KonMari 2018 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Slinky

I've got plusnet broadband but a BT landline for reasons not worth going into. I got a sim-only deal on a plusnet mobile for £5 a month. Inherited OH's second-hand Iphone, jobs a good 'un. Not sure how much text, calls, data is in the contract, but way more than I actually use, as I work from home and do most stuff over the net. It's useful to be able to have internet access from the phone when I do need it though, and I don't think there would be much cheaper than £5 a month.

maryb

I'm with BT and have finally managed to get my broadband and landline contracts in synch so when they expire I can look at moving.

I was also with BTmobile which was only £5 as an add-on to the phone and broadband package like Slinky's deal.

BUT I needed to be able to buy data topups for when we were on holiday in France with no wifi access. (I use my phone as a wifi hotspot). They had a ridiculous restriction whereby you could not use your topped up data allowance outside the UK If you wanted extra data for when you were in Europe you had to commit to a higher data allowance every month for the duration of the whole contract.

I don't know if they have changed that but it is something to watch out for. I know Plusnet is a sub of BT but I don't know if their terms are the same. They also used EE's network and the signal is rubbish round here. So I switched to Tesco mobile which is cheap and reliable (it uses the O2 network) and you can buy data topups which are free to use in the EU

Slinky

Good point maryb about coverage, the signal for plusnet mobile is dire at our new house we'll be moving to in the next couple of years, so unless things improve significantly, I'll have to change supplier then.

GreyQueen

maryb, if you're looking to me as a kind of gardening expert, you should know that I'm perpetually behind on what I should be doing and make mistakes all the time. If you can live with my feet of clay, you can have an update.


Allotment-wise, it's a relatively quiet time. The exteme dryness of the last month has really slowed weed growth down, I'm only needing to weed around the small areas (beans and leeks) which ate getting a few cans of water a week. Everything else is a dustbowl.


Right now, I have just harvested 99% of the blackcurrants off the bushes, there a few which weren't quite ripe and I will be picking them as and when. I went to harvest redcurrants (one bush, wrapped up in mesh against the birdies) and discovered only the tops of each skein of berries were ripe, the lower ones were still whitish-green. They're being left for a few days before being checked again.


The gooseberries were a swizz, for the first time ever I got a good crop (these were bought in early 2016 as twigs in £land) and the tthieving blackbirds got nearly all them.


Lesson learned; I need to prune the bushes to a better shape and build a frame around them, ready to cover as soon as the fruit has set. This may involve buying pvc pipe from tool station.



Potato-wise, I have a single spud patch with 2-3 rows each of three different varieties; Kestrel and Maris Peer (2nd earlies) and Desiree (main crop). Two kg each variety.


They have had nil watering but have stood up well to the drought due to being in soil heavily enriched with spent barley grains from the organic brewery. This makes my light soil pudding-like. The tops were all pert and bright green until about a week ago when the Kestrels started to slump and splay, which is the first sign that they're going over. This has progressed to a slight yellowing on some leaves and has also begun on the Maris Peers. It means that the haulms are starting to die back and once that's happened, there will be no more growth added to the tuber. The Desirees which, as maoncrops, have a longer growth cycle, still have pristine and pert green haulms.


One the haulm has died back to brown wisps or once blight strikes, whichever happens first, I will rip the haulm off and harvest.


Runner beans are approx half way up their bean poles and are starting to flower. Broad beans are ready to eat ansd I'm tucking in. What I can't get around to eating will be allowed to dry out on the haulm and then podded and kept for use as dried beans. The haulms get tied into bundles and stooked up and added to the autumn bonfire.


Beetroots and parsnips have germinated patchily and are growing away. I slung some pumpkin and cougette plants into a scruffy area late in May and have left them to fend for themselves. They're getting larger and starting to flower.


The mint patch has run riot and the two lavender hedges has just started to flower. I have a quantity of field poppies growing which I remove when they've dried out as the bumblebees are mad for them.



The feral chards have bolted and sent up 5ft tall seed spikes. I'm letting them get on with it. Oh, and the radishes bolted while I was away and are now the size of small apples, too woody to eat and have flower spikes nearly 2 ft tall.


I have once again failed to plant things like radishes in succession and my only excuse is that Plot2 has been keeping me pretty busy.


There, wished you hadn't asked, now?:rotfl:

maryb

Thank you so much. It sounds as if my runner beans are at about the same stage as yours and that makes me feel much better about our neglected plot. At least we'll get beans potatoes and courgettes. I had plans to grow all sorts of things but the third big bed is having to remain under black plastic till next year. Ah well, it'll give the couch grass a headache.

I've always had major problems germinating runner beans when sown direct usually having to resow at least once. This time because I had so little time to spare when DH was in hospital I sowed them in pots at home and they all germinated and made like something Jack could have climbed. So despite being so late sowing them, I'm not actually too far behind where I would have been normally with having to resow. So I think Ill do that next year as well

GreyQueen

If I sow runners in open ground, I have to sow four times what I actually require. They seem irresistable to snails and slugs who chew the seedlings down to bare stalks, long before they're big enough to start twining, damn them. There's always a few which rot off in the ground, I've never known why, and something has even dug up young runners in the past, something of a fox-like caliber, we think. Gawd knows why............. :rotfl:



My Dad's trick, which I have copied successfully, involves old washing up bowls or similar, with a few holes in the bottom. Half fill with potting compost and sow runners in that. Put them somewhere like on a garden table/ coal bunker roof, whatever will make it harder for the slugs and water frequently. Transplant when the leading stem is trying to twizzle. It really is the fastest and easiest way.


Just don't use garden soil as you may accidentally import some soil-dwelling slugs to the bowl, which will cause unhappiness.


Today I have visited the chazzer twice and divested myself of the bag of cables, a bag of wee metal bits and the whole computer casing, stripped of everything and just bare metal. The shop manager is going to ask their scrap buyer about the circuit boards and drives but it might be a few days before he can get the answer.


No matter, compared to the volume of the tower beforehand, the few little bits left over are neither here nor there.



After some gnashing of teeth, I have Thunderbird installed as my email program. It's set to be the default email program but new emails are appearing in both TB and Mail. I'm beyond weary of playing around with IT issues since Sunday, would it have killed MS to put an address book into Mail?! That's the only reason I'm not using it.


*and breathe*

Exerunt stage left to find cute cat pictures on t'interweb to soothe the ruffled psyche.

PollyWollyDoodle

I usually sow runner beans into loo roll inners, and then plant the whole thing.

[Deleted User]

I have plusnet bb and home phone, I`ll just add a mobile to that then, thanks. I went out to the bin and saw dozens of slugs on the gravel, got a bucket of water with a bit of salt and a torch and have collected dozens. Waylaid by slugs when I was tired. I got involved in sorting bathroom stuff and more, never meant to do it tonight but had a lot of energy at 8

Next house phase is underway, all docs taken to the solicitor and that reminds me that I definitely need to get my tax info together, it is starting to niggle. A few months ago I bought 2 very nice glamorous bedding sets from qvc, shiny satiny ruffles and tassels, not at all me but I have ironed both sets and made up one bed fully, took a photo and yes it looks lovely. £29 a set, bargain sale price and the dgds each want one princess set afterwards. 3 orchids also bought, 2 small for bathrooms and one tall for dining table, which is now uncovered, lol it was hiding my cutting mats, under plastic, under furnishing fabric. 60 x 90 3mm mdf ordered to secure the 3 cutting mats as they must not bend. I will just wrap mini cling film around

More house thinking and I want to be safe and warm this autumn so will very quickly order 2 composite doors for the house and one plain one for the garage, all with super duper locks. I have been looking at clearview stoves online and will see some in the flesh tomorrow and will have a chat about waiting times to get a lining etc. Both companies are local with very good reviews, how lucky am I.

Slinky

Kittie before you order your plusnet mobile, check out the coverage here:


https://www.plus.net/mobile/coverage-checker


.......


My friend has just popped round with some magazines she doesn't want anymore. I'll read them and pass them on to my neighbour who passes them on to somebody else, so that's a good 4 reads they get. And she was on her way to the tip, so took my dead monitor with her. Result.

GreyQueen

The little Close where my late Nan lived had a group of neighbours who'd known each other for 50+ years, some were relations by marriage and some relations by blood, others just lifelong friends. It made for a pretty efficient sharing economy.



One person would buy a magazine and, when they'd finished with it, they'd put a sticker on the cover with the house numbers of the Close on it. It would be then handed from neighbour to neighbour, each person crossing off their own house number as they handed it over to the next person.


Eventually, it had been enjoyed by everyone and then it was pretty scruffy and got recycled. I always considered it an admirable system in a small, very homogenous community.


A pal who lives in a small scheme of 8 tiny homes has often remarked that they could easily manage with one vacuum cleaner between the lot of them, if only people could be relied upon to put it back in a communal area asap they'd finished with it, and agreement could be reached on initial purchase price and who/ how subsequent repairs or replacements would be funded.


The US blogger mr money mustache has joked about storing possessions on Craigslist before now (i.e buying rarely used items used from there and selling them on once not needed, rather than biuy new and give them houseroom forever). An intriguing idea, I feel, although I guess we'd Gumtree instead.:)


I'm relaxing after w*rk on an incredibly hot and humid day. It'll have to get a lot cooler before gardening tonight will be feasible. I do have a wee sewing task to do on a donated frock for my trusty charity shop, as it cannot go out as is. I should get on with that and then it can go out tomorrow and I won't have it in my way and on my conscience.


I have just bought a dozen of those black velveteen coat hangers in the chazzer and may end up evicting some of the older plastic ones.