Remember, remember... plenty of flashes and bangs, but lightning, not fireworks

The rain promised by the forecasts finally arrived around 4am this morning: a few claps of thunder heralded a deluge that lasted a couple of hours or so, and with it came some fairly brisk winds. It was the kind of weather that really makes you want to hunker down under the duvet and sleep, but instead, at 6.45am, Helen went out to open up the goose house and exercise.

I finally dragged myself out of bed at 8am, and went downstairs to find Helen at her computer and displaying the sort of face that was meant to prepare me for some bad news. I guessed straight away that the tarpaulin Noah and I had erected yesterday hadn't survived the morning's weather - it turned out that one corner had ripped and was flapping around quite violently, so Helen hadn't exercised at all and instead went to start work until I got up.

After we had all had breakfast, Noah and I went out to survey the damage and try to make repairs. We soon realised that the steel posts we had hammered into the terrace were now closer to each other - the weather had been so rough that it had loosened the posts in the earth, allowing the tarpaulin to flap and billow around until it ripped.

While Noah rigged rope along the sides for extra strength, I removed the end fence posts only to realise that our assessment hadn't been quite right - the posts hadn't wobbled loose, they had actually bent!

Can only imagine the volume of water on the tarpaulin to have caused this!

So this time, I hammered in a couple of wooden posts that we had left over from the goose fencing and re- tied the rope between them, then we made two dozen new holes in the tarpaulin with a device I remembered I had brought here from Abingdon - I couldn't tell you why I had it, but it's like a pair of pliers that puts eyelets into things. I also had a bag of small eyelets - ideally they would have been of a larger diameter, but the smaller cable ties fitted through them, so we made the new eyelets and tied the lower end to the re-rigged rope between the new wooden fence posts. We ran out of cable ties before the job was done, so while Noah made some room under the wood storage area for me to cut some wood, I went to Frateschi's again for some more cable ties and a pair of chainsaw trousers.

My new chainsaw trousers - with trim to match the chainsaw!

When I returned, my station was set up ready to go and Noah had the chopping block, splitting axe and chop saw ready in the gym (version 3.0) area, ready to cut and split the logs I was cutting up. While I had been gone, the rough weather had returned, with heavy rain, thunder and lightning. I soon found out that Helen had dashed out in the middle of the heavy downpour (between thunder claps) to see if Noah was alright and to tell him to come inside. Ever the hard worker, Noah had decided he was fine to carry on - that was until there was a flash and bang so close that it sent him running into the house for shelter and a cup of coffee to sit it out!

By the time I had got back, the thunder had rumbled away, and the rain had eased, so we spent the rest of the morning with me cutting logs to length with the chainsaw, and Noah splitting them.

Ready for the Stihl's first real outing

A very productive couple of hours later, it was time for lunch. Much to everyone's surprise, we were able to eat lunch on the patio - the rain had eased off a little while earlier, and it was certainly mild enough to be eating al fresco. The clouds did threaten to force our lunch indoors at one point, but the rain never quite got going again.

After lunch, Noah went back to log splitting while I cleaned the goose house out and refreshed the sawdust before going back to cutting wood. I checked the water barrel that collects water from the goose house roof while I was at it - it was full to brimming point. We'd clearly had a lot of rain this morning.

Just a couple of hours of rain this morning had filled the barrel!

By now, the weather was quite humid, which made cutting wood sweaty work, especially in my brand new trousers which are an inch thick with cut-proof padding down the front of the legs! Noah and I beavered away until around 3.45pm, when Helen appeared in outdoor work attire and stood Noah down. I finished cutting the logs I had lined up then went to help Helen with moving the gravel that had been delivered (at the gates) down the drive to fill in the ruts on the driveway.

We had only got the second barrow full when the heavens opened again and threw a heavy downpour our way, so we ran for cover at the house in the 'gym' area. While sheltering, we noticed that a large pool of rainwater had collected on the tarpaulin - and then the penny dropped: last night's tarpaulin damage must have been because so much water had collected on it, bending the metal fence posts and eventually ripping the tarp. Stanley knife in hand, I made a couple of small incisions in the bowing spot, creating a nice 'water feature'. We put a large bucket underneath it to collect the water, which kept flowing despite the fact that the rain had eased off. Helen and I decided that, as we were already quite wet, we might as well carry on and do some more gravel moving.

Half an hour later, it started raining again - but by this point we were so wet that we decided to carry on regardless. It wasn't especially cold after all, so we worked on until the light faded and our clothes were wet through.

2 cubic metres of gravel ready for duty!

A wet and blurry wife ferrying gravel.

One advantage to working in the rain was that it gave us an insight into how the new drainage channels were working, which was useful. It seems as if they are doing a good job (from what we can tell), and there was a steady flow of water pouring from them. Of course, the true test will be to see how the drive fairs with the new gravel down and a good heavy downpour, but initial signs are very pleasing and the drains certainly seem to be helping. It does look like another couple of drains might be of use - the drive is so long that the distance between the channels might mean that not enough water is stopped from gaining momentum so that it washes gravel away, but the jury is out and for now, and we are pleased with the three we have.

When we got back to the 'gym' area, soaked to the skin, we were amazed to see that the large bucket we had put beneath the tarpaulin to collect the water had filled to the top just in the hour it had been there. I couldn't ell you how many litres it holds, but it's the size of one of those large Gorilla flexi buckets we have in the UK, which I think are around 40 litres. When it rains here, it's definitely committed to the job!

So, while Helen put the geese to bed single-handedly again (they were a little reluctant because of the new sawdust, but got there eventually - it seems that, with a careful trail of lettuce, it's possible for one person to get the geese into the house these days, long may that continue!), I collected some wood for the fire.

Once we'd put our wet boots in the drying room, peeled off our sodden clothes and changed into some dry ones, I lit a fire while Helen started on yet another batch of soup for the next few workers'' lunches. We only have one more day with Noah though, as he leaves on Friday having been here for 12 days. We'll be quite sad to see him leave - he's fitted in so well here, is very pleasant company and has been a real asset in helping us get ready for winter. We're definitely glad we decided to take the plunge and register with HelpX - if all future helpers (including the couple we have arriving next week) are anything like Noah, we'll be pushing on with our list of jobs in double quick time!