Days 114 to 120 in isolation at Tony and Nickys

Jackie rescued a very cute field mouse and returned it to - a field!

Picking up on three things from the last blog, Brian didn’t put a picture of my outside ‘pretty’ wall where the big red block came out. I thoroughly enjoyed selecting blocks for Tony to fit and am very proud of the result, I think when the Steading is actually finished Tony and I should go and be stonemasons.

The second I said that Brian’s hospital appointment hadn’t been cancelled, it was, and the wood arrived. It certainly wasn’t brilliant, or what you’d expect for £50 a length, but actually it was probably better than the last lot, though we suspect it was the other half of the previous pack, that sat on a lorry in Glasgow for lockdown. It’s all now up, so the downstairs woodwork is finished and all the floor

Jackies beautifully selected stones

joists are in. The temporary staircase is back up and you can walk from one end to the other, though this will be easier when we finish shuffling everything in the upstairs of the garage so we can steal the floorboards to put them up, to enable the proper floorboards to be put down! Brian has put in so many screws he’s had to tape his trigger finger, and move on to use his middle finger!

Brian constructed a big section for the top of the stairs on the floor despite worries about how to get it into position. The block and tackle came out to get it onto the scaffolding tower so it could be trundled around. It was then hauled onto the supports by Tony for Brian to attach to the joists. “But how are we going to get it all into position when it’s constructed?” He asked “Jackie will just do it” was Tony’s helpful reply. Though as it turns out I did push it into place, single handed, with the help of six pieces of conduit as rollers! I had to fortify myself with wine, and wear the dark glasses of power, but it was a fabulous moment!

The last week really has been all about the woodwork, and this week will all be about preparing for Helen and Ian to come and join the fun. We are building “Monty’s wall” between the two gardens so Monty dog can’t chase cats and hens so I’ve finally done some brick laying, 4 inch and 6 inch block that were used on the porch and the internal wall were just too heavy for me, though I did learn about mortaring, but there is a layer of brick along the top of the reclaimed block. Reclaimed blocks may have been free, but having to clean the old cement off them with the big drill was not my idea of a good time! I have also finished mortaring the patio. B and I with Helen and Ian, laid the patio, probably about 5 years ago. Helen and I then mortared most of it, but not all, and I’ve been wanting to finish it since we arrived. It was still back breaking, but I’m so pleased to have done it.

A panorama of the finished floor joists. The big hole in the foreground is the stairwell that will head up to the right and join with the landing on the right there. The higher level, in the distance is over the huge kitchen. Each one of those noggins you can see between each joist was fixed with 6 x 150mm long screws. No wonder I had trigger finger! 

Mobbed by chickens when feeding them snacks

All the birds are on a bit of a go slow, no goose eggs for a while and duck eggs very sporadic, so it wasn’t until little brown duck didn’t come to bed one night we began to worry. Looking out the bedroom window while cleaning my teeth, there she was sauntering across the orchard, so rushed down and put her away. Not so the following night. No sign. I went round the field with a torch, and round the hedge. Nothing. No sign in the morning either, but about 3pm Brian saw her as he was feeding the chicks, but by the time he was back with some bread she’d vanished again! Out again that night, but as we went to let all the birds out and feed them in the morning she appeared quacking loudly. Lots of food for you then while I scout around. I finally found her nest, with 10 eggs in under a rose bush! I felt so mean taking her eggs, but really, there is no point in leaving them! She already seems to have forgotten about it!

We lost little brown duck for two days. Thinking she was lost, she eventually appeared starving and quacking loudly for food. She had appeared from this direction and, on investigation Jackie found her nest. She had laid 10 eggs over a period of time in amongst the roses in that pot, we just hadn't seen her. You might just spot them beneath the roses...

Here's a view a bit closer....

And closer still. 10 of them! We had 8 for lunch that day, but we felt like home wreckers!

Jackies beautifully finished patio pointing. It only took 5 years to complete!

Tony cuddling Gummy cat in the way Tony does

And then posted him on top of the woodwork where he had to find his way around

Leaving Brian to rescue him and carry him down the ladder!

Genghis and Cookie cat on their day bed

Thats Jackies feet dangling through the rafters while she helped Tony with a bit of block laying

And this is Jackie wearing the 'glasses of power' to move the landing and joist support assembly into position. It weighed probably 300kg and spans the full width of the building. I thought the weight would crush the pieces of conduit, but they survived and acted like little rollers, making it look easy for her to push it into its final position

And here's the  updated time lapse video of the build from 10th May up to 19th July showing how things have progressed

Days 103 to 113 in isolation at Tony and Nickys

Gummy and Genghis cats in almost perfect symmetry

10 days since the last blog, is ridiculous, but fear not, it’ll probably be shorter because of that rather than longer. We are working harder than ever, because we have a leaving date. We were invited to a Housesit, near Cheltenham, for August, two reasons for accepting, to catch up with mum, and for Brian to hopefully keep one of his hospital check ups. They booked it months ago and haven’t cancelled yet, and we are worried that if we postpone it could be for a long time.... 

Two cats and a ride on lawnmower, I should be looking forward to it, and I’m sure once we get there it will be fab, a newspaper and books, looking at the jigsaw we started in March.... just at the moment though there is a big part of me that hopes that rather than easing on the 15th, travel restrictions into Greece get worse, so the homeowners can’t go to their boat and we have to stay where we are! 

Not the Neowise comet that is apparently gracing our night skies at the moment but a full moon that made a nice photo I thought

This is Tony looking very scary

We have achieved loads, I know that, but there is still so much to do. We didn’t realise quite what we were asking when we asked if we could come this way “in case of lockdown “ and Nicky and Tony probably didn’t realise what they were replying with “of course, do we need the kettle on yet?” It has however been magical we’ve laughed and talked so much, we’ve invaded their space and yet lived in harmony, as an example, Tony has just come in thinking he’s completely losing the plot, “I know I poured a glass of wine” he drinks white and we drink red, and yet there are two of the four glasses left, “where did you pick up your glass from Brian? Did it have half an inch of white in?” “Don’t be ridiculous “ was the reply, yet on careful colour comparison and tasting, with mine, it would appear this probably was the case. Is it a problem? No. Did it make us laugh? Yes.

But he couldn't keep a serious face for long

We’ve seen the polytunnel go from needing rotavating to cut the manure in, to eating potatoes, courgettes, peas and tomatoes. The chicks arrived as eggs, and we did say “you know we are not leaving for three weeks then, till they hatch!” And that seemed like a long time. They hatched on the 2nd May so are now nearly 11 weeks old...

We’ve built a porch from the ground up, to internal woodwork, virtually finished all the downstairs woodwork, and when the new order of ‘big wood’ for joists arrives tomorrow we’ll hopefully finish the joists for upstairs. (I say hopefully as the quality of the timber that has arrived since lockdown has been really poor. The 6” 4.8m lengths we unloaded last Wednesday into the porch, yes, the porch is that big, have dried and warped, and the joists are at the suppliers and he’s ‘not that impressed’ but we know we take them or it will be well into September...) 

We unloaded a ton of tongue and groove flooring the other day, half for upstairs and half for the other half the garage that we didn’t floor and ceiling. We’ve replaced wooden lintels with concrete ones, inserted lintels into walls for support and moved lintels that were in the wrong place. Tons of rubble have been taken up to the farm to fill holes, and holes in walls have been filled for structure and look. I’ve mixed more loads of cement than I can count and created more sawdust than a school could use in years of bran tubs.

And this is Brian with the same 11kg breaker, not looking quite so cool

Brian and Nicky sorting out very heavy quoins

In the last 10 days the wall has gone up between kitchen and lounge, the last wooden boxes have been built for downstairs internal structure and a huge concrete block removed from the external wall. This left a big hole to fill which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed, and I think it looks great. I’m not the only one to have developed a stone obsession though, Brian and Nicky have spent days going through piles of sandstone looking for quoins, in matching pairs, to go round the 9 or so doors and windows that need them.

I shouldn’t be doing a round up now, I know, we’ve still got ‘ages’ to go, but it’s very strange to think we have an end date, assuming Greece let them in and we get Ted back, he’s having a new solar controller fitted and Nicky told her friend in the caravan place “there’s no rush, and if parts take months for delivery......”

This is the day that huge effort was made to remove that large concrete block in the wall. So far big holes had been made round it and, although it was moving slightly, it wouldn't budge. Here Jackie has inserted a sparkler (she said it was dynamite), but couldn't light it, so she is gingerly applying Tonys blowtorch. You can see a bit more on the short video below...

Here's the hole from the inside, quite a big rebuilding job to be done!

Here's an updated time lapse video of progress in the steading showing progress to date. We're hoping we can get all the upper floor joists in by the time we leave in two weeks time

Meanwhile, Gummy cat has been set some challenges. Here he's been put on top of the newly built wall by Tony...

He walked up and down and through the freshly placed mortar

Gummy cat step ladder challenge - no problem!

But its all a bit tiring for him so a snuggle up to little ted is needed

We mentioned in the last blog about the crush in the mornings to get out of the duck house. Hens and ducks all in a mad rush to get out into the orchard for breakfast so, this morning I filmed it. Unfortunately it wasn't the funniest, but nontheless is still entertaining. Feather legs wasn't last today and didn't do her best hop and skip, but you can get an idea. Yesterday morning a hen had her back to the door when I opened it and got swept out by ducks and dumped onto the floor looking rather startled, but of course that never happens when filming

Days 95 to 102 in isolation at Tony and Nickys

Thursday, the ridiculously hot day, we couldn’t work in the Steading still, for fear of damaging the concrete so what were we doing? Brian was cleaning and polishing Ted, though sensibly only the side in the shade, while Tony and I were laying lockblock on the drive, started in the shade, but not for long! And it was hot! 

We didn’t make particularly quick progress, as Tony kept getting interrupted, phone calls, visits from Mark, the slater, saying he’d quite like a 40 week break, as he’s just ‘got’ a housing estate.... that was not on, so we’ve actually had Brian the slater here for a couple of days. He’s made great progress. So why lock block, outside, on the ridiculously hot day? It’s because that has to be done before the sides can have white cement on, and I can’t have white cement to finish the patio tiles that Helen and I started years ago. I know it will hurt, but I REALLY want to get it finished!

Back into the Steading and tackle the last dodgy bit of wall, holes where joists had been and some serious cracks. It was decided to put a concrete beam in to support the cracks above and the hole that will get bigger when the large lump of concrete that just sticks out on the outside is removed. The beam went in well

Polishing Big Ted - Does this make me Frankie Valli?

with a couple of hairy moments, two bottle jacks and a scissor jack. Then just to fill in above, only stuff kept coming out, not going in. If it’s loose it has to be removed! We didn’t expect to go all the way through and create quite such a big ‘window’ however. 

Finally it was solid and filling in could start. It doesn’t have to look pretty on the inside, once the woodwork and then walls are up it’ll never be seen again, so concrete blocks are quite acceptable. Outside however does. I have to say I’m pleased with the result, I expected to have Tony with a tape measure giving me dimensions of blocks to find, but I just sort of ambled about and picked some up which he was happy with. My main criteria was whether I could carry them up a ladder, but even so!

While we were doing this Brian was building more boxes for the walls including the one to move the three phase power board on to, it’s only a bit of electricity, what could go wrong? Nothing, but it’s a great job that it’s in place.

Holes in the wall and bottle jacks holding things up - how is all this going to work out?

The 2.3m lintel has helped

An internal wall has also been going up, not in wood , but in block work, something to attach both sides of the original building to, just in case! It’s really odd seeing it grow, separating the kitchen from the living room, we are all so used to the big space. The boys were doing this today, and I was actually a bit redundant, so I’ve planted some roses and pruned the currants, seems they have blister aphid down one end, so I’ve pruned, and tomorrow they’ll get sprayed. I had a little bonfire to burn the bugs, though there didn’t seem to be much fire, only lots of smoke. I did think perhaps I didn’t need a shower till I sat down and all I could smell was smoke.... Nicky and I then took a little walk up to Jo’s for a chat and to collect a spare tomato plant from her neighbour. Very pleasant though we did only chat outside it still felt good.

We have actually been ‘out’ in the big world twice, on Saturday and Sunday we went to Findochty, on the coast to try our luck at mackerel fishing. We didn’t catch anything sadly but it was lovely to actually get out. Brian managed to catch a rock that ate his weights and feathers and my handle fell off, fortunately not into the sea and I found the little pin so we could put it back together.

Carefully selected stones by Jackie, fitted by Tony to fill one hole. After lime mortar pointing they'll blend in well

Just that big lump to remove and fill in with stone now!

After all the time we’ve been here it’s hard to believe that I still wake up every morning feeling like a wreck, it’s like the ascent of man as I hobble to the bathroom, and return to the bedroom. I start off bent over and creaking, but return fully upright and sprightly. Think I’d be used to it by now!

We are about to start our fourth barrel of homebrew wine, that’s 22 gallons each, and have to say, “they’ve all drunk well”. We may have had our last two egg omelette, yes, two eggs for the four of us, but they are goose eggs, they may however have come to the end of their season. This compared to having a dozen eggs in the kedgeree, but they are guinea fowl eggs! Small and with ridiculously hard shells. We’ve also come to the end of steak Saturday and had to move on to duck breast Saturday. Life’s hard!

Tony and Jackie makerel fishing off the pier at Findochty

Guinea fowl, duck and growing chicks in the distance

The chicks are still growing, but the shop did run out of ‘growing’ food, as opposed to ‘golden yolk’ food which looks the same but is bigger pellets. They ate it when they realised it was all there was, but they weren’t happy! New growers food again now though. What they do like is the skin off the watermelon. It was their first treat as chicks and they love it. They quite like it when pest nibbled strawberries fall from the sky (or are thrown from the vegetable patch) but they can’t quite work it out.

We have rhubarb, strawberries and courgettes coming out of our ears and are also eating homegrown cabbage, mange tout and potatoes. Tomatoes, broccoli, beans, currants and peas are not far off! Onions, squash and gooseberries to come.

Haven't told you about 'feather legs'. On lifting the hatch in the morning on the duck house (all four ducks live there but with quite a few hens as well) there is a huge rush to get out. Ducks and hens are all trying to get out at once, crushing out two or three at at time in the rush to get out to the food (one morning a hen was standing with its back to the door and got pushed out backwards by the others). The ducks try to fly a bit and they all run at top speed into the orchard to try and be first to the food that Jackies scattering. Feather legs however is usually last (but not always), she walks down the ramp and then breaks into a trot, making little hops and skips as hurries in her way to the food. In her efforts she often overtakes ducks whose attempts to fly to get ahead followed by bad crash landings. Its all good entertainment for us

Hard work, great company, good food and drink and gorgeous cats and hens, what’s not to love?

As they get occasional scraps of food during the day, everytime anyone goes near them they assume its snack time and run over at top speed. I went to take this photo and they all ran over. They cluster around our feet and follow us around. If we stop they start pecking at marks on our shoes or clothes, some of which can be quite sharp. Talk about hen pecked!

Since getting the new drum for the cement mixer Jackie has been treating it with love, carefully cleaning it out after each mix. No-one dare leave it with and residual mortar or concrete in it now

She's pretty handy with an angle grinder too. Here she's cutting a lockblock for Tony to lay in the path

Gummy cat has decided he's more important than any blog entry I'm doing on the laptop

Preparing fruit in the morning. We keep meaning to use home grown fruit, then Tony comes back from Costco with huge watermelons, pineapples, apples and oranges to go with our strawberries. This watermelon was a weightlifting challenge on its own 

Look at this lovely evening sun view from our window, just before sunset one day. It was about 10:15pm

A very comfortable Genghis cat one morning. Is that a smile on his face, or is he just pleased he has us wrapped round his little paw?

Tony likes to be a torment. After picking up Gummy cat for rough man cuddles he put him on this shelf in one of the boxes for the wooden frame of the building. He didn't know quite what to do!

I call this art. Poppies growing in a building site - where nature meets man! What do you think?

Just another job to do. Tony and Brian taking down the scaffolding at the back (the slaters have gone as far as they can at the back for now, the green bits are where the roof has to be raised for big roof windows - Ian and Helen please note, they are hopefully on your list to do in three weeks time if we can progress internally enough to allow it to be done). We had to carry it all round to the front of the building and re-erect it there so slating can continue there. Its actually really hard work, the poles are heavy and particularly the scaffolding planks which have to be lifted to roof height and placed in position while balancing on the poles and ladders