SiliconBog.com

Month: April 2017

  • Saving turf is hard work

    As soon as the turf has been cut by the machine, it’s sitting in long snakes in the wind and sun, forming a crust on the outside.  It then needs to be divided into sods, as shown in my previous post.  That was what the other turf cutters did almost immediately, but with one thing and another, we’ve been a bit slower.  V did a lot while I was away at the weekend, thankfully, but there was still plenty to do.

    Unfortunately, the delay meant that this evening when I went up on top of the bog where our cut turf was laid out, I found the remaining turf quite unyielding to the “pizza cutter with long handle” device that a friendly local leant us.  It’s an old angle grinder blade welded to a metal pole – clever stuff.  Some time later, I’d cut most of our turf, but there’s still some to go… it really didn’t glide through.

    The weather was pretty good for working this evening at least – a mixture of sun and hail (!).  A cuckoo called persistently in the distance as I hacked through the turf – apparently in Ireland their “host” species is often the meadow pipit, which we’ve definitely seen around.

     

  • Say we can, say we will / not just another drop in the ocean…

    The cutter arrived yesterday… I was sat minding my own business in the house, then heard a tremendous rumbling noise approaching.  At first, I thought it was a helicopter landing, but having dashed around to the back of the house in my flip-flops, I saw the giant turf cutting machine in all its splendour.  It rumbled on for hours, and produced plenty of turf for the winter:

     

  • We’re in!

    We moved in officially on Monday.  Things are quite basic to put it mildly, but we’ve made it.  We’re still short on a few things that many would consider fundamental (like flooring), but the roof is sound, there’s electricity, the stove works, and we haven’t run the well dry (yet).

    The first night’s attempt at sleep didn’t go so well – the futon mattress isn’t the same as a proper sprung one, especially when you’re dealing with aches and pains from moving stuff around.  After that experience, we added the Bongo cushions to the mix and it’s bearable now.

    Due to cash flow issues (it’s pumping out a lot faster than the well water is), we’re on a real economy drive for the foreseeable future.  There’s a shop called Home Store & More where we picked up a couple of fabric wardrobes for about €8 apiece, and we’ll be attempting to fit our bedroom’s laminate flooring ourselves.  How hard could that be?

    I installed a couple of security cameras to keep track of what goes on when we’re out/away – so far the answer is: nothing much at all, at least human-related.  The cameras trigger recording on motion and sound, so I’ve had to tweak them to avoid them going off all the time with birdsong for a start.  The camera I put in a tree is especially prone to this.

    Last night the camera I put under cover of the well roof triggered from a local cat (I’m guessing the one that signed its name in the cement all those months ago):

    This morning it decided to inspect the security a bit more closely (which the camera didn’t cope well with):

    Hopefully it’s happy with everything now, as otherwise it could get a bit annoying having my phone buzz at all hours.

    Lots of things to do, and a long snag list for the builder to consider.  Apparently the reason we don’t have a new bathroom window to replace the one he broke last year is because he needs to order one and it takes time.  Another impossible-to-foresee situation, I suppose.

    We can’t really use the kitchen sink much at the moment without a bowl in it as the sink’s drain pipe just goes outside and straight onto the juncture of wall and muddy ground.  We need a French drain all around the house, but I might rig up something until then.  At least the bathroom sink/shower/bath drain down into the ‘proper’ drainage pipe (which goes under the driveway and into a special grey water treatment appliance known as the D.I.T.C.H.  We still haven’t found the septic tank, but at least it looks like the toilet’s output isn’t into that same ditch.

  • One week until moving in…

    We worked hard on the house again today, then went for a walk in the ‘garden’.  It’s so undulating that it’s like a workout on a stepper (probably, not that I’ve ever tried that to be honest).

    This time next week we should have moved in properly.  V has cleaned the spare room for storing all our junk, and also cleaned all of the bathroom.  I’ve been chipping away at the main bedroom still – “scrape and fill” is my mantra.  One of the walls still isn’t dry – I’ve burnt two bags of logs and getting on for 10kg of coal making the heating work well, but the dampness is taking a long time to shift.  The dehumidifier is still taking its 7 litres a day out of the air… it’s clear that years of neglect can’t be turned around in a few weeks.

    Anyway, here are some pictures of part of the land we don’t normally visit – straight down the track to the far corner.  It’s a brilliant time of year to be walking – the gorse is out in bloom, skylarks shoot out of the grass when disturbed, and the cow pats are starting to harden.

    The photos of cars are from what transpires to be a vintage car rally that went past the road at the end of our drive – I thought the traffic was unusually heavy!