Storage

Work cracks on a pace here - and as we've the gennie running, I thought I'd give a quick update.

We've been doing the last of the structural bits inside - both are storage areas.

Yesterday was the larder / pantry - vital for storing all those home grown veggies :-)

It was packed full of cardboard - but on Sunday that was lifeted and deposited down the field .. to mulch the spot where the polytunnel will ressurect itself in the not too distant future.

So, once it was cleared the lads got it studded out (its amazing how many decisions there are to make - exactly where to have the door - what size of door etc .. it can all get a bit mind boggling after a while - and it all needs to be done quickly .. no time to ponder. I'm sure I had it all figured out at one point .. but it feels a bit like decision making from scratch).

Then they got it insulated (there's an air vent in it that runs to the outside - so the larder stays cool ... but we don't want that cold air to easily get into the warmth of the rest of the house).

Now its ready for taping, jointing, painting, shelving .. and storing all our produce.

The pile of plasterborads is finally gone from the hall - which now looks bigger than some places I've lived in before now. Before I get too used to it, we need to put in the coat storage area.

Of course, Sally has a supervisory role.

Wasting no time (after some final decisions on size) work begins.

And it progresses as I type.

The cat flap will go into the coat storage area and I'll have a curtain up, so there can be a buffer from cold air that could come through the flap. We'll also store shoes in there. It'll be the first time we'll have a 'shoes off' policy indoors - I reckon it'll be relaxing (and it will a lot less muddy than if we didn't - especially with oiled wooden floors). The house should be warm underfoot .. and I've plans for obtaining and making a whole load of different house slippers for ourselves and guests.

We shall see.

Anyway, power is just about to be turned off again .. and I have, as usual, a lot of tidying up after the lads, cooking and sorting out to do, so best sign off for now (I dream of future times where I can leisurely browse and catch up online .. but for, now, that part of my life is still mostly 'offline' .. but at least I now have good internet connection when I do get some online time).

Happy cat, happy me :-)

Elvie has found his new favourite place - on the chair in the greenhouse (which was also the chair in the polytunnel - which he loved).

Its good to see him happy, as he didn't settle as well as Leo at first, but he is doing better now and is getting more confident again.

So, that makes me happy - but theres something else that has really got me grinning yesterday ... broadband!

Yes - I have the new broadband - and its a vast improvement - so I'm delighted - all hail the National Broadband Scheme :-)

So, now I can blog from site (as long as I have some laptop battery - which I'm nearly out of today - so I'll be QUICK).

Last week we pulled wires through the upstairs walls.

This week Neli is over from England, so work goes on a pace - they're insulating walls upstairs and ready to put the other side of the plasterboard on already.

The garden has been a bit neglected - and there is a LOT to do. There's the mint to tame ..

Spuds are coming up well.

We got the windbreak net up.

The ducks have been hunting slugs in the straw mulch in the wet weather. (There has still been a little bit of slug damage to some plants, so I'm unsure whether to continue with the straw mulch)

I'm still hardening off some plants too.

There are also seeds to sow for the flower border - which is still in poor condition, so I need to get at that, so I can get seeds sown in may.

Battery low - time to say goodbye.

I look forward to having mains electricity so I can catch up with all my friends here in blogland and see you (and your gardens) are all doing.

Won't be long now - a few weeks maybe.

Rooms upstairs and greenhouse outside :-)

Its been all go on site lately. The 'dream team' re-assembled - as our wonderful helper re-appeared for a few days - and the results were wonderous .. not least the fab structure seen to the left here .. but more on that later.

First up was the plasterboard on the stud walls upstairs. The pile of plasterboards downstairs is rapidly dwindling .. which is somehow very exciting.

Now the stairs are boxed in - luckily there's light from the veluxes up top AND the window at the bottom, so it doesn't feel dark.

The veluxes look great now.

Here's the view into the study / guest room .. from the landing / library. Its fun to have the doors in place already.

Heres the current view of the veg beds from the study .. they're shaping up well.

As its been so dry, I've left the straw mulch on some of the beds that I'm not ready to plant out yet, and I've spread it over the earth paths - to stop weeds. Its a thin layer - too thin for slugs, I'm hoping. Not sure if I'd have tried it if the weather had been very wet. Its been warm and dry for 3 weeks now (the rain just came tonight).

I seem to have a 'self-seeded' Sally dog on the front straw bed...she likes the feel of it!

Here are the peas, settling in.

The broad beans are flowering well.

The garlic is enjoying the heat.

Actually, the past few days have been VERY windy - from the east / south east mainly .. so the plants have had a hard time, it was very strong, so I suspended planting activities.

Mind you, I had good distraction ... the creation of my greenhouse - from old plastic from the polytunnel and some old / mis-shaped wood.

The dream team lived up to their reputation and had this knocked out in a few well spent hours.

I'm delighted to have shelter for my tender plants, room to sow and re-pot .. and to grow on my tomatoes and peppers. Also room to shelter from showers in.

Finally, Sally got a trim, as she was wilting quite severely in the heat during the day - with her long coat. Don't you just love the bows!! (They won't last long I can tell you).

Now, while we're up North .. time to find those cats and get them down to site.

Once we're back down, is time to look at the upstairs wiring, then get the other sides of the walls plasterboarded, then tape and joint, then paint ... then maybe have a wee rest ... and potter in the garden :-)

Plants are going in and walls are going up

Here's a glimpse of the back of the van loaded with plants

(you can't even see the instruments and ducks!!). In true cat fashion, Elvie did a disappearing act when it was nearing time to go - so the cats didn't come down on this trip).

There's plants on the seats and under the seats - all did just fine, despite the hot day.

Here's a close up of some of the seedlings - ready to go.

When I got down to site, I found that Sam hadn't been idle whilst he'd been down. His creative brain had overcome the lack of grill - meet the new toaster (aka the gas fire). Thats a classic.

Another ingenious idea was born from my brain - and I suggested assembling the old polytunnel doors as a temporary cold frame / cloche - to protect the plants we'd brought down which were used to being under glass. I'm glad to say that its working really well ( and the weather is lovely and warm anyway).

Here's the vegetable garden as I found it on my return. Before I could plant anything out I had to put up some canes and re-mark my beds .. as it was all getting a bit 'organic' in shape. If I had put in wooden edges to the beds I wouldn't have had this problem, although I like having the beds just shaped out of earth, it means I can change them if I feel like it (and that I don't have to get hold of a load of timber for edging), so I'll stick with mounded beds for this year.

I marked the beds out with coloured string .. and tripped over the string a lot too - I'll get some pegs so the string is at ground level and not such a hazard. Sam was great - helping with weeding and marking out, so I could get on with the planting.

First in where the two batches of broad beans.

Here's a marked out bed - with some self seeding corn salad .. and some unwanted companions - but even the weeds look easier to deal with then its one square at a time!

Here's some peas, onions and garlic all happily out of pots and in the ground - at last.

Some beds were still mulched with straw and are being uncovered as the plants go in. I think I'll re-mulch them with a thinner layer of straw - in between big plants. It should save on weeding .. and it seems that the slugs prefer a thick layer of straw - we shall see.

I've covered the path between the two long beds in membrame, as the grass was coming through the old membrane! The bed to the right of the picture is fine, the one to the left needs a lot of work, as its very grassy. It will be a flower bed this year.

While I was out in the garden, Sam was working away inside the house.

Here he's set out the stud walls for the upstairs bathroom.

Here are the stud walls for the study / guest room (they'll open into each other so I can use it as one big study when I want to).

Here's the guest room side.

Here's the study side. If you peer out the window to the south you see the vegetable beds .. I have a feeling that could be quite a distraction for me and I'll spend as much time musing about my plants as I will doing useful work.

Soon we'll plasterboard the walls and set out the electrics. Then it'll be time to paint the walls ... I still have to source my paint .. but first there are still a few plants to plant out .. and some wayward cats to re-locate (and some - hopefully- better speed broadband to try out .. so I can blog more often). There's also the sunny weather to enjoy.

I intend to make the most of it.

Cats come first

Those of a severely energy efficient bent - please look away now Actually, they'd probably best avoid this post altogether, as for some, what I'm showing is a terrible crime.

It is - a cat flap. Not too awful, some would think, but in a highly energy efficient home it is considered to be a big compromise - but one I wholeheartedly endorse - because I LOVE my cats and I like to be able to go away overnight, or even for a weekend, knowing that they can come and go as they please.

Here is the controversial cat flap in all its glory. (There are actually two flaps - an outer and an inner flap .. I just hope the cats figure it out easily).

I guess its very clear that animals rule the roost. Thats ok by me. They give me a lot of pleasure.

Sam has been busy getting ready for the animals to come back down - this means we can work on the house more often - as we're not popping back up north all the time to tend to the cats and ducks.

Here is the new and improved poultry pen - pretty swish .. and ALMOST finished. It will have electric fencing and an automatic pop hole (just like the original), meaning that we can easily go away overnight and know that the girls are ok.

Now we're animal friendly, I get to come down to site again - AT LAST.

I daren't take pictures of all the plants waiting to come with me - there are a lot.

Thankfully, we've just got our beloved Bongo van up and running again - this will be her first big run - complete with dog, cats, ducks and plants.

I'm very excited to be getting back to the build - and our land - and our garden. Sam's done a great job down there on his own over the past few weeks, now I can give him a hand .. and get some plants in the ground.

We certainly have the weather for it right now.

Lovely and sunny Leitrim - here I come :-)

(not sure we'll fit the laptop into the van with all else - so it might be a quiet week on the blog while we're down)

Bon voyage alliums

At last, some of the plants that I've started this year have travelled down to Leitrim :-)

Today, Sam took the garlic, onion sets and leeks down with him in the car.

I still won't be down until next week - but they are hardy enough to manage until then.

Sam was down last week, working on the vents for the heat recovery system and setting up for the plumbing. He didn't take any pictures. Mind you, pictures of tubing / piping might not seem to exciting - but I'll remind him to take pics this week.

Here's what the car looked like before he went down.

Garlic and onions in the boot.

More garlic (including 2 elephant garlic) on the back seat.

Some leeks .. and some more garlic (with more unseen in the footwell) on the front passenger seat.

That should keep any vampires away for a while. I didn't mean to plant THAT much, but every time our shop bought garlic started sprouting, I just had to plant it, especially the scrawny ones that are hardly worth peeling. So, garlic is in good supply.I might add some of the tiny ones to the flower bed and keep the 'proper' ones (2 cloves of Flavor) for the vegetable bed.

There are still a lot more seedlings to be moved down. This picture is just SOME of them. I fancy sticking to my planting plan, even though I'll have more ssedlings to bring down next week. I've also purchased some more flower seeds (tagetes, poached egg plant, nigella) to sow in situ soon - to divide patches of bed and make the place colourful.

Here are some of the broad beans waiting to go down.

All we need now is to get the Bongo van cheered up and running again. Otherwise it'll be a few trips in the car, especially with ducks and cats, which could be quite a juggling act.

I'm sending the Bongo Van good energy and trusting that Sam can get it sorted when he comes back at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, I'm busy trying to source paint - and we need a LOT of paint that is benign to us and nature and also affordable - and source other materials, while I have good internet access.

I reckon we can have the phone line in soon - a good neighbor came today (impromptu) and helped Sam feel the telephone cable down the piping . Luckily it was sorted easily (he put some flexible water pipe down it and ran the cable through with it - then removed the water pipe).

We'll need to remember the rope when we lay the piping for the electric - the ESB won't touch it if you don't.

I'm really looking forward to getting the phone in, as the mobile signal is very weak and I fancy conversations that last until the end without breaking up or dropping. It will make ordering things a bit easier when we're down.

And the electricity - well - it'll be party time when we have that in - and can run the well properly and easily run gadgets, lights and things other than tools (which naturally get priority with the generator).

My fingers are crossed that the good weather will remain (or at least return by next week), so I can go re-aquatint myself with the garden whilst basking in cheery sunlight. The sunshine lately just makes everything look lovely and lush and gorgeous. Long may it continue.