The Quest

moo2moo

Soooo Lula fess up the O/F is being mentioned more and more. Is he growing on you in a nice to have a fella on call to deal with spider related emergencies but its 9pm off you go home dearie kinda way?

The faster you dry your logs the more they will split. You're actually beter off leaving them in a corner to dry out slowly. If you raise them up a bit so that the air can flow round them then they'll dry more evenly but you're looking at a year before you can finish them. How you do that depends whether the bark is left on and whether or not you want them shiny. I'd seal them with linseed oil (used for chopping boards and cricket bats) but not until at least the summer of 2010. The logs we use for the fire have to sit for a minimum 6 months before we can even consider buring them and then they spit because they're still damp inside.

You might want to rethink solar panels on your boat Lula. Greenie that I am we installed them when we ripped the house apart. Completely a DIY job but I've since discovered all the its they don't tell you in the brochures. Yes they are fab and yes they do provide tons of free hot water and underfloor heating but, and this is a huge but, the system requires 3 electric pumps, one of which runs continuously when the sun shines so my electricity bill has gone through the roof. Literally to almost £100 a month... meaning flat batteries on a boat unless you use them for power instead of heated water but then you'd have to find space for huge storage batteries.

Has DD named her Greyhound yet?

Lula-Hula

Morning all, & Moo - no way are you a boring old codger, you have the most amazing & useful amount of [STRIKE]random[/STRIKE]eclectic knowledge :A . I have now removed my logs from the radiator & as I still had some slatted shelves left over from the old wardrobe they are now lying on those in my room - away from the radiator, raised up by about 4 inches with air circulating evenly:T . Of course linseed oil :doh:I really should have remembered that considering the amount of time I spent slathering it all over my lax stick :rolleyes: . Anyway logs now doing their own thing for the next 18 months ...dont be going anywhere Moo, will probably have completely forgotten why I have 3 logs at the end of my bed by then

Shame about the solar panels but not likely to be getting a boat anytime soon - short of winning lottery which is unlikely as I dont do it or meeting fab blokie who already has one :j this would be my preferred option; he keeps his place & I keep mine ; summer chez him, winter chez moi :cool: & a bit of space in between. Love men but not sure I want a whole one :rotfl:

Hmmm, the Old Friend is very sweet in an easily overexcitable puppy kind of way ie gets too attached & then very hurt when I have other stuff to do. I'm just very used to doing my own thing, being very independent & frankly in the long term would need somebody of a similar disposition with plenty of their own interests rather than someone who was quite happy to just be with me, always :eek: .

DD is currently huffing & puffing her way through tidying & decluttering her room. I've put a stop on pocket money until it's done. Apparently the firend she was with yesterday has just bought a mobile she's still 8. DD now wants one but I mainitan that she has no need until she starts going out on her own which by my reckoning wont be until she starts secondary school in 2 1/2 years time. I also enquirred as to how she was going to pay for credit... I'm certainly not, I only put £10 a month on mine.

The dog she's liking is already named; Lily. However a chat with friend revealed that greyhounds have skin that tears easily - not furry- & heals slowly which requires courses of antibiotics at £35 a go & that a recent nip from another dog resulted in stapling at £200 :eek: . Pet insurance comes in at about £25 a month with a £70 excess _pale_ . All in all I dont think I want to commit to that kind of potential expenditure until debt free particularly with current unstable main job. I'm confident that there will still be dogs needing homes when I'm debt free.

Right, off to do something about paperwork pile,
bye for now

Lula
xx

Seems to me that DD is becoming aware of differences between hers & friend's lifestyles & testing my boundaries. Honestly, a mobile phone at age 8 .

moo2moo

Mine don't go anywhere that they'd need a phone. They're banned at school. Then again the OH and I aren't exactly heavy users. A fiver generally lasts me a year. I've kept a very old huge brick of a phone in a box labelled emergency which I threaten them with should they ever claim to really need a phone. I have been known to be incredibly mean and respond to the whinge about phones by handing mine over and telling them to phone whoever they like and I'll deduct the calls from their pocket money. That usually shuts them up very quickly as they don't know any of their friends phone numbers.

It turns out that the few friends they have with phones use them more as MP3 players than for making calls (because they don't know anyone else with a phone) so we gave them each an MP3 player. Phones haven't been mentioned since.

I know what you mean about them testing their boundaries though. DD2 now cleans out and lights the fire each night. Shes decide that at 6 shes old enough to do it. DD1 cooks dinner at least once a week because thats the only way she gets to eat the things she wants and they both write their requests on the shopping list. Once in a while DD1 threatens to go to the village shop by herself but its a mile and a half walk along unlit coutry lanes without footpaths. She usually changes her mind and raids the cupboard instead or is thanked for her volunteering to go and issued with a huge shopping list full of heavy things to carry home, thats quite a good deterant too. Other times I just say ok we'll see you later then at which point she screeches that no one cares about her and storms upstairs.

RosaBernicia

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Well, chappy delivered leaflets - 5000 :eek: & I'm now scared. He reckons that I can deliver between 200-250 an hour _pale_.

I hope you're in a built up area Lula... I make that 14.4 seconds per leaflet! Probably fine walking house to house in a street. (Was trying to think of ways you could train the greyhound to help, but even with all the obedience tricks my mum's dogs do I can't figure how it'd work the letterbox.:D )

Log stools sound fab. Am probably going for a walk to the canal to look wistfully at boats and see what the area's like - and am blaming you for triggering this .

Rosa xx

moo2moo

Mmmmm chemical loos. Thats enough to put me off boats. i do recall one very fun filled family canal holiday when dad made us carry the loo to the disposal point but me and my lil brother were such different heights that as he stomped along the inards slopped all over me. Mind you I do believe that have improved since then.

OH has phoned complaining about the cost of things in Europe. A Big Mac is currently setting him back £8 and a pint of beer £5, worse still broadband only works two floors below his room so hes bored out of his mind too.

mum2one

moo2moo wrote: »

Mine don't go anywhere that they'd need a phone. They're banned at school. Then again the OH and I aren't exactly heavy users. A fiver generally lasts me a year. I've kept a very old huge brick of a phone in a box labelled emergency which I threaten them with should they ever claim to really need a phone. I have been known to be incredibly mean and respond to the whinge about phones by handing mine over and telling them to phone whoever they like and I'll deduct the calls from their pocket money. That usually shuts them up very quickly as they don't know any of their friends phone numbers.

It turns out that the few friends they have with phones use them more as MP3 players than for making calls (because they don't know anyone else with a phone) so we gave them each an MP3 player. Phones haven't been mentioned since.

I know what you mean about them testing their boundaries though. DD2 now cleans out and lights the fire each night. Shes decide that at 6 shes old enough to do it. DD1 cooks dinner at least once a week because thats the only way she gets to eat the things she wants and they both write their requests on the shopping list. Once in a while DD1 threatens to go to the village shop by herself but its a mile and a half walk along unlit coutry lanes without footpaths. She usually changes her mind and raids the cupboard instead or is thanked for her volunteering to go and issued with a huge shopping list full of heavy things to carry home, thats quite a good deterant too. Other times I just say ok we'll see you later then at which point she screeches that no one cares about her and storms upstairs.

You mean that I've got all this to look forward to..........have to confess dd does have a mobile I know shes only 6..........but she had a cheap one £15 a yr ago, (only becoz of what we were going through with nxt dr,) and she was really responsible with it, think in a yr we only put £10 on, she upgraded hers at xmas, pd for it out of her xmas money, but she has ground rules with it.
Not allowed to take it out unless one of us are with her
Not allowed to call anyone on it
Can not use the text unless we are with her and read the text b4 she sends it, (she only texts me, mum, dad and aunty julie)
That she has to use some of her pocket money towards top ups
It has to stay in my bedroom when its not out with her
That if she gets a text we have to read if for her
Think with all those exclusions she doesnt get much chance to abuse it.

Thou her new best friend, the family have a Wii, so she wants one.........been told she will have to wait, and if she does still want one by the time of her bday Sept, that she has to put some bday money towards it........thou Im sure by then the novelty will wear off..........(she hopes) xx

mum2one

moo2moo wrote: »

Soooo Lula fess up the O/F is being mentioned more and more. Is he growing on you in a nice to have a fella on call to deal with spider related emergencies but its 9pm off you go home dearie kinda way?

Mom2moo - great minds think alike...........

moo2moo

Ah but Mum2one I'm an incredibly nosey person with a very dull life. The only grown up conversation I've had since leaving work on Friday was 5 mins on the phone to the OH. Other than that I haven't seen anyone and I'm not likely to until work on Monday. I have two neighbours, both retired who always look on the gloomy side of life de doo de doo de doo doo.

mum2one

We need an excuse for a new outfit.........espically as a wedding outfit wouldnthave to come out of our £100 clothes budget!!! x

moo2moo

I have a cunning plan Baldric. Donate some clothes to Oxfam acquiring a £5 off a £25 spend M&S voucher. Repeat several times. E-bay the vouchers. Purchase new clothes from a sensibly priced shop with the proceeds.