Tales from The Shire

Cheery_Daff

I do sympathise with all your leaks and window woes Fortune, and hope they all get sorted out soon without too much worry and inconvenience. We too have a couple of pesky leaks (and you've reminded me that the boiler man went away to find a different thermostat... about a fortnight ago... must chase him!)

Excellent progress on your writing though, and I love your 'get up and get on' approach, how lovely! 

Fortune_Smiles

Cheery_Daff said:

I do sympathise with all your leaks and window woes Fortune, and hope they all get sorted out soon without too much worry and inconvenience. We too have a couple of pesky leaks (and you've reminded me that the boiler man went away to find a different thermostat... about a fortnight ago... must chase him!)

Excellent progress on your writing though, and I love your 'get up and get on' approach, how lovely! 

Thank you Cheery.  It's nothing that can't be fixed - if we throw enough money at it    Just frustrating as I was hoping to start on planting my orchard this year plus get some chickens.  The structure of the house is the priority of course - but I thought we'd got to the nice to have stage rather than need to have.  But then, do you ever get over the need to have stage when you have an older property?  Perhaps not.  We are warm, dry, fed and well and I must remember that, that's all that matters.  And the sun has shone a little for the past couple of days - hooray!

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Good news... maybe

I am cautiously optimistic about the boiler    It's difficult to tell yet, as the leak was a slow one, but I don't think the guage has moved significantly in the last 24 hours.  I'll know for certain in the next day or so.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The quote has come in for the windows - £8518!    That's for the replacement of two standard windows and four round ones, new window panes for two that have blown and replacement beading for five plus the planing of our back door and a replacement threshold.  It's actually a very competitive price but that's a huge chunk of money.  And we'll probably have to budget to replace more in the future.  Mr F is due a bonus soon so we'll use that to help meet the cost.  It may be that we'll have to take one of the replacement windows out of the equation to bring the costs down a bit but I'll see how things stand neared the time.

There may be a further problem with my car    Mr F is going to take a look at it this morning.

So I may have one issue resolved and found a way forward on another which is better than a kick up the bum    Anyhoo, I'm feeling a little more resilient now (a couple of days without rain is certainly helping my mood) and, of course, we are very fortunate overall.

I had leftover curry for lunch yesterday and then Golden Vegetable Pie for supper.  The pie recipe makes two huge pies so I halved the ingredients.  Plenty left over for lunch today.

I went to half of my writing group meeting last night and then had to dash off to the WI Committee meeting.  The first meets fortnightly and the second monthly so there will be a clash from time to time.  I had finished a story so read that and got some great constructive feedback.  I just need to make a few small changes and then I can add it to my 'Completed' folder.  I had a surprise this week when I found myself on G00dr£ad$ as an author!  Apparently the site is set up to collect metadata from publishers and picked up one of the stories I had published a few years ago.  So I have claimed my page 

It looks like we may have another relatively dry day today.  Thank goodness.  It's making such a difference and, for many, it means the clean up operation can begin.  My troubles are little ones compared to the poor folk who've been properly flooded out.  I hope things improve for them soon.

Take care all

Fortune x

Jessy103

Fingers and toes crossed for the boiler! Thanks for linking the Golden Vegetable Pie, it looks yummy, I think I might give it a go

Fortune_Smiles

Jessy103 said:

Fingers and toes crossed for the boiler! Thanks for linking the Golden Vegetable Pie, it looks yummy, I think I might give it a go

Thanks Jessy.  The recipe makes two huge pies so I sometimes make two and pop one in the freezer.  My tips would be to use a lot more wine (maybe double) and less stock to compensate plus plenty of seasoning.  Although no salt until after the lentils have cooked as it stops them from absorbing the liquid - but you probably know that 

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Cautiously Optimistic

I think the boiler might be holding pressure!  I'll know for certain tomorrow but it looks promising.  I'll be so releaved if I don't have to worry about it any more.  The radiator with the broken valve is now working and I can, at last, turn it off 

Mr F and I have discussed the windows and decided to drop the least urgent window from the quote if we need to.  We'll wait to see what his bonus is before committing to anything.

My car does not have a further problem.  Mr F says I'm being paranoid now... but who can blame me    The garage called to get the car booked in to sort out the tyre problem.  They didn't mention any costs so it looks as though they have accepted some responsibility for the repair.  The car is due in for service and MOT this month so I suggested I book it in and they do the repair at the same time.  That way they are making some money on the job.  It seemed fair in the circumstances.

I'm waiting for builder man to contact me about repairing some minor storm damage to the roof.  He's been away on holiday so is probably playing catch up at the moment.

Our mobile signal has been pants since the storms.  We have a signal booster but I don't think it's working properly - the aerial's probably full of water.  Mr F is going to get it down and have a look at the weekend.

So progress is being made - even if it's costing an arm and a leg    I'm starting to feel less stressed about it all now.

I was at yoga this morning and stayed on after to catch up with a friend over coffee.  So lunch was a sandwich grabbed on the way home.  Mr F had some leftover Vegetable Pie - there's still enough left for another meal tomorrow.  Supper was a quick beans and cheese on toast as neither of us were particularly hungry.

I had a look through my 'in progress' story file earlier and found one which is quite close to being finished so I've started progressing that.

Tomorrow I need to get up and get on again as there are chores to do.  And an early night beckons as I'm yawning already.

Sleep tight all

Fortune x

teapot2

Good news re the boiler potentially but eek to the window costs.  Hope you sleep well

Fortune_Smiles

teapot2 said:

Good news re the boiler potentially but eek to the window costs.  Hope you sleep well

Thanks Teapot - we're getting there... slowly 

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Big mistake...

in my favour!    The bank and credit card statements arrived yesterday so I reconciled the accounts against my records and found I'd entered £170 in cash withdrawals twice    So I'm better off than I thought.  Although I suspect that money will disappear again quickly when we have the roof repairs done.

I ordered some more dog food and treats as we're running low.

Other than that it was a relaxed day.  A few chores completed, some writing done.  I finished another story so just need to spend a little time editing and I can move it to my 'Completed' folder.

Lunch was Chorizo Cabbage Stew with some added cooked rice that I needed to use up.  Supper was a quick tuna and sweetcorn pizza with sweet potato wedges as I was feeling lazy

Have a great Sunday all.

Fortune x

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi Fortune How is your dog? I am currently dog sitting in lovely Wales for my Sister in Law whilst she visits her sons family in Saudi. Their dog is a 5 month old miniature Schnauzer. It is  many years since I had a dog as a child. So much work hard to get anything done without her getting into mischief. However great fun taking her on long walks to tire her out. We have to drag her out most of the time as she’s reluctant to go anywhere. She does have a good time when we’re out. I thought of you and your stories of when your dog was a pup.Sadly we return home tomorrow. Xx