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October 30, 2008 | 2 Comments |
Last night the chicken were visited by a fox and three of them were killed. Two blacks and one brownie did not survive. It was a clean kill, we only found some feathers and a little bit of skin tissue.
As a counter measure we put big boulders around the pen as the fox had obviously dug his way under the beams of the pen to get access to the inside. We have ordered three more brownies from Donald in Struan but it will be until Frebruary next year before they’re ready.
Sad!
Autumn
October 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
It’s been a while but we were quite busy these past weeks. A family visit from Holland, building the door for the shed and the work on the property in Glendale. So not much time left to write blog entries. A short update: summer is long gone and we’re embraced by autumn. Big time! Heavy winds, gale force at times, rain, hail, the works. Did I say autumn? We must have skipped that and dropped straight into winter.
As I write this, 50% of the shed door is a fact. Hanging in its frame and hinging quite nicely. Tomorrow the other part.
The works in Glendale are coming on nicely. The stripping is getting on really well. Take a look at the pictures. I know, it looks like a total shambles but it has to get ugly before it can get pretty again. We finally figured out a partitioning which would not require any structural changes. The downstairs will be a big open plan living space with kitchen, dining and sitting area. The extension will house the bathroom and a small utility room. Upstairs will accommodate two bedrooms and a separate toilet.
Photos of the shed coming soon…
Good find
October 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
A remarkable and highly amusing comment on the famous game that resolves major differences between people…
Junk & dust
October 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
The work on the Glendale cottage has really started. All plasterboards are ripped out and tomorrow the partition studs will be removed. Upstairs and downstairs will be just one big space and we can start planning for a new layout.
I made a start with chiseling off the mortar from the walls. It’s been on there for years and you can tell. The whole downstairs is now covered in sand and pieces of mortar. The estimate is that the stripping down will take probably two more weeks. There are also some outside jobs that need to be done as well and although the roof looks good, we’re thinking of removing the old concrete tiles and replace them with Spanish slates.
Tomorrow it’s off again to Glendale. I will take some pictures to publish here later on. Believe me: it’s all junk and dust right now.
Bookmarks!!
October 3, 2008 | 1 Comment |
Every now and then you stumble upon a really great site. I found delicious.com, a site where you can store, tag and share your internet bookmarks. Great stuff. Not only are your bookmarks safe from possible disk crashes, but you can organize them and you can download them in case you’re working on a other computer than your own (maybe in a internet cafe somewhere). Delicious offer a handy plug-in for all popular browsers to easily manage your bookmarks and even import your existing collection….
Rating: 4.9 out of 5
Tiled
October 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
The roof of the shed is tiled. And just in time, I might say. Today the slaters defied some 60 mpu gales and finished almost all of the slating. The heavy winds were already trying to rip off the carefully fitted roof felt. Tomorrow the ridge tiles will go on and the finally the gaps between the outer slates and the barge boards need to be filled with silicone. Remaining jobs in order of priority: fit a door, finish the floorboards, connect electricity.
We also started work on our property in Glendale, which is going to be a holiday let. All old junk has been removed and most has been burned: mattresses, old sofas, old cupboards, old sheets of v-lining, curtains etc. In the close by shed we have deposited old carpets, old sheets of vinyl, and more. We even found some lead covered wires, letters from previous owners dating back to 1945 and an old catalog, almost like the first incarnation of the Argos catalog. Once the stripping is completed we’ll have a good think about the future partitioning of the property.
Gesust
October 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
“Bos spreekt sussende woorden over crisis” aldus Trouw. Juist! Ben u gesust? Gerustgesteld? Meneer Bos, onze rots in de woelige financiele branding staat pal en geeft de ploeterende Nederlandse onderdanen weer een knus gevoel. Vertrouwen in de toekomst, dat is belangrijk! Oh, en er komt een plan! Hoe het plan eruit ziet is niet zo belangrijk volgens Bos, wel dat er een komt.
Gelukkig. Ik maakte me al zorgen dat ie wist wat er in plan zou moeten komen. Maar nu kan ik rustig even gaan liggen in de wetenschap dat er gewoon snel een plan komt…
Crunch time
October 1, 2008 | 2 Comments |
“Gordon Brown promised last night that the Government would ‘roll up its sleeves’ and sort out the banking system.”
“Gordon Brown was personally fighting to save the proposed £12 billion rescue of Britain’s biggest savings bank last night amid growing doubts over the deal.”
A fair collection of hollow cries. The scary thing is that it’s happening world wide. In Holland “Fortis Bank” - a conglomerate of Belgium and Dutch origin - nearly went to the dogs, only saved by a massive 12 billion Euro’s nationalization effort by the governments of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.
In the US a 700 billion dollar (!) rescue plan was voted down, forcing good ol’ George to make four pleas on television to the American people within one week for their support.
I wonder where all this money is coming from? Does Gordon Brown just call Alistair Darling?
“Erm… ah…. by the way Alistair, be a good lad and turn on the presses tonight and cram out another 20 billion pounds… we’ve got another one falling over…”
“Ah… oh…. you’re still busy with that 50 billion from last week. Hmmm… well… erm… yes… maybe we should buy some Irish banks…. hmmm… yes…. they seem to guarantee customer accounts up to 100%…. hmmm… yes…. ah….”
Should we be worried? Will the system completely collapse?
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Latest music...
Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
An Rathad a Bhatarsaigh, by the Vatersay Boys