Monthly physio visit

Well I had my monthly visit to the physio this morning and she gave me new exercises including the hamstring stretch, Jump up and down, Hop on injured leg, continue my walking for 30 mins, and up and down tiptoe on injured leg only. I mentioned to her that the tip toe exercises were sore on my big toe and that I had had gout in it previously and that my ribs were hurting jumping up and down and that my elbow was sore doing the tiptoe on one foot as I have to lean on a windowsill she said "Your about fit for the knackers ehh"  sympathetic B**ch.

Anyway today is damp for a change so I am doing some website work, the mines at Glengowla have me look after their website and I am making it mobile friendly, basically what this involves is if a visitor is using a browser with screen size less than 690 pixels they are diverted to a website that I have designed specially for the smaller screen size ( bigger link buttons, less images etc) automatically. I have done a deal rather than get paid for the work I will get another couple of loads of top soil for the front of the house for nothing.

The weather has been great for the last few weeks and I have been working away outside most of the time. I got donated a metal shed roof and guttering, which is going to be bolted onto my existing shed as a shelter for my wood pile so one of my next projects is preparing the site for that, it involves moving about a ton or so of logs elsewhere until it is erected then cementing two metal posts into the ground to support the outside edge.

The garden is looking good, started off with a pink display from the Camellia bush then a huge amount of daffodils this year, now they are dyeing off but my first Roddy is in bloom (White) and the bluebells are up all over, they seem to be more prolific too probably due to the extra daylight that is around due to the trees being chopped down and the needles burnt I suppose.

I haven't managed out for a sail yet because I have been that busy in the garden but will maybe get out soon. If anyone fancies buying me a wee 3 ton excavator I shan't say no, it would be realllyyyyy handy.

Great weather

Well we have been having a nice spell of weather here for the last couple of weeks or so, there were a few showers but most of them have been at night which means everything is growing like mad. Angie has this week off so has been helping me out in the garden, we have had two big bonfires over the last two days and may well have another today, it's all helping tidy up the place.

I managed to get most of the fallen tree out of the pond yesterday it just has one big log left in there which may have to stay. I am going over to a job in Monivea on Friday and will take Ron,s boat trailer back on my way there apart from that there is very little else happening, I went down for a pint last night but there were only two old bodachs in the pub and they were about as social as my front wall so I just had the one beer.

The local and EU elections are happening soon so we have a few councillors sneaking around trying to lie their way into jobs again, I ask all of them their views on the Irish energy issues and wind turbines and get them squirming.

Good deeds

Well I took my friend Ron's boat up to the house last night and power washed her bottom for him, repaired a pull cord on his auxiliary engine and re launched her this morning.

 

There is not a cloud in the sky here again today which is wonderful, everything is starting to flower and Angie has been weeding and planting new flowers when I was playing at boats.

 

 

 

Have these wooden mushroom sprouting up everywhere I can be bothered to chop the wood.

 

My weather station survived the winter.

 



The sitteroutery

 

 

 

I planted some tulips last November that I got when I was over in Scotland and they have popped up

 

 

Contrails

This morning was one of those mornings when the jets leave contrails in the sky that seem to last and last giving a virtual web of flight paths in the sky. At the moment BAW269 is heading across the Atlantic passing overhead here as well as the CLX432 cargo plane coming the other way and ACA899 is away to Canada. The website at http://www.radarvirtuel.com/ has real time flight info and is fun to see what aircraft are leaving the trails in the sky.

Beaut sunny calm day

Well what a lovely day I had here today weather wise, was calm and sunny and almost warm, actually  it was that warm my head was boiling in the logging helmet and earmuffs so I gave myself a haircut at lunchtime. I was quite pleased with the results of the number 4 electric hair trimmer thingie until my friend John arrived to take away more wood and he commented " ohh I see you have started to cut your hair" lol then he burst into a smile. I know, the Irish have a weird sense of humor ehh.

Did about four fills of petrol at the front today and three on the tree near the pond and cut some grass and planted out beet root seedlings so it was a good day.

Asics trainers

Well I invested in a new pair of trainers for doing my walking rehab on the road every day, they are great and so much more comfortable than the old nike ones I had. There are telegraph poles beside the road down to the crossroads and every day I go two poles further down the road. with any exercise the more often you do it the easier it seems to get also my heel must be healing all the time.

I had a day off today and actually fell asleep on  the couch for a wee while. We are watching a box set of "the bridge" at the moment with subtitles and although it is really entertaining the subs seem to put me to sleep.

Back into logging tomorrow and will be home alone till Tuesday night as Angie is away to Wales.

You can see the house from the road

Here are some pics looking from the road now, I,m not quite finished, maybe two days more cutting and shifting wood and another few levelling with soil and it should be fine. A couple of bushes will help and a nice hedge along the wall line I recon. Hopefully all this work will have added to the place, I liked the seclusion before but all the trees were scruffy and after they came down in the gales there was no other option but to cut the whole lot down as the others would just have blown and given me the same dramas with no electricity/ phone/ internet or water again, lol and I would have pulled the rest of my hair out.

This week was hard work keeping the ground clear between felling of trees but it has worked out less work in the long run as there is nothing harder that clearing trees that have fallen on top of each other you have to climb between logs and branches are trapped below other heavy timber etc so it takes 5 times as long to do the job. Anyway the rest of the trees that need chopped do not have to be done in a hurry and I will do them at my pleasure.

Have been walking twenty mins a day on the road as part of the heel rehab and am finding it easier now, mind you I have to go for the walk in the morning before I start work on the timber or it would not happen as I,m jiggered later.

Gus is covered in sap and sawdust so he is going to have lumps cut off his coat, Angie looked at getting an electric razor for grooming them but it is £70 and we were a bit short this month so its out with the scissors.

some photos of the tree man

Well that's the last of the big trees that were needing cut down , down so I can chop them up at my leisure.

 

The big stump got removed as well so I shall get a couple of loads of soil off Keith and level off the front part a bit and put it to grass seed. The plan is to put a hedge along the wall too.

 

 

Some difference from when we bought the place and when the trees blew over

 

 

 

More logging

Well I spent the day logging again clearing the area for the tree surgeon to do his stuff again tomorrow, so my wee ankle is tired tonight. Angie was away for the last couple of days so she will see a difference no doubt when she gets home. Todays bonfire will probably be going for a couple of days as it looks as if we might be in for a fine spell.

The Eircom engineer came back today as the line had a crackle on it, he replaced an extension from the wall socket to the modem and went his merry way, of course he went and jiggered the internet as it requires a special splitter/ filter on the line so I have had to undo his work lol. You cant really expect Irish professionals to know anything about their jobs I suppose.

I wont get out sailing tomorrow as the trees take preference but after the guys go there is less rush so my poor wee foot will get a rest and I can do something else for a change.

Big day on the croft

Well Alan the tree surgeon and his offsider were here all day yesterday and I worked alongside them cutting smaller stuff and the Eircom contractor arrived with a 3 ton excavator to bury the new telephone line along the roadside. I got the excavator driver to take out the huge stump and root ball near the front gate for a small donation to his beer fund so that has gone. Then the Eircom man himself arrived and got me back connected with the phone, the number is 091506962 now as I shall let the old number expire it was a skype out number that I got when we had satellite broadband and there is no sense of paying for two.

John is coming this morning and we aim to have another big bonfire to get rid of branches but it's raining at the moment and not the best weather for it. There are a lot of logs still to be cut to a size that can be lifted so we might do that instead.

Yacht in for the season

Got the boat launched and round to her berth on Thursday and put her mast up and the sails on, on Friday and took the trailer back up to the house so she is ready to go, all I need now is some weather. Last night was wet and windy and its still dreich this morning so I wont be having my first sail today.

I have a pile of branches waiting to be cut so I might get into them today, I had the week off from chain sawing as I have a strained muscle in my back and was giving it a rest. Alan the tree surgeon is starting on Monday afternoon so the dogs will have to be kept away from them, I will probably take them for a swim and a run so they are not too ancy at being left out of the action. I am not sure how many days work there is for them but I should imagine at least three days.

The week coming does not look too bad weather wise and Friday might be the best day for a sail.

A malfunctioning automated bank machine has dispensed $37,000 in cash to a man who requested just $140.
Police in South Portland, Maine, responded to the TD Bank branch on Thursday morning after getting a call from a woman who said a man was spending an unusual amount of time at the ATM she was waiting to use. He should have asked her how much she was going to withdraw and given her twice that much.
Not sure if I won the lotto last night or not but if I did I have a lot of it spent already. One of the first things to do would be to take my Mom out for a really nice birthday dinner its her birthday on the 10th April.
 

Physio and getting the berth ready

Well its not so nice today again, sort of drizzly old day, I had the physio this morning and as well as giving me new exercises for the heel she showed me some stretches that might help my back. I have to do this tiptoe thing now 10 times a day for ten reps and some stretches for the calf.

I took the boat down to the marina car park last night and will launch her at 1000 tomorrow morning on HW, going down shortly to put some fenders on my berth and set up some mooring lines that will stay there for the season. Yesterday was such a nice day it got me motivated but today is back to normal for Ireland.

I have a lot of seedlings sprouting in trays in the laundry and planted out sunflowers yesterday in tubs out the front, it will be interesting to see how they go. I put in beans, peas and carrots last week in the raised garden beds and also have courgettes, beetroot, parsnip and coriander in trays that will go out in the next few weeks. I havent cut the grass yet this year and am putting it off as it seems to grow faster after it has been cut the first time. I could do with a wee fly mow for the areas that are hard to get at with the big mower but unless I get one donated that will have to wait.

Still no telephone line or broadband I shall have to give them a call again to chase things up.

Itchy rash and a pulled muscle

I had an awful hot itchy all over rash the last couple of days kept me awake all night on Saturday night, I'm not sure what caused it but it must have been something I was burning in the garden, anyway it seems to be better today and hopefully wont come back tonight, also went and pulled a muscle in my back which is making it uncomfortable.

Took the last two days off from wood clearing,  yesterday cleaned the yacht down so I can put her back in the water.  My muscle pull is worse if anything this morning even coughing has me grimacing here. I managed to have a walk around the garden and took a few pictures right enough and am looking for old ones to compare them with.

 

You can see how thinned out the trees to the North of the house were with the gales this winter, hopefully the midgies will be fewer too.

 

 

 

Above is about half of one tree, which I still need to chop and stack up somewhere, I have been giving a lot of wood away for a helping hand clearing up which has worked out well.

 

The tree man is coming back at the end of this week to fell four more big trees at the front of the house and two that are hanging and put his saw through some big stumps for me, I was hoping to log the tree as he dropped it but if I am still sore it will have to wait.