Simplympics 2009 update

Hello there,

We've had another busy few days - all completing in the Simplympic events and also having added to our ever increasing inhabitants here in Mars.

Yesterday we drove an hour away to pick up Taco (who had to be relocated due to some unfortunate circumstances).

He's a seven year old Black Russian Terrier and he is huge!

He's on a one week trial and if he gets on well with all the cats and Rudie then he'll stay for good. He seems very laid back and cool in character, so hopefully he'll be happy here.

Check him out.



We have had some exciting events so far, including individual Jenga - Rob came first with a very impressive stack.



In the "Fluffy Bunnies" marshmallow event we all got the giggles cos we looked so ridiculous.



In Dice Curling, as you can see below, it all got quite heated.



Talking about being heated - we ventured into the green house today for our most anticipated event - Greehouse-Sweathouse.

It was 13:40 when we went it there and the temperature was around 38 degrees. We were all dresses warm, with socks and shoes and t-shirts and thick hooded jumpers and boy was it hot.

Robathon was the first to bale after half an hour of it (when the temperature went above 40 degrees). Then about 10 minutes later me and Ali gladly left, leaving Gairy and Monkey Boy to sweat it out.

Gairy shortly gave in and gave the top points to Monkey Boy.

Afterwards we all enjoyed lots of water melon and water and shade.

Phew - glad that one's over! Here's a glimpse of how sweaty we all got.





And here are a couple of very very cute pictures of Tigger.





And Muca with her kitties all jostling for a drink.



And Rudie.....



We've still got quite a few events to go - so it's still anyone's game.

As Reining Champion I'm taking this all very seriously.

Here are the scores after todays events:



Got to go practice walking on the stilts.

Nikki

day two update.....

here's the standings at the end of day two:



there will be photographs to come but for now the scores will have to do.

gairy.

update.....

the points as they stand at the end of day one:



more to follow.....

Simplympics 2009

afternoon all,

the next two weeks sees the momentous event of:

The 2009 2nd Annual Simplympics

this year the events are:

- shot put (as the title suggests but with boules)

- rock, paper, scissors

- stonut (throwing stones through a hooped target from ever increasing distances)

- snail racing/boule-sand balance (yet to be finalised)

- hoopla (throwing a hoop over a target)

- javelin (coppicing, peeling, shaping and then throwing a javelin)

- stilt race (a race on stilts)

- spatula carving (rudie ate our spatula and so we're going to make five more!)

- greenhouse sweathouse (an ingenious event during which we will dress in warm winter clothes and see who can withstand the heat of the greenhouse for the longest - oh yeah!)

- poker

- table tennis

- fluffy bunnies (who can stuff the most marshmallows in their mouth and still be able to say the words 'fluffy bunnies')

- pea bottle (dropping dried peas from a height into a bottle - apparently very difficult)

- individual jenga (each person see how high they can make a tower)

- wood collecting (simply practical - we need firewood!!!)

- dice curling (the noble game of curling but using dice, a baguette and a long walnut table)

- assault course

- dessert challenge (we will each have the same ingredients and the winner is the person who makes the tastiest dessert - a win-win situation for all involved)

- boules

- paper aeroplane contest

after two events here are the scores as they stand:



drop by later to see how the games progress.....

right, i'm off to practice at boules before this evenings event.

cheers, gairy.

We have a front door!!!!!

Hello all,

I know, I know, you've all been waiting patiently for me to do some writing on this blog (it has been a while) - but I've just been super busy with everything - visitors, work, the garden etc.

All is going well here in Mars.

We've had some very helpful visitors - both my mum and Deblah made bread while they were here and also helped with some pointing of stone walls. We are now embarking on the very painstaking process of cleaning the stones with a metal brush and lots of elbow grease! Boy are there a lot of stones!

The veg patch was getting over taken with weeds but I spent a day in the patch sorting it out and planting the little leeks out, so that should be good for a bit now. We are inundated with courgettes and we've eaten the first of the many tomatoes in the green houses. We'll be making a lot of tomato sauces again this year. We've also pickled lots of cucumbers (thanks Deblah).

So anyway, on to the biggest news - we now have our front door in place! We've pretty pleased with it too. Take a look:

Today Robathon and Ali are arriving and we are all excited about the Simplimpix.

Better go.

Later

Nikki

i ate meat!!!!!

evening all,

yep, you read the title correctly, i did indeed (intentionally this time!) break my vegetarianism of 13 years today!

on a ride earlier this evening i came across a snake which had been recently (as it wasn't there yesterday when i rode the same trail) run-over by a 4x4 (and was untouched by scavengers making it more likely that it had been killed earlier today and not last night) and was in good condition.

it was a viper (poisonousness but not deadly) just under 2ft (60cm) in length - really beautiful.

so, i carried it home, beheaded it, skinned it, gutted it and roasted it in butter with a little salt and pepper.

and.....it was pretty tasty!

there wasn't a lot of meat on it (especially between three of us - pam didn't want any) but it was a great and wild reintroduction into meat eating ways.

i'm still essentially vegetarian but will eventually eat our own reared/slaughtered animals as well as any other hunted/caught/found animals i/we come across.

coincidentally (or is it....?) i am about to finish an amazing, inspiring and massively informative/educational book called 'the vegetarian myth' by lierre keith on the topic of the misinformation and bad science/politics/economics behind ideological vegetarianism/veganism - really very impressive i can't recommend it enough!

anyways, gotta go fill up the water bottles and then eat dinner.

sorry there are no photographs but time did not allow for it.

bye for now, gairy.

nikki's fat eye and other guests

morning all,

visitor season has gotten off to a flying start with jane, mikey and diego coming friday until sunday and arti and rich from saturday to this morning.

highlights included:

- the river walk/swim

- the bilberry tart

- mountain biking with mike and diego (thanks diego for keeping the pace down for me)

- the bbq

- artis curry

next up we've got deblah arriving this afternoon and then pam on friday.

also.....we've got wasps nesting in the door of our shower and two days ago nikki went for a shower only to find herself of a surprise attack from a particularly territorial wasp on the eyelid.

she said the initial pain went away but this morning the swelling has returned with a vengeance!

here it is in all it's glory:



after hearing the cautionary tale mikey then went for a shower only to be stung on the forehead!

i then showered under the hosepipe as i was taking no chances.

ok, that's all i got for now.

later, gairy.

amazing butterfly

morning folks,

yesterday, whilst driving back from the alps, we saw this amazing looking butterfly.

i've never seen one quite like this before (even though we get loads with vaguely similar colourings/markings) and so thought you lot might like to have a look.



and.....



brilliant - no?

then, when we were nearing home and stopped to pick up some food, we saw another one injured on the floor.

we considered putting it out of it's misery but instead i picked it up and bent it's wing back into position (it was bent/stuck underneath itself at a funny angle). when i placed it back down it immediately fluttered around and then flew off - my good deed for the day was done!

we're having a lazy day of lounging, eating and enjoying the insanely hot weather today (it was 37 degrees c in the valley yesterday) before we enter a month and a bit period of continuous visitors (starting this evening!).

ok, the outdoors calls, later!

gairy.

late july update

evening,

it's been a fair while since we posted anything and so here's an update of happenings, progress and news:

- the barn is progressing nicely (if not speedily) with more wall work, plumbing and loads more.

the stove is now in place and looking bloody brilliant!

it wasn't easy to move/install (weighing in at approx half a ton) but between us all and the plumbers we got the bugger in ok.

here's a nice shot of it:



also, here's a sneak preview of the upstairs bathroom unit that we built.

it's still unfinished and already looks better than it does in this photo but it's a nice little teaser.

(the grouting around the tiles was yet to be done and the woodwork wasn't yet sanded/finished in this photo):



- we had a kuelsheimer family visit (nikki's uncle, aunt and cousin) which was very nice indeed!

we had a very tasty bbq and a fun time was had by all.

thanks SO SO much david, adrienne and adam for the amazing wooden kitchen gifts which we're looking forward to using for many years to come - very much appreciated!!!

here's the bbq me and monkey boy built hastily to cook that evening:



- the vegetables are coming along nicely.

here's a photo of the first of our green beans, pickling cucumbers and (two varieties of) courgettes:



check out the size of the courgettes:



- for the last three weeks we've had lodgers in the house!

maggie and little (9 month old) alfie have been staying with us and i think it's safe to say a splendid time has been had by all.

the highlight for me came during a game of asking each other questions from the childrens version of trivial pursuits.

when asked which ex member of take that had had the most successfuly solo career maggie ansered: "gary, mark, jason no howard" before finally giving up and being made to feel extremely foolish!

other highlights included:

alfie becoming rudie's new best friend!

maggie making alfie a wooden chair (photo to come).

many woodland walks.

alfie's evil mastermind laugh.

much kitten-pushchair action!

and loads more - it's been cool.

we've also had maggie's sister ellen here for the last couple of days (i thought it mean if you didn't get a mention) - HI!

- now onto something about which i'm very proud.

i thought it'd be nice to make alfie a wooden toy whilst he was here and so decided to make him a 'duck train'.

i used a different wood for each duck (ash, walnut, pine, oak and chestnut) which i thought would look nice

here they are all together:





and indivudually:

mummy duck (ash - 20cm x 15cm x 4cm)



big brother duck (walnut - 15cm x 10cm x 3cm)



big sister duck (pine - 12.5cm x 10cm x 2.5cm)



lil' sister duck (oak - 10cm x 8cm x 2cm)



lil' bro duck (chestnut - 10cm x 8cm x 2cm)



there were a few things i'd like to have done better (damn perfectionist!!!) but i'm pretty damn happy with the end result.

disclaimer: for those (david, eddie and no.1.) wondering why i'm making random kids handmade wooden toys (and not your own beautiful offspring) the answer is simple - BRING THEM HERE AND THEY'LL GET ONE!!!

- finally, here are a few more nice insect images:

monkey boy finally got this beautiful image of a butterfly after many minutes waiting



a nice little grasshopper with rudie in the background



and a pretty small dragonfly that i saw this morning



ok, this post is long enough for now!

take care of youselves and see you next time.

gairy.

more winged things and a mirror!

good evening one and all,

things have been progressing well here at simple h.q. with the unit in the upstairs bathroom all but finished (photos will come when the grouting on the tiles is done and it's been waterproofed - have patience).

more wall skimming/priming/preparing is happening and the other sink units are being started and so there's loads going on.

here are a couple of nice shots of butterflies that i took today instead of going for a ride (the first days riding i've missed in over three weeks!) as my chain snapped yesterday and i think its finally had it but i can't get a new one until tomorrow - doh!

this one has two sets of wings of differing orientations:



and this one is amazingly coloured - beautiful:



finally, i made a mirror frame for the upstairs bathroom.

i found an old mirror in a horrible broken frame by the skips in the local town and so scavenged it for future use.

then, i made this frame from some left-over chestnut planks which we have.

to say that i am please with the resulting product would be an understatement. the only problem with it, as nikki quite rightly pointed out, is that it is so well made that it looks shop bought instead of homemade but what can you do???

the reflection of the late afternoon sky is great too!

enjoy:



the others (nikki, monkey boy, maggie, 9 month old alfie and rudie) have all gone for a walk down to the river (which i could have joined them on if i'd remembered by chain was broken) and so i'm now off to start dinner.

cheers, gairy.

a butterfly and a bee

morning!

i was outside just a few minutes ago and saw an amazing butterfly sitting on the ground and so i took a photograph.

then, on the walk back to the house, i saw this bee hovering on some flowers.

here are those photographs - enjoy:





now i'm off to grout some bathroom floor tiles.

gairy.

3, 5, 8, 9....?

evening all,

the title of this post lists the (ever?) expanding numbers of us simple-folk living here.

3 of us moved here a year and a half ago.

2 cats joined us last summer.

3 kittens appeared a couple of months ago.

and.....wait for it.....we now have a little (border collie) puppy in our ranks!!!

her name is Rudie and she's a little beauty (although depending on her mood/energy levels she can be a little rambunctious!).

seeing as it's been so long since our last post i'm going to summarise what's been going on so that this post comes in under 10,000 words.

so, since we last posted:

- the kittens are all doing well. they're so energetic and are just starting to really explore/climb/run/jump everywhere.

here are a few shots of them:

tigger and milky (name as of yet fully undecided) in a 'kodak moment' pose:



mini-mu (named as she looks like a mini muca):



muca and all the kittens getting some food:



tigger's stripes are really beautiful:



a nice action shot of the kittens giving muca a hard time:



- the barn is really coming on! we've now got all the windows/doors (with about half fitted at present).

here is the downstairs barn door - it's made from local chestnut and it a real old barn style classic. it should age beautifully and really look the part:



and here's the double patio door from the kitchen out onto what will eventually be the terrace:



we also now have stairs!

here they are (thought not a good photo and the wall at the top is brown not blue!):



they were made by the guys who made the windows/doors for us from local chestnut wood - they're really simple and beautiful but you can't really see that in the photo.

both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms are the most finished rooms in the barn.

the upstairs one has the oak floor laid.

here it is (although you can't really see how nice it looks in the photo as it's only a small room and so you can only get a photo of one corner:



this bathroom has all the walls finished and we've almost finished a chestnut sink/unit which is so damn good it'll put most cabinet makers to shame - it's really that good!!! (photos to come when it's finished).

the downstairs bathroom is almost finished being tiled (both floor and walls) and it looking great too (photos to come).

most of the bedrooms are nearly completed in terms of wall work (pointing, skimming etc...) and are just awaiting windows/floors.

the living room/kitchen has been skimmed and is waiting on the stove to go in (tuesday next week) before the heating can be plumbed.

here's a shot of a wooden lintel which monkey boy fitted downstairs - nice:



- the vegetables are doing grand!

the greenhouses are in full bloom with everything growing well and looking great.

we've had our first courgettes and there's plenty more on the way.

(no photos of recent activity - sorry!)

we've been eating loads of delicious strawberries from our patch and have also been getting a fair amount of blueberries from the potted plant we have.

the cherries have been bloody tasty too! the bilberries are just coming into season (as well as wild strawberries) so i'm sure there'll be loads more said about them in the coming weeks/months.

- finally, to put rachel out of her misery, we have a puppy!!!

her name is rudie and she's an amazing little border collie pup.

her she is looking cute as hell:





she's definitely a hand full but is a really nice dog and so full of life.

ok, as per usual i'm sure i'm missing/forgetting loads but for now that should do.

later, gairy.

longer time and no blog.....

howdy all,

after a one-sided fight between some lightening and the computer (who do you think won???) we've been without internet access for the better part of a month and so no updates!

i've not got the time to go into everything that's happened in the last month but just wanted to say that we're back up and running and will post all the juicy news here soon.

hope you're keeping well.

cheers, gairy.

long time no blog.....

howdy all,

it's been a fair old while since we updated the blog and seems even longer seeing as so much has happened since then.

so, in chronological order:

- me and nikki went to blighty for a week and a half.

here's a short summary of uk based events: mine and bens three day 150 mile cycling/camping trip. joining the others for three days in the new forest for more camping, eating and fun with donkeys, deer, cows and horses. seeing family (and especially abdullah). picking up loads of sinks for the house. riding with eddie in the peak district. seeing everyone for their birthdays in london. there's probably loads more i'm forgetting but you'll have to forgive me.

- on the return trip we had a mini adventure in the form of a wheel coming off the trailer on the french motorway which made the trip back three days long and significantly more expensive than we'd planned but we did stay in a nice b+b and ate a really nice omelette.

- returning home we found muca fat with soon to arrive mini cats (monkey boy claims to have had nothing to do with it!) and.....on friday she gave birth to three (i called three!!!) beautiful blind stumbling kitties - no photographs yet as they're still in the paper sack that muca selected as their birth place.

- everything is now in full summer mode here with flowers everywhere and ever increasing lushness.

- monkey boy seemed to have been pretty much constantly at work since we left having dug a potato patch, worked on the downstairs internal walls, put in some more windows, installed a great wooden lintel over one of the doors, put the platform on the mini ramp (happy now chris?) and loads more.

- here are a few photographs of the flowers/insects that are around right now:

bug on a flower



hummingbird hawk moth on lilac



another stunning moth



and one final moth which was in the house



we also had a night out with our new hammocks/tarps which was pretty nice.

we went and set up the hammocks in a good spot and then had some lunch, scouted future bilberry hotspots, put up the tarps, cooked dinner and had a good nights sleep (ok, nikki was a little cold but it was her and not the conditions).

the tarps and set up



and inside our temporary home



we saw this cool looking little fella too!



- things are progressing in the barn too! the remaining windows/doors should be with us around the end of the month and the stairs were measured this morning and are being started and so shouldn't be too long either. we've started the massive task of chasing out the old pointing and repointing the entire inside of the barn which i'm sure you'll hear loads about in the coming weeks (months?) as it ain't a small job!

- we also planted out most of the remaining vegetables in the garden. we put in onions, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, beetroot and peas with cauliflower, turnips, raddish and a few other bits still to do.

- finally (i've missed loads i know but i'll put the rest in later entries) we saw this stunning blue butterfly this morning



ok, we'll get some kitty images up as soon as they're out and about but we don't want to invade their space while they're so young so you'll just have to wait.

gairy.

p.s. i forgot to mention that we had our first french lesson today with 'roger the wood dude's' wife (i will most likely never remember her name - apologies!) - it was fun and way overdue.