Caz counts it down

DebtFree2012 · 7 January 2016 at 9:49AM

DH wants a hottub on our small holding and seems to think it will be on the priority list ! Like we would have time to use it!

However I do second that places with hot tubs are more expensive to rent, as we found when we were looking for a little getaway (that we never did have!).

cazmanian_minx · 7 January 2016 at 8:25PM

Didn't manage a no-spend day

However, when the local tack shop is having a clearout and posts a 5 litre pack of ragwort spray down to £15 from £65, and you're about to buy a field that's Ground Zero for the ragwort problems in the village, you buy it!!

Big agency job got cancelled, but they did pay me for December today and Journalist #3 paid her latest invoice as well. I spent a fascinating afternoon filling out a private bank's mortgage application form for a client's client. Amount they're borrowing? A cool £8.3 million :eek:

Talking of mortgages, a friend of mine successfully reclaimed the PPI on hers from 1996. I distinctly remember being told, when I got my first mortgage back in 1999, that I wouldn't be able to have it without having their PPI, but thought I was out of time to reclaim. Seems like I might not be, so I shall ring them up tomorrow and see if I can get anywhere with it.

DebtFree2012 · 7 January 2016 at 9:38PM

Good luck with the PPI claim.

cazmanian_minx · 8 January 2016 at 11:31AM

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

Good luck with the PPI claim.

I must have been more savvy than I thought at 23 - NatWest confirmed I was correct about the dates I had a mortgage with them, but there was no PPI or MRP policy attached to it, or to the credit card I used to have with them (I knew there wasn't for that).

Does show how things have changed in 16 years though. How many 23-year-olds could afford a 1-bed flat 5 minutes' walk from the station in a nice bit of Croydon these days?

Brightspark87 · 8 January 2016 at 5:36PM

glad you got all the bits safely! They sound very heavy.

Well done for checking PPI - always worth it just in case.

Amazing you got that property at 23, I do not know anyone who could afford that now!

cazmanian_minx · 8 January 2016 at 5:54PM

They were incredibly heavy! Mr Minx reckoned I was well under when I estimated half a tonne - he realised, when he got home that night, that because of the slight slope and the hitch pointing down it, the pick-up tines were digging into the hardstanding, so we needed to raise up the front end a bit. We got the car jack out to lift up the hitch arm so we could get some bits of wood under the rest - now, that jack is rated up to 2 tonnes and it struggled!

I was lucky with that flat, I bought it in 1999 in the downturn for £60,000.

cazmanian_minx · 10 January 2016 at 7:56PM

Wasn't expecting to find this when I went down to the horses this morning:

field%20shelter%202_zps0ycddwbn.jpg

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Thankfully the horses are fine and Mr Minx is quietly chuffed that his build quality was so good that it's still in one piece, albeit upside down and in next door's field... Not quite sure how we're going to get it back, as there's an 8ft drop just to the left of it; it's balanced on a wall, a tree and some gorse bushes. Think we're going to have to take it apart very carefully and manhandle it back over a panel at a time.

Spent £90 yesterday on 30 bales of hay and thank the Gods I left it in the trailer, because the hay shed door got ripped off as well. Today was Tesco and an £80 spend - we only just got there and boy am I glad we took the truck, because I doubt the Avensis would have got through the floods and it would have been over the door sills of Mr Minx's Audi!

Work-wise I've done an 85-minute vet file over the weekend and have some work lined up for Mr RPC on Monday, although I suspect it may be delayed while Mr Minx and I go and tackle our field shelter if the wind has died down enough.

brizzledfw · 10 January 2016 at 9:45PM

OMG Caz..thats one crazy photo. Am astounded that it has survived!! Glad horses had sense to evacuate!

Hope weather eases for you all

EssexHebridean · 11 January 2016 at 12:54PM

Jeez Caz - that's quite something. Mind you, for anyone who doubts quite how extreme the weather can get up with you, there you go folks - that's the proof! :eek:

cazmanian_minx · 11 January 2016 at 9:23PM

The really annoying thing was it wasn't that windy! Only 50-60mph and that field shelter has been out in 100+ with no problems. However, we very rarely get an easterly and it must have come in at just the wrong angle to lift it.

Anyway, this is where we started from:

We thought that if we heaved hard enough on the right hand corner (as you look at it) we might be able to tip it over its balance point, so we borrowed some extra muscle from the farm in the form of Billy and the three of us gave it a good heave, hoping that the momentum would tip it over its end and back to the right way up. Er, not quite:

One trek up the hill for rope, ratchet winch, sledgehammer and fencepost later....TIMBER!

Amazingly it survived the pull:

Though the front is a bit knackered:

The next step is to take it apart and lift all the panels over the fence back to our side, but that can wait until Saturday when another neighbour is coming round to help.

So after all that excitement, I haven't got a lot of work done today - just 15 eBay orders and about an hour's work for Mr RPC. Tomorrow I have a load of stuff to do for Mr RPC and an hour of transcription coming in, Wednesday I have two hours coming in and Thursday and Friday an hour each - there'll be work for Mr RPC all week as well. Must make a mental note not to take on any more transcription for this week, or I'm going to overbook myself.

Caz counts it down

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