Crimewatch

Sour sucking cider-making, sticky and now processed!
When I was young I have to confess I stole a few penny priced sweets off a counter from our village shop. Egged on by a friend, the habit lasted for a few months. My sweet-tooth has lasted a lot longer.
A few days ago I became an accomplice to another unforgiving crime, pulling down a helpless tree for no other concern than to stop the branches coming into contact with any high-sided vehicles. That is what our chainsaw trigger happy neighbour said anyway. 
When I was asked to hop a ride on his tractor to help move a tree I was expecting a fallen one that we had permission to cut. When we reached our destination there was no such thing, only a favourite young oak tree which our cats enjoyed to climb to chase the birds. Before I had time to think, the chainsaw was in full flow ripping through the base. 
By this point the tree had no point of return and instead of resting my hands on my head in disbelief I was being sworn at to help make sure the tree fell in the opposite direction of the road. My finger-printed evidence was now left on the bark. My poor language skills could not hide the anger inside me at this un-provoked act of vandalism to the natural surroundings. I walked off dis-gruntled. 
To add to the shame, the broken tree became our issue as shockingly our neighbour did not want the wood. Dusting off my chainsaw, a different me came back and sliced the tree down to manageable pieces for both Jana and I to drag back to the cottage later under the cover of a moonlit night sky and out of sight of the Forester's eyes. My sweetshop skills had not deserted me.  

woodshed

Two weeks has seen rapid change here. The woodshed transformation into a space twice it's original size is not far away from completion to cater for our summer guests needs. A 'tardis-sized' shower room now stands waiting for it's fittings and our old original roofless barn has been carefully semi-demolised and made into a safe space to disappear to. More channel digging through hardcore stone pieces to enable a water pipe to reach it's destination taps in the woodshed and shower room. And more time spent within the company of builders to achieve all of this. Two knackered souls with empty pockets are left to finish and smooth off all these installations before the fast approaching opening in May. No interruptions please!  

Morning light

It's just the two of us. Mr and mrs, a couple of dogs and a few cats. That's it. Striving each day to make things work out here and to better and enrich our lives. Somedays, like today for example, are tough mentally and physically. Pulling down parts of outbuildings which are redundant, preparing for the arrival of builders this week (for the last time we hope), and endless other tasks without offering a minutes rest. But there is no one else here to do it but us, with dogs and cats for company. Just us, to accomplice something positive here everyday. Soon our place will be open again for the arrival of guests and days like today will just melt into like any other when there isn't anyone else here. The pinkish sunrise may get forgotten and remembering all the things we did this day will probably do so too. But we would like to think that serving good memories for others when they come to stay will make all the hard work appreciated.

No smoking please!

Another week of outside jobs as the winter shows no signs of arriving. First up was the demolition of the 'smoke house', a curious little house like structure which is commonplace in the Slovak countryside. Used for smoking and preserving hung slabs of meat and sausages during the butchery season, our chargrilled example was beginning to look like an eyesore from the front door. It was also in the way of the proposed extension of the woodshed and soon to become outdoor kitchen/eating space (we haven't thought of a name for this exciting new addition to the Havran Cottage catalogue, only 'the shed' or 'the kitchen shed' so far..)
As we had shown no sign of killing many pigs round here it wasn't likely to be getting used either. Out with the crowbar and hammer and so the endless task of taking out nails. Typical Slovak construction always uses far more nails than is needed and much longer ones than what I had encountered anywhere else. The result being a day spent rather than an hour. But we prevailed finding rusty iron artifacts and a few old teeth along the way. Now we have clear view of the garden and a vision of what will come next with the woodshed. 

Cider

Cider making outside as it snows. After a few days a liquid with a whiffy smell. Probably the wrong time of year to be doing this, but then what else to do with more than a dozen crates of apples.
Every day, morning, noon and night, a check on the action as it quietly froths in a huge glass jar. A couple more days and maybe it will be time to decant to demijohns in the cellar. And then the waiting game begins.
Cider is supposedly easy to make, and yet even after a few attempts in the past and success in creating wine out of marrow two years ago, I haven't created anything other than vinegar out of apples. On this attempt, well the conditions are really too cold to be considering to do this, the apples are over ripe possibly, and a few bruised ones may have been processed through the chopping. So a morning's labour may have been wasted or maybe not. Only time will tell, I'll give it another year before I try again. 

neighbour's tipple

A week of restoration on the A3S and so far so good. The unsightly floor has been removed to reveal floorboards which don't need to many expletives to restore! 
A trip to see our other elderly neighbour today to welcome in the new year and to see if he has some more wood to help us put back together our barn roof, tactile we must be. The bottle of wine and homemade parsnip cake certainly helps to lighten the proceedings. We persuade him to open his homemade wine instead of our bland supermarket purchase, not wishing to upset him of course. He uses only one room in the winter months in his cottage, a usual way in the countryside. In it there is the stove in the corner which cooks and heats, the bed covered over with a blanket in case of any arriving guests (us in this instance), a television as a form of company, and a table in the middle under the bare light bulb. A sparkle in our neighbour's eye as the conversation is solely directed with Jana, the topping up of the vino is only for my own source of interest it seems. At first I am understanding the conversation, I even break in with a few words of the lingo myself. Later though as the wine takes a little more affect my mind wanders, watching a deliberately poor tv program on the muted television to get you to buy a CD of some random trio who would normally be booked at Slovak wedding reception. Two clocks are ticking near me, this is nothing compared to the five bedside clocks in our other neighbour's kitchen. I wander in and out of what is being said, another glass filled, the television's sound is put back on for my (dis)pleasure. I know that I need to bring my camera next time to record some of what I see here, the simple retro dresser with a glass display of unused plates and glasses, the patterned plastic table cover which hides the antique table, and the few pictures taken from a black and white era hanging on the wall next to the washbasin with the old fashioned shaving brush in the soap dish (he had politely apologised when we first arrived that he hadn't shaved). Whilst I may not understand everything that is being said, I am starting to understand why things are being said just by the feelings and the visual clues around and that's important too.   

A3S progress

Still no change outside, a few frosty mornings but nothing to add on the weather report. So we are still holding on to jobs outside the cottage. This week I decided to finally have a crack at the A3S trailer parked up in the field, after all we would like you to come and stay in it in the summer! So far the work on it has been painless and smooth, ripping up an old floor and sanding what has been revealed underneath. The accumulation of unwanted items we have for the second hand shop in the town (a room full!) have been dispatched from the trailer to a new location to make space for all this work. These include an ironing board, a frog soap dispenser and a couple of machetes..all unneeded of course. What is needed now is another piece of homemade chocolate brownie.