Project pics

Song of the day: "I hope you dance" by Leann Womack. Splendid song to have tumbling through your head, thank you very much.

Today was utterly boring. Was in the car most of the day, went to town twice, and the village too, so let's do something fun and do a pic update. Yay!

The project.

Day one:
Clearing the ground and starting on the pillar.


Pillar done. Cute, right?


Day two:
Doing the woodwork at home.


Day three:
Putting the beam up.


Then the whole lot.


Day four:
Putting on the ceramic plating.


And then pouring the first layer.


Day five:
Putting on the mold.


Pouring the floor and smoothening it.


Day six:
Et voila! There was a massive cleanup involved on this one


Day seven:
The future terrace. Digging out the square and pouring a layer of concrete.


Day eight:
Putting in the tiles. Only managed halfway due to planning bits that took more time than anticipated. Killed my knees despite the pillow. Hah.


Day nine:
*sigh* This was yesterday, where we finished the project and cleaned the whole lot up. Long day, yet not as long as I feared.


To be on the safe side we'd taken an extra load of sand but luckily we didn't need it.

I kinda like the end result. Very rustic, fitted in a way that makes it seem like it's been there always, which is the best thing of construction for as far as I'm concerned. On the most part I even like to use 2nd hand materials that date back to the same time as when the building was constructed, but you can't have everything, I guess. Hah.


What do you think? He makes it look like art, doesn't he? Hah.


Well, that's that. Not a bad job, I gotta say. Nothing like standing there at the end of it and seeing what it turned into. Went back a gazillion times to check that we got all the tools, all the mess, but you just never know if you missed something. We'll find out, I'm sure.

What else? Well, Knight II went to the vet today, and she declared that I was no longer under any obligation to bring him. What's left of the wound will just take time, and until it is completely shut, he'll have to continue carrying the sock. *sigh* The bugger got rid of one yesterday and within half an hour he had licked up blood again. I could strangle that dog sometimes. *sob* It'll take time, according to the vet, and regretfully he'll make sure that it'll take as long as possible. Grrr. It's a good thing I love him to pieces, otherwise I might strangle him. Hah.

Manni, little sister's Cocker Spaniel had to be operated on his underdeveloped eye today. Poor doggie had an infection (we were warned for that when little sister adopted him with the bad eye)that made the eye bug, so it had to be removed.

There was cooking, there was laundry, there was editing and writing to be done and dogs to pet. I know, fascinating, right? No matter, though. Such is life as I know it, and I better darn well enjoy it.

Well, this should suffice for today's blog, right?

Back to work

Song of the day: Hmmm. Some Sinatra Christmas song, I think. I can’t remember the title now, darn it. It was going through my friggin’ head the entire morning, driving me absolutely bonkers. *sigh*

Not a lot going on, thankfully. Had another much-needed nap yesterday, which was a very deliberate decision on my part in light of tomorrow. Yep. Weather permitting, big brother and I will be heading out to Liane’s again, to finish up the terrace. It’ll be cold, it will be windy, but since the predictions are declaring a worsening in the weather conditions for the next ten days, it is our last chance to finish.

So, for that reason I had a solid nap, and decided not to mind oversleeping this morning because sleep, after all, is the best thing for the immune system. Still, it made me way behind on schedule, which always annoys me. Hah.

But anyway, yesterday involved walking the visiting dogs in the morning, piles and piles of laundry, and heading into the yard for a bit to check the cabbage plants. There is some leaf damage, and I found some caterpillars, so that means I’m going to have to go down there more often to save the poor plants from being eaten alive. It was rather wonderful being down there, out of the wind and in the full sunshine. Heck, I ended up taking off both my sweaters and walked around in a double T for a bit. It was bliss, I tell ya.

Also to the opportunity to put Carla on the table and shave off all the clusters of dirty hair. Since we were at it anyway, we cleaned his ears, and Labhana’s too, and Chaos’, who all have a persisting infection going there.

I have (semi) decided to join Amazon’s ABNA competition. Now isn’t that exciting? Sure, I’m not the biggest fan of competitions, but what the heck. Ya gotta take a chance sometimes, and I did promise that if Spain was allowed to join, I would do it, so there you go. I’ve gotta. Now if y’all are willing, I would really appreciate it if you gave me a vote or two when the time is right. Once I figure out how that is done, I’ll be sure to put up a link where you can help, if you are so inclined.

It’s going to be quite a bit of work, admittedly. Big brother and I discussed it, and we’re going to go through the manuscript one last time, to apply some of the changes suggested by that official critique I got last month. All other projects will be momentarily suspended, since we only have ‘till January 14th to get it all done.

There was dog food to cut, twice actually. Can’t always just leave that to cousin Ed and Grandpa, ya know. Gotta pull my fair share in that department. Fed the dogs on my own, since big brother was otherwise occupied.

Did some cooking, which was also necessary. Beets with potatoes, which went down extremely well if you want to know. At it again this afternoon, because grandpa has the flu too, and didn’t feel like making pancakes. Hah.

Sally came back from hospital the other day. She’s oddly subdued lately. I think the chemo and then the bout with the bacteria is really hacking into her, and there is little I can do for her. If I try to talk with her, she’s insistent that everything is fine, and though I can see that she isn’t, there is little more I can do than accept her words. The fact that she is withdrawing to her cabin almost constantly, staring blankly ahead, is another thing that we’ll just have to accept for now.

Spent a part of today installing TV in her cabin, so she can have some entertainment while she’s cloistered in there. Personally I would go bonkers being inside all the time like that.

Another part of today, you know, after I overslept by at least an hour, darn it, was spent unloading the wagon of market stuff, and then reloading with sand for tomorrow. Took a while. Digging sand to load up almost always does, but with that and the cement bags we tossed on top, we’re basically ready for tomorrow.

Also made an appointment for Liane’s Land Rover at our garage. She would like to have it serviced and after sending her the prices, she preferred to have it done before she returns home.
Got an appointment for Friday, so that should work out just fine.

Knight II is doing well now, eating properly, cheerful as heck, and wanting to play a lot. New playing thing for him is chewing on my wrist, apparently, which I should work on, because boy does that hurt if he gets too excited.

Well, it is pretty darn cold at the moment. Doesn’t help that the stove is as good as off, because it’s the end of the day. Bed time is rapidly approaching and I’m happy for it. Did manage to do some writing in-between the editing for the competition. Have passed the 100 page mark yesterday, so, yay!

That’s it for me. I’m sure I forgot something important that happened these past couple of days, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it is. Hah.

Face down

Song of the day: “Come on” by Will Young. I just looked at the original version by Kish Mauve, and I have to say that I like Will’s waaaaaay better. The complaint of one of the comments rung really well (but as a compliment in my head) Will Young’s version is too serene. Oh come on, how can someone be too serene. That’s the beauty of it, for crying out loud. There’s more than enough gritty out there. The serenity of how he sings it, is the good part. *sigh* People are wonky.

So, there really isn’t all that much to tell. I’m still battling my flu, which sank into my lungs and shaped into a nice cough. It doesn’t help much that I got way too little sleep during the past three days since the best way to recover from the flu is sleep, of course. Ah well, no helping it.

I can’t say that I have a lot of market details to share. For the most part of the day my head felt like my skull was missing the top and I was floating somewhere a foot or two higher. Jeez. There were times I couldn’t do anything but laugh about it. Seriously, bending over I’d see stars, lifting something up ditto, on the most part the best thing would have been for me to drop face down somewhere and sleep it off. Couldn’t do that, of course, but the thought did occur occasionally.

No fun stories of chats with other patrons, didn’t have all that many due to the flu and cough that forced me to stay at a distance. Wouldn’t want anyone to catch what I had. Did enjoy the many, many visiting dogs. I believe that we saw more than fourteen Yorkies (which is wonky if you think about it. You’d think there was some sort of dog show, or something) some crosses and plenty of doggies that wanted a serious petting. Made me wish I had the Knight along.

Writing-wise things have been incredibly slow lately. I added a couple of pages this Sunday while I sat at the restaurant at the market (had two coffee to stay awake), and over the past three days I have slowly, oh so slowly, added more pages. Passed the 30k word count mark so whatever you say, you can say it’s getting somewhere. I was a little stuck, so big brother and I did a brain storm in the car discussing the possibilities of the story’s progress. Thought of at least seven possible plot turns, so I’m all set.

Knight II is gradually improving. He’s stopped vomiting, is eating little bits again, and has stopped shivering throughout the day regardless of the nippy temperatures (hitting the low forties at the moment, darn it). You should see the lot right now, clustered around our feet, as close to the stove as they can get.

When I got home from market, I noticed a slash of blood and discovered that somehow Dax has managed to rip out one of his nails. Seriously, what’s up with the dogs, for crying out loud? They’re constantly getting into trouble. The entire nail is just gone, which makes me horror at the thought of how he must have managed that.

What else, nothing vastly interesting. Did laundry, naturally, cooked supper, loaded, unloaded market stuff…didn’t have a bad selling day, by the way. Sold a dog bed, a quilt, some kiddie clothes and a dog carrier bag. No bad at all.

This morning was another early one, by the way. The Land Rover had to go to the garage and we had an appointment at nine. So we dropped it off after feeding the dogs and such, did a few groceries, went to the post office where I had to wait forever in line, and didn’t get home until after two, at which point I was pretty close to crashing. Decided to just give up on the day and headed for my cabin for a nap. Gawd that was nice. I slept for a solid hour and a half, and could have continued on for the remainder of the day given half a chance. Hah
As it was, I made tomato soup for supper, got a phone call in the middle of it that we could pick up the car. Headed out and did just that.

Turns out the hand brake is fine again, and it only cost us 20 bucks. Regretfully the regular brakes problem he promised to check up on was a little more serious. Something about the brake cylinder leaking. He’s going to have to order the part which will set us back some. *sigh* As soon as he has the part, we’re going to have to get another appointment. He also checked our distribution belt (we’d heard some awful rumor that they’re bitchy expensive to replace) and told me that we don’t have one. Instead we have a chain, which should (so he told me after I asked if that was a good thing) last us a life time. *phew* A relief that.

Once at home, I resumed making dinner and prepared cauliflower with broccoli with mashed potatoes on the side. It went down really well prior to heading down and starting on today’s writing session. Added a page or two, and then started on the blog. I really want to get back to the morning writing sessions. This evening writing is getting to be pretty impossible. My eyes keep falling shut. *sigh*

Time for bed.