GETTING THINGS DONE

Well it's official now, the cold weather is here, this morning when I opened the curtains the lawn was white, I know when reading friends postings on FB that some of you have already had icy windscreens and snow is forecast for later in the month, but here in Stelpe we don;t want any of  it thank you very much. Anyway can't do much about the weather can we?, so if you can't beat it join it so I did, put me vest on, trouble was with the work we did today I was over heating {was going to say sweating like a pig, but some wise ---- will tell me pigs don't sweat}
When ever we have started doing something in the house, half way through we say we should have taken a picture of what it was like before and the what it's like when finished, well have I got news for you!! two things no three things we have before and after pictures, for you.

Once  this chest held a young girls hopes and dreams

                                                                                                                                                                    Our  very good friends Kathleen and Ian, when they moved to their small farm found  amongst the things left by the previous owner this chest, sadly in need of some TLC. Here in Latvia these chests are much sought after, there origin dates back to the last century and were called Hope chests, we were able to find out more about them on our visit to Jelgava.

The full discription of the dowry chest

                                                                                In the tower we visited there was a chest on display and a discription, although called a dowry chest, the more popular name is a Hope Chest. the picture tells the official version of there use.

Now a blanket/ bedding chest

After some hard work

 Now I freely admit that I am not a carpenter and Mr Long the woodwork teacher at Uckfield Secondry School would {if he were alive today} totaly agree with me. But I am quite proud of the restored chest that we now have sitting at the top of our stairs, the perfectionists among you could find fault with it, but do I care? not a bit.                    

                                                                                                                                                                         So thats the first before and after, the second is the site of the old sauna Oh yes we used to have a sauna complete with the river at the back to jump into when cooked to a turn. Sadly the roof was falling in so it had to be pulled down, thats the published reason for demolition, unfortunatly we had to make umteen frogs homeless three families of mice, and countless spiders and creepy crawlies were without somewhere to hide.

Before

The wood was recycled to make our sittingroom fireplace,the washing line repairs and our outdoor eating deck,oh yes and also the boiler, it kept the house nice and warm on several days last winter. We did finish up with quite an untidy area at the bottom of the field and so we set to work to clean it up .

After

  For those of you who know this site you will appreciate just how I felt having wheelbarrowed all of the roofing up the hill and round to the back of the barn.
I did have some help doing this work Valerie did sterling work raking the ground,stacking bricks and generaly trying to supervise me. We were both cream crackered at the end of the day I can tell you.
PS if anyone wants a job the bricks have got to be brought up as well.

Before

Now for number three the new fence, yep we have a new picket fence across the front of 13 Upes Iela, thanks must go to Mark J and to Valerie again, without their help it would have taken much longer to erect trying to hold a pencil, drill, screw, spacer block and screwdriver whilst holding a pail in place is not a one man job

After                       

To appreciate it in is full glory one must see it in the flesh,  length of fencing aprox 100ft total cost of materials 50Lats a real bargain.

Edward hard at work

 Great job don't think I could do it with a spade and fork

 I cannot lay claim to the change in our field  as Edward ploughed the the veg plot today, yesterday I spent time muck spreading, I cleared the compost heap and if smell is anything to go by we should have taters as big as footballs next year, the ground looks great all the weeds and rubish turned under for the winter                        


                                                                                                         
     So all in all we've had a good week,Now ' all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' or so the saying goes, and this week has not been all work, Last Friday we met up with friends from England for coffee in Bauska, they were on there way to Riga and other parts of Latvia, for ten days.
     Also we went with a group of local folk to a concert in Ieceva, Harijs Ozols and Santa Zapacka  they were excelent and a good time was had by all, you can check them out on youtube, but to be fair it doesn't do them justice. Oh yes the cost of an hour and a halfs entertainment just 3 lats, not bad eh? So are we dull ? no not a bit, life is good and everyday we count our blessings, and look forward to the next episode of our adventure.
    Well thats all for this week folks,look forward to catching up with you next time
PS Your comments are always welcome