Living the dream!

Quick weather update . . . piddling down!  I've got socks and jeans on again for the first time in about a month and we've had to switch the immersion heater back on because I don't think the solar panels are going to do much today.  Still, won't have to water the plants tonight!

Having finished the steps and unearthed a patio for the chickens, we have now moved on to making a patio for ourselves although the chickens think it's just for them!   These are biggest of the old limestone pavers which we have collected from all over the garden and we have enough for just around the kitchen door.  We then have some smaller bits, but they don't go very far though and we'll have to use other things for the rest of the area and the paths going off it to the lean-to, log stores and off up the garden.  The possibilities are cobblestones which we saved from one of the
barn floors, bricks, some sort of gravel or a mixture of all which might actually be best.  A neighbour gave us some new paving which they were going to lay in front of their house, but as they have now split up and are planning to sell their house in its half finished state, she wants to get rid of as much of the junk that surrounds it as possible including these stones.  They were a bargain from the local builders merchants a few years ago and are cut to make a circle pattern.  Not really what we'd choose, but we can't argue as they are free.  With some corners knocked off they should be OK.  So here are some of them - not the square one with a hole in the middle though.  When we took the cooking range out of the inglenook in the kitchen this great big lump of stone was underneath and is a complete mystery to us.  I am sure that that wasn't its original place or use and that the people who put the range in re-used it from somewhere else.  It was a single piece of stone (although it is broken into three) and has a very precise rectangular hole in the middle with an equally precise groove around the edge of the hole.  The inside edge of one of the short ends of the hole is worn very smooth - maybe it was a little well cover and this is where the rope rubbed the stone smooth and the groove locates some sort of lid?  Whatever it was, it took an awful lot of work to chisel it to shape when it would have been easier to have several smaller stones.  Anyway, it is a talking point for in front of our bench.  A chicken fits perfectly in the hole and one did try to use it as a bath when the sand was dry.  We are going to cut some slates to fit and then pack them in on edge to fill the hole so no-one twists their ankle falling down it. 

We had another steam-bending session when I got home from work on Sunday.  Last time was really just a practice session doing some bits and pieces - very gentle bends with small pieces of wood.  This time it was the arm (5' long), back bow and crinolin (the curved bit between the chair legs) and some slightly curved sticks for one chair - yes we finally have the Ash from the farm woodyard in the hills.  All went well although Bob was a little worried that we might have forgotten something and was mightily relieved when we hadn't.  This picture illustrates the ancient steam-bending celebration I told you about a while ago and shows the newly bent pieces still clampend into their formers.  This was one of pictures we had in our minds all those years ago when we were planning our move and what we'd be doing after.

And this is another - although I was wearing a flowery skirt in our imaginations I think . . . I might even have had a big floppy staw hat on too, but maybe that's just too 'Country Living'!
We have had loads of blackcurrants this year - plenty for the birds, the chickens and us.  So, I've made a batch of jam (probably one of my favourites), two jars of blackcurrant vodka (like sloe gin but . . . erm . . . with blackcurrants and vodka - you could probably have guessed that couldn't you?) and we have some just frozen as they are, some frozen having been lightly stewed with sugar and some in the fridge for mixing with yoghurt and there's still more on the bushes.  All this vitamin C!  Elsewhere around the estate we have lots of green bean plants which are up to the top of their poles and bushing out, neat rows of leeks, our two cut-and-come-again lettuces I showed you a while back and some newly planted rocket.  There is a tub of carrots and another of beetroot and some garlic growing in pots.  The blueberries are just starting to ripen, the herbs are all doing well especially the bay plant that we thought we'd lost when it completly froze.  The little apple trees have plenty of fruit on them, there are three pears on the pear tree, a few plums on the plum tree (makes sense doesn't it), about four damsons and about the same number of sloes.  So some things clearly didn't mind the bizarre weather we've had and others got buried in snow at just the wrong time.  Our two indoor chilli plants have suddenly sprung into action and we have lots of little green scotch bonnets which will hopefully get bigger and turn red.  We have already used some and chopped some into olive oil for future use.

~~~~~~~~~Living the dream!!~~~~~~~~



There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza, dear Liza . . . .

We forgot to re-fill this oak whiskey barrel after we moved it and
the staves dried out leaving gaps between them (you are supposed
to keep them wet so the wood stays swollen and tight).  So, each day
we've been filling it a bit more until the leaks outdo the hose pipe
filling it.  Each day we can fill it a bit more and we are now just about
up to the top and so can now leave it until we are ready to put it
into place as a water butt.

 

Wasps!

Quick weather update  . . . blimmen 'ot!!

 

We have now finished the steps (bit by bit in the cooler parts of the day).  It's quite funny to watch the chickens going up and down because, like us, they were quite used to the old layout and now they have to learn a new one. 

As the front of the steps are higher than they used to be to make them level, they are quite big for the chickens to negotiate - about as high as their legs are long which we'd certainly find awkward wouldn't we?  Next job with the steps will be to disguise the fact that they are cemented into place.  I have already planted some lemon thyme in a couple of nooks and I'll hunt around for some other little plants.  Other bits can be filled in with some of the lime dust we have from the quarry which sets quite hard when compacted and will certainly look more natural than the grey cement.  It should all soften up quite nicely in time.

 

The other day Bob and I were looking at the steps and contemplating the next bit to do when I noticed a wasp fly up under the eves at the back of the workshop . . . then another . . . and another.  Closer inspection revealed what we thought was the beginnings of a wasps nest about the size of your fist.  So, we found the longest stick we could find - actually a small tree stripped of its branches which was waiting to be chopped up.  Bob then stood at the top of the steps and managed to poke down the nest.

Gosh, those wasps weren't happy!  Loads of them suddenly appeared buzzing around the area.  Good time to go inside for a cuppa we thought.  We were quite surprised that there was no sign of them next time we looked (last time we had a nest - in the fold of a sunlounger mattress in the shed - the wasps kept coming back to the site for days after.  It appears though that the bit we could see was just their porch and assume that the main nest was between the soffit and the roof and so the wasps had got over their initial indignation and then gone back inside to get on with whatever wasps do.  The next day they had rebuilt the porch.  It really is all quite impressive and fascinating, but you don't really have a choice but to get rid of them.  We bought some spray foam from a little hardware store in town not really expecting it to work.  You have to wait until the wasps have gone to bed and then stand 2m away, be ready to run and spray.  Its quite impressive that it actually sprays 2m, but even more impressive that it worked!  My goodness the buzzing was really, really loud, but in the morning all was silent and no sign of any wasps.  I guess in the winter we'll take the piece of wood down and get rid of the debris.  It's funny because a couple of days earlier I saw a wasp and commented that it was the first I'd seen all summer!

 

Bob has now finished his first ever chair in the new workshop (it's actually number 63 in total).  Today he did the exciting part (in my opinion) which is oiling and waxing it.  It just transforms the wood, bringing out the colour and giving it a lovely lustre and just making you want to stroke it.  Now he can finish off the little stool that has been almost done for a while but has been waiting so that the chair can have the first number for the new workshop.  There is another chair kit almost complete but just waiting for the Ash for the arm bend.  Unfortunately, the woodyard at the farm in the hills that we discovered a few weeks ago has had major problems with its sawmill.  It is a fairly new state of the art German machine which has been plagued with problems and was already waiting for a new something or another to be delivered from Germany when something else went wrong.  They got the part for that but somehow that blew something else when it was wired in. . . . and so we wait patiently for it to be fixed.  Vorsprung durch Teknik!!

 

I now have a new job, still at M&S but doing something completely different.  The job title is A&A which stands for Accuracy and Availability and is basically making sure that the store has accurate stock levels by pulling off stock records and checking them against actual stock and make sure other people carry out accurate checks.  Now, you may think that that sounds extremely dry and boring . . . . and, to be honest, I think you're absolutely right.  I think I'm supposed to be flattered that all the managers keep saying I'm definitely the right person for the job, but I'm not so sure it's a compliment.  I was asked if I'd be interested in the job and said that it didn't really excite me and they should ask around to see if anyone else wanted to do it, but if no-one did and they were desparate I give it a go.  A few days later they asked if I would do it and so with some misgivings I said yes only to find out within hours that someone else really wanted to do it and had even taken the books home to find out what she'd have to do.  Now that was all really awkward and I felt pretty bad about it and, I have to say, a little cross.  Anyway, she is going to be trained to do the job too at a later date so that there will be three of us to do it.  I started it on Tuesday and could have cried when I got home as the training was quite chaotic and it all seemed so convoluted and illogical and not enough time to do it properly.  I did it again yesterday and it did seem a bit clearer doing it alongside the other person who usually does it, but next week I'm on my own as she's on holiday!!  I'll be crying again I think!  This means that instead of working until 7.30pm, I am now part of the morning team doing 7am - 3pm.  I think those hours will probably be better especially in the summer - ask me again in February if I mind getting up at 6am though.

 

Anyway, that's got all that off my chest and I now have five days off work.  It's my weekend off and I asked if I could swap Monday because Ben's here for the weekend and so I'm doing Wednesday instead which gives me a nice long break.  It's Ben's birthday on Sunday and he is coming tomorrow until Monday evening which will be nice.  We don't have much planned, just chilling (in both senses - relaxing and trying to keep cool).  Meal at the village pub tomorrow and a BBQ on Sunday and that's about as far as our plans go.

 

Have a good weekend.

Step-building and siestas

Well, my wish for warm sun to dry the mud on the chicken's patio has certainly been granted and then some!  Phew, it's hot here and has been for the last week.  Fantastic for my long weekend off work which makes a change . . . . and Andy Murray at Wimbledon  and a BBQ made for a very good weekend off all round.

We decided we needed a bit of a project to get our teeth into for my days off and so we decided to re-build the steps up to the top barns.  They are higgledy-piggledy old steps made from a mixture of stone and brick.

This was taken before we moved here.  The steps in question
were completely filled over with soil and grass, but I guess a bit
must have been sticking out to make us think of clearing it back.
They are just in front of the left-hand door at the top.







So, they were higgledy-piggledy in the extreme and were really quite dangerous.  Bob and I were so used to nipping up and down them that we had developed some sort of muscle-memory in our legs to negotiate them safely without too much thought, but everyone else found them quite difficult (or avoided them altogether).  I must admit I did try to avoid them when it was wet and muddy or icey.  So we decided to sort them out before next Winter (or before someone has an accident!).  The main problem is that the stones slope downwards and aren't level side to side.  We want to retain the higgledy-piggledy look so have tried to keep stones where they are, but jack them up to level them and then fill in the gaps.

Some of the extra stones we've used are huge and very heavy and,
of course we aren't just trying to move them across the level,
but half way up the steps too.  There was one we wanted to use
half way up that I think has defeated us - shame because it is
a lovely big flat one.  It's not this one by the way, we got this one
into place without too much bother.



 

And there it is (fourth step up).  You can see what they used to be
like on the top half.  We have now almost finished the top half too.
Just need to re-lay the bricks which make the top two steps, but we
need to wait for the concrete backfill to go off first.  The big stone
that defeated us was supposed to go on that bare bit in the middle
and would have almost covered the whole area in one go!





 

I now have a tan similar to the one my sister and I used to get when we were little and spent the whole summer busy in the sandpit. Mum says we had lovely brown backs but pale fronts and faces. Mind you, it's only my shoulders that are brown now as I did have a vest top on unlike when I was four and could get away with no top at all (I guess sunburn just hadn't been invented then!).  And so to siestas - it really has been so hot for the last few days that we have decided to adopt the Spanish or Greek way of working and have been doing a few hours of step-building first thing while it is a bit cooler and then doing something inside in the heat of the day (even just reading or having a bit of a sleep - how naughty!) and then doing a bit more later in the day.  I can definitely see the sense in working like that when it's this hot.  We are lucky because it is lovely and cool in the house. 

 

 

We had a go at steam-bending some wood at the weekend for the first time since we moved.  Several components of Bob's chairs are shaped in this way and it is quite amazing to do.  The first ever time we tried it, we were so surprised that it worked that we just had to have a beer to celebrate (now there's a surprise I hear you saying).  I have to say, it's a tradition that we're fostering to the point that we have to time the steam bend to finish at around 6pm, when the sun's over the yardarm and beer consumption is permitted.

This is the steamer and consists of a length of double-wall
corrugated utility pipe with bungs at each end and connected
to a steam wallpaper stripper.  Simple!

So, for the technical-minded of you, this is how it works.  The steam softens the cells in the timber making it more malleable and by steaming it for one hour for each inch of thickness you can bend it into surprisingly tight curves.  The greener (fresher) the wood is, the easier it is to bend.  Once it has steamed you have to bend it round a former and clamp it in place while it cools and sets into its new shape.  To bend an arm piece for a windsor chair you need a piece of wood about 5' long and will have to bend it round until both ends are almost parallel with each other.  Now to up the technical side a notch - when the wood is bent that much, two things happen.  The inside of the curve compresses and the outside stretches.  We need most of the bend to be done by compression rather than stretching because if the wood stretches, it tears - bad!  To stop this happening, Bob has made some straps made from a strip of thin metal (as long as the wood we're bending) with wooden block handles on the ends.  The piece of wood to bend sits between the handles with the metal strap at the back and, as you pull it round the former (one of us on each handle), the handle blocks stops the wood stretching round and instead make the middle of the curve compress.  An additional benefit of steaming the wood is that it seasons it very quickly.  I guess the heat must bubble away the sap and so when the water from the steam evapourates, there is not much moisture left in the wood and it is ready to use.  OK, that's the end of the lesson for today!

 

While we've been around the outside of the workshop mixing bits of cement and so on, we have made friends with some baby Robins - ahh, very cute.  One is a bit older than the other as it has quite an orange breast, but the other has only a hint.  I don't think they're related, we don't see them together, but they are both quite tame and sit on a branch or the floor talking to us and listening when we talk to them.  Today Bob and I both had the same idea independently and when one of them appeared Bob pulled a few raisins from his pocket just as I got out my little bag of cooked rice!  The Robin didn't come and eat out of our hands, but it hopped quite close to eat off the floor.  It'd be nice to have a tame Robin wouldn't it?