At the end of last week’s blog I said that I had a couple of plans for activities I wanted to achieve in the week. I didn’t mention that Dave had taken a week’s leave from the gym so was also at home and able to assist with some larger tasks I couldn’t do on my own.
It has therefore been another productive week as between us we have managed to complete one task and make good progress on another.
The completed task is again associated with the pool house and with making it resemble the garage. When we built the garage in 2017 it was a wooden framed building with large Douglas fir posts in the corners.
With the pool house being a breeze block construction, principally to support the telescopic enclosure over the pool, we couldn’t put the same large posts in the corners so we have tried to recreate them with a sort of trompe-l’œil using Douglas planks and we think they look pretty convincing!
With the ‘posts’ up, I can continue with the cladding as they give me an edge for the boarding to go to. With the pool house being quite long, there is a large surface area to cover, although we plan to reduce the amount of cladding required by constructing storage behind the building similar to that we have behind the garage.
The second task we have begun, finally, and made good progress although not completed, is clearing the wood we have stored behind Granary.
The wood came from a couple of oak and some willow trees that were felled during Storm Ciáran back in November 2023. When they were blown down they totally blocked Hent Gorreker and prevented access to our neighbour’s drive so the priority was to clear a route for them to get in and out of their property!
At the time we didn’t have anywhere suitable where we could have stored the wood if we’d logged it, so we stacked it neatly at the back of the parking space behind Granary and it has sat there ever since.
Also since the storm our major project and time focus has been the pool and pool house so we never found the couple of days needed to tackle the pile and log the wood properly.
As we have burnt wood from our wood store over the 2 subsequent winters we have now created some storage space and, concerned that much more time left outside would make the wood too rotten to use as firewood, we took the opportunity to make a start.
Inevitably some of the smaller branches are now probably of little use in the stoves although we can still burn them in the chiminea or firepit over the summer, but all of the larger pieces of wood can still be burnt in the poêles. There is still some cutting and splitting to be done before it is stacked away but it should give is a few months worth of firewood for next winter when dry.
It will also allow me to tidy the parking space properly again and gives me access to the paving circles we bought some years ago that became inaccessible under the wood. Putting these in the garden is another task that can then be added to my (ever growing!) project list for the summer!
We had some very good friends arrive with us yesterday for a week’s holiday and they kindly cooked a delicious Easter lunch for us. It meant we didn’t have our usual Sunday stroll but we did get out with them into the Saint Cadou forest to give the boys a leg stretch and walk off lunch.
The weather forecast is looking good for the coming week so we should be able to get a bit done. David has a second week’s holiday from the gym so we may be able to complete clearing the Ciáran wood, and / or progress the pool house cladding, and / or clearing the garage, and / or enjoy spending some time with our friends!
David’s Dad arrives with us next Friday too, and is bringing some paint for the interior of the pool house, so we should continue to have a couple of productive weeks.
I’ll let you know next Sunday.
Kenavo.