"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it."

KajiKita

redofromstart said:

I need to see if I have broad bean seeds left. I wouldn't buy more but I might as well use up what I have

I thought I didn’t but I found enough to sow now and again in the spring! 😊

KK

greenbee

I managed about half an hour of clearing in the garden today, so better than nothing. 

I need to summon up the energy and enthusiasm to email an electrician with a list of what needs doing next and hope this one responds.

And the motorized valve on the garden room UFH heating looks like it might have packed up - I'm about to turn down the heating and see whether it turns off (I had to turn it on manually). On the plus side, it was the valve not the boiler, and it does mean I've actually got round to bleeding all the radiators.

Having forgotten to defrost anything for supper (and finishing later) I had a microwave meal so am expecting a disturbed night.

Cats are permanently famished and getting fluffy. I've banished them to the utility room overnight since the clock change as I can't deal with the early morning wake-up calls. They don't seem that bothered - they just come and sit on me after breakfast instead.

I could do with taking some holiday, but am hanging onto it in case my mum's knee replacement is booked in soon - she's close to the top of the list, so it could be anytime (I've told her to take a cancellation if she's offered it - she missed out on one a couple of weeks ago as she by the time she returned the call they'd filled the slot). My cousins have promised to help out, so hopefully it won't be too problematic.

Must check agile slots and decide whether to schedule a battery top-up session or two overnight. And head off to bed. I should take my next book club book with me, as I've only got a couple of weeks until the next meeting. 

greenbee

Heating turned off when the thermostat was up to temperature, so I'll keep an eye on it.

I've scheduled my battery top-up manually again as I don't want to risk playing around with budget charge and it not working until the weather is better and/or there are more cheap slots so I have options. I've only scheduled 30 minutes, but I think that should be enough to get through until the sun comes out tomorrow... assuming the forecast doesn't change!

greenbee

I need to remember that if I set the DW/WM to run at night I also need to set the battery to charge at the same time! (Or if there are cheaper slots outside the continuous block, to use those). I set the DW last night but forgot about the battery and woke up to 25% on a day with no sun forecast. Luckily there was an hour of cheap-ish (just not cheapest!) electricity left. And I need to set a budget charge for tonight, if it doesn’t work it won’t be a disaster as there is sunshine forecast tomorrow (although less on today’s forecast than there was yesterday).

badmemory

I haven't seen the sun since last week.  Thankfully whatever went wrong when the clocks went back is now fixed.  Somehow it had started charging the batteries from 5.30am to midnight.  It was certainly nothing I had done or so far have any idea how to do & there would have been no point anyway yet.  Do I sound ready to scream?  Anyway being me, I have diarised a note to check what is happening every time the clocks change, just in case.

greenbee

Woke up in the night and checked my phone to discover the tariff had vanished out of my app, which puts you on single rate with no grid charge! It's done this before and when I checked the forums it said reinstall... and as the app doesn't give the option of saving the password to the phone, had to go and find my laptop to reinstall. This time at least the tariff (which was still showing correctly on the website) reappeared. And having waited up until the cheap period started, it appears to be charging correctly on Agile, which i'm pleased about. The next challenge is to learn how to get the 'budget charge' to work, where it only charges in slots under a specific unit price rather than starting at the beginning of what it identifies as the 'cheap' slots and running through them until the battery is full. It's picked 4 hours for tonight (there's a break 5-7 when the price goes), but I don't necessarily need the full 4 hours of charge (more like 2, although the use of the WM may extend that) and it isn't making allowances for that (but that might be too much to ask of the automation). 

WM has kicked in too. Towel rail in the heating-free bathroom is set for a couple of slots too so it won't be freezing when I get up. Now I just need to get back to sleep. After a busy day in the garden yesterday (clearing leaves and setting up leaf mould composting, shifting bark chip onto veg plot paths, and mulching veg beds with this year's compost) there's a lot to do today. 

Plan is to do woodworm treatment on some furniture while my mum is still here to help, then clear a couple of beds in the veg plot and mulch them, and then do some scything, as I need to get back into it and do it regularly to get the mess in the middle of the garden sorted. 

Cheery_Daff

Hope you got back to sleep!

greenbee

I did cheery, on and off. Woke up again just as I was clearly about to go into sleep paralysis (felt an invisible cat jump on the bed and lots of noise in my head - my sleep paralysis is often associated with exploding head), so made myself stay awake for a bit! Then was woken up by the alarm for cat breakfast time (cats are currently confined to the utility room at night until they have got used to the clock changes!

Battery topped itself up, which is lucky as the predicted sunshine has vanished and is no longer predicted. WM started a few minutes earlier than I'd have liked (the 'finish in' is unpredictable... more 'finish by' and it is often finished well before. I need to try to work it out, so may need to add an hour to the timings). But overall I think it worked out well.

Need to drag myself up and get dressed as there is lots to do today. 

rtandon27

Greenbee - I sympathize with your WM woes!

I've yet to figure out the delay timer on mine! The other day it suddenly sprung to life for 10 minutes while I was on a work call & I'd stayed at the kitchen table simply because I knew it wasn't on.  OH has been woken from afternoon naps while I'm in the office even though it is delayed  it to be done for when I get home.  For some unexplainable reason it starts up for a few minutes hours before it should be in it's cycle.  I'm going to have to dig out the instruction book and sort it.

greenbee

I'm glad it's not just me! I hope that by the time I come to replace this one it'll be easy to find appliances that can be linked to your tariff and adjust how they work accordingly. Which reminds me... once I have cleared the furniture from the garage I need to sell the spare DW. Obviously that's a guarantee that the built-in one that came with the house will die, but it's been sitting in the garage for a year, so I think I should sell it. 

I've done LOTS today. My mum was staying, and before she got up I managed to weed and mulch one bed and cover it with plastic mesh to keep the cats out. Then we cleaned most of furniture that I had delivered from my uncle a week ago and treated the feet for woodworm (only bits they seemed to have. One CoD carcass is in the house and has found a home (it may well move, but it has a home for now). I need to glue and clamp it this evening - and bring in the drawers for it and the other CoD. I can't remember whether I've finished the other CoD carcass, but if I have it can come in (no clue where it is going). Then I have a cupboard to bring in which is a bit more complicated as it's too big to easily move on my own. There are a couple of other bits to treat for woodworm. One needs to go to a cabinet maker/furniture restorer as it's a commode that I want to turn into a bedside table. Another may need painting eventually. And one may well end up in the summerhouse as it's not in very good condition at all. I've also got 8 dining chairs in there that someone has paid me for and is collecting on Friday. 

As well as sorting the furniture out, I've cleared one more bed, mulched it and covered it with chicken wire as an anti-cat measure. I've also weeded and mulched two of the fruit beds, but i'm not sure how to keep the cats out of those. I also need to work out what to sow/plant in the beds I've cleared - either a crop or some kind of green manure until I've worked out what to put in there. Just stopped for a rest and then I need to go back out and spend some time turning the compost I'm using and adding in more of the commercial compost that isn't much good on it's own. I have more beds to clear and mulch, but they might have to wait as I think I'm going to be very creaky as it is!

Tomorrow really MUST involve scything.