Worked on the guttering all day. It’s so time-consuming because the roof isn’t straight, so every gutter-clip support bracket needs to be bent in a slightly different way.
I must have walked 15 miles today. Up the ladder, try the bracket, down the ladder, walk to the workshop, bend bracket in vice, walk back to ladder….
Still, the second side of the house is nearly complete; only about 2m left to do. Then I need to fit the downpipes.
I showed LSS how to mix and pour concrete into the foundation hole she dug yesterday. Two more foundations need to be poured, then I can build some brick supports for the rainwater barrels. Unfortunately the little taps which came with the barrels are only of use if you want to fill a watering can; you can’t connect a hosepipe to them. So a bit of online research showed that plastic taps were available which had an in-built hose connector. What’s strange is that we were able to buy 6 of these taps from an Ebay seller in the UK (including postage) for the price of 2 of them from Leroy Merlin. I sniff a business opportunity!
The potatoes have started poking their leafy shoots through the soil; the marigolds have also made an appearance, but everything else is being somewhat slow. Mind you, the temperatures have been somewhat below normal for this time of year.
It was cloudy and windy again today, but in the evening the sun came out for an hour so we rapidly decided to barbecue some chicken for supper, and very nice it was too.
Wildlife diary: Two large toads. I had moved the rusty old dog kennel as it was getting in the way of the scaffolding (to the best of my knowledge there never was a dog in residence!) and they had buried themselves in the soil underneath. I carefully carried each of them to a separate rabbit hole – let’s see how the rabbits like their new tenants!