Cheery's country living adventure

Karmacat

Fortune - thanks for that!  Back to the drawing board, I think.

Cheery - yes!  Getting used to not buying, its easy to do, isn't it!  Have a lovely anniversary though

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all

Well we got into the swing of extravagant spending worryingly quickly once we started Mr Cheery has gone down the route of buying many smaller things from lots of different places, while I seem to have spent loadsamoney in just a small number of places Goodness knows what the bank account is going to look like this month - I'm surprised I've not had a call from the fraud department about unusual activity!

Not even bought any food yet! Well, I haven't - no idea what Mr Cheery has bought I think we'll be going down the route of a supermarket order though rather than a Fortnum &Mason hamper, as suggested by my sister we've done ok going a little bit out of character, but that would be a step too far I think! 

Nothing else financial to report. I've worked all weekend trying to get these funding bids done - one is ready to send off first thing tomorrow (well, for internal approval, and then they'll submit it for me, so a few nail biting days still to come while I wait). I need to lose 61 words out of the other one (I never was very concise, but fortunately Mr Cheery was an editor in a former life and has already helped me lose 700 words) but that will have to wait til tomorrow as I can't see straight any more. 

Tree man has emailed a funding agreement for our trees - at least we've actually GOT that funding need to query a few things though, as there's no mention of maintenance (I'm assuming we have to deal with that ourselves), or whether we're committed to keeping the trees for a set number of years, or what happens if we sell the house. Need to email him really but work has taken priority so far and this evening I need a couple of hours off before I go to sleep! Will have to sort it soon though as I'll need to book the bloke to come and do it soon. 

That's it I think. Mr Cheery has been a trooper all weekend, making me tea and biscuits, and an excellent pie which have all kept me fed and nourished and my spirits up. 

New excitement today. I often have 'library ambience'videos on while I work, usually rain/storm/old libraries with candles (or Hogwarts ). I've grown to associate it with focusing, and now I have a second screen I can even sometimes keep the video on the screen. Today I discovered someone who has actually FILMED herself (well, her hands/desk) studying It is an absolute delight. I've just basically had a two hour video of her in a university library on the end of my desk today, seeing her highlighting articles, making notes etc like having a little study pal, but without the distractions of having to talk to them. I love it!

And on that note, off to do something that doesn't require thinking about work!

missymoo81

Super well done on getting the funding bids done cheery, I’m sure they will all be agreed! Well done on Mr Cheery keeping you going too. 

How are you holding up without your cafe trips? I’m very much missing mine! And I’ve even run out of milk today so no tea for me! 

Keep plodding on cheery! 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Missy! Second bid has been formally submitted today so much celebrating!

Can't believe you ran out of milk always shocking when that happens! We are just about holding up without our cafe It does keep us sane though and we do miss it. One day...

Not much to report today. Paid the car tax for the new car (£30) and the garage bill for the brakes (£220) They were an MOT advisory as well as being REALLY annoyingly squeaky so I'm counting it as part of the MOT cost. Not bad. 

Next lot of covid swabs done today for the research project so that'll be another £50 of vouchers at some point!

Karmacat

I love the idea of library ambience videos!  And they have Hogwarts ones?  Bliss  

Cheery_Daff

Yep, they have hogwarts ones - you can sit in all the different common rooms, or the tea shop, the pub, Hagrid's hut I mostly just sit in the library though! 

So. Both funding bids got submitted and I finished everything else by 5.30 so I am now OFF WORK til Monday, which is VERY EXCITING as I've just worked 17 days in a row without a day off

Slightly less exciting is that poor Rusty chicken is looking decidedly under the weather I think it's an egg issue - looks similar to what happened to Bessie a few months back. Poor little thing, ex battery hens often end up with egg issues, and our older chickens are almost three and a half now which is quite old for a rescue We've given her a bath to see if the hot water moves things along, and we've managed to get a vets appointment this afternoon. Not exactly what we'd planned for our luxury weekend but there we are! 

Had a quick check of the bank account this morning (with my hands over my eyes ) - we are still within what we'd allocated for our holiday at least... 

missymoo81

Well done cheery! I hope you manage a nice alcoholic beverage this evening to celebrate! I’m so sorry about Rusty, poor thing, must be so painful. I had chickens back in the day and I was always fretting about them! 

I hope the vet was able to help and I hope you manage a nice bath and a chilled evening.

ElmoR

Excellent achievement on getting those bids in, fingers and toes crossed for you now

Enjoy your anniversary celebrations and hoping Rusty recovers.

ElmoR x

Cheery_Daff

Thank you both xx

Can't believe I didn't write about our epic chicken fiasco on here! It's on the hen thread if anyone is super nosy. Suffice to say we spent 7 hours on Thursday in the car, with Rusty the chicken, driving 100 miles, seeing 2 different vets (because the first was crap). Ended up miles away at the only chicken vet we trust, she's had fluid drained from her abdomen, been given several injections, antibiotics, anti inflammatories, an ultrasound, and a hormonal implant. £300 in one day and she's going back next week  

Hey ho. We do silly things for our pets sometimes, even if those pets are chickens...

In other, less expensive news, I've signed the contract for our woodland grant, which I am both delighted and slightly daunted by. But it looks like it's going ahead now anyway, hopefully this year, but certainly this winter. Exciting! 

And I've made a slow fumbling start back into DIY again, painting the kitchen ceiling beams. Two thirds of the way there now with the first coat. I'll try to get the first coat done in the evenings this week (doesn't matter if it's a bit dingy for the first coat), then I'll do the second coat in the daylight at the weekend. Then I can start on the important business of fitting the insulation, hooray!

Nothing else to report. We are still waiting for a couple of parcels, but the speed and efficiency of most of them has reminded me to get ordering for Christmas! I'm certainly not going to be wanting to dawdle round the shops looking for presents, so online it is. My favourite bookshop has joined bookshop.org so that's a good place to start to give them a bit of income

And I must find a birthday present for my mum! I bought something on a whim a few weeks ago but it's MASSIVE and I can't put it in the post was hoping to visit but then we went back into lockdown, so it'll have to wait. And I'll get her something smaller to post in the meantime. 

Nothing else financial to report. We had another round of covid study swabs on Tuesday so will look out for our next set of vouchers. Printing the last lot helped - they'd been building up as they were so hard to find in my emails and the checkout! But now I've printed them we can just hand them over. Still got a bit of a backlog but they're just supermarket ones so they'll get spent. 

That's it I think!

Fortune_Smiles

Get well soon Rusty Chicken

Fortune x