Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Well of course they're closed too - although they didn't say that until they'd made me listen to almost two minutes of menu options, and told me off for not choosing one I've sent them a comments form through their website instead. Honestly, how difficult can it be to switch from a fixed direct debit to one that just takes money when we've had a delivery? I checked the date I requested it, and it was nine working days before the DD came out, so plenty of time! 

Grr. 

Anyway, after having plenty of time I am now (of course!) running late, and haven't even put the picnic in the bag yet. Eek! 

Cheery_Daff

Well I had a nice jolly day yesterday with a wander through the woods and a picnic sat on a wall with a friend Most jolly. We tried to pop into the charity shops near my old house (and her new one), and we did manage a couple, but there were queues outside most of them - including my old favourite one, in fact the queue for that one was so long we didn't even get in it!

I'm reading back on my old diaries on here at the minute and they're all full of 'just nipped round the charity shops...' - those were the days! (Gosh I miss those proper rolling smileys too...)  

Hey ho. Not much to report. I am SO tired at the minute. I got pulled into the Joe Wicks bandwagon by my sister and am almost 4 weeks into his 90 day plan, and while I'm eating well and not hungry, and doing all the workouts, I think it's just a bit more low carb than I'm used to (I generally eat rather a lot of carbs) and I'm wondering whether that's what's sapping my strength a bit... Looking at their facebook page it does seem that some people suit this bit really well, and some people suit the next bit better (which adds more carbs in, and which for me starts next weekend). Thank goodness! 

Of course, it might just be that I'm not 20 any more but still trying to act like I am So today for example I'm annoyed because we're off out for a walk up a big hill with some friends later, but I'd quite like to get a load of scything done, but if I do that first, I'll be too tired to go on the walk. Best to walk first, and scythe later if there's any energy left... 

Anyway, don't feel too sorry for me, I'm not exactly in a heap on the sofa. In fact I'm going to go and make a start on putting wood oil on the kitchen ceiling beams. Been far too sucked into reading old diaries to do anything useful for days, but seeing all my old lists get ticked off is spurring me into action!  

Haven't thought about No Spend Days for ages, but at the minute I probably have quite a lot of them, just because I don't pass the shops every day any more! So I might resurrect that old thing and try them again....

But first - ceiling!

Cheery_Daff

Gosh, that was a long old walk!! Good though I've had it on my list of new year goals to walk up that hill since we moved here so it's about time really! Not sure how far we walked, I'll work it out later, but we were out for four hours so a fair way, and plenty of UP

So nothing much will get done tonight I'm going to clean out the chicken house in a minute, then shut them in, and then I might make another cuppa and lie on a blanket in the last of the sunshine with a book

Didn't spend anything though! Nothing to spend on. Not even diesel - we walked out the door and off down the footpath across our own fields took a picnic (just egg butties, nothing fancy) and we're home in time for tea

Might need a bath later though, and it's definitely going to be an early night (and no, there won't be any scything )

Cheery_Daff

Made the mistake of sitting down at the end of the garden and now I might have to just stay here all night 😂

rtandon27

LOL - Cheery that sound like a good plan!

themadvix

I wouldn’t move if that was the view!

Cheery_Daff

I did move eventually, you'll be pleased to hear - when the sun went behind the hill and it started getting a bit chilly, I came in for a nice hot bath (and then couldn't move out of there, so ended up rather wrinkly ) 

Didn't bother getting dressed after that, although that did mean I ended up going to shut the chickens in in my dressing gown, and then filling up their food bin in the outbuilding, also in dressing gown  

Got a cuppa now and a hot water bottle, and only doing sitting-down-inside things til bed now  

Cheery_Daff

Back again, little brain whirring round and round like a whirry thing  

Been reading back over my old threads, and realised I got to one point and was pretty organised (temporarily) I'd not long read the Getting Things Done book, and started applying it at work - and I still use it in some forms to this day and it works brilliantly. Never quite got to grips with applying it at home though... 

So I decided to do a bit of a brain dump of all my current 'projects' that are whirling round, and try to identify the 'next action' for each of them (in bold). Hmm... In brief... 

HOUSE
- Kitchen! (first main job is the ceiling - so first of all cleaning all the beams, then wood oil, then cutting and screwing up battens, then insulation and plasterboard)
- Bedroom (first main job, plaster the alcove so we can use it to store clothes while we do the rest - so finish sorting out all the clothes on the floor, store the boxes elsewhere, buy plaster, etc)
- chimney (first job prod Mr Cheery - he said he'd have a go at sweeping it before I called someone in as my attempt didn't work)
- (of course general ongoing tidying etc but this isn't about that)

GARDEN
- Veg plot (first main job is some harvesting, and either cooking or processing/dehydrating/freezing things as they're currently going to waste)
- bog garden (ish) - (first job move the stones that have fallen down, then dig a big hole, fill with hardcore, dig a drainage channel, find and lay some pipe, rebuild the dry stone wall, dig up the willow and move here)
- compost - (first of all need to dig up the mounds of turf we made when making the veg garden, which have now started to overgrow with their own weeds)

LAND
- dry stone walls - (first job is to walk the boundaries and do quick repairs on the top stones that have fallen off, then rebuild the massive hole that fell down in the field a couple of years ago - although that will wait til the cows have gone)
- tree planting (first job is get national park tree man here - need to check emails as he's coming either tomorrow or Friday)
- meadow (first job scythe as much as I can, then rake it all off, figure out where to put it etc. Let the cows in at the end of October if I've not finished!)
- new roof on stable block (first job prod farmer - he said he'd send round the guy who's doing some work on one of his buildings. He also gave me a number for someone else to ring, but I didn't want to ring him til the first guy had been)
- drainage (oh god, don't even know where to start, everywhere is a soggy boggy mess and I'm slightly concerned the septic tank drain is bunged up again - so I suppose first job is check septic tank overflow is running properly)


ADMIN
- cars! (First job - ring garage re MOT for old car tomorrow - hopefully take Thursday. Remember to make list of other stuff that's wrong with the damn thing. Then once that's done, sort out the other car - high pitched squeaking constantly while driving, and MOT due 17th Oct so perhaps we can do those things at the same time)
- LPG - (first job prod Calor re fixed price tomorrow - they keep leaving me messages telling me they have a fixed price deal, but not telling me what it is, then ring Avanti to sort out direct debit, and possibly swap to Calor)

OTHER STUFF
- marathon! (aarrgghh! First job is sorting out some walking boots - mine have come unstitched at the front and quite clearly aren't going to last. Then I'd best do some training  

Ha, no wonder my head feels like it's about to explode  At least I have my list of next actions now I suppose!!

rtandon27

Wow Cheery - that's quite some list & very well thought out! 

themadvix

I love the identifying next action step - that's really useful, I shall do that in future!

I'm enjoying your old diary too Cheery, although I can't believe that you could get a bus anywhere for 50p, even in 2010! Just shows that it's cheaper oop north!