Walkies

The weather is piling on more and more rain and strong winds.  The motorbike has blown over twice, and the scaffolding once.  The house flaps and shrieks and makes funny helicopter-landing-on-the-roof noises.  And we've got a dog to look after.  So twice a day Dave gets into his wet weather gear and makes a swift circuit of the fields, and every so often we get a break in the weather and go a little further.

Battling the Bank

29 Jan 2015

During the summer, we had to find a bank account in a hurry for Dave's earnings, which turned out to be so long unused it was effectively dormant.  Except that it was able to accept money.  This was our 'rainy day' saving scheme for getting through the lean month of January with some money for building supplies

So we went to Lefkas and queued at the bank and got to the counter and they wouldn't let us withdraw any money.  So we queued for the girl at the desk who gave us a list of documents we'd need to bring to re-open the account.

A week later, having eked out our pennies a little longer than we'd've liked, we went back, queued again, handed in documents, waiting patiently while other people distracted our clerk with 'quick' queries, and after two hours Dave signed everything and they said come back in a few days and the account will be reactivated.

A few days later, we set aside another day for going to Lefkas and queued for the counter and eventually reached the cashier and he said, sorry there's a problem, so we went to see the other clerk who looked for Dave's paperwork and couldn't find it and claimed not to remember dealing with it, and said, the paperwork is all on the system, but you didn't apply to activate the account.  So it was our fault.  And if we come back in a few days the account will have been reactivated.

I was furious.  Dave steered me out into the street where I stomped about a lot. 

Then we calculated we could just about spend every last penny we each had on various debit cards and just afford the woodyard order we needed to get the bathroom walls, floor and ceiling materials this side of the weekend.  So we did that, and amazingly they had a Nidri delivery already on the truck, so they'd do ours with it and we'd have the wood in an hour or so.  So that was good.

And February's income was in the bank the following day, so we made it through January by the skin of our teeth!

Starting the slab

23-24 January 2015

The weather has turned awful.  Strong winds, lashing rain, still cold (but not icy) - so it is imperative that we start work on something just to conserve firewood and only light the stove in the evening.

So, as we have a few bucketsworth of sand, gravel and lime left, we decided to start the bathroom floor slab, beginning in the corner around the loo.  When we originally had the loo put in, we laid only a minimum concrete slab, just enough to put in a few stone tiles and fix the loo down.  So the first job will be to tidy up that area and square off the tiled area.

 First, I moved the screen wall away from the loo, effectively doubling the size of our bathroom in one easy move!

 Then Dave and I leveled and fixed the green baton into the earth at the height we want the limecrete slab to come to, drawing a line from the edge of the shower tray.  This area will be surfaced with stone paving, as that was what we thought we would be using when the loo was installed.  We want the rest of the bathroom in terracotta, like the kitchen as we're so pleased with it.

 Here's the area dampened down, ready for the first mix of limecrete.  We got one mix made and then a downpour happened, so we had to leave it half complete until the skies cleared briefly around four-ish and Dave was able to make another one.

 Meanwhile, Robbie and Sue had left us their dog 'Fruity' to look after while they went gadding in Cape Town. 

The next day - the slab all poured, but dented with cat prints overnight.  The bathroom window is a bit of a cat motorway, especially with the dog in the front room.

Filled Skip and a Skink

Wednesday 21 Jan 2015

After intermittent activity clearing corners of our land of various pockets of debris, we finally declared the skip filled.  They will collect it at the end of the month.  Anything more we find will have to go in or on the car.  We still have a mattress to dispose of, but as it has been out in the rain it is now far too heavy to lift, so it may take a while before it can go. 

And at the bottom of an old paint can, we found this skink - it's the first time I've seen one I could photograph.  I had never heard of skinks before moving to Greece (although Dave, of course, knows all about them!)  They are little almost legless lizards, completely harmless, and very shy.

Stove Pipe scare

18 Jan 2015

Sitting round the stove in the evening of Sunday 18th, we were horrified to see the side of our new chimney flue glowing red hot.  A double skin insulated flue should not do this.  We had put a few pieces of offcut pine from the original wood frame building work in, and it was burning hotter than the olive wood does.  Scary while it lasted, though no harm was done.  I took a photo and we've given it to George who did the work.  He is going to yell at the suppliers who will yell at the manufacturers and we'll see what happens.  Meanwhile, we will take care not to use much pine at any time.

Fencing and Clearing

Saturday 17 Jan 2015

Inspired by the skip, which is now half full, we set off to inspect the far end of the land where the Winnebago used to be.  When Michael and Alison left, they didn't really tidy up after themselves, so we barrowed out piles of rubbish and cleared a site for a bonfire, well away from the house.

M & A had also left a part of their fencing, taking only what they needed and leaving the rest for us.  We were a little worried that if the council ever got round to putting in the road along that side of our land they might take the fencing line as the boundary of our patch.  It isn't on the boundary because M & A understandably didn't want to include the prickly shrubs that line the track in their toddler enclosure.  So we knocked out the posts and moved them about four metres across and banged them back in and attached several pieces of fencing that we found lying treacherously in the long grass and ended up reasonably happy with the outcome.

Then we dragged some of last years cut olive branches into the cleared area and Dave chainsawed them up for firewood and we made a little bonfire of the twiggy ends, and we felt that we'd done a very good day's work at last this year!

Art Party 2015

13 - 15 and 20 - 22 Jan

Our Art group Summer Winter school was scheduled early this year.  Amanda is going off to Kilimanjaro in February, and i preferred to do it early in the year, before we get stuck into the building season when it warms up a bit. 

Good fun as always, but I didn't start any major projects this year, as I am increasingly keen to get back to work on the house.  It seems to have been a very long break.  Part of the problem, however, is that we need to get through January without spending very much at all.  We need sand and lime for the East wall render, gravel for the bathroom floor, and a big order from the woodyard to construct the bathroom infrastructure - but we can't afford building materials until the end of the month.

More Walks

13 Jan 2015

Another walk, this time exploring unknown-to-us paths above the village of Haradriatika.  Still lovely sunny but brisk weather, and we found a little gorge high in the hills.

The Skip

11 January 2015

There was no help for it - we had to get rid of all our accumulated rubbish, and as skips have now arrived on Lefkada we thought we'd attempt to get one. 

I rang up and managed to arrange a delivery on Saturday 10th.  We waited in, manning the phone, but had no word, so after lunch I called to find out the problem.  I was told that the skip had been in Paleokatuna at 10 o'clock, why hadn't I been there?  I explained I'd never said I lived in the village, and why hadn't they rung?  Anyway, we rearranged for Sunday morning (obviously skips aren't covered by don't-work-Sunday rules).  I met the lorry at the bypass, and led them up the hill, but when I tried to send them across the field rather than round the corner of doom, they reversed the lorry trying to drop the skip at the neighbours' villa.  Which wouldn't have made us popular.  I managed to persuade them to keep the skip on the lorry and follow me down our eroding track.  Not happy!  Anyway, eventually it arrived at ours, and was dropped outside the shed.  Now we just have to fill it.

 Dave contemplating the job ahead of us ...

Lots of Walks

Early January 2015

After our travels and the excitements of Christmas and New Year, early January is a nice time to relax and plan the year ahead.  It is too cold to get the final coat of plaster on the new East wall - if new plaster freezes it will flake off, apparently - and anyway, it's just too cold to be up the scaffolding.   A lot of our time is spent gathering wood from around the land.  There are olive branches lying around all over the place, so we drag them up to the saw horse or the chopping block and make heaps of stove sized pieces.

In between, we have been doing some very long walks, supporting Amanda, who is off to Kilimanjaro for her 50th birthday in February, and wants do do 4 hour mountain treks with any people and dogs willing to go along.

One of our walks took us past Pete and Lin's place and we took the chance to see Rowan and Paris' updated tree house - it's looking good but they're in the UK at the moment, avoiding the icy weather!