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It’s taken a long time but, my Lean-to is finally complete

At the end of a post I wrote more than four years ago entitled, ‘Making progress‘, I featured two photographs of the incomplete lean-to on one side of my house. This one on the left, taken in May 2017, just a couple of weeks after I moved to Stará Oleška, and the one below, taken after ‘Jan with his van’ had taken away a whole load of unwanted items left by the previous owners.

In that September 2017 post, I wrote, ‘Once I’ve removed some remaining loose timber into the wood shed, then I plan to lay a proper concrete floor. After that, I hope to be able to hang the door that is already sitting there, propped up on one side, and create a dry and secure home for my mower and garden tools.’

Whilst soon afterwards, I did move all the remaining timber to the woodshed where it was cut up and used as firewood, everything else remained an aspiration until earlier this year. However, over the intervening period, whenever I found bits of brick, stone, broken tiles etc, in various parts of the garden, I stacked them by the open entrance of the lean-to so they could be used to form the foundation of the concrete floor that I envisaged being laid at some future date.

When, in the Summer of 2020, I found František and he came and laid a new path in my back garden, as described in this post, I showed him the incomplete lean-to and indicated by sign language 😉 , what I wanted doing. The project was put on hold over the winter, but during April 2021, he promised to come and commence work on Saturday 1^st May.

So in the late afternoon of Friday 30^th April, František deposited in my woodshed and/or garden, a cement mixer, numerous bags of cement, a metal door frame and various other materials. He promised to return in the morning, once he had collected a load of sand. Unfortunately, he hadn’t reckoned with 1^st May being Labour Day, a public holiday. Therefore builders merchants who were normally open on a Saturday morning, were closed 🙁 So on the Sunday afternoon, František came and took back the cement mixer as it was needed by his regular employers from whom he had borrowed it for the weekend.

There then followed a month of frustration as František’s van suffered a major breakdown and was off the road for over two weeks. Eventually, I got Kát’a to phone František with two suggestions. If he told me what quantity of sand was required, I would order it and pay to have it delivered. Secondly, he could ask my neighbour Milan, if he could borrow his cement mixer.

In the end, František became mobile once again and was able himself, to bring the required sand to my garden.

But he took up my second suggestion and, as I expected, Milan was very happy to oblige. So on the sunny evening of Tuesday 1^st June, a month after it was meant to happen, finally a new concrete floor was laid with a metal door frame inserted.

František was able to use all of the bits of brick, stone and broken tiles I had collected and his calculation of the amount of sand and cement required proved to be exactly right.

Further progress was made on Sunday 13^th June when František returned and, with breeze blocks covered by cement render, filled in the gaps surrounding the metal door frame.

Gaps surrounding the metal door frame filled in © Ricky Yates

He also helped me transport a kitchen base unit, which I had held onto since January 2018 when the rest of my kitchen was gutted, out of the house and into the far end of the lean-to.

Old kitchen base unit in its new home © Ricky Yates

There then followed yet another hiatus. I thought František was going to find a door of the correct dimensions. He thought that I was going to do so. I should add that the old door mentioned in the second paragraph of this post and which can also be seen in the first two photographs, was both the wrong size and the handle and hinges were the wrong way around. So in advance of František commencing work, I sawed it up and the wood from it is currently being used as kindling for my woodburning stove.

Once I realised the misunderstanding, I paid a visit to Obi, a German-owned DIY store on the outskirts of Ústí nad Labem, to try and find a suitable door. I went with my English-speaking Czech friend Kát’a, to try and avoid any confusion. We found a suitable door and arranged for it to be delivered on the morning of Saturday 21^st August. My VW Golf is unfortunately not big enough to transport a door of the correct size so I ended up paying over 1000 Kc to have it delivered 🙁

Here it is, propped up against the door frame.

In due course, František came to fit it. However, whilst the door was of the correct dimensions, it had its hinges and holes for the door handle and lock, the incorrect way around 🙁 At this point, I really did begin to think I was fated and would never ever see this project through to completion. I certainly didn’t want to spend over 1000Kc to get the the incorrect door taken back and the same sum again to have the correct one delivered.

The solution eventually came some days ago, with František taking the incorrect door back to Obi, accompanied by my receipt, explaining the problem and returning with the correct door. I promised to more than cover his petrol costs as well as paying him for taking a strip off the bottom of the door so it was the correct height and fitting the door handle and lock that I’d purchased back in August.

By the time František got back with the correct door, the light was fading fast. So I ended up using the torch on my mobile phone so he could see to fit the door handle and lock and adjust the hinges. Even then, we were once again frustrated as the door catch and lock wouldn’t quite connect with the appropriate holes in the door frame. Finally, František returned on the afternoon of Sunday 28^th November and, aided by an electrically-driven metal cutter, removed a small bit of the door frame. The door then shut firm and the key turned easily to lock the door.

Lean-to complete with locking door © Ricky Yates

A danger of driving in the Czech Republic

According to a news report I read some time ago, the three most common causes of road traffic accidents in the Czech Republic are: First – driving too fast. Second – driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Third – hitting a wild animal, either a deer or a wild boar. Unfortunately, late on the night of Monday 27^th September, I joined those statistics 🙁

I was giving a lift to my friend Kát’a, from a rather late evening appointment in Ceská Lípa, to her home in Decín. Driving through the forested area between Kamenický Šenov and Ceská Kamenice, I had a major altercation with a large deer. It suddenly appeared out of the forest on my left. I only saw it for a nano-second before it crashed into the front driver’s side of the car and smashed the windscreen.

Thankfully, neither of us were physically hurt and, being on a straight stretch of road, I was very easily able to bring the car to a halt. However, we were both quite shaken up by the experience. I was also covered with numerous small shards of glass from the broken windscreen. I thought that I had brushed or shaken them all off me, but then found one sticking out of my left index finger when I woke up in my bed the following morning!

Several people who have already heard this story have asked, ‘What about the deer?’ The answer is that I do not know. Once I had stopped the car and looked in my rear-view mirror, I expected to see a dead body lying in the road. But there wasn’t one. The deer had run off into the forest on the other side of the road from whence it had come. But at around midnight and very shaken by what had happened, I wasn’t prepared to walk into a dark Czech forest to make further enquiries.

Although the windscreen was smashed, the bodywork damaged and my driver’s side door would not open properly, the car was still just mobile. So I eventually decided that the best thing to do was to drive on, very carefully. I could still just about see where I was going and I drove quite slowly to ensure the windscreen didn’t implode any further. Fortunately, it being so late at night, there was very little traffic on the roads and I safely delivered Kát’a to her flat and then drove back to my own home in Stará Oleška. Climbing out of the car via the front passenger-side door, was an ‘interesting’ exercise 😉

The following day was a public holiday so I could do nothing to start the process of getting the car repaired. That evening, I went for a drink at Bar Restaurace U Soni and was greeted on my arrival by Libor, (husband of Sona, the boss of U Soni), and by Karel, (father of a young lady who I have helped with her school English). They both gave me a knowing look and said, ‘Jelen‘, which is Czech for deer. Living in this heavily forested area, what had happened to me is a well-known local hazard.

After conversations with my insurers, much aided by Kát’a, my car was eventually collected and taken to a repair shop in Ústí nad Labem. This was one of three possible repairers recommended by my insurers. The Ústí repairer promised to start work on Monday 11^th October. The other two could only offer a start date later in October.

After much toing and froing with paperwork between my insurers, the repair shop and me, including the demand for a scan of the medical certificate that says I’m fit to drive as I’m over sixty-five, finally on Wednesday 27^th October, I got a text message to say I could collect my car. A journey by bus, train and another bus, got me there. I was required to pay 5808 Kc / £191.00 / €227.00 being 5% of the total repair cost. Insurance has fortunately covered the other 95% – a not inconsiderable sum!

Golf Carly dva duly repaired © Ricky Yates

Being without a car for a whole month was very frustrating. It was also a little expensive as I decided that to get to certain appointments and complete tasks, I needed a car. So I hired one for several days, a Škoda Fabia which, as I said at the time, made me completely Czech 🙂

Once I got my car back, I then had another expense, one that I was expecting. As I explained in my previous post about buying the car in March this year, it came fitted with Summer tyres. As it is a legal requirement here to have Winter tyres with at least 4mm of tread, when driving between 1^st November and 31^st March, on Thursday 4^th November, I drove down to my good friend Adrian Blank in Nepomuk, to have four brand new Winter tyres fitted. Now I’m ready to face the coming Winter, hopefully without any further altercations with deer.

A climb to Mariina skála

The new gazebo on the summit of Mariina skála © Ricky Yates

Mariina skála is a prominent rock outcrop, 428 metres above sea level, located north of the village of Jetrichovice, which is in turn, around 12km north of Stará Oleška, the village where I live. Perched on top of the rock is a gazebo forming a viewing platform, with spectacular views across the surrounding area.

Back in late March 2016, I did climb up to Mariina skála as I describe and illustrate in the latter part of this post. But more recently, I have wanted to return for two reasons. Firstly, the weather on that previous visit was somewhat misty, which restricted the views. Secondly, I had seen in local news reports, that a brand new gazebo had been erected earlier this year, replacing its predecessor which had become unsafe.

Therefore, when Monday 6^th September dawned fine and sunny, I drove to Jetrichovice and then set out on the red waymarked route, to climb up to the top of Mariina skála. Jetrichovice is around 230 metres above sea level meaning a fairly steep climb of about 200 metres or 650 feet.

In many places, the route is a series of steps cut out of the surrounding sandstone rock as in the two photographs above.

Just occasionally, the path is a little less steep which allowed me to catch my breath 🙂

Here is the first view I got of the new gazebo….

…..just before the point where I needed to detour from the red waymarked route, in order to reach the summit.

This photograph, taken standing on the first section of the viewing platform, shows some of the steps I had to climb to get there. But the spectacular views made the effort in climbing more than worthwhile as I hope the following photographs illustrate.

View from Mariina skála looking towards the border with Germany © Ricky Yates

View from Mariina skála with the conical hill Ružovský vrch © Ricky Yates

Jetrichovice from Mariina skála using the zoom function on my camera © Ricky Yates

My house is now connected to mains water – update

The front lawn of Stará Oleška 44 on 13th December 2020 © Ricky Yates

As is illustrated in my previous post about how, on Sunday 25^th October 2020, my house was connected to mains water, part of the work involved digging a deep trench right across the front lawn. Because late October is the end of the growing season here, I realised that I wouldn’t be able to do anything to repair the grass, until the Spring of 2021. The photograph above, taken on 13^th December 2020, after I had finished severely pruning all the bushes down the right-hand side of the lawn, shows the extent of the damage.

Excess earth from digging the ‘shaft’ © Ricky Yates

As I wrote in that previous post, there was also excess earth that needed to be taken away from where the contractors had dug the hole for the ‘shaft’.

Strip of public land in front of my front hedge on 6th November 2020 © Ricky Yates

And the strip of public land between the concrete gully and my front hedge still needed to be made good, which also involved removing excess earth and rubble.

Earlier this year, I decided that I would use the need to repair the damage done to the grass, as an opportunity to make other improvements to the front garden. I wanted to get rid of two unsightly trees, a half-dead bush and a shrub. I also wanted to remove three lumps of concrete near the house, two of which I believe were the base of steps up to the original front door, which was on the far side of the now enclosed verandah.

Believing that some of these tasks were beyond my capabilities, my friend Kát’a kindly found me a landscape gardener, Mr Bezdekovský, and in mid-April, he came to look at what I wanted doing. He gave me a very reasonable quotation and promised start work on Wednesday 5^th May, providing it wasn’t raining heavily 😉

The front garden before work commenced © Ricky Yates

This is how the front garden looked on the morning of Wednesday 5^th May, before Mr Bezdekovský and his colleague started work.

The front garden a few hours later © Ricky Yates

And this is how it looked a few hours later, after the unwanted trees, bush and shrub had been removed, together with the addition of a pile of fresh earth to help with reseeding all the bare patches.

Concrete block refusing to move © Ricky Yates

But what I and Mr Bezdekovský had not realised was how deeply embedded two of the three lumps of concrete were. Here is the first one that they tried, and failed 🙁 to remove, using a pickaxe and spade.

Part of a concrete block after being extracted © Ricky Yates

So the following day, they returned with a pneumatic drill/jack-hammer and eventually managed to extract all three concrete lumps. Here is part of the first one.

And here is the resultant hole! However, the excess earth that the contractors never came back to take away in October/November 2020, proved highly beneficial, as Mr Bezdekovský was able to use most of it to fill three large holes 🙂 The remainder, he loaded onto his trailer, along with the lumps of concrete, and took it all away for disposal.

Front lawn on 6th May 2021 © Ricky Yates

At the end of day two, this was how the front lawn looked with all holes filled and the bare earth seeded.

Area around the shaft seeded © Ricky Yates

The area around the shaft seeded with excess soil removed.

Public strip of land levelled © Ricky Yates

The strip of public land cleared of excess earth and rubble and levelled.

Front lawn on 31st May 2021 © Ricky Yates

Fast forward three and a half weeks and this is what the front lawn looked like after I mowed it for the first time in 2021.

Front lawn on 20th July 2021 © Ricky Yates

And here is a more recent photograph, taken on Tuesday 20^th July 2021.

Blog update

Wisteria flowering at the back of my house © Ricky Yates

I am very aware that it is now two and a half months since I last published a blog post. I am also aware that, either in the text of previous posts or in answering comments, I have promised to provide further updates on things I’ve written about. So this post is my attempt to kill two birds with one stone.

Back in late April I complained that ‘Someone keeps trying to kidnap Spring‘. Well Spring did eventually arrive as I hope is illustrated by this photograph of wisteria flowering at the back of my house, taken at the end of May. But it has been noticeable how much later plants and trees have been producing leaves or flowering, in comparison to previous years. The time lag has been in the region of two to three weeks.

I am pleased to report that after complaining that ‘It’s beginning to be a bit expensive…..‘, and that ‘There is a very big hole in my bank account‘, I have not incurred any further unexpected major expenses. I have however, had one that I anticipated.

I pay for my electricity by a monthly direct debit with my meter being read once a year in June. At that point, an invoice or refund is issued, depending on whether I’ve paid too little or too much over the previous eleven months. In June 2020, I received a small refund of CZK 750/GBP25.00. In June 2021, I received an invoice for CZK 6,985/GBP232.80 🙁

As I’ve said, I did anticipate that I would be asked to pay a little extra, though probably not as much as nearly CZK 7000. I was very aware that, because of the severe weather last winter, I’d made considerable use of the electrical heater in my study bedroom, whilst waiting each day for the wood-burning stove to fully warm the house.

But the other reason is the COVID-19 pandemic. In any normal year, I would spend at least three weeks away from my home. During that time, the only things using electricity would be my fridge and freezer. Everything else would be turned off. But after returning home from the UK on the evening of 27^th December 2019, I haven’t spent one night anywhere else but in Stará Oleška 44.

No direct debits were made in either June or July. But because of my increased usage of electricity, my monthly direct debit in August until June next year, will be CZK 600/GBP20.00 more than it has been in the past two years 🙁

I sadly have to report that I have had no reply to my ‘letter to Victoria Prentis MP‘, other than an automated email acknowledging receipt, despite sending it two and a half months ago. If there are any benefits from Brexit, then Ms Prentis has had more than enough time to compile a list and send it to me. Of course, there aren’t any benefits. But even if she knows that, she dare not say it because it would cost her job as a junior minister at the Department of Farming, Fisheries and Food. To remain in post and to remain as a Conservative MP, you have to be a sycophant to Bungling Boris 🙁

I do however, have one piece of very good news to report. On Friday 11^th June, I was vaccinated at my GP practice in Prague and received my EU Digital COVID Certificate. And because I received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, I have only had to have a needle stuck in me once 🙂

The final post about which I promised update was regarding the house now being connected to mains water. The new mains water supply has been completely problem-free. But getting piles of earth shifted and disturbed areas of ground made good has been a long saga which deserves a post in its own right. So I’m going to finish this post now and promise to publish a further one in the next few days.