Let down again

It was not the best of nights, someone obviously did not have work today, and had hired the Finca down the mountain, the music was blaring away, but to be honest it was not a bad selection, and I eventually got to sleep. however I was then woken by fireworks at 3.30am, and it was pouring with rain, I lay there tossing and turning until 4.20am, then got up, but even Pépe wasn\’t going out in that!

Fortunately I was sat at my desk, I saw and heard the bin wagon going passed, I had totally forgotten to put the bag of rubbish out, so I ran down, and had it out, ready for the wagon\’s return run!

It stopped raining about 8.30am, so I decided that it was time to have breakfast, Pépe thought that was a good idea as well.

Time to work, the first job of the day, was to try and move the mains electric supply cable, the Power Company had run it down the garden, overhead, and simply tied it to a branch of the Mango tree, not very bright, considering they hadn\’t picked the strongest branch, and we have now decided to have the tree cut down!

Soon after moving in, we had put a 5m post in the middle of the garden to give the cable support, I now had two options open to me, either to put in another post, or to take the risk that the weight of the cable would not be too much for one of the supporting roof beams of the house, and attach it to that, I decided to go for the latter.

I drilled and installed a 1/2\” threaded rod through the 3 1/2\” wide beam, and  bolted a steel hawser to one side, then came the part I wasn\’t looking forward to, I had set up my ladder into the mango tree, I hate ladders and unsupported heights! I went up and attached plastic straps to the cable, to stop the hawser slipping, then threaded the hawser on the far side of straps, at this point, I decided the pliers I had, could go down the fast way, rather than mess about, unfortunately I had not seen that Pépe had kindly left me a package, and the pliers landed right in the middle of it…thanks!

At this stage, I attached a rope to the free end of the hawser, and pulled it back up onto the balcony, only to find that the fittings I had bolted on, were not in the right place, I needed to shorten the hawser, but once that was done, I was able to bolt it to the other side of the beam. Fortunately this had pulled the power cable straighter,  therefore cutting the old ropes from the tree was just a formality, and the roof is still on the house.

We have yet again been let down by John Nariño, the man who had done all the work for us, Marcela rang him the other day, to come and quote for checking and repairing the roof, we seem to have  lost a number of tiles at the back of the house, and he had been up there before, climbing the mango tree to get there, he promised to come today, but he has not been, so that has written him off our list, that is three times he has let us down, I think it is a case of, he has had the bulk of the work, and the money that went with it, he isn\’t interested now, I just wish he would say, instead of messing us about. Now we have got to find someone else, and the probability is, that the mango tree will not be there, so ladders or scaffolding will be needed.

Conrado, was going to start cutting the mango trees today, but the rain last night, made being in the trees dangerous, and Marcela saw him last night, he was a bit under the weather, which is unusual for him, so he must be ill, not to show his face, although he had contacted Mauricio the Mayor Domo for the estate that runs to the rear of us, and they had agreed to let us throw all the cut tree over the fence, which will save on transport, and they use it for firewood for the rentals.

I moved on to the kiosko, and did a bit more paint removal with the hot air gun, I finished one side of a post, which had given me some cause for concern as I found rot, but I don\’t think it is too serious, I have dug most of it out, I then started the second side, looked up, and saw smoke??????? I went to the previous side, and there were flames licking from the top of the post, nothing a quick sprint to the house and a water sprayer couldn\’t handle, but it goes to prove how hot, my hot air gun is. Once I had finished three sides, I then sanded them, the fourth will have to wait, as it has plastic ducting and the electric cables running up it. Knowing my hot air gun, is for domestic use, and not professional, I thought I wouldn\’t push it and risk burning it out, so called that job a day.

My next task was to finish digging a flower border for Marcela, alongside the gravel, then border it with similar timber to that I used on the rest of the garden, this was warm work, as the sun was now out, but it got done, with a little help from Pépe, who decided that he wanted to play, and have a belly rub, whilst I was trying to place the timbers.

I then called it a day, by the time I had had my lunch and shower, it was 3pm, and after last night, time for a siesta, I have to admit to feeling much better for it.