Cat on a Wet Tin Roof

Making the Frugal House Watertight

Yesterday dawned fine and bright. The workmen arrived at 8.30am, the rain  arrived at 8.45am!

We're in Scotland, we expect these things. Besides, it didn't exactly pour down, it was more of a steady drizzle that kept the inquisitive cat indoors while work continued in making the frugal house watertight for winter.

By lunchtime, most of the foam-filled tin sandwich that had been our flat roof was piling up in the back garden awaiting its next adventure. Who knows how long it has been sitting up there, above our kitchen!

This roofing should be able to get recycled into a new roof for the outbuilding or some other such project.

Around lunchtime, the drizzling rain decided to stop and the day brightened up a bit, thankfully! This allowed the pitch of the 'flat' roof to be altered slightly, then the new wood decking was fitted before felting began.

The rain was threatening to return by 5pm, but the roof was 99% watertight with a layer of felt and the edges torched down at the joins.
Temperatures aren't too low at nights yet, so the 6" gaps around the overhang wouldn't cause much of a problem. Luckily, the swallows have long, since, finished nesting, otherwise they would have been straight into the kitchen, the way they did every time the door was left open during summer! Had it been any earlier in the year, I'd have been hiding from wasps and bees!

That was yesterday. Thankfully, today dawned bright and sunny, so we are hoping for progress in leaps and bounds.

The leaves on the trees at the bottom of the garden are gradually turning to russet and falling to the ground. There are a few evergreens, so we won't lose all colour or shelter down by the hen run, but it is going to look quite bare soon. For now, I'll make the most of what is still growing and prepare for 2012.

While work progresses on the back roof, Floppity bunny is confined to her hutch. It was too wet for her to venture out last night, so I'm sure she'll be desperate for a run around tonight.

I really must organise more stockproofing for next year's veggies, though, as I can't begin to imagine how any of the newly planted carrot seeds will germinate after the number of times she has dug up the bed. I'll say that I'm hopeful of seeing some carrots grow, but won't go as far as saying that I'm confident.

The strawberry runners are rooting nicely in their pots, but some have already been snipped from their mother plants, compliments of... yes, you guessed it.... Floppity! The only things she doesn't seem to be  interested in at the moment are the pumpkins! My guess is that even she couldn't manage a whole one on her own!
I need to bake a loaf of bread today, but the kitchen is kind of off limits on account of the men on the roof. If anyone is visiting this afternoon, expect a breadmaker to be set up in the livingroom.