Cheery's country living adventure

Jessy103

Happy New Year, cheery! Wishing you all the best for 2021 ❤

Cheery_Daff

Thank you lovely folks, and happy new year to you too!

We stayed up, but then we're usually still up at midnight anyway. Had a lovely evening on the sofa with the Christmas tree lights and some 1920s music making us feel like we were somewhere interesting In fact we were still awake at 2.30am so I'm quite tired now  

We had a nice chat about things that had happened last night, and it made me realise I don't think I've done a round up of 2020 in here yet. I'll try to keep it brief! 

GARDEN & LAND
* built a fence and created our new veg patch!
* actually grew some proper crops for the first time (kale, turnips, chard, leeks) - I have high hopes for 2021!
* got our woodland creation grant and had 1000 trees planted
* got 3 new chickens, and made lots of improvements to their run
* had a small asbestos garage removed
* arranged to have the stable block roof redone, just waiting for weather/time
* scythed more than half the meadow by hand
* Mr Cheery built us an outdoor shelter and it has been SO good to have a dry place to have visitors

EXERCISE & HEALTH
* joined a running group at the start of the year, did the couch to 5k (for the 87th time), and we've met occasionally, sometimes just two at a time, when we've been allowed over the summer
* lost a stone, then put it back on again
* had a lovely time doing lots of early morning cycling in the summer

MONEY
* did the sums and claimed Mr Cheery's work pension
* overpaid the mortgage (although I can't remember the exact figure now - just over £4000 I think)

OTHER CHEERFUL THINGS
* had our first trip to the ballet! 
* met up with people where we could, and even had some friends camping in the garden for a night over the summer, and done plenty of video calls
* I've written a lot of letters this year

Overall I'm grateful for health, a stable job I can do from home, and space. 

There have been a lot of rubbish and difficult things too this year of course. For me, largely other people's illness, mental and physical. Work has been tough, and I would have liked the kitchen finished. We lost our final two original chickens early in the year which was sad. I've only seen my mum and sister once since March, and other members of my family not at all - and we've not seen any of them, or any of Mr Cheery's family, over Christmas. Mr Cheery's dad's neighbours both died of covid in the last few weeks, so that's five people we know dead now

But on he whole we've not had a bad time of it in this tough old year. I've been thinking about 2021 goals and plans, but I'll come back to them in a bit once I've had some breakfast and put the heating on!

Cheery_Daff

So, for 2021... 

HOME
* Finish the kitchen
* Finish the bedroom
* Stairs (carpet & plastering)

GARDEN & LAND
* Fix dry stone walls
* Mulch trees
* Get stable roof fixed
* Extend chicken run
* Make and follow planting plan
* Create 'rain garden' to divert water running down the drive

PHYSICAL HEALTH
* get to the end of Joe Wicks
* regular walks and stretching
* lots of standing up!

MONEY
* pay £1500 a month off the mortgage
* £30 a month in extra income

ADVENTURE & CREATIVITY
* Make cheese
* catch up with printing blog books
* make anphotibook of the last 5 years
* more regular flute playing
* multi-day walk or cycle ride

CONNECTION
* write lots of letters
* organize a couple of work days - people keep telling me to do this, and that they'd love to come and help with stuff, but I confess my perception is that I'd get far more done on my own than I would trying to organise visitors, refreshments etc so I'm going to test it out - once we're actually allowed visitors that is!
* encourage pals to come and camp! (No, I have NO intention of setting up a campsite!! But it was fun to have friends staying in the garden, and to cook and eat with them outdoors)
* Holiday with Mr Cheery! 

SELF CARE
* finish work by 5.30pm
* no internet before breakfast
* take a day off work every month
* solo trip every month - even if it's just a couple of hours in a cafe 

I've got work goals too but they're quite specific so won't post them here.

That all seems reasonably manageable - plenty of outdoor pottering which will mostly happen in the warmer weather, and the only big job really is the kitchen, which is going to be my primary focus. 

Of course, some of this will be subject to rules and global catastrophes - won't be sitting in a cafe in January I imagine - but I hope we'll be in a position to have visitors at some point during the year! 

I've already met one goal from several years ago - I've backed up my photos (all 21,000 of them!!) onto an external hard drive...

Right, bring it on! (As soon as I'm dressed )

Karmacat

Potentially very achievable, Cheery, and I think you've already started one or two, like the ceiling battens in the kitchen, and the chicken run extension?  Which is what I've done too only sensible, since in reality life is ongoing!  Enjoy your day.

Baileys_Babe

Wishing @Cheery_Daff and Mr C a Happy and healthy 2021 🥂

StrawberrySuze

Happy New Year Cheery and Mr Cheery, here's hoping it's a better one, bring on Spring I say 🐣🌷🍻😊

rtandon27

Happy New Year Cheery!

missymoo81

Loving the goals and what you’ve achieved in 2020. You’ve done so well and your 2021 goals are definitely achievable! Happy New Year and thank you for being so supportive over on my diary this last year x

Cheery_Daff

Hello lovely people, and happy new year to you all too! KC, yes you're right, I've already made a start on some things, woo hoo! Thank you all for popping by, and Missy you're welcome of course, you're always so supportive on here too! X

Nice day today! Some progress and achievements

* made and ate three Joe Wicks recipes
* made a batch of breakfast muffins to go in the freezer - enough for 12 breakfasts
* walked for an hour with Mr Cheery
* 20 mins of yoga
* finally backed up all my photos and documents off the laptop
* got a good way through an epic blog post linking back to all the blog posts I wrote last year - every year I swear I'm not going to do this again because it takes forever, but I always end up doing it because I've already done it for so many years
* finished putting up as many battens as I had wood for (the vast majority) and ordered wood for the rest - it'll be here Tuesday
* did some shuffling and overpaid £800 to the mortgage   Some set aside from elsewhere that wasn't used by the end of the year, and some to top up the monthly DD which I've not rung to increase yet.

Also had a couple of phone calls with family, and done a pot of sitting around watching old episodes of the Vicar of Dibley and reading Cou try Living magazine - utterly delighted that the local library has the magazine electronically and I can read it on the tablet.

So tomorrow? Snowing again apparently... but I'd like to do a few things

* lie all the plasterboard down flat - it's been propped against a wall for months and has warped slightly
* start bringing some insulation out of the outbuilding
* spend some time tidying the study ready to go back to work
* top up fire making supplies ready for Monday
* another walk
* finish epuc blog post
* maybe some yoga

We'll see - might do some more batch cooking for the freezer, might just laze around...

SeekingFlight

Love the 2021 goal focus, good job on the crops from 2020 i find growing things to be very soothing