May Monthly Update
May is a firm favourite here. Summer begins for us with longer days, lots of grass growing and (hopefully) the true end of muddy fields until winter rolls around again. Skip through the weeks to get to where you want to be:
May Week 1:
Ren
Dan was out this week for a full day, taking Ren the Malinois up to the specialist for a checkup. Dan wasn’t happy with how she was running in harness, even though she wasn’t lame or showing any major signs of discomfort, so he felt it best to take her in two months before she was due to go anyway. He was right to, because after an iffy check-up with teeth on display, she was put under GA and sent in for detailed diagnostics on her joints. Another bout of ligament and muscle fibre breakdown was found in multiple different places, which is gutting for Dan, Ren, and the family here.
She’s had some more cells taken to re-culture stem cells for implantation, and she’ll have to go back out on the 4 hour round trip to have them put in soon. Our aim with Ren is to focus on a balance between longevity and quality of life. She’s still happy and raring to go, so hopefully we can get through this round and keep her healthy for the next maintenance window (18 months). It’s really tough with this breed, because they’re obviously hard-wired to do a job, at high intensity, forever. We’ll continue walking the balance for as long as we’re able ❤️
Flagstones
Finally, the adhesive arrived (on Wednesday!), so Dan cracked straight on with laying the last of the flags in the hallway and under-stairs cupboard. The next phase of the floor goes like this:
Clean the stone with LTP Grimex
Seal the stone with LTP Mattstone Sealer x 2
Grout the stone with Rocatex Ultimate Grout
Seal the stone with LTP Mattstone Sealer x 1
Re-commission the underfloor heating on gradual cycles (maybe not… it’s summer!)
At the time of writing this (Saturday) Dan has already done the stone cleaning and is prepping to do the first coat of sealant tonight. It currently looks like this:
I need to be in the office to film again on Monday, and the sealer needs 3 days before grout too, so we’ll pick back up next week with the final stages.
Wet Dog Room
Panel o’clock in here!
The local supplier said we’d be absolutely fine installing them ourselves because Dan has the tools and skills to do this job, so the delivery came last weekend and Dan began almost immediately. We’d opted to risk it for a biscuit and purchase literally just enough panels to complete the job, meaning part of the only offcut we’d get was a piece of panelling needed for elsewhere in the room.
Because of the cost of these panels, we needed to be smart about the general layout. We have 10cm of height up the wall from our flooring choice already, and we want a countertop to sit at least 86cm from the floor on one wall. The panels themselves are 240cm high so we opted to take 3 × 80cm panels out of each 2400mm length and make a 90cm high waterproof section all the way around, except for one wall.
The wall with the future countertop and dog crates on it needed to have waterproofing all the way up the wall for wet dog shakes and things like that. Therefore, we ran the panels full height on this section only.
With the brief and the most cost-effective way of doing this identified, Dan went and did it.
First, he cut the boards and dry-fitted with the end and corner caps, and then stuck them all in place, sealing every join. If you do this yourself, ensure you keep the joins clean with suitable wipes, cloths and cleaning solutions because the sealant does change the finish if you let it sit for too long. Thankfully, I caught the areas in time, thanks to the bright light at one end of the room (use a torch if you need to!).
The current look in here is shown below. I did not tidy up or clean the panels any further, as you can see!
To finish the ‘look’, I had sketched out a wooden trim rail to sit on the top of all horizontal edges, including the full height one, hence the gap left at the top over there. We purchased the wood needed this week, and it’ll be cut, primed, stuck on and painted shortly. The paint for this has been colour matched to the panels themselves.
NB: The boiler will be inside a cupboard. You can see the future side of the cupboard where the silver vertical edge strip sits on the wall to the left. It will come out there and surround the boiler, heating controls and sockets, with some storage and shelving inside. This build is not as important as progress in the kitchen and other areas, so the cupboard will wait for now.
Other bits
As a heads up for next week, the remaining doors, all the skirting board, architrave and plinths are due on Wednesday. From here, it’ll be an absolute race to get the office, lounge, bathrooms and 3 upstairs bedrooms finished with their woodwork before moving everything from the store room into these spaces to be able to switch focus to the only part of the house that is still untouched.
Finance-wise and water-wise, things are progressing, but we can’t share the details here.
Velia
V has had a good week, though she went through a few days of reversing her progress signs, from a small bag to no bag, from very lax ligaments and muscles to some tension again. On Friday evening, everything started to come back so we now have a bag that is building and holding despite movement in the daytimes, and that means we’re closer than ever. She’s very loose all over, is as mellow and chilled as can be, and she no longer hates Dan.
She is on day 320 at the time of writing (Saturday 9th), so a delivery from now is viable in equine gestation terms. She still has another 20 days until the average length of gestation, but we are fully prepared and doing 2-hour camera checks at night to ensure we don’t miss anything that may happen.
When we switch to milk testing, we’ll know when ‘true foal watch’ begins, but we’re not at milk in her udders yet, so there’s still a little time left.
As a first-time mum (a maiden mare), she won’t follow textbook signs of impending foaling – they never really do – but we’re watching for a handful of signs to sit together. Here are some udder changes that are easily visible for everyone:
10th April
28th April (mostly edema)
March 30th (first of any change)
May 9th (Day 320, clear liquid easily expressed)
We are afflicted with a rodent issue though. Not horrendous by any means, but Velia and her pet rat spend most evenings together, and all measures to remove the pet have failed so far. Rat man says to block up as many access points internally as possible, to force her friends around the outside and past the traps. This morning Dan and I removed the bed from the walls and repointed some bits that may have been entry points. Yes, I wear crocs to muck out at 7am.
Watching her friends on the cameras at night is gross (at best) and I’d rather we handled this sooner than later! We’ve been lucky to have no rats for 2 years, but the cow feed this winter gave them a food source, and the slurry tank (firm on top) gave them a protected space to live rent-free. Big Cat got one, Dan got another, but since then it’s been a losing battle.
We continue, and nope, I won’t share Velia with her pets, I will share her napping though:
That’s all for now!