Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

thrifty_fifty

Wow Moo

You're sooo organised. Where you live sounds wonderful-exactly the kind of place OH and I will be looking at living in, in a few years time. Need to do some research on beekeeping and types of chucks to keep.

Have a wonderful weekend

chevalier

ouch to the extra money for the gradings. I had a feeling that DD would change her mind again about them! Good luck on finding the second hand belts. I take it you can't just dye the white belt yellow?
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beanielou

My DS does martial arts & they get the new belts if they pass the grading.
Just as blooming well as grading so flucking expensive.

moo2moo

Organised? Moi? I laughed so much I snorted coffee out of my nose. It feels like I lurch from one monumental disaster to the next.

BeanieLou - I'll be ecstatic if they do get the belts when they pass the grading. Did think £28 a head was ridiculous, but I suppose not having to fork out for a belt on top makes it marginally more bearable. Just.

Finally made it home at 8pm yesterday having blown £70 at Mr Ts, still have to work out quite how that happened as I seemed to have less food than normal and didn't buy anything extravagent apart from whopsied hot cross buns which only account for 21p worth of unplanned spending. Have some pajama pants to return since I ended up with 2 x £2.50 off vouchers, obviously had to buy the things to get the money off but will be returning them for a fivers profit next week. Was in bed and asleep by 9pm having had hot cross buns instead of dinner - v. naughty I know but I was too tired to care.

The delightful DD1 was awake at 5am which meant everyone else was too so much to the delights of the neighbours we were outdoors by 8am. New chickens have integrated v. well albeit not quite how I'd envisaged it. Stuck them in with the rest of the hens and then returned to the house for breakfast. Looked up mid mouthful to see the hound from hell the wrong side of the gate to chicken land. Clearly she'd had enough of the squarking and had decided to sit and bark at them until they behaved themselves. Rather amazingly all was peaceful from then on.

Spent most of the day outdoors with powertools. OHs [STRIKE]nuclear fall out shelter[/STRIKE] log store is nearing completion, although yet another lack of timber (despite having bought some yesterday) halts progress. Planning to creosote it tomorrow assuming we escape from the sports centre at a reasonable hour.

Am now skinter than a very skint thing but also v. happy as my book on jam making has arrived. Am getting more and more tempted to try Country Marketing if only to make some space in the cupboards.

MatyMoo

The picture of the log store in my head has it almost the same size as the house :rotfl:

I like the hounds method to help chookie integration too :T

beanielou

£40 for DS's grading's!!

chevalier

me too matymoo. I guess the hound told the chickens what for lol. You should REALLY write a book m2m. Did the DD's pass the grading
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moo2moo

Gradings are this morning. We need to depart at 8 in order to find the venue. Between now and then I have to iron their doboks in the hopes of transforming them from slightly damp scrunched up rags into something smart. I then have to get them and the DDs across the flooded wasteland masquerading as a front garden and into the car in this condition. Also have to hope that at some point in our excursion we come across a garage with diesel as everywhere I've passed recently including Mr A and Mr T have been out. Car claims I have 105 miles left in the tank, if I get a bit too lost today getting home could be very interesting indeedy.

Eeek to £40 BeanieLou, I thought £28 was a big enough rip off for what sounds like being a five minute pop quiz with a bit of choreographed movement thrown in and an awful lot of waiting around. In theory they're planning to assess 80 or so white belts in 30 minutes which is a v. nice money spinner but does imply that its going to take a whole lot longer than that.

Log store isn't quite the size of the house but the DDs are hoping that they'll be allowed to camp out in it before it gets used for timber. Should be planty of space for them and the dogs although because of the amount of ventilation drying wood needs it could be rather draughty, I doubt that would bother them. Next door have jokingly asked when the grand opening ceremony is and who we're inviting to cut the ribbon. It is humungous and very.... substantial. No chance of creosoting it today though as its rained non-stop all night and isn't showing any sign of stopping.

Shouldn't have ordered the jam making book. Everytime I turn the page I think oooooh I quite fancy having a go at that and that and that. So much so that when I spied a v. sensibly priced preserving pan in the wrong category on flea-bay I did place me a bid. naughty I know. I now have a very very very long wait before I find out whether anyone else has accidentally come across the same thing. If not I'll be the proud owner of one for under a tenner and won't feel quite so guilty as I would had I given in and forked out £40 at Lakeland plus another £7 on a jar filling funnel plus a weeny bit more to get the free delivery and re-usable silicone cupcake thingies that come as "freebies" ... fortunately common sense took hold before I got too carried away . The DDs have since done a runner with the brochure which helps even though DD2 thinks we should invest a fiver in a garlic deskinner and DD1 is holding out hope for egg shaped chocolate moulds.

New chooks have settled in well and blocking up the escape tunnel under hedge appears to have worked although egg production is now up to a rather scary 13 a day which is roughly 100 eggs a week. Clearly somebody has been hiding them in the otherside of the hedgeline again. In theory this should mean I can shift enough eggs each week at £1 per half dozen to cover the cost of feed but since everyone and their dog seems to keep chickens at the mo. and most of them give their surplus eggs away to friends and family its not workingout that way. Fortunately OH is still shifting a couple of dozen a week via work and I've got a long standing produce exchange on the go but it still means we have rather more eggs than we can use or rehome. Will have to see if I can come up with something else or a sort out a swap via Freecycle.

MrsMoo2U

Very busy day there Moo. Luckily the rain has stopped here and the sun is shining which will allow me to get back out into the garden. If you know anybody that would like a 10ft by 8ft greenhouse and is willing to head my way to pick it up give me a shout.

Re the eggs, check out this blog http://orkneyflowers.blogspot.com/2010/11/goodlifey-science-great-frozen-egg.html where Pippi talks about freezing eggs. She has too many eggs too.

beanielou

Hope all went well.