Since I last wrote we've been doing more little jobs.  Today we got our upright freezer down from the top barn.  It has been temperamental for a while and so we bought a chest freezer last year and have been using that.  Now, a chest freezer's OK for storing meat or excess fruit and veg, but it's difficult to get to everyday things.  I have to lift the basket of bread out, then the basket of sausages and chicken to get to the stuff at the bottom.  So, we're giving the upright freezer another chance.  It has now been well and truly cleaned and all the autumn leaves have been removed from the back of it (there's a gap between the roof and the wall in the top barn that leaves blow through).  It is in the utility room and we'll try switching it on tomorrow once its juices have settled - I hope it works because it's a really good size and very easy to get to everything. 

Another of today's jobs was to put Bob's new toy together.  He bought a router table last week - ready for making window frames.  I can only assume that the table was made in China or somewhere and then Axminster Tools put their stickers all over it because the instructions were absolute rubbish!  Why, oh why doesn't someone English go through the instructions and actually try putting the thing together following them?  It really would have been easier not to look at the booklet and just get on with it . . . . actually isn't that what blokes are supposed to do anyway - guess that explains why Axminster don't see the need to improve the instructions!

We also unpacked the cooker and put it in place (darn, should have taken a photo - suppose I should have taken one of the router table too?) and then started sealing the kitchen floor.  I say started because we ran out of sealer - how very, jolly annoying!  Bob has also cut all the beading to go round the joints between floor and walls (we're not having skirting board, just a 12mm quadrant bead to cover the joint), we oiled them and went to pin them down only to discover we didn't have the right size panel pins - how very, jolly annoying!  Think I feel a shopping trip coming on.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our more successful ventures of the last few days:

The shower tidy we got from . . . . guess where?
Yep, Ikea.  We have now also installed soap and shampoo
as we do try to use that shower instead of the caravan one
(so long as the sun's been shining to warm the water)

And here's another Ikea purchase.  This is also in the ensuite
and saves us blocking the window with a bit of cardboard when
using the shower.  It is also much easier to just tilt the blind closed a bit
than to try to pull your trousers up while half squatting to prevent giving a full view
of everything for dog-walkers and horse-riders after you've been to the loo!

Here's the new door knocker, so people don't have to yell to get
our attention.  This is from the same shop as the Iron Chicken.  It was
mounted on a scrappy piece of stained wood and painted with brown paint
for an authentic old iron look.  So, after removing it from the wood, wire-brushing
it and treating with the blacking stuff we used on the bread oven door, it looks
much better and gives a real loud, resounding knock.



Here's the new look 2nd fireplace in the kitchen.  It looks quite
startlingly different now it has been painted and the iron blacked.
A little too startling in fact - I think the paint needs to be more colourful.
Obviously it's not finished yet, we're still sorting out tiles.



And here's another fireplace - our bedroom.  Thought you'd like to
see the difference the linseed oil and turps mix makes - quite
striking isn't it?  The oiled bricks do lighten up a bit once they're dry,
but they do look a bit more lively.



And finally, we've covered up those darned drain pipes and very
glad to see the back of them we are too!  We took up some cobble stones from
the far end of this bit and we were going to try laying them back properly,
but changed our minds in the end and have just layed a few here and
there in the gravel, along with some bricks and limestone pavers - so
much quicker and easier!  It now reminds us of an archeological dig
 . . . we're just unearthing a Roman pavement. 



Racing cars, food and floors

Well, the sun shone for us for the Food Festival - in fact, at one point it was a little too hot (never satisfied are we?).  The Smallholders' stall looked pretty good with home grown/made produce, a beehive, books, posters and leaflets and we had a lot of people to talk to who were interested in the group.  So, we'll see if they all turn up to the next meeting - goats is the next subject.

On Sunday we had a day out at Loton Park just a few miles away.  In its normal life it is a deer park and country estate I think, but for a few weekends a year they hold hill climbs.  This time it wasn't us climbing the hils though, it was cars and motorbikes.  They race (one at a time) up the course which is a little road that winds its way up the hill through trees and grassland for about a mile.  There were all sorts of vehicles there old and new.  Bob was particularly interested in the motorbikes (he has two himself).  There were quite a lot of Ferraris and they were rubbish - the little Peugeot 205 went as fast as did some of the little 3 wheel Morgans (maybe it's because the Ferraris cost so much that they were a bit shy of hammering them).  Anyway, it made a good day out with enough mishaps to keep the public happy without anyone actually getting hurt or really damaging their vehicle.  Bob also took me out for Sunday lunch - what a treat, a cheeseburger and chips from the van with a '99' for pudding (actually it was quite nice to eat rubbish for a change!).

Work-wise, Bob has dug some more holes for the drains from the extension gutters - pretty heavy going with some solid rock to get through (he did work up quite a sweat).  That's all ready for the pipes, we are just waiting for the builders merchant to get some of the bits we need.  We'll be glad when that's all filled in as there seem to have been holes all over the place for ages.  We have actually got a draw-bridge at the moment - Bob's always wanted one, but this should only be temporary so he'd better make the most of it.  I spent yesterday doing more Victorian housework, this time scrubbing the kitchen floor (with the chemical cleaner) then rinsing it and sealing it.  That done and dried, we spent this morning grouting it which is a long job I can tell you!  As you know, we have re-laid the original quarry tiles.  When new I think they would have been laid without gaps and that's the job done, but because they are worn and slightly different sizes we couldn't do that.  Some of the gaps are too small for ordinary grout though (and it wouldn't look right).  So, we have invented our own system (well, it may be used elsewhere, we don't know).  We mix some builders sand which is quite red (seived to get rid of the bigger grit) with some very fine kiln dried sand which is quite pale and some lime.  This makes a fine pinky-colour powder.

We then feed this into the gaps between the tiles making sure it fills them up as much as possible and at the same time making sure the rest of the tile isn't covered with lime by brushing it in with a paintbrush.  Some gaps just fill up really easily and others feel as though you're filling the cellar with sand and take ages!  Once all the gaps are filled we sprayed water along all the gaps so it can go off (that's builder's speak for going hard).  We should then be able to clean up the tiles and apply another coat of sealer.  Filling all the gaps in just makes such a difference to the look of the floor and I think we're quite pleased with it.

I'm off to Scotland on Thursday to visit Laura and the midges - looking forward to seeing Laura, but not the other little pests!  I think a trip to Tesco is planned for her to stock up on essentials and she did mention that some chip shop chips would be nice!  She has a Tibetan lesson on Thursday afternoon, so I may go along to that too and see what I can learn.  Tashi Delek is about all I know so far - that is a greeting.  Bob is staying behind to chicken-sit, but I think he may have a trip out on his motorbike to go to the Harley Davison shop for a part he needs and then to Axminster Tools to look at router tables (we'll need one of them for making window frames).

The plumber should be coming again tomorrow (although he hasn't rung to confirm, so watch this space) - another leaking joint on the solar pipes and to fit a flappy one-way valve so the solar panels don't carry on heating the radiator.  He is also going to bend some copper pipe for us to make a rail for the shower curtain downstairs.  It has to go up the sloping ceiling then straight for a bit and then round a corner, so this seems to be the simplest way to do it.  There is a company on the industrial estate that can powder-coat it for us fairly cheaply, so that should be that problem solved.

Drains and very cute baby rabbits

Oooh, I ache!  We had a very slow start today - what should have been a quick trip to the builders merchant took forever because the first one didn't have all the bits we wanted so we went to another who also didn't have everything, but did have the bits the first didn't which meant we had to go back to the first again, but at least we got everything in the end.  After that though we have got on really well as we have laid most of the drains around the extension.  We had to lay a french drain which is pipe with holes drilled in the top half which you sit in pea gravel and the idea is that ground water seeps down through the gravel and into the pipe and then drains away into the soakaway.  You have to enclose the gravel with porous membrane which stops mud and silt getting through and clogging the holes in the pipe.  Next to that is the drain from the utility room and bathroom.  All this had to fit in a fairly narrow walkway between the building and the retaining wall so quite an awkward working space.  Once we'd cut the pipe to length (and drilled all the holes in some of it), fitted all the bends and sorted out the levels so that the water drains the right way, I shovelled gravel into buckets and Bob poured them around the pipes making sure the membrane stayed in place.  That was a lot of gravel to move and hump around - hence the groans from both of us when we move at the moment!

I have now finished tiling the bathroom and grouted.  Just the silicone to pipe down the corners and around the bath - oh dear, that could well go horribly wrong!  It all looks much better without the horrible green plasterboard - much brighter now.  I have to get on with the shower tiling upstairs now.  That needs doing before the plumber can fit the shower.  I thought I had all week, but the electrician has just rung to say he has some time on Thursday and Friday to come back and finish the lights, etc.  That's really good, but does mean I have to try and get a good chunk of the tiling done before then as he needs to work in the en-suite and I don't want to be in his way.  So, guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

We had the weekend off with a visit from Carol, Graham, Sophie and Ellie (sister and family).  As usual when they come the weather was glorious, too hot to do much really.  On Sunday we did some gardening - lots of weed strimming (not sure it really looks any better though).  We also planted several plants we'd been given by various people and also moved the leeks to their growing positions.  You plant the seeds and then when they are big enough you dig them up and plant them individually into deep holes which allow them plenty of space to grown into nice big leeks.  This morning we went to check they were OK and were horrified to see a big rabbit hole in the middle of the patch!   Aaarghhhh!!  On closer inspection we found three tiny baby rabbits at the bottom of it.  Oh, now what were we to do?  No sign of the adults all day, so in the end we got them out and put them the other side of the path in the undergrowth where they snuggled up together and stayed for a few hours.  When I went to check before we came in, they'd gone - no sign of anything nasty happening, so I assume the parent found them and carried them off to a new hole.  No doubt they'll be back in a few weeks to eat the heads off the flowers, chomp away at the tree bark and generally be a nuisance, but they were just too cute to do anything nasty to!  I expect we'll regret being softies somehow!