Shutters Up
The forecast for the next week is extreme rain, never really sure what that means, but there does seem to be a lot of water forecast. I had kept reminding Brian, whilst the weather was good, to finish removing the weeds from the other half of the river. The part that flows down-stream from us needs to be clear, to allow the water to flow and to prevent any blockages that might lead to a flood. I doubt it would happen, but you can never be sure . So just in case, the first job for Brian was to do what he could to ensure the water was flowing okay, otherwise he knew that I would be reminding him all day.
It was all a bit drizzly already, but he got straight on with it with no complaining, just on with the wellies and into the Artaut. The commune will come and clear the weeds if we pile them up next to the road, so we can just leave them there.
When we first bought the house this job used to take us all day, then when people came to stay they would volunteer to help out, so it often would be done in a morning. Now Brian can do what he needs to in an hour. I’m not sure if that’s because he knows what he is doing now, therefore he is quicker, or because he does it regularly there are less weeds now – we cannot recall. Either way it’s always nice when we see the river running clear.
Next job, we needed to get the shutters finished, having the area under the barn is great, as I was able to work in the dry. Lilly and Dillon came and slept next to me in their box, purring as they slept.
I was able to get the final coat on the first pair, so that they had all day to dry. And I then started on the second pair. All sanded, cleaned and ready to be painted. I’m thinking a few days and the second pair will be completed as well.
We nipped out to do some shopping whilst leaving the shutter to dry, then when we came back we approached the task of putting the first pair of shutters back up. The first one went up easy enough, with a little bit of direction from me - “up a bit, back, no forward, down! Down, yep we’re there.”
However the second one was a bit more difficult. One of the hinges at the top of the shutter, attached into the wall, was loose. Brian commented “we have a problem”. That’s all we need as we are hanging out of a window 12 feet up, hanging onto a very heavy and unwieldy shutter, which we have spent over a week renovating. My thought is ‘let’s just get it up and sort the problem after’. Luckily, Brian had the same thought which he shared. So with me hanging on to the back of his jeans, and him trying with both arms to wiggle the shutter into place, he realised we had another problem – “I’ve made a mistake!”, he exclaims. “What now?”. “It’s upside down!”.
We’re all ready now for a week of unpleasant weather.
