Tales from The Shire

Fortune_Smiles

Some things are going well and some things are, well, just annoying.

I was pleased to find this recipe yesterday. I leave a small, white, sliced loaf in the Annex for our guests. Sometimes they use it and sometimes they don't. So a couple of slightly past their 'best before date' loaves have ended up in my freezer. We don't usually eat white bread but I use some to make French Toast if we have visitors and want to make them a special breakfast. I was considering making a Bread & Butter Pudding with the rest but that won't do our waistlines any good This bake was the perfect solution. Healthier and delicious. It's definitely made it to my 'make again' list.

Lunch for the last couple of days has been Broad Bean & Courgette Soup and supper, Veg & Cheesy Rice Bake. The broad beans were from the veg patch but, as you know, the only courgettes in this house at the moment are delivered by Mr T :rotfl:

Our last guests mentioned that the timer didn't seem to be working on our immersion heater. Mr F trotted off to town yesterday to get a replacement only to find, when he got home, that it was broken :mad: So he returned it and got a replacement which he fitted. I checked it this morning and it's not working properly :mad: So I went into town today to get another but a different make this time. Mr F will fit it later and then we'll have to keep our fingers crossed.

Builder will come to repair the patio tomorrow if they finish their current job in time. He's also going to give me a quote for the patio in front of the house although I think that's a job for next year.

Gate Man emailed me this morning to check if everything is ok. Good job too as I was on the verge of throwing my toys out of the pram and demanding my money back. I 'phoned him and talked through the outstanding issues. I've done some research and some of the things they have done are acceptable 'fixes' but that means the job wasn't done properly in the first place and they've had to do some remedial work :eek: On a brand new gate :eek: We're between a rock and a hard place now as we're so far down the line with this one it's difficult to turn back. I think we'll have to just fix what we can and see if we can get the promised 'compensation' out of him :mad:

I managed to get most of the Annex turned around yesterday for our next guests. I was hoping to get some chores done in the house today but my time has been eaten up with sorting out 'issues' and Mr F is now on the telephone giving a global web conference. FDawg and I are closeted in the living room keeping very, very quiet. My cheeks are still burning from the time Mr F was giving a global web conference and I burst into the room shouting "Did you get those nipple clamps for me?" It's a long story....

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Fortune x

Watty1

:rotfl:it might be a long story but that punch line is wonderful :rotfl::rotfl:

beanielou

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

PurpleFairy26

Do tell....

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Fortune_Smiles

Watty1 wrote: »

:rotfl:it might be a long story but that punch line is wonderful :rotfl::rotfl:

beanielou wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

PurpleFairy26 wrote: »

Do tell....

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Some friends wanted to see Fifty Shades of Grey at the Cinema. I wasn't keen but went along thinking it would be a laugh. To entertain myself during the film I took along some props to hand to my friends at the right moments - cable ties, etc. I'd asked Mr F to have a look in the garage to see if he had anything in there that would pass as nipple clamps...

Fortune_Smiles

Today I have been mainly self-sabotaging the emergency fund We have bought a ride-on mower :eek:

When we renovated the barn we fenced off the area around it and put down a lawn. It's six times the size of the little lawn we had in our garden in Kent but Mr F has bravely struggled on for the last eighteen months, mowing it with our little electric lawn mower. It takes him over 2 hours each time :eek:

Recently he's been asking if there is enough in the piggy bank to get a new mower and we started doing some research. Then... we went to the local country show and spoke to some mower companies. One of the companies had a used ride-on mower that would meet all our mowing needs. It was big and it was expensive. So we went away and thought about it for a fortnight.

We were planning to get a ride-on mower but it's not at the top of the list of priorities for us at the moment. However, this model is exactly what we need and used machines don't come up very often. It's also a good price, which we negotiated down a bit, is in 'as new' condition and has very low useage.

So, not only will Mr F be able to mow the lawn in a reasonable amount of time but I will be able to start creating a wild flower meadow in our top field. There's a specific mowing schedule you need to follow for wild flower meadows so it's not something I could do whilst relying on friendly farmer to cut for us. The new mower can even manage the bottom field too - although it might take some time. So we will be almost self-reliant for land management now - just the hedge cutting we'll need some help with. Hopefully we can still ask friendly farmer to do that for us in exchange for grazing in the bottom field.

However...

I had stopped overpaying the mortgage and diverted all surplus cash into getting the emergency fund sorted So now I've not overpaid the mortgage and I've not sorted the emergency fund either That strategy obviously doesn't work for me. So, from next pay day, I will be going back to splitting surplus cash between overpayments and savings.

There's a long way to go before the emergency fund will be back to where I'd like it to be so let the money saving begin:

• dug up lots of lovely main crop potatoes from the veg patch today
• had pitta with hummus and salad for lunch using lettuce from the veg patch
• had salmon and avocado salad for supper using lettuce and potatoes from the veg patch
• finished sorting out the annex for our next guests

... it's a start.

Very excited at the prospect of a wild flower meadow. It's been a dream of mine to create one for years and it might now finally happen. Some things you can't put a price on.

Fortune x

rtandon27

OMG - that is hilarious - I've now got a stitch in my side!
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Thank you for sharing! xxx

Oops - we cross posted - the story not the subsequent post of course!

Cheery_Daff

Oooh! I too am creating a wildflower meadow But I don't have the sense to buy a ride on mower and instead spent an hour and a half this evening making a start on our hay field with a scythe :rotfl:

Needless to say it's likely to take substantially more than six hours :rotfl:

Fortune_Smiles

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Oooh! I too am creating a wildflower meadow But I don't have the sense to buy a ride on mower and instead spent an hour and a half this evening making a start on our hay field with a scythe :rotfl:

Needless to say it's likely to take substantially more than six hours :rotfl:

How lovely! Is it a big area? I like the idea of scything but don't think I'd have the physical strength to do it now. I seem to remember you have unimproved areas on your land so the wildflowers will love it. What are you going to do with the hay?

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

It's two thirds of an acre :eek: it's traditionally been used as a hay meadow so has plenty of good stuff in (ox eye daisies, yellow rattle, knapweed etc), but needs a bit of nurturing back to full vigour. I'm going for 'traditional hay meadow' rather than aiming solely for wildflowers, so it won't be full of annuals like poppies etc.

To be honest I'm not sure I've got the strength myself :rotfl: but I'm far too stubborn to admit defeat at this early stage, and I'm spurred on by yesterday's success so we'll see.

No plan for the hay yet - I don't really need it as hay... more useful to me composted... and I'm sure if I was donating it to the farmer he's probably prefer it properly cut and baled for silage. The amount of rain we're having it'll never dry out anyway so I won't have to worry about it! :eek:

Will you be mowing yours for hay, and what will you be doing with it?