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