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

greenbee

i've just had a 'write your own job description' message from my new/old boss :) But no indication as to when the transition happens.

Replacement cat feeder has arrived, so will set that up later and put the old one out for electrical waste disposal next week. I'll mean another set of spare bits, which will make cleaning easier! But annoying that both have had non-reparable faults. Hopefully by the time these ones pack up there will be some competition.

Three of the six posts round the patio are in - I hope the roses and wisteria survive the disruption (neighbour is a keen gardener, so I know he will do his best). They should all be in today and the concrete will go off over the weekend.

We may have rats at the far end of the garden. Hopefully the gardener comes this week and I can make him flood the holes and fill them with chicken wire. I think the compost bins need turning and the contents prepping for use as mulch (so he'll have to do some weeding!).

And I really do need to message the heat pump engineer and the builders to get things moving…

greenbee

Mortgage is now under £150k which is a nice milestone to have met!

Further Inspection of holes (and turning compost) suggests they are bumblebee nests - and there were huge bumble bees around the other day.

Gardener is here and getting on with stuff, so hopefully I will continue to make progress over the weekend,

Message sent to heat pump engineer. Need to nag drain man and builders. But first Pilates and food shopping - I need green veg and sardines and bananas and yogurt, mostly for the animals, not me!

beanielou

Great milestone.

Baileys_Babe

Congratulations on the mortgage being below £150k 👏

KajiKita

Mortgage Milestone Alert!! 🎉🎊🥳👏😊

KK

greenbee

I expect it’ll be back over by the time this month’s interest has been added, but by next month it will definitely be under!

Last of the bought snowdrops have been planted, and a garden waste bin almost filled with couch grass and leaves removed in order to plant them. I hope I haven’t binned too many ladybirds… it’s really too early to be doing all this tidying but it’s so easy to get behind. Stinky is cross because he’s only had a very short walk and mostly been ignored. I’ve just had a shower, and will then have lunch and possibly a nap before walking him. I’m out tonight, so he’ll be bored again. I also need to make up kongs and lick mats and probably cook another BNS in order to get them all done. As I have Monday off I hope to get them all done over three days. Along with some weeding in the veg plot and sourcing seed compost so I can start sowing seeds for the veg plot!

beanielou

Enjoy your weekend and your nap.

greenbee

Not enough napping…

Got all the snowdrops planted and a binful of stuff cleared at the front to make space for them.

BNS/sweet pots cooked in IP (despite lack of sunshine and therefore electricity combined with terrible Agile prices) and the kongs and lick mats filled - kongs are all in freezer and lick mats are slowly being fed in.

New cat feeder unpacked and programmed, old one ready for recycling. All bits being washed and cats furious with lack of food (they had sardines for breakfast). All windows opened to air the house and sprayed with spider-killing spray (I need to close them in a minute). Ash can emptied into ash bin by the compost, empty cat food tins put in recycling.

Cats woke me up again early this morning, so I think I'm going to start enforcing the staying downstairs overnight thing as I slept better when I didn't have my early morning wake-up call.

Dog needs a walk, then I need some lunch and to do a bit of pottering in the garden, starting with tidying up the herb pots and the pots on the patio that don't have bulbs in. I plan on buying seed compost tomorrow, and maybe a couple of very big pots, and some violas if I can find them to fill the last few pots. Given what's likely to happen to food prices this year, I really do need to get the veg plot and greenhouse productive. So booking some time off (maybe around Easter) to really focus on gardening is worth thinking about.

greenbee

Nice long walk done. Big salad for lunch. Herbs and patio pots tidied and patio gravel weeded. And Stinky and Stripey were having a nice time while I was out there - lots of chatting going on from Stripey (who had her tail up and hooked and was doing lots of blinking) while Stinky pottered along next to her. He's mostly getting the hang of not chasing (and she's getting the hang of sitting on fence posts if he gets too energetic). He's now tryng to give her toys while she's inside the cat tunnel. DW is also on and only two lick mats are left to freeze.

I think I have enough oil to last to the end of the month, so need to make a decison on the heat pump pretty soon and then discuss with whoever I get to do the installation the fact that it needs to be done in stages.

1. Hot water tank replacement can be done anytime from now
2. Heat pump can go in once the oil has run out
3. UFH in new office will need to go in when the floor is ready for it
4. Radiator in new downstairs loo will go in when that room is done
5. Kitchen radiators and pipework will need to be worked out when the kitchen design is done, and put in when the old kitchen is taken out
6. All other radiators need specs provided but will be upgraded at some undefined point in the future when I have the energy to deal with them.

The 'official' design needs to be done to account for this and allow the grant to be claimed when the oil boiler is scrapped. The actual design needs to allow for initial running at 55C (apparently what makes the sitting room radiators correctly sized, which is odd, as the installers were hoping to get the heat pump work and had apparently sized them for 50C) and reducing over time to 35C.

Stinky may be bored, but I think an hour or so on the sofa reading a book is in order. If I'm feeling energetic I might order some roses. I really should do a planting plan for the new beds, working out what needs moving and what needs buying. Plenty of cat mint and lavender seems like a good idea.

KajiKita

Awww … the friendship that is developing between Stripey and Stinky warms my heart … ❤️

It’s a good thing you are good at this project management malarkey - I read that list and lost the will somewhere between steps 3 and 4 …! 😉

Tell me more about the roses. I can’t plant many more here due to lack of sun, but I can vicariously enjoy the thought of yours … 😊

KK