Cheery's country living adventure

ElmoR

Popping by to give you a wave Cheery, from one drained academic to another! Am betting that the marathon semester, the different delivery and all that entailed will have drained even the most dynamic and perky of staff

Hopefully the tree planting and gorgeous country views with a veil of frost are regenerating you

ElmoR xx

Cheery_Daff

CathT said:

<sneaks in and waves>

Hello Cheery, I have made it to the end of your diary! You were
mentioned on another diary I read so popped over to yours, planned to skip through first and last 10 or so pages but found myself reading the lot.

I will be reading more regularly now but for now need to catch up on all the other diaries I am way behind on! 

Good heavens Cath, that's very impressive!! I know I do waffle on... lovely to see you though, and yes, do keep popping in! 

Popped and met two ladies from the running club for a run round the park this morning. We got SO wet it rained the whole way round but we did 5k and it was nice to see them again

Then me and Mr Cheery popped to a nearby market town, failed to get several things we went for, had an extremely boring trip round the supermarket, and came home cold, wet (again) and rather grumpy.

Been out this afternoon doing chicken run improvements, or rather fetching and carrying stuff from around the homestead and scratching our heads. Definitely wishing I'd made some kind of organised tool shed - that's on my list for next year... Attempted to start off a chicken dust bath within the run but the sand is rather damp. Hoping it will dry out... but if not I'll take it out again.

Rang someone about delivering woodchip on Thursday but they've still not rung back - it's actually quite difficult as most of them deliver on pallets and they won't deliver here because access is narrow and uneven. Might ring the farm supplies shop - I think I've still got time to get over there today if they've got some. I'd rather get it from the tree surgeon, but I don't have all week to wait to see if he rings back!

Nothing much else to tell. I had a shower earlier but am in high need of a bath. Also need to do dull things like washing, cleaning, cooking... yawn. 

Back later when I've both cheered and warmed up a bit!

Cheery_Daff

ElmoR said:

Popping by to give you a wave Cheery, from one drained academic to another! Am betting that the marathon semester, the different delivery and all that entailed will have drained even the most dynamic and perky of staff

Hopefully the tree planting and gorgeous country views with a veil of frost are regenerating you

ElmoR xx

Thanks ElmoR, nice to see you Yep, I an usually considered far too perky by my colleagues, but not at the minute... Not been this drained and exhausted for a long while.

Still, five working days til Christmas!! I am SO much looking forward to a rest...

Lula-Hula

Cheery_Daff said:

Lula! Hello! Welcome back lovely lady! Do pull up a chair under the fairy lights and tell us how you've been getting on. Utterly spiffing to see you

We finally put the Christmas tree up yesterday, and all our woodland trees have now been planted too! 1000 in total, including hefty stakes and tree guards, by one man, in a single week that also included quite a lot of WEATHER (including a couple of days of snow). Hats off to that man!

Awww thank you for such a warm welcome
I have found a chair and am now curled up with my fluffy blanket. 
I'm very well thankfully and now in my second month of my second bout of furlough ... which has led to a rather reduced annual income so I'm mostly pottering about playing with budgets and plans whilst my car is being serviced and mot'd and wondering if I'd benefit from some kind of a spending /saving diary to keep me in line!

Fantastic news on the tree planting and I do hope your chickens are coping with their new indoor life.

Cheery_Daff

You should DEFINITELY start up a diary again, loved your old one Get on the case!!

Chickens remain unimpressed, but we're doing our best. They're fine really, and getting plenty of treats. Tomorrow I'm going to sort them out some kind of container to have a dust bath in, and at the weekend I'll get woodchip for their run which should give them something more exciting than soggy old hay to scratch around in. Mr Cheery is on the case with their extension so hopefully that'll be ready before Christmas (hopefully well before Christmas, but I'm not holding my breath!)

Tired today. Six hours of zoom meetings, one after the other without a break - 9-11, 11-1, 1-3. There was a training session at 3 but I couldn't face any more so wimped out. 

Still, TWO DAYS left. I am both excited, and quite desperate because there just isn't enough time to do everything I need to do! But by the end of Friday I'm stopping, and everything will have to wait. 

17 days off!! And due to a happy arrangement of work closure days I only have to use 3 days of annual leave I am SO ready for a break. 

Not quite ready for Christmas though, although I'm getting there with presents! Just got to get something for my dad, and a few extra things for Mr Cheery and I think I'm done. Need to get a load of stuff in the post actually - can't get to the post office til Saturday but I don't want to start wrapping it then, will do a little bit each evening so I'm ready with a pile of parcels come the weekend

Cheery_Daff

Morning MSE chums

Finally got round to ordering a new screen protector for my phone today. The one I have is ridiculous- it doesn't quite go to the edges of the screen (why? It's for the right phone!) and over time has chipped at the edges to the point where I now have to turn the phone this way and that to see the edges properly. So a new one is winging it's way here now. 

Dug up some dry ish soil from the chickens' favourite dust bathing area and put it in a washing up bowl in their run this morning. Very glad I don't have neighbours as I did this in my dressing gown not completely sure it's dry enough, or that the washing up bowl is big enough, so will check later. I've seen them dust bathing in the top of plant pots though so if that doesn't work I'll find something else. 

Quite a nice morning out there, sun is shining, clouds scuffing across the sky. I'd love to get out for a walk, but didn't get my act together early enough and now there isn't time as I've got a meeting at 9.15. Two days to go!!

Had a reminder this morning that five years ago today I left my old job. Five years!! I was only there for 5.5 years, so soon I'll have been at the new one for longer. Still feel like I'm new here

Right, best get on I suppose...

rtandon27

Ugh -  a 9:15 meeting - how uncivilized! - lol - who scheduled that one?  Also love that you are counting down to your holiday!  

I've got an early meeting morning tomorrow at 9:30 which will be a challenge given that I normally don't even turn on my computer until 9:30 & don't ever do meetings before 10:30.  I'll be skipping the morning workout tomorrow - I'll need to actually comb my hair and put on some make-up and a proper blouse for this one as it is with external stakeholders! - Gone are the days where I was up by 5:30 and out the door by 7:30 - Already grumbled to my boss about the uncivilized start time and he laughed and pointed out he had nothing to do with the scheduling of this one!

Cheery_Daff

Hope you made it to your meeting RT!!

I finally finished work at 8.30 tonight and my goodness me I am SO glad! So tired! I celebrated by breaking into the Christmas cake Then an old friend rang who I'd not spoken to for a couple of years which was an excellent way of making me forget about work.

So now I have 16 days off It was going to be 17... but I have some early deadlines in January so for the sake of sanity I'm going back on the Monday rather than the Tuesday. Still, plenty of time! 

So obviously some time off needs an overambitious list of things to do Will start a new post, it's an epic list...

Cheery_Daff

* buy woodchip and dry sand for chicken run
* clear out manky hay and replace with woodchip
* sort out a better set up for boot dip
* make a bigger dust bath
* finish extension!
* buy rest of Mr Cheery's presents!
* buy final presents for other people
* wrap and post presents
* finish writing cards and letters and post them
* text local friend to arrange a walk next week
* finish making present bags
* drop urine sample off at docs on Monday
* tea and cake takeaway from favourite cafe!
* arrange a run with the running ladies
* change sheets
* get through all the washing!
* get the feckin battens on the kitchen ceiling
* at least some insulation & plasterboard
* make some family arrangements of some kind
* start regular exercise again!

That'll do for now

rtandon27

Wow Cheery!  Just reading your list makes me want to lie down

I did indeed make the early meeting - no option to miss it really - then got 2 hours of actual work in before the next one & then lost the will to live as I was soooooooooooooo tired - all zoomed out for the week!  Spent the rest of the afternoon reading documentation for our new & improved video-conferencing system which is optional at the moment and mandatory in January with then old one stops working!  Have had at least a dozen complaints about it's poor functionality, so thought I'd get my head around it before weighing in!  Who implements new processes over the holiday period? SIGH!

Today is PJ day, so I'm luxuriating over a cup of coffee and a yummy Christmas muffin (small cake really!)