Well, an eventful few months

Going to be a quick post getting you up to speed on where we are and challenges to date…

Głupi Samochodów

Planned to purchase a car and drive over from London, as the Polish second-hand cars are shockingly bad. This resulted in me getting an ex-MOD Land Rover 110 from Wales, but after the drive back to London with the "Tank" I quickly realized I missed power steering and I would not survive the bumps from London to Krakow!

Back in Warsaw, we purchased a 2012 Duster, 100k on the clock but like new. Spent more than what we wanted and much more luxury than what we need but she is doing a great job in the rain and snow(!).

Unfortunately, while the Tank would be useful I think ill have to let her go as being parked up in Surry is not that useful.

Quick trip to London

My two weeks back in London for a conference did not go too well, lack of finding a suitable car to drive from London and breaking every electrical device I had was very frustrating, my CGM Transmitter died, xDrip was playing up, tablet cracked, phone smashed – complete disaster. At least the conference went well.

Finally, belongings out of storage

Our belongings arrived safe and sound, if a little late. The guests we had over for a night had to make do with parts of sofas and blankets. We are surprised that it appears everything survived the trip, even a few plants!

Kinga was feeling a little poorly so I was left with the job of unloading our belongings at the neighbor's half-built house and then shuttling bit by bit to our house (5mins dirt track up hill). One week in we are almost unpacked - it is nice to have easy access to all my tools again for the first time in 3+ years.

Snow and home

• Last week it snowed (October Snow!), this speeded up our purchase of loft insulation and fitting. I spent a solid two days bringing up the insulation again bit by bit and installing - in the rain and snow!

• We have managed to pick some apples from our two apple trees with a makeshift apple picker

• Managed to get our head around the cooker / fire - with a CO2 detector overseeing our fire making skills. Kitchen / Livingroom has been made very cosy

• Kinga has started my Polish lessons when time has allowed, with some painful / comical results

• Recently passed an old cottage being dismantled, after some hard negotiating from Kinga and arranging a way to transport we collected some old beams and stone for the renovation of our barn - also we left with a new local friend.

And finally…

• Samples of the water from the well (on our neighbor’s land) that we are using have been sent off for testing, should hear back later this week
• We also had a lady with two sticks and a chap over to discuss the best location for our own deep-water well on our land. Due to weather and weak pound we may put this off until next year
• We need to get our current water pumped to our insulated loft for winter as the current outside storage tank on the hill will freeze.
• Discovered the reason for the bad smell in the bathroom was due to the open pipe under the shower. Some sealant and handiwork from yours truly and I think we have this resolved. 
• Kinga keeps surprising the local DIY shop with her requests for parts and equipment - we have some friends down there now as well
• We believe we have almost adjusted to the temperature out here and how to warm the bathroom up for a shower! Current temp is around 6C in the day and 1C at night. 
• Almost decided the Internet setup (4G) and plan we wish to use, will get this in place soon so we have an always on internet connection