Timber

Thursday 14 Jan 2016

It has been a difficult decision, but we finally decided to go ahead and have the monster cypresses taken down.  They are over 30 metres tall, and significantly shadow our electric and hot-water making facilities in the shortest months of the year.  In the summer, the sun is so high overhead they cast only a very little shade.  As we want to press on with planting some of the trees for our projected 'Forest Garden', it was time to fell the trees and clear the land.

 First tree stripped to a bare pole

 They cut all the side branches off first, and made an enormous, smokey fire of the green needles.  We had thought of keeping the leafy bits and putting them through the chipper, but it would've been an overwhelming job, so we decided against it.

 The ash heap actually smouldered for a week despite two days of heavy rain

 Even the side branches of  the first two trees made a significant pile of firewood

Bare poles.  The workmen were waiting on a part for the big chainsaw, so they stopped at this point for a while, but at least we had sunshine on our solar panels for a lot longer each day: warm water and electricity - hurray!

Around the front door

13 Jan 2016

Around the front door is a terribly tortured area to plaster.  It is up under the eaves, with rounded windowsills that prevent the scaffolding getting in close, with stepped paving underfoot.  It's all about banged heads and long stretches, and awkward angles that a trowel won't fit in to. 

Scrumping leaf mould

6 - 9 Jan 2016

We pressed on with mostly interior lathing and some plastering, as the weather has been a bit drizzly, and quite cold. 

 Interior base coats (direct onto the straw through the wood frame)

 ... and some top coats, over laths, which brings the plaster up to the front edge of the wood frame.

 Panos and Lucy came by with some musical friends and we had a fun jam session crammed into the music room

 Then we took the dog out scrumping fallen leaves from the plane trees up by the waterfalls.  We will put the leaves in one of our compost bins and let them rot down till we need them.

Dave admiring the waterfalls

... while the dog gets a really good run for once.

Quiet New Year

Weds 30 Dec to Sat 2 Jan 2016

For the first time since having small children, we decided to have a quiet New Year  So we saw in the new year by stocking up the log stores, doing a bit of gentle plastering, and taking Robbie's dog for some decent walks.

 A good day's chainsawing and chopping to fill up the small log store and part of the larger one.

 We've been having cat flap wars with a local tom cat who wants to come in, eat the cat food and spray everywhere to claim his territory.  After he'd broken in through polythene in various places, worked out how the cat flap operated, and generally made a nuisance of himself, I sealed up everything - but one evening I forgot to close the plywood flap that we open to reach in and unlatch the front door from outside.  Next morning there were these great gouges out of the newly third-coated wall by the door, where he'd scrabbled for purchase before getting in and spraying the ground floor yet again. Eugh!

 On a walk around Nidri, we found an incredibly posh new bus stop has been installed, so Dave and the dog posed in it for this photo

 Just to prove we had a quiet NYE, we did a bit of the interior wall in the living room on the 1st of Jan.

 A lovely long walk in the hills on 2nd Jan.

Followed by the essential New Year tradition of a small beer in warm sunshine at the Elite cafe

 until the sun sets and the mainland turns pink.

Back at work

28-29 Dec 2015

Plastering again - wet weather is expected at the end of the week, so time to press on with the second coat around the front door.

 Monday - top left corner from the scaffolding.  Crouched under the cross-beams to reach up under the eaves.  See the darker line of wet plaster halfway along the window.

Tuesday - long session, 3 barrow-loads, all the areas reachable from ground level done.

Walking

26 Dec 2015

Still on holiday, so we finally took the dog for a long walk and played with a bit of photography too.

Christmas Day

Friday 25 Dec 2015
The first Christmas Dinner at the house

 Everyone was asked to bring a silly hat they had made

 I set up the camera on my new (pressie) tripod and set it for stop-motion.  This is the only half-decent photo it took - needed the flash, I think

Catching the last of the sunlight to warm up: Pete, Lucy, Panos, Lin, Dave

Down tools for Christmas

21-23 Dec 2015

Christmas is on Friday, so the plan was to stop messy work on Monday, go shopping Tuesday, and sort the house out on Wednesday.  It sort of went according to plan ...

 The new bedroom curtains in place

 The final slap of the first coat in the front door section applied

 Christmas tree on a neat little stand

 Quite a lot of the living room interior walls top coat plastered, but wood still everywhere (Weds am)

 Same area, some hours later - wood cleared, floor raked, cardboard laid over dust, decorations dangled, and tables laid ... phew!

Christmas eve evening, me constructing silly party hats for Dave and myself.

Christmas Bizarre

Sunday 20 Dec 2015

Dave and his band SoundWave were invited to play at the school charity bazaar, which was fun, and for us, the audience, involved mulled wine and mince pies, which was great.

 From left, in silly hats, John on drums, Dave on lead and vocals, Panos on bass and Pete on rhythm and vocals.

Christmas house guest

15-18 December 2015

It's that time of year again - when Robbie and Sue go on holiday and leave us with the mutt.  Last time it was three weeks, which felt too long.  This time we find it is two months -which feels like a life sentence. 

 Not that the dog is any bother, but she needs walks and attention and we're very focused on the house, so she gets short shrift.

 Our Christmas tree, from an overgrown cypress threatening to block one of our access paths.

 I'm still using up barrow-remnants of plaster on the inside panels, whenever I've got the plaster - and the energy.  I'd like this corner done before Christmas, so that the dining table can go here.

 Don't they look well-behaved?

And all this time, the 'nothing-to-report-but-more-plastering' plastering has been going on.  This area is a serious challenge for the scaffolding, and it is a miracle that it fits where it is shown in this photo - clearance under the beam of about one inch!  Dave has done all the window fitting, painting and membrane-meshing while I've been dangling off the scaffolding with handfuls of plaster to reach all the difficult nooks.