and today i have mostly been...

[Welly]

I've read this in a bit of a rush but it seems caprix has downloaded a calculator in a field and the big news is steve_earwig's new TV acting career - omg seriously well done mate, getting a staring role in a popular TV show, I promise I'll watch every episode for sure.

Can I have a signed photo please for my album?

[steve_earwig]

Well actually it's a porno, so here's a picture of my cock


No filming today, they turned up just as a thunderstorm hit us. They milled about for a while and then presumably, as these artsy types do, went and got drunk somewhere.

Meanwhile










and then rain stopped play (much to the relief of my back)

[steve_earwig]

And the tv idiots came back in the evening with generators and bright lights. I don't know what time they went but it was after my second sleeping pill finally kicked in. And they were back today (so much for only 2 days), not actually outside our house, just a bit further back towards town. When I went to collect t'wife, together with a shipment of chicken, at 1:30 I went the back way so I didn't go through their scene again and had to drive past some guy in a uniform with cones, he didn't stop me or anything. 10 minutes later on the way back he did - "you can't go that way." When we pointed out that we lived there and we had a load of stuff in the car he gave us a generous 2 minutes to unload Nothing to do with him of course, them's the rules So I had to park in our neighbour's garden behind the houses. On the way there I drove over his cones. I'm not sure how much authority he actually has but he's from the largest security contractors here, the same ones that sit in the bank all day with a gun.

WHAT THE FRICKING FURK????

Also, we asked the security moron how long we'd have to put up with this nonsense, he reckons it'll be for a while.

Why is it always here? Why is it always US!!!?

##END OF RANT###

Meanwhile, back in the real world






There's a few left at the back but the tiles are almost done, thankfully it's been a lot cooler today (max 17 as opposed to yesterday's 32). There was a light shower this afternoon but we carried on, as I said to Miloš I'd rather be wet than cooking.

[Doggy]

Mighty impressive sight.

I've not been keeping up with this here fred - er, what's the plan?

[steve_earwig]

Stop it rotting away, make it clean and dry inside. Garage, workshop, large workroom upstairs, and that actually means stairs, not a sodding ladder.

[Welly]

Don't show the TV people that outbuilding, they'd want to use in in one of their dramatic* scenes what with it looking emotive and rustic

From a business point of view your 'elf n safety' is lacking; you have no fall prevention measures, nothing to prevent falling debris, no segregation between the work site and visitors, and you're not wearing any PPE. Based on this I'd say f*cking YAY just get on with it I love it

[Doggy]

No problem here.
Since Croatia became the 28th member state of the EU in 2013, all H+S legislation is exactly the same as here.
However, in all member states apart from the UK, none of the above is ever applied therefore crack on.

[steve_earwig]

Health and... what was it again?

Almost done


Ah crap, I forgot about those


I was at this point we had our first accident, Miloš was dropping the slates down the slide and I was collecting them, I'd managed to keep my fingers out of the way all that time but I had one break at the bottom, got it out of the way, next one comes, Miloš thinks it's that one I've shifted, next one and... 3 bruised fingers. It could have been worse, if it had come from the top of the roof as before, or if I hadn't been wearing thick leather gloes, I'd probably not be capable of typing this.

Off with the battens




Health and kiss my bottom


All gone


End boards too (poor flowers)


And out with the pressure washer




Something (else) for the weekend sir?


From upstairs




He was up there all afternoon with the pressure washer, apart from when its capacitor went pop (seems to happen a lot here ) so I had to rush out for a replacement. Milođ is 59 but he rushes about up there like it's nothing, I've probably done a tenth what he did today and I'm knackered. He also tasked me with pressure washing the bottom half, I only managed about an hour and I was cold, wet, filthy and just wanted a shower. I'll have to finish up tomorrow I guess.

[steve_earwig]

Finished!






I didn't get so cold, wet and dirty this time, probably because most of it wasn't overhead.

It took me a while to get to it today because this morning, while I was emptying the pig sty, I kept hearing a sort of mewing noise - is that a kitten or a bird? It got louder and louder over a couple of hours and eventually this materialised by the chickens.


Or should I say she?

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

[steve_earwig]

I have a long-running arguement with Max about the standards of driving in Croatia, I think it's appalling, he thinks it's brilliant (never mind the stats that put it down with Russia...). How many accidents did I actually see while I was here? Well, 3 I think. Well, there you go. But I've seen the aftermath of dozens...

Anyway, when I collected him for lunch today...
taNiMwq6XWE
Speed limit 50kph, straight bit of road...

[Welly]

Excellent progress on the Barn, looking forward to more.

I'm starting to think you're a magnet for stray animals

[steve_earwig]

Why thankyou I was thinking maybe it was getting boreing, then again members don't have to actually look at this thread

Magnet? No, sadly there are strays everywhere but we seem to be the only people who don't shoe them away.

This morning I've once again been experiencing the joys* of modern* Croatian domestic electrical installations, I found the electric boiler stopped working yesterday (just when I cam in sweaty and covered in grot ready for a shower ), fiddled with the switch and mcb and got it going again. However this morning it was terminal (ahem). Switch? No. Crap, it's going to the the wiring, but I'll just check the mcb. Pulled the cover and the terminal at the bottom (feed) of the mcb is burned, with trails of smoke staining up each side. Ah. It doesn't actually appear possible to just change one without dismantling the board (argh!!!) but there are 5 spares and, what do you know? There's a spare right next to it. The thermostat in the boiler clicked off about 5 minutes ago

I've also bin to the vet's with 7 (of 9) for another antibiotic and to enquire about settling our current bill (run for the hills!). Mirela the vet was already busy but she said she'd work it when she's got time and call me. Err, no rush


Presently waiting for Miloš to appear, he's off looking at materials apparently.

[steve_earwig]

Where was I? Oh yes, all clean.

I've got wood

This is for the roof.

T&G for the top sides

Took me all day to paint those and I'm not happy about the colour. I hate anything that's painted to look like oak that isn't and in the shop Miloš asked me what colour I wanted. Duh, I dunno, the house is painted palasander so what about that? The trouble is the house has had a lot of coats of the stuff and this turned out much lighter. I guess the only important bit is that the T's and the G's have something on them, I can always give it another coat, or maybe mix something darker. It'll really depend on what the oak looks like.

Any I guess this is the plan, I did wonder. The brief was to make it wind, rain and mouse-proof and this'll do the job, then it's up to me if I just want to paint the inside or go mad and fill it with rockwool and board the inside.

Miloš sorts out the end wall

which he says is fine. I thought it would fall over at some point, but just like everything else I've not liked the look of, I was wrong (and if I say I don't like the look of something, Miloš will immediately climb up and jump up and down on it to prove me wrong again).

Here we go





Err...


My god that looks horrible, like an old lady wearing a miniskirt. It will get darker, there will be a window. Eventually

Inside


Btw the roof wood was delivered by tractor, mainly because of the walnut tree that absolutely everyone insists that I cut the lower branches off to make deliveries easier. Sod you lot, if it needs carrying then I'll carry it, the tree would look bloody weird without those branches and I can't exactly glue them back on afterwards The guy who delivered it is Miloš' neighbour Mirko and he's the guy who I see driving about town with a little mongrel dog calmly sitting on the mudguard. His name is Riki and he's lovely. He will be back and I really need to get my camera out next time.

[Doggy]

Amazing. It's certainly coming along.

[steve_earwig]

Why thankyou! Although I thought it was looking embarrassingly bad...

That stain's been bothering me, so I've just been to find the last of the stuff we used to paint the roof timbers, I've been using it to paint broom, rake handles etc, and it's been transferred into a smaller tin because the lid on the old one didn't fit very well (opened and closed a couple of hundred times) but there's the label I transferred from the old tin (in case I forgot) and it says "Pallasander", opened it up and popped some on an offcut and... it's a completely different colour! Much darker. Did the whole world go mad or just me? Well, bollocks to this crap, it's getting repainted the next chance I get.I'll go to the paint shop I know with my offcuts too.

Miloš' has worked on a few of these sort of buildings, he reckons it was originally a house (doors are/were too small for a barn), the roof was much lower (the sockets visible on the outside beam are for the original rafters) and it's well over 100 years old. The design is Austrian, which is why it's massive, they get a lot of snow there.As I've probably said 5 or 6 times, this thing's been moved as it has numbers carved into it, and it's been modified.

Now, I think it's interesting and those of you in GB probably do too, but here nobody gives a monkey's, two houses along he has two smaller in his garden slowly falling to bits, while at the side of Lidl's carpark and also next door to Goran there are a couple more, only with the roofs fallen in. On the way to Max's there's a smaller one that is still a house, it's structurally perfect only all the windows are broken.