Days 19 to 24 in isolation at Tony and Nicky's

Jackie on the biggest block we moved, about 300kg

Good Friday was lintel move day, and it was a Good Friday, it all went remarkably well. We found a pair of matching quoins to go where it used to, raising it by the required amount, the trusty block and tackle supported on two bars between the scaffolding tower inside and the scaffolding tower outside did sterling work. It went up, attached to the acro props which were tightened into place and it was moved!

The old wooden lintels then had to go, to see Tony wielding a chain saw at them was really quite scary. They came out easily, almost too easily and were very light, how much use had they been? The new ones however were not light, Tony put a sling round each end of

Lintels raised and fitted, Tony chainsawing through the wooden lintels

the first of the three and asked me if I could lift it? I got it off the ground, but that didn’t really count as lifting in any useful fashion. Guess they were going to have to be lifted with the block and tackle then, a little slower, but a lot safer. So the three lintels are in and rebuilding around them has started. It’s slow going as you can put a few bits of granite in, when we’ve run around finding just the right bit, but then you have to let the cement harden. This is now being interspersed with building the walls of the porch. I’m disappointed, I thought I was going to be able to build a wall, but this isn’t brick it’s 6” block which are very heavy! I’ve done some cementing in the joins and mixing of cement, and Brian has done some base laying of cement with a funny red gadget which does seem to do a very neat job, but Tony has had to do the actual laying of blocks. It’s a slow process, but again you can’t do too much without giving the cement chance to harden.

Slowly laying the 6" concrete blocks. That red thing is the perfect way for non-professional brick layers to lay bricks. You fill the gap with mortar, smooth it off and, hey presto, a perfect bed of mortar of the correct thickness. Lay the blocks on top and they are almost perfectly flat, just needing a tap

New skill: rotovating (very cold though)

So the other main thing that has gone on is rotavating both vegetable patches and the poly tunnel, in preparation for planting out. Some peas went in today, the tomatoes, and courgettes are being carried between house and poly tunnel every day so they don’t get too cold, and don’t grow toward the light of the window, cooking, ice cream making, making little mesh covers for the vents that allow ventilation, to stop the wasps getting in, and playing with Ted. I did a test today to see how much more water you can get into the toilet cassette after the red light comes on. Four litres, so hopefully should the light come on again just at bedtime we now know it will last till the morning! Brian has been playing with the controller for the solar charger as it doesn’t appear to be charging the engine battery, only the habitation one. He’s had much communication with Brian senior (Tony’s Dad) but hasn’t really come up with anything conclusive despite taking loads of measurements today.

Here's Tufty cat watching to make sure we do it right

Geese stretching their wings in the morning

The fowl obviously still need caring for, morning and evening, younger chickens are gradually being introduced to the rest of the flock, being allowed out to mingle. This seemed sensible but we realised why it was happening on Saturday when a parcel arrived addressed to Brian and I. They tried to tell us it was the missing duck eggs (we’ve hunted and hunted but can’t find duck eggs anywhere and we assume they are laying.... ) but it wasn’t, it was eggs from a specialised breeder on Anglesey, fertilised and ready to go into the incubator! 21 days it takes and they went in on Sunday (they had to sit, pointy end down, for 24 hours to get over the trauma of coming through the post.) The incubator maintains a temperature of 37.5 degrees and a humidity of between 40 and 50% and rotates them by 90 degrees every hour. We can look at them with a vey bright light to see what’s inside, in three days time, so keep everything crossed that we’ve got lots of little chicks growing, ready to hatch out on May 3rd, which just happens to be our wedding anniversary, will we become parents?

Fertilised eggs ready to go into the incubator

Here they are in the incubator

As if this wasn’t enough of an Easter treat, Tony had been carefully observing our search patterns for duck eggs (surely they must be somewhere?) On Sunday however we had to be persuaded to look again, only to find that a very special chicken had laid some very big, foil coated, chocolate eggs....! As mum said “I love the idea of two big kids hiding eggs for two more big kids”!

We are still immensely happy to be here, and obviously we’re now not leaving till we see what hatches, whether the rules change or not!

If you want a laugh, have a look at this short clip showing the eggs being rotated complete with little bingling sound. It does this every hour

Our Easter eggs  from Tony and Nicky found in the garden while looking for duck eggs!

Genghis cat creeping upstairs to have a look...

Don't fall through!

But actually, it doesn't seem to bother Gummy cat

Here's a photo of a very small selection of seedlings that Nicky has planted

Here's a view of the porch so far, 4 rows of blocks done, lintel raised and fixed in position. This will be the main entrance into the house

A very nice sunset last night and, true to form, it was a lovely day today, actually reasonably warm. I was down to a 'T' shirt outside, but that might have been due to the heat I generated hauling the brute of a rotovator around