Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Sixteen miles done on the bike, and I made it back before the heavens opened. It's pretty soggy now, so I'm inside, sitting down for a bit

The rain has reminded me that we REALLY need the gutters clearing - they are ALL blocked and water is cascading down in a way that will ultimately cause trouble, so I've found somewhere and will ring tomorrow. 

Have also emailed the builder - I've asked about moving the sink, and he's said he wants to visit again to look, and wants to do it before the kitchen geezers come, but he's busy Mon-Wed. Yawn. I've told him he can come any time this week. Hope this doesn't drag on too long! 

Going to try and get some more painting done this afternoon while it's raining. Sitting and watching Escape to the Chateau first for inspiration  

hb2

Cheery, I'm glad you managed your bike ride before the heavens opened!

No, we didn't go away without son as the whole point was to spend some time together, as we have missed out on so many family occasions over the past year or so. He got his 'test to release' result in the early hours of this morning so caught the train and we picked him up from the station at 10.45. He is planning to go back to London tomorrow evening or Tuesday morning (will work from here tomorrow) and we are trying to rebook a weekend away for September.

Cheery_Daff

Hope you've had a nice time with him hb, and that you manage to rebook!

Well today has been... well, I don't even know how to describe it, so I'll just tell you I spent 6.5 on Zoom doing a 'departmental away day'. Lots more I could say but I think it's better to move swiftly on!! 

We did sneak in a cafe trip at the end of the day (good job as I was quite grumpy by then), and I also managed to get someone to clean the gutters on Wednesday. £135 for the lot, and much needed as they're ALL blocked 😮 Might see if I can keep the leaves out of them for the compost 😂

Trying to get back into the habit of writing a little evening list so I don't just let the time drift. Still left on tonight's list is

* 10 mins tidying by back door
* 10 mins putting clothes away upstairs
* banks/YNAB
* paint 3 ceiling panels
* water tomatoes and shut greenhouse door

Cheery_Daff

YNAB done and banks reconciled - all fine, although I did notice the AA membership money has gone out, and my promised £35 refund hasn't materialised... 

On the other hand, I ordered my nephew's birthday present twice and they seem to have refunded one but only taken one (meaning that so far, I haven't paid at all). Will keep an eye on that too.

Oh, and the cakes I ordered to the wrong house - the cafe seem to have only taken one of those as well, which was nice of them - although it seems they may never have reached their first destination anyway, so it might just have been the same cakes delivered twice 😂

Right, off to check on the tomatoes...

Cheery_Daff

Spent ages sorting out the greenhouse in the end - had a complete amnesty on dead plants and broken pots and everything is looking a lot better in there now. 

Bit if a disrupted day (again) today. Well, a work online event all morning (my presentation was quite well received which was good). But some blokes turned up trying to sort out a drainage issue on a local path - they did lots of wandering around our fields, and blocked our lane with a van and a big truck - blocking out the postie and a couple of delivery drivers 🤨 the local farmer managed to collar one and take the chicken feed off him, but the other will have to come back tomorrow, bit annoying. 

More annoying is that they put dye in the water to check where it was running - apparently it goes to our cow trough, and the well in our cellar 😮 I'm happy to have work done on the fields if necessary to restore the path, but I'm not volunteering to have the water diverted into our actual house 😮😂 

So it looks like that will be yet another thing to sort out and liaise with people about... Yawn.

Anyway. Gutters people are coming at 8am tomorrow 😮 and I've realised they're going to struggle with the back of the house unless I clear some of the waist high grass so that's a job for my evening alone tonight 🙄 just off to pick up a prescription from town. New car is at the garage tomorrow for its check up (fingers crossed there's nowt actually wrong with it) and we're going to see the workshop of the kitchen geezers on Thursday. Busy busy! 

Will do some evening planning later (although it might consist mostly of scything and strimming!)

hb2

Cheery - 'busy busy' seems to be the recurring theme for you, doesn't it?!

What is YNAB please?

We had a lovely couple of days with son (and heard a bit about his new young lady), he went back to London on the 8.00 train today. We have booked a weekend in Bath for the 3 of us in September.

Cheery_Daff

Busy busy certainly does seem to be a recurring theme! I'm sure I bring a lot of it on myself... 🙄😂

Glad you had a nice weekend. I think I've only ever been to Bath once, many, many years ago with an old boyfriend (who did some fire-breathing busking which paid for our tea 😂😂).

YNAB is You Need A Budget- a completely unnecessary but I think rather nifty budgeting software which I've been using for a few years now. Based on the principle of starting with the amount of money you have, and allocating each pound a job as it comes in, whether that be gas bill or saving for new kitchen. I like the app (although I don't always use it...) and the way you can easily shift money around, and that it tells you what you budgeted and spent in each category each month, and you can look at reports for the last year etc.

I'm sure there are free things that do very similar but for me this is worth the £3 a month or so. 

I've collected my prescription - Mr Cheery and I had a quick cuppa in the cafe before going our separate ways, and I stayed on for a sneaky extra cuppa once he'd gone 😁 back home now and knocking up a risotto.

Plans for the evening

* eat risotto
* take chickens a bed time treat
* scythe a bit round house for gutter cleaners
* flylady home blessing hour to restore some order
* blog post
* bit of yoga

That's quite ambitious enough I think!

rtandon27

Cheery - for some reason, the thought of a fire breathing dragon for a boyfriend has left me in a fit of giggles!

I'm sure that is not what you actually wrote but that is definitely the image that has implanted itself in my head!

@hb2 - another fan of YNAB here - but I love the online version more than the app! - it has most recently helped me to visualize and budget for a house - but back in the day when we still had debt it helped us cut back on everything that was unnecessary. I second that it is well worth the annual subscription.

Cheery_Daff

😂😂😂 He didn't breath fire very often, thank goodness - apparently it gives you a dreadful hangover.... 🙄😂😂

I just use the app for adding what I spend on the go (when I remember...). I do all the reconciliation and budget fiddling on the website (much easier when you've added stuff as you go - especially if you're a fritterer like me and spend lots of small amounts!)

Right, the evening is running away with me. I have

* taken treats to the chickens
* scythed behind the house
* scythed a path through the field so they can get to the other bit of the house (although the heavens opened before I finished so there's a bit to do in the morning)
* written a blog post
* had a chat with my sister
* eaten my risotto

Actually, that's not bad - home blessing hour (or nearly hour...) and ten mins of yoga and that's everything! 

Right - ready, steady, GO!

Cheery_Daff

Right, all done bar the yoga, and I want a sneaky bit of time watching some TV before Mr Cheery gets home in 40 mins so yoga is being abandoned. 

But I've changed the sheets, hoovered, dusted, done the washing up, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, emptied all the bins, and cleared some of the rubbish and detritus that had accumulated by the back door so I'm counting all that as a success! 😁😁

Gutter geezers coming at 8am tomorrow so I'll get up early to make sure I'm dressed 🙄 Hoping they'll be happy to wade through the long grass so I don't have to do any more scything but suspect it's not likely... then I must remember to take the car to the garage - ot's going to be very easy to get sidetracked and forget!