Update of the last week's activities

Oh, my goodness it's ages and ages since I updated this.  We have been quite busy for the last week or so getting ready for the electrician who is coming tomorrow and the plumber who was due to come on 6 June.  Surprise, surprise though, he left us a message to say it would be the following week as he has wedding planning to do!  Could try your patience a little, but I guess it does give us a bit of leeway for getting things sorted for him to start.  Bob did manage to dig one of the trenches last week - to connect the kitchen sink waste to the septic tank, another of those minor things we forgot all about!   It was a bit hit and miss whether there would be enough fall on the pipe and it is really hard to tell by eye around here.  I was sure it was going uphill, but the spirit level proved me wrong, so we got the pipes connected and the trench filled back in.  While Bob was digging (I helped with connecting the pipes and filling in) I tiled the surround for the en-suite basin and also the window sill in there.

We had a long weekend near Bath with Bob's family which was a nice break.  Did the usual tourist things - a tour of the Roman Baths (including the free glass of health-giving spa water which made me feel ill - maybe it has long-term benefits?!), boat trip, look around the Abbey, National Trust garden and lots and lots of food and drink.  Yesterday we hired a canal boat for the day for Bob's dad's birthday present.  That was good fun and everyone had a go at 'driving'.  So that all made a nice change and now we're back to work.

We got well over half the kitchen floor laid last week including all the fiddling around the edges and a bit of brickwork round the bottom of the bread oven corner to hide where the bottom of it sits on earth or rock.  We then left that and moved onto the floorboards in the bedroom.  All quite fiddly and time-consuming as they run straight through two doorways and round the chimney and, of course, none of the walls are straight.  Next time maybe we'll do a new house with right angles and straight edges! . . . . . actually, I don't think there'll be a next time, this is it I reckon.  Anyway, by 5pm on Thursday we'd got most of it done but came to a bit of a standstill as we tried to work out how best to use the remaining few boards and where they needed cutting. As we were going away for four days on Friday morning and with the electrician coming tomorrow, after half an hour of mmmmming and aaaaahing we had to decide whether to finish it so we could oil it today or oil it before we went and put one of the temporary loft-boards back across the gap.  We went for the latter, but even just doing that took us until 8pm - sanding out the black marks from the cut nails we'd used and then vacuuming (yes, I've done the vacuuming upstairs for the first time in two and a half years!) all the dust away before we oiled it took a while.  Then we had to get everything ready for our weekend away - thank goodness I'd made tea earlier in the day and could just shove it in the oven!  Next morning I got up before 7am to put a 2nd coat of oil on the floor before we left . . . it was a toss up between that and updating this blog, but I'm afraid the floor won and probably a good job because it'd be a shame for the floor to get spoiled with dirty footprints.

Here's Bob unpacking some of the electrical shopping - just like Christmas!  There was loads more, but this is the small stuff (sockets, light switches, etc) which needed counting and checking off.  Still more to come, but hopefully one of us can get that tomorrow - I think the sparky should have plenty to get on with!  Today we have had a major tidy up in the house (won't be able to find anything now!) and put all this shopping as well as all the lights, smoke detectors, extractor fans, etc on a makeshift table in the kitchen so it's easy for sparky to find everything.  It was like playing shops!

We also tried all the light fittings in place and Bob has been making wooden plaques for some of them to go on.  You can't get them to sit right straight onto stone walls, so he has shaped the back of each to sit neatly against the stone with a nice flat surface to attach the light itself.  While he was doing that I got the filler out and repaired some of the edges of the plaster in the kitchen ceiling where all the hammering above on the floorboards had jiggled it loose and then I finished painting the bits of the ceiling where lights are going.  So much easier than trying to fiddle around the lights once they're up.  

All of today's work has been interspersed with frequent trips into the 'lounge' to see the baby wrens.  They left the nest today.  Bob went in for something this morning and saw one fly out, then when I went in later three fluffy balls were sitting on the top rung of the ladder wondering what to do next (soooo cute!).  I dashed to get the camera, but they'd all flown in different directions when I got back.  They just fly around and when they hit something they grab with their feet and stay there for a while working out the next move - quite funny.  I did try to take some photos, but they didn't turn out at all (looked as though I'd opened the camera and spoiled the film, but as it's digital that's probably not the reason could be something to do with the flash being switched off I suppose - oops!).  I'm not sure how many babies there were - at least five or six, but probably more.  When they'd made it outside there seemed to be little fluffy wrens all over the place calling so the parents knew where they were.  It must be a nightmare for the adults trying to keep track of them all. 

Not so good news for the baby Great Tits in the wall of the top barn.  On Thursday Bob found a dead baby all undressed apart from its wing feathers and a few on its head.  Clearly much too young to be out and about.  The nest is quite deep in the wall, but there were more babies in the entrance all in a higgledy piggledy heap.  They looked a bit more fully clothed than the dead one and I wonderd if maybe the adults had turfed it out and in doing so some of the others had got pushed towards the opening.  Anyway, when we checked the next morning they were dead too.  We decided that when we got back we'd have to try to get them out - last year we had a dead baby robin who smelled to high heaven after a very short time.  But today there is still cheaping from the nest and the adults have been in and out, so we can't go poking around can we?  Maybe the adult bird will sort it out.

All three sets of blue tits are still busy feeding their babies, but I'm sure they must be about ready to fly.  We'll be inundated with them all, but they are really funny when they discover the nut feeders - very fluffy with not a clue what to do. 

Chicken Trauma (bit like chicken korma but not as tasty)

Poor chucks had a bit of a trauma this morning and this is the result . . . . yes, those are feathers all over the ground!  Poor Peggy got got by a dog, but amongst a commotion of squawking and feathers managed to get away and Bob found her and Bonny the other side of the path in the undergrowth  . . . Elvis was nowhere to be seen.  The poor lady walking the dog was very apologetic - it is a young rescue dog and has a lot to learn.  She was helping to look for Elvis, but we thought with the dog there she was unlikely to come out of hiding so the lady and dog went on their way - just as Elvis sauntered down the steps!  So at least she knew they were all OK. 



Peggy with her new fancy hairdo!

 Peggy now has quite a bald patch on her back, but I can't quite believe that so many feathers came out of that one patch.  The skin wasn't broken and she seems fine now if a little embarassed of her new hairdo.  Straight after she went to hide behind the wheely bin (which to our chickens is just about the safest place in the world - even Harley Davidsons can't get you there), so we left her to calm down a bit.  About 10 mins later Bob heard a chicken talking behind the bin and thought she might be coming out, but when he looked little Elvis was there having a motherly chat with her and telling her everything would be alright and then she brought her out - how sweet is that?

Other feathered news is that the baby wrens think I'm their mother - so cute!  I peeped into the barn and saw that the adult wasn't there so crept in for a closer look, I could just see the top of their heads, but when I got closer they all poked their heads up and opened their mouths hopefully.  They didn't do that when Bob went to look  . . . . must be the beard!

Don't know if you can make this out or not, but there are three bright yellow beaks.
Their beaks are about twice the size of the chicks themselves - I don't
know how they fitted them into those tiny eggs  . . . . perhaps they have
folding beaks?



The baby wrens have arrived

Yes, we have babies!  We've seen the adults busy with worms and grubs in their beaks, so guessed that the eggs had hatched and when Bob looked this afternoon there were several bits of shell on the floor under the nest.  I tried to take a phot of the shells on my hand or next to my finger to give an idea of scale, but I'm not clever enough to hold eggs and hold the camera still the same time, so they were too blurry, anyway the eggs are smaller than my finger nail (you'd need a lot of them for an omelette!).  The chicks will be so tiny at the moment, it's hard to imagine.  We can't see them because the nest is quite deep with the entrance hole near the top.  If I remember rightly from last year, wren chicks are incredibly quiet, so I don't think we'll hear them for a while.  When they're a bit bigger they do cheap a bit when the parents come with food, but the rest of the time they are very good and sit quietly.  Not like woodpecker chicks who make a racket all day long which just gets a bit louder when the adults visit with food.  Talking of woodpeckers, both adult Greater Spotteds have been on the peanut feeders almost constantly for the last few days, so I think they have hungry mouths to feed.  They take the nuts to the telegraph pole across the lane and wedge them in a crack then peck at them to break them up before they take them to the babies.  I watched a blackbird collecting twigs for a nest this morning - as the twigs were very fine and he had a whole beakful, he looked as though he was wearing a big false moustache, quite funny.  I assume this will be a 2nd nest - it seems a bit late for the first brood.

We had a rootle through some of the stuff we have stored in one of the barns the other day.  We haven't looked at it all for two and a half years and we've forgotten what we've got which makes it all quite exciting.  Bob wanted to unwrap it all I think.  We didn't though.  We were looking for some cupboard doors to go on the cabinet under the basin in the en-suite as they did in the old house (we replaced them with birch ply doors before we moved!).  We found them and they are lovely - made from rippled sycamore with quite a bit of character in them.  When they are closed you can see a face which I used to call a devil's face, but looking at it now, it's quite cheery and smiling - must just be glad to be here I guess!

Bob has made the bit the basin will sit in so we can put the little square slate tiles on it and fix the sink in before the plumber comes to connect it all up.  The good thing about doing all this ourselves is that we can have the sink as high as we like (less bending to clean your teeth . . . . how old do we sound?!!).

You'll be pleased to hear, we don't need to plasterboard the whitewashed walls.  Colouring the whitewash wasn't as scary as we thought and we now have creamwashed walls - if anything they are a bit too pale!  Never satisfied, eh?  We also mixed some red ochre and yellow ochre to make a deeper colour for one wall in the en-suite.  It made a lovely rich terracota colour . . . . which has now dried to a pale apricot colour.  Well, that's OK - not what we intended, but fine.  You could get a bit addicted to this - it'd be quite interesting to see if you could get a darker colour.  I think you have to be careful as too much of the pigment can spoil the way the limewash dries and it'd just be flaky.

Bob has carried on with the kitchen floor - it's a bit back-breaking, so has to be done in shorter sessions.  It's coming on well though and the bit for the woodburner is done which is the most important part as we need to get that delivered so the plumber can connect the backboiler. 

We had a mega-shopping spree earlier in the week  . . . . . although we only came home with a tub of PVA glue!  We ordered the tiles for the bathrooms, the sink for the utility, all the sockets and switches, heat and smoke detectors, extractor fans, bathroom and hall lights, showers (electric for downstairs and mains for upstairs) and a water softener!  We should be able to collect some of it tomorrow and the rest next week  . . . . . and then pay for it all - gulp!  The floorboards haven't arrived yet.  It was pouring down on Saturday, so they didn't deliver which is fine as we don't want them spoiled by getting wet.  We'll have to arrange another time, but trying to find a dry time is proving a little difficult - we had a huge thunderstorm on Monday.

Tomorrow morning we have the electric company coming to change the meter to Economy 7 so we'll have to find some jobs to do that aren't reliant on electricity.  Perhaps I'll do some more painting - I'm trying to do all the bits that'll be awkward to do once the electrician has been and fitted lights and so on.

I'm so excited!!!



Newly decorated wall on the 'landing'
looking through to our bedroom

 So many things to be excited about . . . . . but, I have to admit, probably not that exciting for anyone else!

1.  I have been decorating - real decorating!  I know we've done the utility room and the bathroom, but they were plain, new walls.  In the last couple of days I have done the en-suite and the landing and they include old walls and ceilings with oak beams and purlins and it was so nice to see the way the new paint highlights the old, gnarly oak.  We do need to clean the oak up a bit to get rid of chalk and plaster marks, but it looks lovely already.

2.  Skimming phase one is coming on well - just a couple of panels in the kitchen ceiling, the long wall in the hall and a couple of little bits and pieces left to do.  We did the ceiling in the hall over the weekend.  I was dreading it, but it was nowhere near as bad as I thought and looks fine.

3.  Forgot to tell you in my postcard from our 'olidays that we saw an adder on our walk.  It was sunbathing on the path and jittered away as we got close, but we had a good chance to watch it before it disappeared into the grass.

4.  Also forgot to tell you that one of the monks at Samye Ling let me bang the gong outside the temple for the evening service - what a priviledge.

5.  Tomorrow, the plumber is supposed to be coming to connect the wastes on the bath and the shower tray.  We moved the bath into the bathroom in readiness - now that is exciting!  Course, the plumber is a bit unreliable, so he may not turn up, but fingers crossed!

6.  The wren is sitting on the nest in the lounge.  We haven't seen them for a while and just this morning we had decided that they'd given up on that nest and were using a different one.  The next time Bob went in there the wren flew out right across his face!  When I went in a bit later I could see a little face looking out at me, but it didn't fly away and was still there later on.  We actually had a wren in the caravan this morning - must have flown in one of the open windows and Bob had to help it out.  Also had a chicken in the caravan who'd managed to get in through the lounge door and then flew out, over the wire mesh we'd put across the kitchen door to keep them out!  The woodpacker/nuthatch drama seems to have ended as a bit of a non-event - we haven't seen anyone on the beech tree for ages, but have heard/seen the greater spotteds across the lane in the woods.

7.  We were invited to join Bill, Maggie, three fairly grown-up children and a girlfriend from America for their Easter meal yesterday - delicious roast dinner eaten in the garden under a parasol - followed by an egg hunt.  Maggie and I hid over a hundred eggs of various sizes and then promptly forgot where we'd put the special bigger ones - think they found all but half a dozen little ones though, so not bad.  They'll be a bonus for whoever next does the gardening I think.  All good fun and lovely weather too.

8.  We have visitors imminent - Bob's dad (Arthur) and stepmum (Jan) are coming on Thursday afternoon.  They haven't been since last summer, before we'd even started putting up the oak-frame bit of the extension, so they should see a huge difference.  It'll be nice to show them around and have a chat.  Then mum and dad are coming for a few days from Sunday (staying in the local Travelodge) - a few changes since they were here too.

9.  Elvis laid her first real egg for about 10 days today - she had a few days of laying them, but forgetting the shells before we went away, then hasn't laid one for about a week, but managed one with a shell today!

10. Finally in my excitement list is that Carol (my sister) managed to get Bob a pair of Levi 501s for just £25 on her recent holiday in Florida, wow, Bob won't have to wear patched jeans anymore!

NOT on my excitement list is that the caravan is currently being bombarded by may bugs (or cockchafers - that name for them makes Bob squirm!).  They are huge, very solid and just fly constantly at the windows, banging quite relentlessly and loudly on them for about half an hour each evening from about 10 o'clock.  We have to make sure all the windows are closed by then because if they get inside they are horrible - really big and flappy/buzzy, a bit scary really!

Slate tiles

We have finished decorating!  Ha, ha - that sounds as though we're ready to move in doesn't it?  When I say finished decorating, I mean just the bathroom . . . . and only the paint, not the floor . . . . or the tiles . . . . . or the bath, toilet, sink or shower . . . . oh, and not the light or the switches . . . . or a door or anything like that.   So, a bit of an exaggeration I think!  We have done the three coats of paint though and we've laid the floor tiles - and that's another story.

Ages ago we bought some slate tiles from Homebase for the bathroom - 300mm square dark slate, as shown on their display and evident from the tile showing though the window in every box.  I had plans for a striking black floor, white everything else and brightened up by red towels, etc.  After I'd put the first coat of proper colour on the walls in the bathroom I opened a pack of tiles just to see what they'd look like.  Now, I know that slate is a natural product and you have to expect variations in colour, thickness, etc, but these were ridiculous.  There were clearly two different sorts of slate - pale greeny ones about 15mm thick and dark black/grey ones about 5mm thick!  What are you supposed to do with that?!  A chequerboard pattern and different thicknesses of adhesive to make them level?  We opened all the boxes and they all contained half and half.  We couldn't even hide all of one sort under the bath.  So, we took them back and they were actually very good about it (once we'd explained five times that ordering a new lot and making sure they were from the same batch number wouldn't help because they were mixed within the box) and they gave us our money back.  So, we went straight round to the place where we got the little tiles for the hall and bought some more (cheaper too).  I guess it'll look more coherent with the same flooring in the hall, utility and bathroom.

We have laid them in the bathroom and now need to seal them before grouting.  Of course, because they are mosaic tiles there's an awful lot of joints to grout so that'll be a job and a half!  They do look a bit like an optical illusion - if you stare at them they look like ridges and furrows and if you concentrate you can get the ridges and furrows to flip places.  When they are wet they are quite a nice dark green colour, so we will seal them with an oil based sealer to keep that colour.  Not sure how it fits in with the red towels idea - have to see when it's all done.  Also, the white tiles we liked for round the bath because they had the same texture as the floor tiles may not be right because these are smooth!  Oh, it's all so complicated.

We have, of course, been skimming all week too.  I forgot to tell you about doing the utility ceiling together.  As you can imagine doing a ceiling is a bit more messy than doing a wall.  I heard a curse and turned to see a huge blob of plaster slap bang in the middle of Bob's beard - he did look quite funny.  Oh, I wish I'd had the camera.  It took him ages to wash it all out and as soon as he got back on the job another blob plopped all over one lens of his glasses . . . he wasn't really amused, but I nearly wet myself!  Our work has been inspected and approved by Phil the Plaster when he and Ann came round for a cuppa - phew!  Ann said she'd put our certificate in the post!

The wrens are back in the lounge.  They go in and out by landing and walking under the door which is asking for trouble if a cat or similar realises what they are doing, so Bob dropped the bottom half of the door a bit so there was a gap half way up for them to fly through.  So now they squeeze through the smaller gap under the door!  Seems to defeat the point of moving it, so we've put it back as it was again - well, we tried!  I'm sure I saw one fly down the hall and out of the main door this afternoon.  Green woodpeckers have been investigating and modernising the old greater spotted woodpeckers nest in the beach tree behind the caravan (nuthatches used it last year), so we'll keep an eye on that to see if they move in.  The green haze on the trees is rapidly turning into real green and the hawthorn hedge is covered in real leaves.  We have quite a lot of blossom in the garden - the damsons are covered and there is actually blossom on the blackthorn which had been chopped right down before we moved here.  Maybe we'll be able to make some of our own sloe gin in the autumn!  Our sturdy little pear tree is absolutely covered in blossom buds - not sure it'll cope if they all turn into pears.  We went up to our little wood this evening and it is now covered in violets, primroses, sorrel and loads of wood anenomes.  When we went up there at the weekend, we struggled to find more that about four anenomes . . . where did they come from all of a sudden.  It is lovely though.  No doubt next time we go up there the nettles will have done the same and taken over!

We are both feeling a little weary so we're have a day off building work tomorrow.  Sainsburys/launderette and collecting light fittings, sockets and switches etc in the morning.  Then we might have lunch out and then not do much at all in the afternoon.  Bob wants to give his Harley a once over ready for summer riding and I might just get the deckchair out and read!  What a luxury!

Wrens nesting

So, what have we been up to since I last blagged, blug . . . . maybe it's just blogged?  Well, last Thursday we went for a cuppa at Bill and Maggie's.  We felt really bad because they had come to visit earlier in the day with tales of woe about their heating system, but we were at a critical stage of skimming and so couldn't really stop to lend an ear and so they went home with no cup of tea or anything.  Poor things!  So, as soon as we'd finished we went round to theirs bearing cookies to give solace in their hour of need.  They really have had a tough time with their cutting edge ground source heat pump.  That works by pumping glycol through underground pipes, this absorbs the heat and then, by some sort of magic, the heat is transferred and increased and is pumped around the underfloor heating system.  It works in the same way as a fridge exchanges heat for cold, but the opposite way round.  Anyway, Bill put the underground pipes in ages ago, the underfloor heating has been installed for ages and the two just need to be connected.  This stage involves their plumber and electrician and the chap from the ground source company, so not easy to get them all together at once.  The first date for this was arranged at the beginning of December and about five times since, but each time something has gone wrong.  Parts haven't been available, they had the wrong water tank, the engineer didn't bring enough glycol, pipes have been crossed at the manifold, the engineer broke down on the motorway, the engineer called in sick, you name it it's gone wrong . . . and still it goes on.  So, they have had a whole winter without their underfloor heating and using electric to heat all their water.  Quite understandably, they were well and truly down in the dumps about it.  Everyone's booked again for next week I think, so watch this space!

On Friday and Saturday, we helped Ben and Lucy move into their new flat.  Very nice it is too, clean, spacious and modern - the only trouble is that it's up two flights of stairs.  No problem at all normally, but I dread to think how many trips up and down them we made over the two days carrying boxes, bags, TVs, wardrobes, sofa, etc.  When we got home my calf muscles had just about given up the ghost!  Don't think I need to go to the gym this week!

On Sunday, we had a day off and went to the garden centre.  We bought seed potatoes, shallots and beetroot and leek seeds.  We are somewhat limited in what we can plant at the moment on account of the multitude of giant rabbits that visit our garden!  We have a heap of soil in the garden which we covered with horse muck and a tarpaulin last year - it will eventually get spread out over part of the garden, but not until we have time to do something with it, so we thought we could poke a few potatoes in there in the meantime.  So, we pulled back some of the tarpaulin and planted them and this morning . . . . a flippin' rabbit has burrowed into the heap, aaarrrrgh!  I'm going to look up some rabbit casserole recipes I think!

We have done some more skimming.  I had the first go at doing a ceiling yesterday - I didn't get as messy as I thought I would . . . well not quite!  So, now all the utility's done except the ceiling, all the bathroom's done and Bob has made a start on the upstairs.  We also did some good, old-fashioned lime plaster yesterday, finishing off all sorts of bits - it seemed really strange slapping it on with your hands after doing the ultra-thin, very smooth skimming.  Today we had an exciting morning choosing tiles and light fittings.  We have ordered our bedroom light and the one for the end barn bedroom (which I've had my eye on for ages, but only just persuaded Bob about) and finally got the last two lights for the kitchen.  We chose some lovely tiles for the bathroom walls (just around the bath/shower) - plain white, but with a texture that reminds me of slate, so as we have slate for the floors that should all tie-in nicely.  We'll then brighten it all up with red towels or something.  I think we've also decided on the floor in the hall.  We wanted a hard floor so that people can come in in their boots, etc and originally we were thinking quarry tile type thing, but it's all soooo expensive!  We found some ceramic tiles we quite liked for £25 a square metre, but then went in the paint shop and they had a pallet of slate mosaic tiles for just £8.50 a square metre . . . that's a difference of over £200 for the hall and utility!  So, we laid some slate in the hall and the samples of the ceramic tile and asked Pam the postlady what she thought.  She was adamant it should be the slate.  We then asked the chickens, but they couldn't make up their minds really, so I think we'll go with Pam's decision.  We'll probably have to go and get them tomorrow because I think they're a one-off and when they're gone they're gone.

This is the beautiful little nest a wren built in the middle barn (which will be the lounge) last spring.  Apparently, they build several and then select one to use and they didn't actually use this one.  Since then, we have built the timber extension which blocks off the little draught hole they used to use to get in.  The only way in for them now is to walk under the temporary chipboard door into the 'lounge', or to fly though the little gap in the door to the nextdoor barn and then through to the 'lounge'.  So, Bob was very surprised when he went in there yesterday to find two wrens checking out the nest.  One gave him a really hard time, sitting on the ladder chirping angrily at him!  We thought they wouldn't come back after being disturbed, but one was there again this morning when I went in.  It must be the same pair as last year who've remembered it was there and worked out how to get to it a different way - very impressive really.  It would be quite nice if they nested in there - we won't be doing any work in there before they've finished.  We have said, though, that we'll make sure we go in and out a few times each day.  That way, it's their choice if they decide to nest where humans are in and out.  Better that than let them think we don't go in there and then they get disturbed later with chicks in the nest.  The reason we left the nest is that I'd quite like to keep it in the wall - we could put perspex over it and a frame around it - I think it may be where a light is going though so we'll have to see.