Oooh! Our shoulders and necks ache

The plasterboard arrived first thing on Tuesday morning (I hadn't even had chance to dry my hair - what will they think?!).  The lorry parked at the end of the lane and the chap brought them down on the little forklift and plonked them on a pallet to keep them out of the mud (which is absolutely everywhere).   The sky didn't look too promising, so we thought we'd better move them inside before it rained.  We had to carry them up the garden and into the middle barn where there's space to store them flat.  Forty plus 8' x 4' sheets seemed to take forever, were quite awkward and quite heavy.  I kept saying 'Have we done half yet' (just like a kiddy in the back of a car asking if we're nearly there yet), but as it started to spit with rain, the pile didn't seem to get any smaller for ages.  They'd actually given us a couple of extra sheets - 'B*st***ds' was Bob's comment when he realised.  With our arms twice as long as they used to be, dislocated shoulders and sore fingers, we didn't quite see the extras as a bonus (as we should have done and obviously do now).

So, then (well, after I'd dried my hair of course) we cracked on with plasterboarding the bedroom ceiling.  That has to be the most awkward area, so we thought we'd get it out of the way.  We cut the boards to size downstairs to make it a bit easier to get them up the ladder.  As you know, nothing in this house is straight, especially the purlins and so there was then a lot of holding the board in place, taking it down, shaving a bit off here and there, back into place, more shaving and so on.  Not a quick job and is like weightlifting at the gym (not that I know much about that!).  We then ran out of 9mm plasterboard because, with the purlin in the middle it doesn't fit very economically.  Most of what we ordered was standard 12mm, but we thought 9mm would be better for the ceilings as they're lighter (and 3mm extra headroom might make a huge difference!).  So, we'll have to go and collect some more but it'll have to be the smaller boards - we can't really expect them to deliver just three boards.

Last night we had tea at neighbours, Bill and Maggie's with the mohican daughter.  Maggie had got a half price leg of lamb at Sainsbury's and needed someone to share it with, so like good neighbours we said we'd help them out.  Deeee-licious, I can't remember when I last had roast lamb and it was very nice.  Then they came to the smallholders meeting about poultry with us - they're thinking of getting some chickens.  This was the first meeting since the 'People's Revolution' (see 'What a Lovely Day' - 9 Feb), and was really good - a really nice atmosphere and very sociable, with no negativity.  This afternoon we had a break from plasterboarding to help Phil and Ann with their lumberjacking.  Three sycamore trees on their land had to be felled because they were close to power lines and they have spent the last few days chopping the timber up for firewood - loads of it!  So, we had an afternoon in the sun splitting the bigger logs (the contractors had cut them into manageable lengths) while Phil chopped them to size with an axe and Anne stacked.  We only got through a tiny portion, but every little helps.  It's about time we repaid some of our debts - they saved some nice straight pieces for Bob for furniture making, they keep an eye on our chickens when we're away, they helped us put the oak frame up and Phil is going to give us a plaster skimming masterclass . . . . yep, we probably still owe them. 

Molly is looking a bit better, just old now.  We decided to worm them which you're supposed to do every now and then and Molly had one of the classic symptoms . . . . . look away now and I'll whisper . . . . a mucky bum.  You're supposed to mix the powder with their normal food and give them that for 7 days, but when we tried that ages ago they all just stopped eating it!  So since then, we've measured out the week's worth (which is less than 10g) and each day mix a seventh in with something we know they'll like.  The only trouble is that Molly's now a bit slow when it comes to getting stuck in and grabbing treats.  So we've been dividing the medicated bread or whatever into four and trying to give them each their own portion.  What a laugh!  One person has to take Molly to one side and give her hers while the other deals with the other three which mainly involves keeping them away from Molly once they've gulped theirs down - you really need six hands and four feet to keep them away.  Oh, that sounds terrible - like we kick them out of the way . . . .honestly we don't we just 'herd' them with feet!