slipped out of her hands and slammed down super hard, smashing and scattering glass everywhere. Rosie was, of course, distraught and had run off to hide on the balcony. It took Angela and I about 40 minutes to clean up all the glass and make it safe to let the puppies back in and for us to walk around again. We're now waiting for the window people to come quote for a replacement with safety glass. Later on I took Rosie to karate, had a very lovely meal (that I cannot remember what it was called) and then as I collected her the sky was stunning.

Halil gets started sorting the spoil pile

Pipe is now being bedded in

Loads of bricks to be skipped

Drain from the downpipes being re-attached

Breaking out for an access hatch

Cementing in to finish up

Boxing off done and dusted

And so to today. The men were in on time and got stuck in to the final jobs to finish the toilet install. They sorted through the spoil from their excavations (they had dug up loads and loads of stones and old bricks) and then secured and covered the pipe over. With that done Bekir reconnected the drainage pipe into the main feed down to our grey water system and then put in the inspection hatch over both the access points (so we can clean the pipe if we get a blockage) and finally boxed off the hole in the wall as well. It was a good and productive day and Halil's friend also came past to do the annual service on Mo the lawnmower, who was immediately put to work as the grass is growing so fast right now.

Balcony dinner time

I'll leave you with us having dinner on the balcony for the first time this year. We even got to watch some cycling, which Rosie really enjoyed. A great way to end the day.

So there it is. The men won't be back for a fair few weeks so I doubt I'll be updating soon but thanks for reading.

All about toilets

 It's so nice to have the men back, even if it is going to only be for a short while. I've had a crazy day myself but did get some pictures when I could. Let's get to it.

Very tasty with our own eggs

Before work, though, is the lovely breakfast that I cooked for me and Rosie. It is a holiday week so Rosie is at home all this week.

Checking out the pump house

This is the old broken part

Halil fixes the seat - he's a legend

The men were in on time and the first thing I asked them to do was look at the broken upstairs pump. I hadn't realised that we actually did already have a spare bellows in stock so they swapped this out which didn't take long and then we primed and checked it is all working. This is great as having the toilet up there working is big for when my mum is here. After that Bekir went to talk with the neighbours to find out about an old sewage pipe that is on our land and while he was gone I asked Halil to check out the seat on Mo and he was able to un-jam that so I can now slide the seat back.

Digging a trench to find the pipe

No pipe to be found here, sadly

Preparing to run the new pipe down

Going through the wall

The main task for the men is to put a "real" toilet in downstairs (and yes I am grumpy about this) so once we confirmed the old sewage pipe is available they started looking for it. They were able to find it quite quickly below the patio however despite digging a trench all the way along in front of the wood shed they could not find it there. I think we probably removed it many years go. This means that they are going to have to run a new pipe from the toilet down to the existing pipe below the patio. They worked away on this today and got all the way to down by the green building.

New bench up the top bank

This next is a surprise from my mum, though now it won't be any more. I got the new bench up to the top bank and this is my morning task this coming week - to dig out and gravel in a nice space up here on which to set this bench. It is super heavy and I'm very excited. I started mowing the lawn with Rosie after I finished work and then rushed to see Dincher for a meeting.

A busy day but successful. Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.

A weekend of graft, and Monday

Welcome back and it has been a super busy weekend so let's get to it without any further delay.

The outside fix for the roof box

The inside fix for the roof box

Space in the boot for more stuff

The girls help me assemble the flat pack furniture

Saturday I was out the door to town a little later than expected for various reasons but my shopping was successful and I had time to try and get the roof box on Maisie before my call with my mum and my sister. Unfortunately I ended up spending about 40 minutes or so fighting to shut the box and it just wouldn't go. I stopped for the family call and while on that remembered the missing rivet and sure enough that was exactly the problem - the catch had rotated 180 degrees so was not engaging. I managed to effect a fix with a screw, a left over flat pack part and some scrap wood pieces; thank goodness as the new roofbox is quite expensive. Anyway with that fixed I finished up the rest of the packing and have plenty of space so that is good. After this I finished building the first chest of drawers and then assembled the second as well so that was my chores for the day. I was ready for bed by the end of the day!

The overgrown garden before...

... and after my weeding

This little critter was too slow to escape

More of the garden needing weeded

And now that is also weeded

(L-R) Tiny, Daddy Dog, Mummy Dog and Socks

Saturday was busy but Sunday was crazy. I was up and outside early to finish up the weeding that I began on Friday. It was a really nice session and I got everything done in about an hour or so, despite being attacked by hornets, though I did manage to kill a few of them. I worked my way all the way around below the patio, leaving only the flags and the poppies, and did about 4 or 5 wheelbarrows full of weeds. I was also watched from the lane by the four farm dogs, including Tiny here on the left of the picture.

Thelma grinning, Louise and Xena snoozing, in the sun

Happily on the mower again

Can you spot Xena, poised to pounce

Xena climbs on my shoulder

Taking up her station

Some flowers on the top bank

All mowed and looking lovely

I had some breakfast, rested a little in the office while the puppies enjoyed the sun, then I was outside again onto the ride-on mower to get all the grass mowed in one day if at all possible. I started out on the top bank and that took me a fair old time, Xena was in close attendance for all of it, hiding when I emptied the collection bag (I was putting the cuttings in with the chickens again) then jumping around when I got back on and finally following very close behind while I drove around. She did also do a lot of running like a loon around the garden as well. There were some lovely flowers in places and it is always a bit sad to cut them however it needed doing and now it's done I'm very happy how it looks.

My first tortoise sighting of the year

Looking across the freshly mowed garden

Lovely flowers in Angela's garden

My saved walnut tree is alive and well

A view of the house with the lawn nicely mowed

This was my reward

I took a short rest for a drink of water and then carried on down to the front lawn which also went really well. I saw my first tortoise of the year and also, sadly, Xena killed her first lizard. Not good. I completed all the ride on mowing, took a quick break again for a drink, then got the new push along mower and worked around all the bits that I couldn't do on the ride-on. While doing this I was able to enjoy the sight of Angela's flower garden next to the drive which is looking lovely, and also was happy to see the walnut sapling we transferred last year into the orchard is alive and flourishing. I did not get every little bit of the mowing done; there were some little bits by the vehicle gate and down the drive, but I was very tired and needed to start to cook my roast so I headed in and poured a very welcome beer which all disappeared over the course of the evening. A very tiring but super satisfying day indeed.

Bekir with the trap for the polecat

Fly screen fitted, and also drain pipe repaired

Halil loads up yet more buckets of sand

Xena watches as the lime is added

Bekir watches the water run in

All hands to the mixing

Slapping it on the walls

And so to today. Bekir and Halil were in on time and I went to grab them to ask to do a quick early job for me however they actually had something else on their minds first up; a polecat trap that they have set near the chicken enclosure. It'll be interesting to see if anything is caught. Xena was NOT happy with what it smelt like either. After doing this they did put the fly screen back on the woodstore window so I can now leave that window open to air it as the balcony is leaking very badly and it was very musty in there. After this they were back to their scheduled task with Halil carrying many buckets of sand up and then this was mixed with lime and water to create the mortar that they then slapped onto the walls. It's hard and slow work but it should result in a good strong finish.

Fully committed to the snooze

The chicken house is nice and clean again

A look, a poppy!

More slapping going on

It was a slightly less sunny day today, and we have had some rain late afternoon, however most of the day there was sun and the girls have slept all day on the sofa in the sun. At lunch I got outside and cleaned out the chicken house which was one of my chores, then got the push along and did a very little mowing. I was out again towards the end of the day to do the final patch and now everything is mowed and ready for my holiday. The first poppy has come out as well, by where I weeded yesterday, so I'm glad I didn't disturb those poppies. The men were just working away all through the day mixing and slapping and have made good progress there.

Louise got a shitty neck. YES!

A flash of gold which was the Oriole

And that's it, other than two very exciting things. First of all Louise today got a shitty neck; more signs that she is returning to her true self again. And finally I opened the window in Room 13 very fortuitously just as two Golden Orioles were singing and dancing around between the tea trees and the oak tree. I did capture one of them on camera, and stood for a fair while listening to them sing and filming it. A great end to this blog post.

There you go. Thanks for reading what was a quite long update in the end. See you tomorrow.