Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Hmm, still no tea! Power is completely off now, most mysterious. Does seem to be registered as an incident on the power company's website now though, so that's a start - it seems it's not just us. Hey ho. Tempted to go to the cafe instead, but Mr Cheery's having a nap. Might do DIY shop and cafe when he gets up!

Oooh, the boiler and kettle both just fired up at once - going to make my tea before it all goes off again!!

Cheery_Daff

Right - I have tea, hooray! Might have two in quick succession just in case  

So, plotting and scheming is now complete (temporarily at least)... I do love a list I have eight sections (!), and for each section I have goals for the next month, for the rest of this year, and a few things that I want to do next year. This is the September/rest of the year list... (And sadly, this new forum doesn't seem to have the capability to make text different colours so no more rainbow lists!) These are the home/garden/money lists...

HOME
September
* paint ceiling beams
* fit plasterboard to the bits of ceiling that I can (Mr Cheery wants some leaving so he can attach extra bolts to the wall)
* clear upstairs room ready for plastering
By the end of 2020
* kitchen ceiling finished
* kitchen functional, even if not finished
* upstairs room plastered
* bedroom ceiling fixed (there's a massive hole where the chimney was)

GARDEN AND LAND
September
* move trees
* dig rain/bog garden
* repair windbreak wall
* finish cutting meadow (need to cut it, even if I don't make hay and instead just use the grass for a massive pile of compost)
* small garage removed (booked someone for the 4th!)
* get quotes to replace stable roof
* get back in touch with national park geezer about woodland and arrange a visit
By the end of 2020
* rain garden/bog complete
* stable roof replaced
* decision made about woodland
* make monthly garden/harvest plan for next year

 MONEY
September
* add payrise to mortgage payment
* add extra £200 a month to mortgage payment
By the end of 2020
* wait til strike deductions have finished and add another £100 (at least) to the mortgage payment 
* see if I can make at least another couple of hundred on MB and send that to mortgage too. On a mortgage mission now! 

So there we are. The rest of this year (and, let's face it, the rest of my life ) are focused on sorting this dilapidated, higgledy piggledy place out and making bits of it usable. I confess I've been quite overwhelmed lately by the amount that needs doing,  and I'm being very frustrated at being tired and a bit stiff this week, and with the rain, for hindering my outdoors efforts at least. Most vexing. Everywhere I look things are falling down, falling over, breaking, overgrown, full of water etc. 

Need to take a leaf out of some other people's books - I think it's you Vix with your lists of MSE activities and gratitudes? And PP with her list of small steps towards freedom and happiness?? I think I'm going to list daily things I'm doing to move towards meeting these things...

Cheery_Daff

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the other categories are a lot more straightforward:

HEALTH AND EXERCISE
* stick to Joe Wicks plan and walk the virtual London Marathon in October

FOR ME
* make sure I take a day off work every month

FOR US
* cycle to a local cafe
* at least one night away this year
 * BOOK A BL**DY HOLIDAY for next year so we can't put it off again (it's been five years, aarrgghh!)

Then some work goals that I won't bore you with, and an intention to get all my Christmas presents sorted by the end of November, which I have every year and have never once achieved  

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

* bedroom ceiling fixed (there's a massive hole where the chimney was)
That's going to do a lot to make the place warmer!
* make monthly garden/harvest plan for next year
I'm going to do that next year.
 * wait til strike deductions have finished and add another £100 (at least) to the mortgage payment 
* see if I can make at least another couple of hundred on MB and send that to mortgage too. On a mortgage mission now! 

Woo hoo!

I confess I've been quite overwhelmed lately by the amount that needs doing,  and I'm being very frustrated at being tired and a bit stiff this week, and with the rain, for hindering my outdoors efforts at least. Most vexing. Everywhere I look things are falling down, falling over, breaking, overgrown, full of water etc.

My brother said exactly this when I showed him the garden ... I didn't mention that it was looking 100% better than this time last year ... you'll get there.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC  we will indeed get there! Or rather, I'm not sure we'll get to the point where everything is 'finished' (outdoor work is like housework, after all, best seen as an ongoing process than a thing to be 'finished') but we're definitely making progress. A couple of friends have said that when they've visited this summer actually - one hadn't been for two years, and she was amazed at how different the place looked. The other one had been a few months ago, and even she noticed all the things we'd been doing. So - progress.

Not much progress today mind you. Went to the DIY shop for paint/varnish etc, but their range was both rubbish and expensive (gosh I do miss living near Wickes!!) so we just had a small squabble then left 😂 We did go to the cafe though on the way home, got our favourite table, had a free cuppa as our loyalty stamp card was full, and of course it's the last day of the half price scheme, so we each got a drink and I had a bit of flapjack for the grand total of £2.08. Bargain!


Home now and the sun is shining so straight back outside I think - my new motto is going to be 'just take the next step forwards' or 'any progress is progress' or something equally twee 😂

themadvix

James Clear (who I follow on Instagram, can’t remember where I picked him up from 😂) posted the other day:

 It’s better to do less than you hoped than nothing at all. No zero days.’ 

I thought this was a really good way of looking at it - small steps are better than none. Not that you ever seem to do ‘none’ Cheery! 

Love the lists - just envious as we’re so in limbo at the moment... 

Cheery_Daff

Small steps are indeed better than none! And I well remember that house moving limbo time... and not fondly either! But it will end eventually, hold o to that thought!!

Well I have been ignoring my own rule about no digging etc today... replanted the sloe bush, shifted a load of soggy hay, and started dismantling a collapsed wall... will I never learn?? Apparently not...

It's becoming increasingly clear that I'm just NOT going to be able to make any more hay though - it's just not drying quickly enough. I've turned it all again today, and been out this evening and it's still damp. Tomorrow is fine, but then it's raining again. 

However, all is not lost. After all, while wildflowers and wildlife habitat would in the olden days have been a byproduct of making hay, I am doing it the other way round - I'm making a wildflower meadow and wildlife habitat, with hay as the byproduct. So my attention needs to be not on making perfect hay (which I have limited use for) but in cutting the grass and removing it from the field. 

So as of now, I'm not even going to bother spending hours turning it hoping for it to dry out - I'm going to spend that time scything, and then the next time someone visits I'll rope them into helping me rake it all off into a giant pile somewhere, where I'll slowly use it as mulch and let it rot down. Far more use to me as soil fertilizer anyway. 

May not seem like much of a revelation, and I've not just had it this afternoon, but it's helped me decide not to keep turning the stuff that's nearly dry.

Right - tea!

greenbee

That makes sense cheery. I'm scything purely because I want the wildflowers, so need to clear the ground in a way that strimming wouldn't do. Then I'll rake with a spring-tine rake to remove as much as I can, and then run the mower over it (hopefully it's short enough) and leave the yellow rattle - which is finally getting going - to do the rest. 

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like we're both taking a similar approach greenbee - sensible us! You've reminded me I harvested some yellow rattle seed last month, need to get sowing it and trampling it in as I go along. We've got some, but it's just in a few patches across the field so I'm trying to help it spread. 

So - progress today
HOME
* tried (and failed) to buy wood oil  

GARDEN AND LAND
* scythed a strip of field
* two wheelbarrows of hay onto windbreak as mulch
* started dismantling wall
* moved sloe bush 

MONEY
* got a free cuppa plus half price discount in the cafe
* very nearly bought a diary to start the new academic year but talked myself out of it - existing diary runs til January anyway

Have also prepped breakfast and got clothes sorted for first day back at work tomorrow. Don't entirely feel like I've had a satisfying time off but still, I've done some nice things and achieved some house and garden stuff so it'll do

South_coast

Cheery, you've done LOADS while you've been off! Remember it was a holiday, don't beat yourself up too much!