Time to get serious

Busy_Mee1

Hi ETE you sound very busy but very settled in your new home

We currently can't make our minds up about whether to have an open fire or to get a wood burner, so interesting to hear that your fire isn't too much hassle. It is very windy here today, so hope you don't loose any more roof.

EatingTheElephant

Thanks BusyMee, I'm quite surprised about the open fire. I'm not sure if we have a 'special' type but there is a grate that all the ash falls through and you just pull the shelf thing out and all the debris can then be disposed of easily. Doesn't seem to fill up that much either so we haven't done it every time, I thought there would be loads of cleaning to do after every use from thinking back to my Gran's fire when I was a child, so I guess they may have improved nowadays!!

Fortune_Smiles

We have a wood burner and love it. Open fires are great too but the things we appreciate about the wood burner are that the burner itself heats up and continues to warm the room after the fire goes out and I feel quite safe leaving it burning when we go up to bed or go out.

Fortune x

smallholdingsister

Woodburners are much more efficient but you don't get quite the full experience.

Your Gran probably burned coal which is mucky.

EatingTheElephant

Thank you both for adding your thoughts on open fires and wood burners. That makes complete sense about feeling safe leaving it burning in a wood burner. We have had to work out how to time it so it isn't roaring away at the time we want to go to bed.
You are quite right SHS, thinking back it was coal, so that explains the difference.

We are back from a lovely ride on the horses, the washing I hung out this morning is all dry and some more logs from our wood harvested. There is stewing steak starting to smell lovely in the slow cooker for a steak & ale pie tonight for when DD1 and DGS come for dinner.

It is starting to feel like we can enjoy the fruits of our labour, even if we still have a long way to go to clear this new mortgage. The first mortgage payment comes out this week and I will be setting up the account for ad hoc payments via online banking this afternoon.

try_harder

I have woodburners too and love them but i love an open fire too .I have a coal fired aga and i do find that everything in the kitchen gets covered with a film of black dust even the blinds which is very annoying ,it doesnt seem to happen with the woodburners and we are very lucky that we always seem to find free wood too.

EatingTheElephant

What a complete difference in the weather this week, lots of fields have been cut for hay now and the smell is wonderful.
It looks like the switch to BG hasn't been entirely successful, as we've received s bill from the previous supplier, but just for Gas and the BG app only says electricity. So more admin and chasing needed there unfortunately.
Money shuffle completed to avoid account charge on the vantage a/c. I need to find the cinema vouchers too, as I'm sure they expire soon.
A small food top up completed on the way home means we are ok for meals for a while, meal plan was completed to reflect what food there is in the freezer and I'm missing about 7 days worth until the end of the month. I'm hoping to stretch some of what we have.

The dog food delivery arrived and I overestimated the size of the freezer for his food. Two month's worth of food didn't quite fit in, so had to put some in the big main freezer. I need to remember this for next time!

Top of my list at the moment is that I need to shuffle travel expenses from the business account. It's going to be a tricky one as we moved halfway through the month, so needs a bit more thought than a normal month.

EatingTheElephant

It's been an exciting day today. The 4x4 is back on the road, patched up for a little bit longer and our first mortgage payment came out the bank :T

Tahlullah

Congrats on the small wins!

chumpy45

Exciting times. Congratulations on the first new mortgage payment. That's one lot of interest that will never need to be paid again :T