Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

So pleased your chickens are out and running around Edwink! :j I hate to think of the poor little things confined, even if they have enough space and a cheery run.

You'll no doubt be pleased to hear that phase 1 of chicken preparations started in earnest here at the weekend :j :j Me and a friend shifted the most enormous heavy pig arc round to the side of the house - it's going to form the basis of my chicken coop Not entirely sure what it will look like yet I'm getting slightly overwhelmed with trying to figure out the 'best' way to use the space and the materials we have

Partly I think I need to just sort out something temporary and live with it for a bit to see how we get on. But I want it to be fox proof at least! :eek: So much head scratching going on round here at the minute But we're getting there - I want to be ready next time they set a date for rescues :j

I feel behind too with seeds, but we are reasonably high up here (1300ft) so the growing season starts later (or at least that's what I'm telling myself :rotfl: ) My tomatoes are still teensy tiny seedlings - fortunately a friend gave us proper plants that are well over a foot tall so we might actually get some tomatoes this year :rotfl:

We repotted our beans at the weekend, and today I'm going to repot the squash and lettuce. I've also got kale (tiny), leeks (barely even visible), rocket (only just sprouted), climbing french beans (only planted last week but already looking healthy), coriander and basil (both doing reasonably well although still small).

Not been brave enough to stick anything outside yet though Also I'm making no dig beds and they're not ready! This year is going to be a bit hit and miss I fear... :rotfl:

Not much MSE to report. I did indeed have yesterday off, and today too, since I have an enlightened employer who just closes for two days every bank holiday instead of one :j

Yesterday we went on a little day out, just me and Mr Cheery. Explored a couple of little towns not too far away, went to a tiny (free) museum and on a (free) art trail, had a nice bit of cake by a canal, and then went out for tea

All good fun and mostly reasonably frugal (apart from going out for tea..) but today is being spent at home doing admin tasks and getting a few outdoor jobs finished. Grey today but apparently it's going to brighten up after lunch...

Got some duck eggs from down the road to use up, and a visitor brought me a home made loaf of bread at the weekend so I've got a nice wholesome lunch lined up :j

Karmacat

It really is sounding idyllic, Cheery - though I do know what you mean about feeling a bit overwhelmed at what you've got to do, even with my ordinary-sized property. Heaven only knows what its like for you with that size



Since none of your seedlings are outside yet, um, where are they? Windowsills, or do you have a greenhouse?

pinkypig

Sounds like a lovely weekend Cheery . Chickens sound very exciting !

Cheery_Daff

At the minute they're in my plastic greenhouse KC It's ace, the shelves are integral to the structure so there are loads of them - ideal for seedlings :j

However NOT ideal for larger plants - the two giant tomato plants a friend gave us last week are sat on the floor and there isn't room for any more - basically it's big enough for one person to take two steps into and back out again :rotfl:

We were lucky enough to be gifted a greenhouse by a very kind and thoughtful friend :j :j I'm ashamed to say I've had it several weeks and not put it up yet :eek: Largely because I just haven't been able to figure out where the best place for it is, and it won't be as easy to shift as the plastic one!

However I've finally figured it out :j Another kind friend helped me make a start on levelling the base at the weekend, and I've spent nearly five hours out there today on my own with a pickaxe and various other tools finishing it off :eek: :eek:

At one point it was like one of those impossible staircase drawings - every corner seemed to need to go just a little bit lower to make it level until I felt like I was tunnelling into the ground :eek: :rotfl:

However I now have breeze blocks at all four corners and along two sides (the other two sides being buried into the ground - and yes, I am slightly regretting my choice of site :rotfl: )

When the ten o clock news came on the radio and I was still at it I figured it was probably time to abandon it for tonight :rotfl:

However I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and have high hopes that we'll be able to put it up at the weekend :j :j I'm very excited :j :j

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, and in other MSE news I finally got round to ringing the electricity board to find out if there was a wayleave agreement for the electricity poles in our fields.

Turns out there is :j so i've transferred it into our name and we should get a cheque shortly :j (I must remember to write them a letter first with our name and address) :j

Apparently we have seven electricity poles (can you believe I never actually got round to counting?! you can't see all of them from one place so I kept losing count :rotfl: )

Payment is around £80 a year :money: not to be sniffed at! :j

I've also emailed BT openreach as we have several telegraph poles too (not sure how many for the same reason and because I'm not entirely sure which are which!) They didn't have a phone number though so couldn't do it today.

Not loads but a nice little addition to the mortgage overpayment pot :j

Karmacat

Wow! Triple wow, actually that's a lot of progress. You'll want to make a book out of all this in the end, you know

Fortune_Smiles

Great progress Cheery. I've decided to divide our outside plans into 10% chunks. There's no way we're going to be able to do everything this year but getting to 10% this year, 20% next year feels achievable - chickens are in next year's plans for us

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Ooh that sounds like a sensible way of doing things Fortune! :j I have no idea what our long term plans are so am just piling on things on a whim at the minute :rotfl: :rotfl:

themadvix

Karmacat wrote: »

You'll want to make a book out of all this in the end, you know

Seconded, it would be a great read!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, you lovely lot :kisses3: Not sure I've got the energy for a book on top of everything else :rotfl: I will print off the blog though (one day...)

More minor financial progress today - I've *finally* got a refund for our wheelie bins :j :j £60, and because it was originally unexpected, I'm going to put that to the mortgage overpayments fund too :money: About blithering time!

(Can't remember if I shared the saga on here - basically when we moved in the council sold me two wheelie bins - then several weeks later, after lots of messing about, we discovered we're not actually on the wheelie bin round as we're so rural :rotfl: I've been trying to get a refund and get them to take the damn things away again! :rotfl: )

Prolific is up to £17.71 approved, and another £4 odd waiting, so it might not be ready today but will be able to cash out shortly :j

P1necone sent me £10 earlier in the week so I'll add that in too when I get a minute :j :j

Chipping away