Then..................

The “Then” blog. For details see entry for March 7th 2009. In brief the restoration of Claonairigh House.
Tuesday 6th October
Beautiful day. 4 midges. 2 bit me an 1 bit Dad. 1 gote aten by the bat. L/N (little Nipper mouse trap) 5 Mice O
Sad day to begin with, found a dead bat (probably the coughing bat of Clunary) gave it a Viking burial. G finished north side of lounge roof. P chased out chimney for flashing and patched up bad bit of stonework. G and P tiled 1/3 of south roof. Buzzed by Chinook playing war games most of the day (quite good at getting the leaves to fall quickly).
Weds October 7th
Beautiful day again. No idges L/N 6 Mice 0
Finished tiling South side of lounge roof and ¼ of hip side. Police came round looking for two army persons who were supposed to hide for 36hrs, after 48hrs and a cold night they decided to look for them. The stags were noisy last night.
Thursday 8th Oct
Sunny spells, heavy scotch mists. No midges. L/N 6 Mice 0
Finished tiling the roof, fixed lead flashing round chimney and most of zinc edging. The caravan stinks, the warm weather seems to have activated the water closet so we have shovelled a lot of soil over it and sprayed a lot of air freshener.
Friday Oct 9th
Sunny, lovely day. No Midges L/N 7 Mice -6 shrews -1
Filled in earth closet and dug a new one. G went to inveraray for supplies. Finished zinc edgings and flashing along the wall. Started rendering flashing but broke off to help P pull out old tree trunk that was breaking drains at rear of house did this and decided to check the drains to see if any damage had been done to the drains. None had but I thought that I would just see if the soapy water was going into the cess tank...It wasn’t so we thought we’d have a little check to see why not. 4hrs later we had rodded the drains through to the cess tank, found another large access holes ½ way down the slope in front of the house and my cement had set in the bucket. On a lighter note the frogs or rather a frog found the drains a great laugh as a water shoot as it jumped (or was it pushed?) down the newly found access hole that dad was rodding and emerged down at the cess tank where I was. It then hopped out of the water and started heading back up the hill as if it couldn’t wait for another turn.
Saturday 10th (Peter)
Sunny, good day (no midges)
Working on finishing roof. Flashings. Garret pruned damson tree using tower scaffold. I removed the tree roots remaining at the rear of the house, stated on lower roof. G returned to Leeds late evening. Steve returned from Holiday.
Sunday 11th
Sunny, Good day. No midges
Very keen frost this morning must have been 3 or 4 below. Very cosy when you are warm and dry. Air very clear. Fixed roof flashings to rear lower roof. Re proofed caravan awing, searched out the awful stink in the caravan. The cause was not the dead rat as though but the dead battery which was slowly boiling and giving off gas under Garret’s bed.