Winter woolies snowy wonderland

Well would you believe it? I don't think we ever imagined that the build
would grind to a halt for snow. Yes, snow. The forecast of heavy rain was
accurate in the fact that wet stuff fell from the sky, but it kind of
changed form on its way down to us! Yes we are still in Africa.

Yesterday started cold and the builders braved it out putting on some of the
roof sheets and plastering the outside walls, 2C outside, shame. The morning
drizzle soon became lunchtime rain, and then suddenly afternoon snow. Slowly
falling at first but getting ever heavier, larger, and settling on the wet
ground. By evening we had a good covering of the white stuff. Overnight
however, while we were fast asleep, the snow came and came and came. It was
amazingly bright at just before midnight. I guess any light around was just
bouncing between sky and snow, almost felt like there was a full moon.

Leaping out of bed at just after 06h00, snow, lots, blimey. We had been
warned of snow taking gutters out and we now appreciate why when you have a
smooth corrugated roof. I was sharply teasing the snow from the edge of the
roof and gutters with a garden rake. Up until then it was just sliding down,
building up, and dumping down in mini avalanches, not fun to be standing
under if you weren't paying attention! The garden looked amazing. Sadly some
of the plants didn't, bent over or slumped down under the weight of their
new icy blanket. Our big tree outside the kitchen lost several branches
under the weight of the weightless snowflakes, crashing down when they could
take the strain no more. The neighbours phone line that passes thru our
garden was down, pulled from its pole by the weight of the snow on it. Ours
was under strain but soon relieved of the pressure with judicial use of an
extendable tree pruner!

We decided to brave the elements and walk to the spar, after a cup of tea of
course, to get some supplies before the shelves emptied. You never know when
the trucks will make it to resupply. Stories on the news of many a road
closed off locally and far away. The power was off on our return, came back
over 6 hours later, then off, and back, several times more. Snow is lovely
when fresh and white. The village centre already looked a brown slushy mess
and the thaw hasn't started yet. Thankfully with the Rayburn at full bore we
have a warm house and an ever boiling kettle! With nothing else to do it was
snowman time, and snow shovelling time too. The garden nevertheless looks
more brown and white than pure white now. The thaw has already stated,
dripping snow from roof and trees. The sun is set to return tomorrow
perhaps, back to 20c again, not for a few days I think. Just a slow messy
thaw, and builders back to turn the white snow into a very brown muddy mess.
Our partially roofed extensions are a wet mess already with the snow melting
and mixing with the building rubble and unused sand. I think a good bit of
cleaning out will be needed before much can be done.

Ironically enough I feel sorry for those that have missed this brief foray
into artic conditions. Our neighbours at the end of the garden really wanted
to see snow. They went to the coast yesterday morning and will not see a
drop probably by Friday on their return. Just glad we were here! Saying that
you do wonder how those a lot less fortunate than us are coping with this
severe change of weather. Informal settlements, no power, no heating, and
African blood that is not designed for icy weather. Please spare a thought
for them.

Getting plastered and raising the roof

As usual with the build it feels like we are having a bit of dance; slow,
slow, quick, quick, slow. Everything was steaming along, walls shooting up,
and then it's hard on the brakes. It is always nice to have the house to
ourselves for a week when the build grinds to a halt, but having it finished
seems more of a priority than our tranquillity as that will be there
indefinitely once the builders have long departed.

We were warned that there might be a slight delay with the roof going on as
it may take a week or so to get the timbers cut. That proved to be wrong as
the wood appeared very quickly, there was just no one to get on with putting
it all up! The roofers are sub-contracted and come from the north coast up
from Durban at Stanger and for whatever reason were unable to get here for
over a week and a half. Once here though things got going again pretty
speedily and before we knew it the timbers were mostly up and slotted
together. They may have been slow to get here but they sure seem to know
their game. It has been great watching them work but sadly the thing I
really wanted to watch happened on Wednesday whilst we were at Garden Club.
We are having a vaulted ceiling in our bedroom and had decided at the last
moment to get open trusses rather than standard trusses. Basically this
means we have a huge wooden beam that runs 7.5m from front of bedroom above
the window to rear of bathroom, and this sits at the top of the pitch and
supports the loose trusses that hang from it to the side walls. Perhaps not
a great explanation but check out the pictures and hopefully all will become
clear. Anyway, this beam as you can imagine weighs a wee bit. I couldn't
lift one end up on my own, no surprise there! So I wanted to see the guys
get this thing up to its home using man power alone. Shame we missed it
happen, but it looks great now it is there! The roof panels arrived
yesterday and one side of the bedroom is nearly finished already.

The cutting out has been done in the walls for cable and pipe runs, and the
plasterers have been slapping muck up at a great rate. I am always amazed
watching these guys work, it is a real art plastering walls and they seem
ace at it, despite the bloody awful mess they make whilst doing it. Anything
in close proximity gets splattered, front door and paving, hall window.
Thankfully it all got cleaned up, well sort of, we had to finish the job!
The aim is now by end of the coming week (end of July) to get all the roof
finished, plastering out and in, and perhaps even to have the windows in
place provided the plastering is all done. All sounds good provided it
happens! Only real problem standing in the way is a forecast of medium to
heavy rain for the next two days, eek. Firstly we move back to a muddy mess
for a few days, and secondly part of the hall roof is off at the moment to
allow the jutting in of the roof to the garage! Fingers crossed we can get
the hall watertight before the drops fall.

As for the rest of our life here, no news at the moment. The build is our
main focus for the next few weeks along with anything major that needs to be
done in the garden. I guess the only real news is that we both need glasses!
Oh and to wear and not to drink out of! We have a three panel sliding door
from the lounge to the sunroom and a week or so ago I walked into them
closed! Yep, it hurt. Then a few days later Sue followed my lead and smacked
into them too. We panicked for a moment as we thought she had broken her
nose, thankfully just a bruised ego. Sue then repeated the trick again the
other day. Crazy, and yes we were both sober! Needless to say we are very
cautious at crossing that particular threshold at the moment. The birds do
it all the time with the sunroom doors, I guess they have an excuse!

As mentioned earlier a few more photos are up, more to come if things speed
on this week. Perhaps speed is optimistic, but you never can be sure, the
weather is easier to predict!

The winter temperature falls as the walls rise

It always amazes me how diverse and different to your expectations places
can be. When I was young and thought of Africa did I ever imagine anything
other than hot sunshine? I certainly never entertained the thought of it
being cold, freezing temperatures, snow, shorts and tee-shirts warmth, and
all in every 24 hour cycle. All I can say now is, I love you Rayburn No. 3!
If it was not for our little stove burning away in the corner during the
evenings it would be mighty icy inside as well as out. We seem to be in the
phase of winter with consistent freezing temps at night but mostly warming
to mid high teens during the day, and much hotter in direct sunshine. Agreed
this may not be the coldest place on the planet but some mornings when I
head out early hours to open the gate for the builders it most definitely
seems like it. I am the lucky one though, the poor builders turn up, -5c
outside, and it is on with the day's work ahead. Come midday they must be
sweating like pigs once the sun has reached max power, but it is short lived
as the sun quickly heads back towards its hiding place behind the mountains.
It is on these mountains that the snow currently lays. None down here with
us yet, but here's hoping that we will get some before summer makes its
return.

As for the building progress, its shooting up. The walls on bedroom and
garage are now at roof height awaiting the trusses to be delivered and set
on top. We look at our original small house and how it now appears to have
been put on steroids. Hopefully once all is finished and painted it will tie
in nicely and not look so huge. It all seems to be going very fast at the
moment but things will gradually slow down to a crawl once we get closer to
the end of the process. As things move on the pressure now starts to build
on us to make some decisions about the bathroom and its fittings. It will
not be long before the cutting out for pipes etc. starts and we need to work
out what plumbing needs to go where. It is never easy making decisions about
baths and co. at the best of times but knowing that we could bring the whole
build to a grinding halt if we don't make our minds up over what type of
bath we want to put in makes for a few sleep deprived nights. Why is it that
you wake up in the middle of the night panicking about what to do about
baths, basins and vanity units, fall back to deep sleep, and forget all the
important decisions you made come morning?

The garden as always is our biggest headache. Despite all the effort that
gets put in, more by Sue than me it seems at the moment, you would struggle
to identify where we have been and what we have done. Things just seem to
take a long time to get done. With the freezing, then hot, back to freezing
days we have the seemingly small number of available hours in the day to
achieve something. We know we have done a lot but I guess we don't see it
being here 24/7. Hopefully come spring and when life bounds back to the
garden all will seem worthwhile, well that is until the weeds take over
again! I need to get busy on planning the veggie garden otherwise I will
miss the bus on that one and not get anything grown before winter hits next
year! The borders are mostly dug out now and we need to get a lorry load of
compost delivered to feed the dry dusty earth to give anything we plant a
chance of survival.

It is nice to have some things that don't change wherever you are. Friends
in the garden. In the UK we may have our sweet little Robins that follow you
around when you dig over the soil, here we have Fiscal Shrikes. Yes they may
be twice the size and would probably eat our sweet little Robin as a snack,
but they play the same game in the garden, plucking the insects and worms
out from freshly dug soil. Our resident little bird loves to follow you
around when he is not sat on his new perch in a maple sapling that we have
planted. As to whether he or she would eat out of your hand as the wee
little Robin would time will tell.

At least we have started to get a harvest from one area in the garden. Our
Seville Orange tree. Yep, we made our first Marmalade, well syrupy orangey
goo. Tastes delicious even if it may not look like award winning jam! Sue
has also been baking. To be fair it all tastes very nice, but we both need a
bit of practice! All was made on or in the Rayburn, and Sue had the harder
of the tasks baking as I was not getting a constant temperature in the oven
for her. So be warned, if you turn up on our doorstep you may have to try
some of our home made goodies!