End of isolation at Tony and Nickys after 130 days and back to England for a housesit near Cheltenham

Brian with Nellie cat at our Cheltenham housesit

Another 10 day blog gap, must try harder! It might be possible to return to a little more regularity, as today, we have left Nicky and Tony, Genghis, Gummy, Cookie, Tufty and Dougal Dog, and the birds, including our grown up chicks. Not only have we left, but so have Helen and Ian, and even the swallows fledged this morning! I can’t believe I went into the Steading, for a last look round to find the fledglings trying to work out how to access the big outside world. Hope N&T don’t suffer from ‘empty nest’ syndrome!

H&I turned up on Saturday for their first hugs since lockdown, phew, we were worried they wouldn’t hug. It was lovely to see them, and just ‘normal’.

One of the baby swallows having just fledged the nest in the Steading, but not yet having found its way to the outside world

Replacing missing coping stones on the roof

I started this on Thursday, in Ted after our departure, but my brain had turned to mush, and we haven’t stopped since!

In preparation for H&I we’d done as much high level work as we could - Ian doesn’t like heights, so the missing coping stones from the attached gable end were replaced, as was the missing coin. The last lintels were also replaced, showing amazing forethought we’d raised these up to the first floor weeks ago when only a few joists had been put up. It was much easier to do these from the new floor than from a scaffolding tower. This replacement was just as nerve wracking as all the others, in this case because there were only small stones above the lintels, so no key stones providing support. We took out the lintels and went away for 20 minutes to see what would happen. Fortunately the anti-gravity paste and fairy dust were working well, so we were able to put in the lintels and fill in the gap above without any problems. I even got promoted to chief hole filler from chief stone passer, a big step!

To some this might look a bit cavalier, sawing through a wooden lintel that's holding up a stone wall with a chain saw, but Tony does it with much knowledge, having gauged the stability of the stones above beforehand. Changing these two lintels seemed quite challenging to us as the stones above were small and unsupported, so most likely to fall. They didn't however and all went well

The first lintel was handed to Brian to carry out - it was heavy!

Brian and Ian’s mission was two new windows, multi angled, so in the roof and vertically in the wall, cutting away the wood in the roof was the easy bit, knocking out 2’ of wall required a little more effort. Sadly Monday was the wettest day we’ve had in four months, so lots of rain coming in a big hole, turning dust to mud and halting Tony and I with step 2 putting in the decorative quoins on the outside and filling in the rest of the wall behind. Cement and rain are not a good mix!

In the mean time we started laying the floor upstairs, managing about half of it in fits and starts. Tuesday we could start filling in, but what a slow job, we finished at 22.00! All so the cement could go off to allow the window to be fitted on Wednesday. Tuesday the boys made the second hole so Thursday Tony and I could start on that one. Very sadly we couldn’t finish, prepping the wall was that much harder as it was the front wall where more money was obviously spent, the stones are all so much bigger and more regular so we had to do some removing that the boys had left us, and cut others, which all took a little longer. We could possibly have finished if we’d had another 10 pm finish, but Jo was coming for dinner, so we’d been given till 20.00 to be present, and clean!

First hole in the wall dugout and the first roof light frame fixed. This was on Sunday and the weather was quite nice. Next day it rained heavily all day in through that big hole! Brian and Ian worked in the rain to fit the roof window which at least stopped some rain coming in

Nicky and Helen excelled with Roast turkey followed by Christmas pudding. They’d spent hours harvesting and freezing fruit and veg, not to mention cleaning our room for Airbnb use that night. Made little difference to us to move into Ted a night early. Only decision was which cat to take? Had to be Genghis really, he has been so keen to go into Ted at any opportunity, he loved it, slept all night on Brian’s pillow, not wanting to leave in the morning, I actually got a swipe for trying to take him off the bed!

Jackie lighting the Christmas pudding with a sparkler (and brandy). Helen and Nicky in the doorway a blurred Ian standing and Jo sitting

With that it was almost time to leave, I was taken to the veg patch for onions, peas, beans (three sorts) cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, courgettes, chillis and potatoes. Then to the freezers for ribs, steak, chops, a lamb joint, pork joint and a chicken, and frozen fruit and sauces! Enough to keep us going for the Housesit? Very nearly.

There's the first window set fitted, an angled one in the roof coupled to a vertical one in the wall. Look at that stonework and new quoins fitted by Tony and Jackie 

Driving away was horrible, we’ve had such a wonderful time, and yes, we can go back whenever, but it will never be quite the same. I know many people found lockdown hard, but I can truly say we loved it, and will happily remember 2020.

After we'd finished fitting the first floor joists and before starting to fit the flooring Gummy cat decided to go exploring, trotting over the beams 2.5m above the floor without a care. Those beams are only 3" (75mm) wide, but he didn't bother

We split the journey, spending the night at Metal Bridge, just past Gretna Green into England. We didn’t know what to expect, but it all felt relatively normal. A good meal and a couple of pints and in bed by 21.00, before we’ve eaten for weeks. Finished the drive on Friday, the hottest day of the year, to find that for the third summer running, the aircon in Big Ted wasn’t working! 

We haven't mentioned the chicks we hatched from eggs much recently. That's probably because they are now outside, not with the other hens yet, they are in their own enclosure for a while, so they are now so much in our minds now. Here's a photo of a couple of them (there are 10, 5 white and 5 black). We suspect that at least 3 of them are males so may be sold off (or worse!). They are quite big now and difficult to imagine they came from a small  egg. They are 12.5 weeks old now and might start laying eggs at around 16 weeks old. We're looking forward to seeing how they progress on our next visit

Got to mum in time for lunch, then empty Ted and take him up to the storage to swap with the car. Would it start? No, just as well we have jump leads!

Back on the road again. Big Ted in the motorhome parking area at Metal Bridge Inn, on the River Esk just into England from Scotland

Up bright and early to drive down to the housesit to meet Mr. Pickles (yes, a second Mr.Pickles) and Nellie and Philip and Jane. The car did start, but the engine management light kept flashing, suggesting an engine misfire. We were shown around the beautiful house and gardens, lots of watering to do, and a ride on lawnmower for Brian, with lots of orchids indoors for me. 

Philip and Janes beautiful house just outside Cheltenham, where we'll be housesitting Mr. Pickles and Nellie cats for all of August

We met both cats despite being warned it might be a couple of days till we saw fraidy Nellie. No such problems with Mr. Pickles however. We then left them to finish packing etc and returned to mums. On this journey the engine management light came on solidly, and the car kept losing power as the fuel economy plummeted. Just what we need. Interrogated it when we got back, it sounded like a spark plug problem, but was just relaying this to Helen when she said that sounds like mum’s car, Ian filled it with new petrol and all was well. This has made a huge difference, the fuel economy has started to rise again, though we did struggle up a couple of hills this morning. Keep everything crossed the new fuel mixes with the old fuel and the problem goes away. (She didn't mention that we managed to get out for a curry at the local Indian restaurant in Alvechurch with her mum. It was fabulous, but my normal hot curry was extra hot to me - must be out of practice!)

They have a 2 acre garden with duck pond in open countryside - its fabulous!

We are now in the beautiful house, near Cheltenham. Both cats have come by to say hello and have some fuss, and we are exhausted. I knew stopping the build would be bad, but we can barely string two words together, we stayed at mum’s, though barely saw her, so give us a week or so, and we might be back to normal. I hope!

Mr Pickles made an early appearance, spreading out on the table 

And then Nellie cat, who we were told would take several days to get used to us came for some strokes

And didn't take long to disturb Brian reading the Sunday papers for the first time in many, many months