After months of procrastinating over the work required to finish our home , whilst we were deliberating the details we have ran out of " there's another fine day tomorrow " and our efforts to build chickenopolis are now being hampered by rain. This would be the same rain that the gutters we've , sorry I've not fitted, should be carrying to the drain that does not yet quite reach our deposit tank, to be ready for the gardens .
There may be another day tomorrow , but is tomorrow going to be as good as today ?
This is going to be very true very soon for us as our monthly euro exchange deal comes to an end and the renewal options are a long way from our last arrangement , being about €0.28 per GBP less, thank you Brexit . The disasters in the UK are still to arrive but for us the days are not looking better tomorrow. a position i suspect will be true for some now and many more within the year.
In between the showers we have painted the walls around the chicken garden , these have been bare render since the build and we have with the great bravery of the lovely wife a top the scaffold fitted the gutter to the rear of the car port and run the down pipes to the drain that will on one of the tomorrows terminate in the deposit tank.
We have now found new vigour and have got the rear wall of Chickenopolis and two sides all erected and have all the materials to hand to finish this five star accommodation with the exception of a roof, this im told is essential as our ladies like to do their thing in the shade, privately.
We've been having some difficulties with the pool this summer, the long dry spell , massive farm land reclamation projects nearby and near constant winds have caused lots of dust clouds that have lead to twice weekly cleaning and ph swings. The dust has been so fine ending as a light brown slime on the bottom . According to the pool shop a very common story this year .
So just clean it you say , well I have over and over running the jolly gel almost constantly and it was getting clean but lately it's been less impressive after each clean ending with a light haze that's very apparent at night with the lights on .
The final straw was the other day when for some reason it was cloudier after the clean then before ? The debris must have been passing through the sand and back in a cloud . Back washing after vac'in as usual cleared lots of dirt but it took several days for the pool to clear with the need for even more jolly gel .
On line research lead to the buying of 125kg of glass filter media and the simple job I'm told of swapping the sand out . The theory is that you can vac it out with a wet dry vac . Now this is true but a 12L vac is no help as it needs a lot of emptying and is easy to clog , but as its all we have and there's no room for scooping then we dig on in a hot and humid pump room, sweating like mad wondering if I should have got someone in but no we need to save where we can, so I'm told.
The results however are worth the efforts and the cost as the water is crystal clear and has a sparkle never seen whilst using sand , the cleaning intervals are back to weekly and to be fair it could go longer if needed and the ph is stable , who knows the connection but the results do speak for themselves .
The lovely wife's mate and her fella finally arrived days later than expected and did just stay for coffee and a catch up as all outside tours were off due to the rain ( wasn't raining when they should have arrived ) they said they loved the place but we know it's not to their taste as she's a clean freak and he's all minimal so a Cortijo on the campo is not for them and they both like the restaurants, nightlife etc found on the playa's , they even had to rush off as they had dinner reservations at 7pm , how very British .
Matt n Cat called in as they had seen the new paint from the rambler and we had a beer and a chat about chickens. apparently chickens and pigs are the thing in rural Thailand, that and a random pack of wild dogs all hanging around the house, ( Mmm feeding wild dogs ? , I knew someone was ) so maybe just like dogs n kids help you make friends the same could be for chillies n chicken. a match made in the kitchen ?
You know , getting some paint on and the gutters up , seeing the lovely wife so happy to show off to her old work mate and having another bottle of beer with Matt n cat this has been a better week . Maybe the imminent arrival of these chickens has been the kick in the pants I've needed .
May be tomorrow can still be better than today ?
Well spiritually if not financially NLN !