Juliet's balcony

This is our kozolec (ko-zol-ets)

A kozolec is a Slovenian hay rack.  They are unique to Slovenia, so a bit special. Ours is of the "toplar" type. It has a bit of an issue with gravity. All of the main posts, except one, are standing on stones. The one that isn't on a stone is sinking. Which is giving our kozolec a lean. Which one day could become fatal. But how to fix a kozolec without the whole thing folding up like a house of cards? So we made a trip to the kozolec museum of slovenia. And found out that ours should have a balcony rail. Which is great for those of us who struggle with the physcologicsl concept of walking on a plank "floating" in mid air with no sides.

So now Juliet has a balcony.

So now we can feel safe when we are up there.

Just don't look at the bottom of the ladder as you go up:

Bonus points for anyone who guesses what the balcony was made from.

Cistern upgrade - next final step ☺

I'd forgotten that there was one more plan for the cistern upgrade. (With an engineer at the helm I suspect there will always be just one more upgrade being planned ☺)

The inlet filter on the cistern is working well.

It's already caught many leaves.

And it's a popular watering hole for cats, birds

and dogs

In fact, here Allie was trying to figure out if she could lie down in it

But we know our cats like to drink from moving water, from their tap drinking antics, so there was a vague plan to give them a pusty fountain.

And if cats preferring moving water wasn't enough of a motivation, then the arrival of some unwanted guests, who are know for not liking moving water, certainly gave a boost to the plan.

No one welcomes mosquito larvae. Except, maybe, the birds.

So, we got ourselves a little pump. And a handful of 1 euro per piece solar cells:

And with a little soldering, and picture frame manufacture, and a sheet of toughened glass, sealed with bathroom sealant, a solar panel was born.

Put it on the roof

And you have yourself a little fountain running on free energy

This is not the end of the cistern story.

We have just had some scouts to stay.

They did a great job clearing away some self-seeded elder bushes.

Now that we can get to cistern number two, there's just a little work waiting for us there ☺

Completing the cellar door

Somehow, part of the cellar door had gone missing. The missing third has now been replaced. The planks were recycled from the side of the barn that has come down, the cross pieces were recycled from the window frame of the barn that came down. Some new hinges and we now have dog proof food storage.

It's got its own unique style

Inside view

Tiggy takes it on the chin

It's hard to sleep when it's so hot and there is just not enough room to stretch out fully 

A drink on a hot day is so much easier when......

..........you get in the drinking bowl

Rainwater cistern upgrade - final stage

This final step was to install a winter overflow. We suspect the crack occurred because part of the cistern is above ground which leaves it vulnerable to freezing in winter. So there was little point in fixing the crack without doing something to prevent it freezing. The aim was to install a system where the water level could be reduced to below ground level in winter (when we don't need it much anyway) and raised to full capacity in summer. The solution was an overflow of adjustable height.

Supervisory and photography role was delegated to the one with the swollen foot:

Wouldn't it be so much better if bees would tell you politely that they are trapped between your toes, rather than going for the 'no-one wins' solution of stinging you? I would have been more than happy to help him out, if only he had asked.

Step 1 drill hole at ground level

This involved removing soil at the base so we could get at it with the drill

The decision on where to site this led to an interesting discovery. The original plan was to site it at a corner where it woukd be out of the way. That was until we discovered that the wall at the corner was twice as thick as anywhere else. Why? Because while the cistern is either 6/7 or 8 sided on the outside (it's hard to tell when it's partially burried), it's 10 sided on the inside. Go figured how that was built ☺

So the width of the wall changes in a curious fashion as you move along it.

The end result of this discovery was a location largely chosen by where the wall was thinnest otherwise the drilling would have been impossibke.

Step 2 insert pipe.

This was a standard push fit 40mm plastic drain pipe. Sealant was applied around the pipe in rings and then it was inserted from the inside so that the bulge butted up against the hole, crushing the sealant and forming a seal.
Pipe emerging:

(A pause ensued at this point when the head fell off the sledge hammer and it dropped into the cistern......Plop.)

But eventually the pipe was fully installed:

From this point your options are only limited by your piping creativity.
You can leave it as it is and the water level will stay below ground level (our winter plan)
You can attach a bend and a length of pipe the height of the cistern:

and the water level will come up to the top.
But we don't want it to overflow right in front where we walk so a little more pipe work diverts the overflow to where it can be useful to the apple tree:

But this looks decidedly ugly, so flip it all around and bury most of it underground and its nearly there......

All we need now is a lot of rain to test it.

Treasure from our holiday

Isn't this shell beautiful with the evening sun shining through it?

We found two of these on the beach.

They beg two questions:

What species of mollusc made them? It must have been a wopper. 

And what to do with them? Any suggestions?