Cheery's country living adventure

greenbee

Before my parents got a very expensive mattress which was medium one side and soft the other, my mum had a mattress topper on her side and my dad didn’t as he said it was too hot. And my mum had a single duvet and extra blanket on top of the sheet and thin blanket that was enough for my dad!

Cheery_Daff

Well it seems separate duvets is one key to marital harmony! (Or at least to a better night's sleep!) I am still in the spare room, with Mr Cheery's aches and pains meaning this way at least one of us gets a decent kip... and I confess I am feeling much better for it (although currently feel like EVERYTHING I do makes me ache, whether it's sitting in front of the computer all day or gardening or walling, oh dear!)

I had grand plans for defrosting the freezer today, having eaten enough of the contents to be able to decant the last few bits into the freezer compartment above the fridge. But somehow I seem to be spending the day in the garden instead...

The garden is progressing nicely though! We are removing the long tussocky grass from what will be the veg beds and it's hard work (especially trying not to impale a chicken on a garden fork...) but I've now got four out of the eight beds cleared, which I'm really pleased about. One I've started planting flowers and herbs in, and the others I'll mulch until the seedlings are ready to come out (probably at least another 4 weeks round here).

It's not a bad job anyway, digging up a row with the fork, then sitting on the floor with the hand fork to shake the soil from the roots. The chickens are enjoying the worm hunt... (I have to remind them to leave SOME at least...). I want to get the scythe out at some point to tidy up various other areas but that is definitely NOT a chicken-friendly activity 😮😮 so will have to wait til they're in bed.

Right, more to say but I've had a cuppa (and a mini Yorkshire pudding with jam in - an excellent consequence of random freezer-using-up!) so it's time to get back out I think!

Pyxis

Ooh! Scythes! 😱

Had visions of chicken heads flying here, there and everywhere! 😱😱😱😱😱😱

Mind you, with pitch-forks being bandied about, I might have to call you Cheery the Impaler! 😱😂

greenbee

Let the chickens loose on the plots you're planning on growing food in, and hope they get rid of all the wireworms

Cheery_Daff

Oh the chickens have been in there with us while we've been digging greenbee - got rid if quite a few of the normal worms as well... 🙄 and nearly did for a vole which one of them caught this afternoon - fortunately she had no idea what to do with it and Mr Cheery managed to get the poor thing off her and it ran away (I saw it/another one a few minutes later and it seemed fine - we'd put the chickens in the run in disgrace by that point!)

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums

It's Monday Finances Day - at least I've been calling it that for months without it once occurring to me that (of course!!) a better name is Monday is Money Day So that's what it is now

All present and correct, and reconciling the accounts is now MUCH easier without my frittery spending in a million shops a day. Have ordered a couple of books, and a present or two, but it's nothing to the long list of little transactions that I usually amass during a weekend of popping in and out of charity shops etc. 

Made a couple of donations of commuting dosh - one to the foodbank and another to another local group we're members of who had an appeal out for a particular campaign. Also it's payday today so have allocated all of June's dosh in YNAB.

Oh, and I paid for the car tax for the old car, and realised that my national park parking permit will have run out - not that it's been getting much use lately... Not sure whether to order another yet - technically we can drive somewhere now, and officially the car parks are open, although the national park seem to be discouraging visitors (do I count as a visitor if I live here? Probably not - although if I'm driving a few miles up the road I suppose that makes me a visitor there!) Anyway, no real need to drive anywhere, so I might hold off on paying for a new permit (especially as I never used it enough last year to get my money's worth, oh dear!)

Nothing much else to report finances wise. Beaky chicken has been to the vets today, honestly those ladies are SUCH a worry. She was looking a bit yellow round the eyes and we were rather paranoid after our previous recent experiences... Vet had a prod and said possibly egg-related stuff again - she's had antibiotics and an anti inflammatory, and we are keeping our fingers crossed. She managed to kick up a fuss both when we put her in the carrier and when we took her out so she can't be feeling that bad! We'll see. 

And on that note, we're up to the final episode of what feels like a 120 episode series so best get it watched before I fall asleep! 

themadvix

I don’t think you’re really what they had in mind when they said they don’t want visitors Cheery! If I, however, decided to visit, they’d have cause to tell me where to go (home, of course!). 

Hope Beaky perks up!

Pyxis

Cheery, if you have a parking permit, it sort of proves you’re a resident, I would have thought.

Baileys_Babe

Are extending your parking permit or giving partial refunds as you haven't been able to use it during lockdown?

Cheery_Daff

Pyxis said:

Cheery, if you have a parking permit, it sort of proves you’re a resident, I would have thought.

Sadly not - the year before they did a discounted residents' permit, but now they just do a single priced one that anyone can buy for all the national park car parks, so it doesn't prove anything. Anyway, I still don't live in the place I'd be driving to (else I wouldn't be driving there) so it's a moot point I suppose. Will just stay put for now! And I suspect there won't be any refunds... my pass ended in April anyway so I'd only really be due a refund of about £3.50

Speaking of refunds, no sign of the train travel one... Hmm. Had an email to say it was approved, but I needed to send a photo of the tickets cut in half, which I did. Had a reply to that email from a different address, asking me to send a photo of the tickets cut in half to the address I'd originally sent them to - so I did that (and asked whether I'd got the address wrong, or they couldn't see the attachment), and haven't heard since. They do say it'll take 28 days to process though. I'm not letting it go - they were £103! Wish I'd never printed them out at the station - I didn't do it til after I should have travelled, and only did it because at that point their website said you had to post the tickets back to them! 

Hey ho, stupid minor annoyances, as usual...