Viking's Diary

Viking_mfw

Much to my surprise we got the screening up along the rear garden boundary as it arrived just before lunch and DH promptly objected to the amount of space it took up! Took some slightly hairy moments (sledgehammer up a kitchen step on a muddy slope hammering in a stake anyone? ) but it is up, providing the illusion of privacy. Only an illusion as it's pretty see through when you get up close but a large chunk will have DH's forthcoming shed in front of it, and it looks quite attractive. 

MS dinner was a leg of venison gifted to my parents who passed it on to us, cooked with 2.5 jars of gifted redcurrant and crabapple jelly (very small jars!) out of the cupboard and Olio mushrooms with a small top up of more mushrooms, plus Worcestershire sauce (an adaptation of lamb Shrewsbury) with ys roasted parsnips and olio sprouts. Total cost about 50p. 

I've rootled through the chest of board games at DH's suggestion and found a bunch to sell through a specialist group on fb. Need to photo and list. It's given us room in the chest and I didn't even remember having some of them. Still got my favourites for when the boys get big enough to play. I also got reminded to claim my external examining fees today which will be small but any addition is welcome! 

So Feb jobs now look like:
List board games for sale
Install water butts
Take down trellis in garden and put in alternative support for the loganberries
Track down TPS

savingholmes

It's great when a plan comes together

Viking_mfw

I've always felt more BA Baracus than Hannibal  

Viking_mfw

Well I listed the board games after posting last night, and have sold 7 out of 10 of them, and posted 6 this morning. Pretty swift! Have swept that money together with a WBB payment into an envelope account rather than immediately sending them to PBs in case something goes wrong. I'm feeling a little bit spendthrift as I *gasp* did a click and collect book today. As well as buying the cheapest headphones I could find for DH who was grumping about his last set having died and because he wouldn't pay postage the new ones he ordered aren't arriving til next week. Mind you, the book is for work and I do have a small book allowance in another instant savings which I can claim it from if needed. 

Went into the attic to look for the n3xt size up in baby clothes which appear to have disappeared entirely. However, I did find another bag of cds to try on Music Magpie so that's some more stuff leaving the house. And I have a friend with some.baby clothes in the right size to pass on so there's no need to fork out for more. 

No garden work today. Instead I went for a walk and fed the swans whose normal pond has been annexed to the river by the rain. The parent swans have a large clutch of adolescent swans I've watched grow from cygnets and I should think it's been tough finding enough food recently. 

Viking_mfw

Oh and I won the Premium Bonds! A whole £25 to the good 

savingholmes

Lovely to win something... Perhaps try FB friends for baby clothes...

Viking_mfw

savingholmes said:

Lovely to win something... Perhaps try FB friends for baby clothes...

Just so @savingholmes A delivery is appearing on Sunday also had to fight off offers of presents of new clothes from a friend and my mother. I am clearly fully committed to everyone saving money!!

Viking_mfw

Gardening success! Trellis down, some random pavings slabs down to make a path instead of a muddy mess, and I attached one water butt! The other two need joining to the ones that are already in place and have a slightly more complicated kit. But at least it has the instructions unlike the joining to the downpipe one! 

savingholmes

Learn to receive gracefully.... 

Viking_mfw

Wrote a long post last night, pressed the wrong button and lost the whole thing. Sigh. 
So... yesterday was a busy day. After a very muddy walk in the woods to exhaust DS1 (and which took longer than anticipated because we got lost because the whole place looks different without leaves AND there have been quite a few storms since we were last there so the landmarks have changes), there were lots of jobs to do. 
I installed a water butt in the front the other day and then planned to transfer the water out of the freestanding butt into the new one, so I could move the freestanding one to link them up. Turned out we'd had more rain than I had noticed in 36 hours and hte new one was 90% full already. So we moved some and we chucked some on the front garden and we managed to move the butt along and link it up. It was a lot easier to link two together than to install a new one, mostly because the instructions that went with the kit had not been dissolved. 
Then I got the drill out and installed three smaller wall planters to complement the three wall troughs DH had already put up for me. The front of the house faces west and I am hoping that my strawberries will thrive here after they got burned to a crisp in the south facing bed in the back last year. I have also acquired a fancy drip irrigation system that will run from the water butts and which is solar powered, so that needs figuring out in the next day or so. I filled the troughs half way with home made compost then topped up with shop bought for the aesthetics (the home made has a lot of egg shells still evident but is otherwise excellent). I transplanted one symbolic strawberry but intend to sort out the irrigation system before transplanting the rest. 
This leaves one water butt to install which will be the additional one in the back. Unfortunately this is going to involve drilling a hole in the existing one for the joining kit, because it's not the same make which has premade holes and bungs. It also involves clearing quite a bit of carp out of the corner where it's going. However, we have made good progress with garden jobs this week. I also intend to do some pruning in the front garden, especially the lilac on the boundary before it starts up for the spring because a) it's gone a bit wild in recent years and b) lilac makes great pea sticks. 
Sold an item on fleabay yesterday within 40 minutes of it going live which makes me think I undervalued it, but never mind! Cash in, clutter out, that's the way we like to go. I have listed a couple of other items but no interest yet. Hopefully will get a couple more listed tonight. 
Second hand clothes in the right size for DS2 arriving this afternoon in exchange for some marmalade... then I shall get on and sort out the previous ones to get out of the house. The 0-3 months ones should be collected Monday. A padded outdoor suit left the house on Friday to someone who is about to have her baby. It's all going! Strangely the more I get rid of the more there seems to be to get rid of... hmm...