A busy, damp day

So it rained all day on Monday, yesterday was gloriously sunny and hot, and today it was back to the wet stuff again, with another full day of rain. Fortunately, the rain was still fairly light first thing - I say fortunate because when I got up at 7:20am the mobile phone rang and it was the septic tank guys I had asked to come and give us a second opinion on our leaky tank situation asking for directions to the house from the autostrada as they were on their way!

Twenty minutes later, they called again for more details - the man asked if we had green gates, I confirmed that we do have green gates, and he replied 'siamo qui!' (we are here!) so I dashed outside into the damp morning, squeezed past Helen who was behind the house with her kettle bells and waited for them to appear.

When, after a couple of minutes, they hadn't appeared, I headed off up the drive to investigate and was soon met by a guy in Cristal Spurghi uniform who was walking the driveway first to make sure it was safe to come down in their truck - while the previous guys I'd got in to take a look at the situation had arrived in a tiny car, these guys arrived in their pump truck and it wasn't long before said truck was parked at the house (all before 8am).

After having a quick look at the tank from the guest patio, one of the guys decided to go down to the terrace on foot to have a closer look. He removed both inspection covers and told his colleague both were full. They then unwound the hose from the truck and dragged it down to the septic tank. By now the rain was getting a little heavier, and I decided this was a good time to offer them coffee. I was surprised that they both accepted (I think that many of the Italian tradesmen we have come across decide it is safer to steer clear of coffee made by an Englishman...), so I went indoors and left them to it for ten minutes while the coffee brewed.

When I returned, coffees in hand, I found that they had somehow already cleared most of the tank and had a high pressure hose on the job too and were in the process of pressure washing the connecting pipes. While we drank our little Italian-style coffees (for which they seemed hugely grateful), I asked if the tank was OK. They said that yes, it was OK, but that it needed a couple of modifications (or words to that effect).

I took the empty coffee cups back to the house, and when I returned to the terrace they were just closing the lids and washing down the exterior of the tank. They then moved up one terrace - our helpers Zach and Holly spent the day yesterday fastidiously raking the terraces, and in the process they had uncovered another inspection cover on the terrace above the septic tank itself. The Cristal Spurghi guys took a look under this inspection cover, only to find that whatever this tank was, it was also full, so while emptying this one they explained that the pipe feeding the tanks was missing its inspection access lid and that I should fit one for next time so that the section of pipe between the hose and first tank could be properly cleaned. They also said that the tanks hadn't been installed well (no great surprise there), but when I asked if a new tank was needed, they didn't seem to think so - let's hope not! Time will tell, and I don't think it will take much time either so until then we'll cross our fingers and hope that the €350 we spent with them today will be all that's needed rather than a further few thousand for a complete new system.

After they disappeared along the driveway I went inside to have breakfast with the Holly and Zach, Helen already having eaten hers in order to make an early start at her computer today to compensate for the afternoon being taken up with Reggie's first day at school.

By this time, the rain was coming down in earnest and was showing no sign of letting up any time soon, so I decided that a day's work indoors was in order - we can all get back to clearing the terraces when the sun returns.

So, while Reggie and Winry rolled and barked their way around the living room, Holly spent the morning removing and staining the shelves that I fitted onto the kitchen island a few weeks ago, and Zach and I made a start on decommissioning the old (downstairs) bathroom in our house.

We hadn't been at work for very long before I heard another 'ciao' - Sergio, the builder, had arrived to come and talk about putting in solar panels. When we last spoke, back in the summer, he had told us he couldn't do anything until we had applied for permission to install the panels from the comune. As that process is now in progress, I'd decided it was a good time to get Sergio back and get the ball rolling on getting some quotes and ideas as to the work involved. We also discussed replacing the current log burner with one that has a back boiler (so that we can heat water in the winter when the solar panels will not be effective enough) - so next week Sergio is going to take us to look at log burners, and he's going to start putting a quote together for the solar panels.

After Sergio left there was yet another visitor (it was a hectic morning here!) - the post(wo)man, who was delivering a letter that required a signature. Unlike many of the couriers, the postmen and women do tend to make the effort to drive all the way to the house to make their deliveries to us (when they have parcels or things that need signing for), which makes things so much easier! The letter turned out to be something from the comune, which we believe is the request for payment of the fine we are having to pay in order to 'make good' the illegal changes to the house made by the previous owners.

Anyway, back to the work: by 11.30am, Zach and I had removed the toilet and sink so Zach and I headed to Frateschi's to buy some stop caps in order to cap off the pipes before turning the water back on in the house. After acquiring the caps we filled up the car with methane before heading home where I started to get lunch sorted while Zach capped off the pipes and Holly finished putting the second coat onto the shelves.

Shelves stained.

Bathroom decommissioned!

After a lunch of spicy Moroccan chickpea soup we got Reggie ready for his first trip to Pistoia and left the guys in the house to finish their day in whatever way they saw fit.

We met Donatella at the petrol station on the outskirts of Pescia and followed her into Pistoia to her friend Marina's training ground. We parked up and waited for the one-on-one session before us to finish. Once that dog was safely back in its owner's car we went to meet Marina, taking Ray (Donatella's dog) with us. After chatting for a few minutes we swapped Ray for Reggie and spent the next 15-20 minutes walking around the very muddy small field with him while Marina and Donatella observed. After that, the three of us (Helen, Reggie and I) went through a gate and onto the football pitch adjacent to the training ground, putting a mesh fence between us and the others. Another dog was then introduced to see how the two dogs would interact, but with the safety of the fence between them. All went well although the other dog wasn't too interested in playing so barked at Reggie a couple of times and left poor little Reggie desperately whining trying to instigate a chase.

We then did the same with Ray, who we hope will eventually become good friends with Reggie. Both dogs started whining as soon as they saw each other, and there was definite interested in one another, although Donatella thinks that Reggie is too young a playmate for Ray at the moment. Ray then gave Reggie a couple of gutteral barks before going back to play with Donatella.

We spent a long while chatting with Marina and Donatella, with Marina telling us her observations. She had observed that Reggie is a sociable dog, but frightened of people and that he has a good strong relationship with the two of us and keeps coming to us for reassurance. She would like to see him interacting with another dog (without fence in the way!) but in today's group she didn't think she had a dog that would be suitable for Reggie, so we're hoping that will happen at some point in the not too distant future. In the meantime, we have arranged to go back next week for another session so that Marina can get to know Reggie a little better, and (importantly) vice versa, with maybe even a session where Marina takes him on the lead and sees how he behaves when out and about. It was all a very enlightening couple of hours, we really enjoyed meeting Marina and Reggie seemed to get a lot out of his long romp around the muddy field. By the time we left (of course it had been raining on us the whole time), we were all soaked to the skin and bathed in mud - next time we will wear wellies and take a towel for Reggie!

We got home, cold and damp, a little after 5pm - so the first job was to light the fire before putting the geese away (no egg today, but that's what we expected) and making a start on preparing dinner.

The forecast would have us believe that tomorrow will be dry and partly sunny, and that will be followed by a run of dry, sunny weather. That seems hard to believe at the moment, as the rain is still coming down outside, but we're hoping the forecast is right!