Man at work!

There are quite a few things that need to be done in and out of the house, some very minor and others more important, so I have drawn up a list of 'Things to do this year'! Chris hasn't seen the list yet, but he knows most of what's on it anyway, and this week he has tackled a couple of the more urgent tasks. We have had some very windy days lately and the roof of the dogs house was in danger of taking off. It is two layers of wired bamboo with thick black plastic sheeting between them. The top layer had lifted in the wind and frightened the dogs so we had them indoors for a couple of nights. So last week Chris went up the ladder to see what he could do. We had one metal bar left from what we bought to make the frame, and he has bolted that down across the front of the roof and it really holds it very strongly, but he also wanted to tie the back corner down. The roof isn't strong enough for him to kneel on so he had to put a second ladder across it to make a platform. It was all a bit precarious but he managed, with me hovering around below, though what I could have done if he'd fallen through I'm not at all sure! Anyway, Miki and Foxy are back in their house at night, and it's wind and rain proof again.

This week I asked Chris to tackle my washing line. I have a good strong pair of metal posts with four lines stretched between them. The lines are plastic coated wire and for some time now the plastic has been cracking and bits falling off. The exposed wire then goes rusty and it was getting hard to find a place to put the pegs without marking the clean washing. At the weekend, the wires started to fray and it really was an urgent task to replace all the lines. I found a bundle of the same plastic coated wire in a bright red, in the outside shed and it turned out to be enough for three of the lines. There is a good system of screwing bolts for adjusting the tension, but it was a bit of a pain to get it all threaded up. However with Chris on the job, and me as a helper on hand, we got it done. The old lines were white, but when we unscrewed the bolts and unfolded the ends, we found that it had originally been as red as the new one! I will have to have a hunt around the shops and try to find a bit more so I can have the last line replaced as well. Today I washed the bed linen and the new line held up with hardly any sag, so that's another good job done. I can cross it off my list now.

I'll leave you with this lovely picture of Luna in the orange tree. While Chris was working on my washing line I decided to pick a few more fruit from the trees next door that line the fence where we were. (The owner doesn't live there and she told me to help myself!) I was on the step stool to reach a few of the higher fruit when Luna suddenly appeared and she looked so cute, I just had to take her picture.