Rabbit wars!

Look, we have a new work bench!  Quite useful really.  We have plugged the washer in (it says 'Hello' on the digital display when you turn it on), just to see what it can do.  Blimey they've got complicated all of a sudden.  You can choose the temperature, spin speed, etc, etc.  I used to just run our old washing machine on the same programme for just about everything.  Mind you, I just used to put everything in the oven at Gas Mark 6 too.  I think Laura and Ben grew up thinking that those were the only settings you could have!  No doubt once we've palyed with this machine a few times we'll find a new standard setting.  It is one of the larger sizes (8kg), but it looks absolutely tiny inside - I've got used to the 35kg machine we use at the launderette . . . . . . must remember not to put a whole weeks worth in in one go!

I was using the washing machine as a work bench while I tiled the surround for the sink in the utility room.  Mmmm, looking at that picture, there's not actually much surround at all is there?  Bob has been building the carcass for the cupboard underneath and that is now put together and has had one coat of paint (it's only plywood, so we can't leave it as bare wood).  Tommorrow we will try it in place and put some battens on the wall to support the bit over the washing machine and then put another coat of paint on it.  We could also attach the sink to the top so that when the paint's dry it can all just pop into place.  That will then be ready for the plumber to sort out the pipes underneath.  The sycamore work tops around the kitchen sink have had their two coats of 'Seal & Finish', so they should be heat, grease and waterproof after tomorrow.  I caught a glimpse of that corner of the kitchen through the hole for the stairs this afternoon and it looked just lovely (I thought) - very cottagey.  I went to get the tiles for the splashback this morning - 20% off, so that was good timing and while I was there I noticed that they also had 25% off Little Green Paint Company's mixer paints (English Heritage approved colours, no less - how posh are we?!!).  They have a colour - soft, pale, olive green - that would look right on the cupboard doors in the utility so that was good too (so long as they still have it when we go back).

WARNING:  The next paragraph contains tales of a violent nature, please don't read it if you are squeamish

The rabbit wars have started.  We have put up with rabbits eating things in the garden for the last two years.  We've put chicken wire around the flower bed which looks lovely as you can imagine.  We've put chicken wire around the hedge and the vegetable plot.  We've clapped our hands at them to scare them off, made allowances for the baby rabbit we found in the flower bed, we even moved their babies carefully to persuade them to live elsewhere.  But, enough is enough and they are really taking the mickey now.  They live inside the wire in the flower bed, they've eaten the tops off all the leeks (they've never even liked them before) and have completely stripped the flowers off a 15 foot length of planting.  Yesterday we decided that the baby rabbit that used to run straight through the small holes in the chicken wire must now be too big to fit through and so it would be safe to plant some veg in the gaps in the flower border.  As we looked at one such gap a rabbit ambled into it, saw us and went and hid under the holly bush.  That was the last straw and Bob got his air rifle and made short work of it.  I know, I know, they're cute, but we have a constant battle with them and they don't seem to understand the rules!  Anyway, it didn't look as though there was much meat on it so I took it up to the clearing at the edge of the quarry across the lane and left it for the buzzards.  An hour later it had gone (and I'm pretty sure it hadn't made a miraculous recovery) so last night I think the buzzard chicks had a tasty rabbit supper.  Unfortunately, I found another blessed rabbit in the flower patch today . . . . oh, why don't they stick to the woods, there's loads of lush greenery?!  hold on, maybe that rabbit did make a miraculous recovery and has moved back in!

UNWARNING:  OK, you can open your eyes now, the violence is over.

We have other wild life which is not such a nuisance.  The family of woodpeckers are around most of the time and the kids do an awful lot of squabbling.  There were three of them on the top of the telegraph pole yesterday making a huge amount of noise.  I think that was two young and their mum - young have a red cap, adult females don't have any red on their heads and adult males have a red patch at the back of their neck.  The young nuthatches have definitely worked out how to get peanuts out of the feeders and we regularly have three around.  You can't tell the difference between the young and the adults except that the young are not quite so 'busy' and spend far more time just looking around.  We had a young jay on the feeder a couple of days ago - they just look huge hanging off the nuts.  Again, the young just look like the adults, but act differently.  Once this once got a peanut out, it didn't really know what to do with it so it went and spent five minutes eating sand from the pile in front of the caravan!  Most mornings we are woken at about 5.30am by the bird olympics on the caravan roof - I think a crow or raven likes the sound of its feet running the length of the van.  This morning though I don't know what was on the roof - sounded like a grizzly bear bumbling around!  It sounded big enough for Bob to get up to have a look, but whatever it was had gone.  A mystery, but I hope it doesn't wake us in the same way tomorrow!

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!

The oak has arrived

At last, on Thursday, in the pouring rain, the oak arrived for the timber-framed extension as well as the chestnut cladding for the outside.  This is what Bob's been waiting for!

So, I had a domestic day yesterday to give Bob some space to get his head around how to do this part of the building without me making my usual 'helpful' suggestions.  So I was kept busy with three washer loads of washing at the launderette (we still haven't sorted out washing machine facilities here), Sainsburys (who had no food because the fridges had broken), making a carrot cake and knitting the head and ears of a rabbit as a present for a Buddhist nun!  Now, that sounds a little strange doesn't it?  Let me explain - rabbit first,  I bought a lovely pattern for a floppy-eared rabbit and when Laura (my grown-up daughter) saw it she went all gooey and asked for one.  I then made one for Ben's girlfriend (also grown-up) who then asked me to make one for her 18 year old sister at the same time as Laura asked for one for her friend.  So, I have made four little toy rabbits and none of them are for children.  What a soppy lot!  Now the nun explanation - Laura became a Buddist about 18 months ago and regularly visits the Tibetan Centre in Scotland and is particular friends with the young nun who runs the shop there and, as it is her birthday next month, asked me to make another rabbit.  Perfectly simple!

Today Bob has started cutting the mortices (square holes) for the joints in the timber frame.  Very kindly, the chap from the woodyard let us borrow their chain morticer which is a machine you clamp onto the wood and it cuts the square holes - very clever and so much easier than by hand - they'll just need a bit of tidying up later.  People round here have been so good with help, advice and the loan of things - really helps you along (especially when you've not done this sort of thing before).  While Bob was doing that, I carried on with pointing the inside of one of the barns (now there's a job that seems never-ending!).  We've also had several breaks to chat to neighbours as they pass on their daily constitutionals.  We're quite enjoying living next to a bridleway - best of both worlds really as we're fairly remote from hustle and bustle, but still see people every day as they walk/ride past and stop for a chat or a cuppa and check on progress!  Some even come bearing gifts - beans, rhubarb, field mushrooms and so on - even better!

We are a little worried about the head height in this bit of the extension and also the fact that the only window will look straight out at the sleepers of the retaining wall (luvverly - perhaps I'll paint an alpine meadow scene on them!).  So, on Monday, we need to speak to the architect to see if we can gain any height by using smaller timbers in the roof (but more of them) and we may ask the Planning Dept if we can put a second window in which will look at the stone part of the retaining wall which is more interesting and should be quite pretty when some plants get established.  We also need to ask Building Control if we have to insulate all the outside walls (thus losing all their character and turning them into modern, flat, square-cornered walls).  Not sure if we can put more insulation in the roof to compensate, we'll see.