Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

A bit quiet here but we have been busy. My usual catch up slots on here have been taken by compost (two tons, delivered, spread and still a bit stinky, hoping it rains!!), bees - study group and Asian Hornet preparations (the first of the year already flying in Hastings yesterday) and domestic stuff like dog vaccinations and health check, and researching dog-friendly places to eat when we are on Skye in April. And this morning I am baking bread which needs knocking back...

lucielle

Whereabouts are you staying on Skye?  L

Suffolk_lass

Three houses in Portree this time... that is to say, we are in one of three the group are renting

Suffolk_lass

So, Monday morning. Chilli in the simmer-oven to slow cook. I started to pick the meat off the oxtail and Jacob's Ladder (short ribs) that I pre-cooked but the gelatinous fat started to melt and I have stopped. I can add more in a bit.

Time gap to lunchtime; there was I, lolling about in my nightie when the carpenter called and asked if he could come and price up and measure to put the loft hatch and ladders in. He was here about 20 minutes later! We need one new loft hatch, and one enlarged hatch plus two spring ladders. Then some boarding out. Good Spring indoor projects.

Then we talked about the cart lodge. Currently three piers of brick topped with wooden posts that are 7" square. The problem is that we want a door on one side and a barn rail over a wall where there is currently a tarp over the second doorway. A good summer job and he will remove the middle post and pier, acroprops either side and then some sort of ground-mounted base under the new timber post. DH would like to make the doors but we have so many projects on I imagine the carpenter will get that work too.

All done and gone by 10.00 in time for us to drive 45 minutes to pick up the toy box from FB Marketplace that we bought to convert into a honey warming cabinet. I need to source some 50mm and some 20mm insulation board to line five sides, and the 6th will be two thicknesses of the foil-on-a-roll stuck to some thin board to be the sixth side. It was £35 plus fuel whereas making our own from scratch would have been over £100 for the timber alone.

Back home and a quick lunch of leftover pork loin in homemade bread with crisps (mine included crisps in the sandwich). On to the next job. I may be some time. There was so much stuff in the loft I thought was empty!!

KajiKita

That carpenter sounds like a bit of a find! 🤩 Not that I am biased at all! 😉😂
I’m intrigued by the honey warming cabinet …. Is that to ‘melt’ it down after it’s crystallised in storage?

KK

Suffolk_lass

The carpenter is our builder's 30-something son, who enjoys carpentry, joinery and so on, but had no interest in taking over his Dad's business. Dad is retiring in May, when he reaches 66 and declining to take on more work, seeking only to empty his order books before he stops (along with some of the old 70-something team he calls on). I don't know who to use next. Our pig-shed rebuild is the big thing we haven't done. I did join a neighbouring village fb group so I could pick up on recommendations but mostly they seem to moan on those pages.

The honey warming cabinet is so I can warm honey in a thermostatically controlled environment in order to make soft-set (formerly described as creamed) honey - the stuff with tiny crystals that is spectacular on toast. I need to be very wary of over-heating it. 43-49c is the critical temperature for the buckets, so that none of the beneficial anti-bacterial or enzymes are changed and fermentation or HMF (HydroxyMethylFurfural) are not stimulated, then at that temperature any crystals have re-liquified and as it cools, the seed honey (the pot whose texture we are aiming for) is warmed just enough to mobilise it (about 32c) without losing the crystals we want the other bucket to adopt. Then the seed is poured into the bigger buckets without incorporating air and the whole lot is jarred up to sell. 

It is part of my learning curve and I hope to have some to sell more widely than just my village in due course. There are a couple of agricultural shows I will go to, and I might have a few jars I can sell there.

Today we plan to keep going through "stuff" and I might shove some (keep it for projects stuff, like MiL's photos) up into the loft, if DH is available. He has completed his tax return and I hope the magazine has gone to press, so hopeful he might be. I also want us to rearrange the furniture in the small bedroom which means turning the bed 90 degrees, so the under-bed frame can be extended to make it into a double and still close the door. DH filled two large boxes with empty cardboard, old routers and advertising, while I had a four hour nap yesterday on the sofa (with the dog). I must have needed it but I was awake shortly before five this morning!

Suffolk_lass

Suffolk_lass said:

Today we plan to keep going through "stuff" and I might shove some (keep it for projects stuff, like MiL's photos) up into the loft, if DH is available. He has completed his tax return and I hope the magazine has gone to press, so hopeful he might be. I also want us to rearrange the furniture in the small bedroom which means turning the bed 90 degrees, so the under-bed frame can be extended to make it into a double and still close the door. DH filled two large boxes with empty cardboard, old routers and advertising, while I had a four hour nap yesterday on the sofa (with the dog). I must have needed it but I was awake shortly before five this morning!

Hijacked my own plan for yesterday. We did the replacement tap fitting in the kitchen. Not easy for two complete plumbing amateurs but much needed. The old one was so badly furred up that no amount of soaking, spraying or scrubbing of the mesh made any difference, and the cartridge access had fused itself shut. It was so bad it did not trigger the boiler call for hot water and sometimes the flow was a mere trickle.

I won't go through every element of yesterday but it did involve swearing (me), five trips to the shed or cartlodge (DH) only to find our spanners are all mostly imperial but the tap is metric. Using bits of tin to pad out the lawnmower spanner hole and my trusty molegrips, we finally completed it at after 5.30pm. Only three bits of lost skin (me) and a bit of stiffness (me again) as the residual war wounds. I should mention that although I am almost a state pensioner, I fit into the cupboard under the 1.5 underslung Franke sink (like this, small sink to the left) and can bend and reach up behind and between the two waste systems. DH is too big and the space is adjacent to the left corner, so being a confirmed lefty, he could not easily fit, stretch or use his preferred hand. B****y monoblock tap!

Suffice to say I ended up cutting through the old tap brass pipes with a hacksaw while assuming a number of yoga positions (for your entertainment these included supine spinal twist; sitting as well as laying, seated wide angle straddle, half lord of the fishes and seated head to knee pose, combined with a bit of salute to the sun). Who knew I could still stretch that much!!)

Anyway, no sign of the pensions yet, I will delay shopping until tomorrow, or maybe tonight, as gardener friend coming tomorrow. A few bits for the weekend with two couples coming to stay.

And we will do the loft tidy or at least stash today (more stuff up there) so that the pull out double (single with second underneath) can be made up for Friday. I may have to bail out of the book club tomorrow night. So busy, it's a bit like being back at work!

Watty1

Impressive work there!

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, I nearly forgot! Last month the Octopeds sent me an email saying they were about to reduce my payments per month by over £55! I wrote to them asking that they over-ride their computer and set it back to the original amount. Yesterday I had the email confirming they were going to take the lower amount on 5th February. So I logged in and checked, only to find a balance of over £1100 (yes, eleven hundred pounds) showing. Further investigation showed them refunding everything since the Smart Meter went in. And, another calculation that was going to further reduce the monthly payment in March. I had to phone them.

So I poured out my tale of investigation and it turns out the system questioned our usage (I know it is high but really?), it triggered an algorithm suggesting it was getting incorrect readings and promptly called foul, refunding everything to us on 21st January We had to read the meter and submit readings yesterday. It should sort itself out with that information, and (too late for Feb) our payments have been reset back to the original amount.

Having heard tales of one person having £250,000 taken from their business because of a mal-functioning Smart-meter, and another person having a £40,000 inheritance taken, I guess I should be grateful ours was in our favour, and wasn't actually an error, just a filter set too low for our expensive electric aga

beanielou

Well done you!