Stove update with pics

First of a few pretty pics.

View while planting trees. Too pretty to pass up on.


Here's Tallis on the first section of the new wall underneath the house. Doesn't it look great here. Those plants really took this summer.


Labhana rutting on the floor. I just couldn't resist, she was so sweet...and practically smiling to boot. Hah.


Knight II, impatient when I didn't come inside fast enough. That window in the main gate starts at chest height. He doesn't mind.


DOGPILE! It happens every now and then, and of course they were right in the way of where we were walking. Hah.


And Chaos, stroking himself on both the downed eucalyptus branch and the plastic. Insane dog. He enjoys that waaaaay too much.


But okay, let's get started.

Song of the day: “The wild rose” by Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave. Such depressing song, but pretty regardless.

Yesterday wasn’t an entirely good day for me. Most of it because I was feeling a little under the weather, and no matter what I did, that didn’t change. Ah well, it was a day, it’s not like there won’t be others.

Work involved inside stuff mostly, despite the sunny weather, and that didn’t help either. These days I’m not at all good at being inside for long anywhere. I wanna be out there in the fresh air, preferably in the full sunshine and with hands and feet in the dirt.

But anyway, we were putting up the glass brick wallsies, which got done with quite a bit of effort. It’s our first time with the friggin’ things, and figuring out how to get them stuck together and sturdy wasn’t as easy as it should have been, but it got done, and it looks good. Very eighties, for some reason, while the stove definitely looks antique. Those two styles, along with the rustic atmosphere of the house, should make for an interesting combination.

We didn’t finish yesterday’s masonry until well after three in the afternoon. At which point I was just about ready to go up the walls. Hah. It got a wee bit better when I headed down into the yard and hunted for pumpkins and caterpillars.

A new field of cabbages got planted, and there was some watering to do, but all in all that was about the extend of yesterday’s activities, prior to a fruitless nap (was too wired for some peculiar reason) that I gave up on after half an hour, there was a cooking session of instant mash potatoes and fresh chard plucked from the yard. Yay. Very delicious, thank you very much.

Yesterday’s edit went well despite my being tired, and we’re now less than a dozen pages away from the end, which is…like, totally awesome! In fact, we had to stop in the middle of the last action scene since we had to go fetch another donation in town. Not a lot of it, but well worth the effort in the end. Heck, I didn’t even fall asleep on our way home. Hah.

Which brings us to today…I will be so glad when this whole stove thing is over and done with. That way we can start the morning workouts again at least, because I miss them somewhat fierce. But it will be another two days at least, so I better not think about that right now. Grrr.

We hauled the wood stove in today, put it in place, started hanging the pipes and cut a good-sized hole in the ceiling to get the pipe up to the chimney. There was some more metal working for me to do, like making a covering for the inside of the hole, getting the stuff big brother needed to get it done, and all that. Making progress is grand, I’ve got to admit.

Here are some pics of the whole process.

First off, tenants stove after I painted it the other day. Cute, eh?


Day one of the stove thing...and so on on consecutive days.










All finished, except for one tile which I put in right after this picture. I know, I should have put it in first, but I got impatient.

Looking good, I'm thinking.

Today’s work inside (cleaning left over glue, scraping dust, dirt and rust) was interrupted by a quick trip down into the yard to check the greenhouses, the tomatoes for miners (lots of those again) and the cabbage species for caterpillars, less of those what with the temperatures lowering.

There was a lot of wind this past week, but since about three hours after the last blog the wind suddenly died and things have been blissfully quiet since then. Seriously, if you find a spot away from the shade, the sun is wonderfully warm.

Once we finished what we could of the stove today, there was some serious tree-trimming going on. Grandpa needed to have space on top of the old bus, so we took off a couple of big branches, and we needed space behind the upper wall, meaning that we had to take out a rather big branch of the eucalyptus that was growing over the wall.

We also had to unload the car, but that was done relatively fast, and lunch consisted of pumpkin soup, which was delicious, meaning that in the evening I could fix an easy supper of baked carrots with mash potato on the side. It filled me up pretty well, since it is still there, hah. While food was simmering I managed to fit in a quick session with Dani’s hair. I’ve been promising to cut her hair for more than a week now, so I figured we might as well get it over and done with. I think it looks nice.

Well, I better get to the edit. We might actually make it to the end of S.N. tonight, and I can hardly wait. Yay!

Funny grandpa

Song of the day: “Rapper’s delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang. We looked it up the other day and it’s been going through my head ever since.

Yesterday started out pretty sore. It was chilly during the night, so Knight II, Chaos and Sitabah thought it a good idea to press up against me during the night, resulting in me lying in all sorts of weird bends and angles to prevent falling off the bed. *sigh* Nice and warm, sure, but my back was absolutely killing me.

The workout was good for getting those disks back in line, but the discomfort did persist for a bit as I started on the day after a quick shower and hanging of the laundry, of course.

While having breakfast pumpkin soup was prepared for supper, creating a rather creamy mixture that smelled up the small kitchen really well. What followed was the unloading of the car. Only a small donation, but you can hardly be picky. Every little bit helps.

A small arm chair had to be carried down next. Do you know what happens when you lift up a 40 pound chair (about twenty dogs around your feet) and broken staples sticking out, right there under your middle and ring finger? It wasn’t pleasant I tell you, and what with the dogs under me, I could not drop the darn thing to check out the damage. Nope. Instead I had to shift my fingers (the staples still piercing skin) as not to loose hold. Now imagine what happens with skin then. It wasn’t pretty, I tell ya, but in the end no harm done. I iodined the lot, sprayed oxidized water over it and then bandaged the lot

Next I gathered tools and such before heading down to the basin terrace.
Sally needed some shelving in her room, and wanted to have a lampshade replaced by a white one. Big brother worked on the electricity, adding a three-way plug to her room.

There were several moldy spots on her walls, so we couldn’t postpone it any longer. What with Dani there for the day, we took out a hammer and a chisel and started taking out the old grout work. No easy task, I tell ya, but also not bad since the weather was still wonderful (the sun was out and tenant sat with us, enjoying herself in the warmth).

It took several hours, in all. And at some point we decided that it would be a good idea to test out if we could use the high pressure air gun to clean the strips we’d cleared. Grandpa went up to get the machine while we chopped, scrubbed and scraped some more. After several minutes he returned with the hose spindle and…well, I’ve got to do a dialogue here.

Me (to Dani): “Ah, there he is.” We both turn
Grandpa: “Got it.”
Me: “Good.” Wondering about the winch with hose he carried.
Grandpa: “There you go.” Setting the winch down, and turning away.
I clear my throat.
Me: “What about the machine?” He stops, his back towards us for a moment, and then turns to look at the winch.
Grandpa: “Darn! That completely skipped my mind.”

Seriously, Dani and I almost doubled over with laughter as he headed back up the mountain mumbling to himself all the while. Hah.

While we were working on the grout work of the terrace that also serves as Sally’s roof Big brother and grandpa spent the majority of the day in the yard turning earth and planting seedlings. The potatoes are so not liking the rain that was there. Better hope that the weather persists just a few more days, because one more rain and we can kiss the first potato field goodbye. Disease is raging rampant.

Finished the workday, after the grout work was done, by close the greenhouses and heading up the mountain for another edit, and some review reading. I know the review is going incredibly slow, but the book is 318 pages long and I do want to do it justice.

In the end it turned out that we were both too tired for a proper edit, so after a few pages we decided to give up for the night and tried to get to bed early. Of course then I still had to feed my dogs, clean up my cabin a bit, and all those nightly rituals that take so much time. I was lucky to get six and a half hours last night, for crying out loud!

Another workout this morning, which went well, and barefoot despite the chill. What with my foot playing up so much, I decided I rather have the foot cold than painful, and am noticing some improvement as of today, thank you very much.

There were the morning chores, followed by breakfast and heading on up to the old horse paddock where I set up a pallet to work on today. Time to get tenant’s stove ready. Grandpa already went through the trouble of cleaning it proper these past couple of days, so I just had to set it on the pallet and start painting it. What with the rust already starting on the old, cheap paint, we decided to go for black with gray for the loose elements like the small lid, grating, paws and adjuster for contrast. It looks good. At least it did after I painted it, and the tubing completely black.
Sure it still has to be put in, but tenant will be able to use it once the temperatures start dropping. Yay.

While I was doing the painting and keeping tenant company (caregiver was at her other job) big brother was working on the new grill he’s designing for the little stove. What with the cheapness of the design, some adjustments are necessary. We noticed as much last winter.

I cooked dinner of mixed veggies with lentil pancakes on the side. Not bad at all, despite being incredibly “hot” from the spicy pepper that somehow ended up in the dish. We are still not sure where it comes from, but it happens more often…and that while we test the stupid peppers before using them. So weird that there are parts of the peppers that are jot sharp at all, while others will make you run for water.

Did a bit of organizing afterward and then drove Sally to work, since her bus doesn’t come by at the right time on Tuesday. Since the trip only takes me about fifteen minutes, I don’t mind all that much.

Went to the yard afterward, checking everything for caterpillars, snails, and leaf miners, all of which were a lot of. Next I closed the greenhouses, checked everything and went back up to start on today’s edit, of which half if already done, and the blog.

All done. Hah.