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