Cheery's country living adventure

beanielou

So sorry about the difficult day.
Hope today is much better.

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all, glad to hear we're not the only ones who have unglamorous phone picnics 😂😂

Today has been better, thank goodness. Had a couple of virtual meetings - one in the office, then I walked to a friend's and did the second meeting at her house so we could go straight out to lunch 😊 Had a nice healthy lunch in a cafe,  another cuppa at hers,  then came home, let the chickens out, and lit a fire and cooked tea outside. Just came in, the moon shadows are strong out there and it's lovely 😊😊

Progress in the kitchen. Yesterday's offending wall has been removed and half replaced 🙄 More plasterboard is on, they've drilled a hole through behind the toilet to run the water pipes (didn't realise they were doing that today, had to hastily clean and clear the bathroom this morning!) They've made the bedroom doorframe wider as requested, and bizarrely boarded half the loft hatch so the ladder doesn't come down - but it's a MASSIVE hole which has never had a hatch cover, so I suspect they're wanting to ask if we want a smaller hole, and have left it so we can see what it looks like, which makes sense. 

Wage slips are out, and it's a whole month at my new wage, plus £60 backdated uplift for last month. Works out that we've got £240 to go to the kitchen fund, which is more than I was hoping, so I've transferred that over, plus a pathetic £2.20 rewards from the bank (you get more the more you use your debit card, but I've been trying to maximise use of the credit card which is currently on 5% cashback).

Kitchen extras fund now stands at £4536.75, which is (I think) 60.5% of the £7000 we're aiming for 😊😊 Getting there!

Extras we're expecting soon

- Mr Cheery's final SEISS grant
- September MB (currently at £83)

Hmm, that's probably it. Oh, and Mr Cheery's MB, which we can't start til his card arrives which it hasn't, must investigate...

Cheery_Daff

My third Free Friday! Woo hoo! 

Got up and went swimming, although I had a counselling appointment booked at 9am so I had time for literally 6 lengths once I got in there 😂 Made myself go anyway to try and get into a routine. 

Came home after counselling, had a chat with the builders (and fortunately managed to head off a small misunderstanding which has now been rectified) and strimmed much of the garden. 

Drove to a local town, met Mr Cheery for lunch, had a wander round the charity shops, didn't find anything. Left Mr Cheery waiting for a phone call from the docs at 3pm - he decided to just sit in the car and wait so he didn't risk either not being able to pull over (we were in separate cars) or going out of signal on the moors. 

I went to the usual cafe... and 2.5hours later he was still sat in the car park waiting for the doc 😮😮 after an hour he'd rung the surgery, but sadly the doctor had rung him at exactly the same time and left a message saying she'd call back later, so he had to just sit and wait again. I rang the surgery (so he didn't miss her again), and he finally got his phone call at almost 6pm 😮

Fortunately doc was nice (and apologetic) and he's managed to get a face to face appointment with her for next week, which is what he wanted. What a palaver! 

Made our first meal from the MSE discounted Hello Fresh box today, it was nice! And, as promised, very easy 😁 Logged in to chose next week's recipes, but it was flagging my payment was declined. I know - it was after the card was hacked, but I was sure I'd switched it to PayPal since then. Tried switching tomorrow PayPal again and it kept saying it was still declined - going to try on the laptop later instead of the phone.

Nothing else to report. Builder reckons most of his work is done, and next week will mostly be the plasterers, then we'll be ready for the kitchen! 😮 Not sure the kitchen will be ready for us 😂 but we should all be done, electrics and skirting boards and everything, by the middle of October apparently. Very ready for it all to be over and done with! 

Savingtomove

Wow cheery what a amazing adventure your life in the country is!  I have been reading out diary while up with my children in the night and love all the chicken and house antics! 

We are looking to move to the country next spring so I will be following your progress with interest!!! 

Cheery_Daff

Savingtomove said:

Wow cheery what a amazing adventure your life in the country is!  I have been reading out diary while up with my children in the night and love all the chicken and house antics! 

We are looking to move to the country next spring so I will be following your progress with interest!!! 

Ooh, exciting! Hope you've not lost too much of your life reading all my waffling 😮😂😂 Do you know where you're moving to yet? Have you lived in the country before? Do let us know more! 

I was up early and met a running pal for a jog round the park at 8am 😮😮 then a cafe with another friend, and she came back here and has gone away with some old bits of chicken wire and some flower seeds.

I've just put some washing on, but not really sure what to do with the rest of the day! I mean, there's plenty to do 😂  ut the weather is nice, so it might be nice to be outside... need to plant out leeks, dig up the caterpillar ridden kale etc for a start... Oh and find where the rats are hiding behind the chicken run - fun and games 🙄🙄

Savingtomove

Hi Cheery 

we haven’t settled on a area yet.  My husband works in South Yorkshire but I’m self employed and take referrals up to two hours away so can flexible.  We had a drive round East Riding today and it was really lovely.  We are also considering Peak District and North Yorkshire so haven’t really narrowed it down 😂

we are hoping for 5 acres or so but need to finish our current house off and get saving!!!! 

8am jog is very good going!! We have been out this morning for a little drive round and now just chilling with a cuppa and massaging the dogs ears while she has a snooze!! 

Cheery_Daff

That's quite a wide search are you've got there 😂😂 Mind you, we had 'within an hour of Sheffield' which gave us plenty of choice and which we did eventually manage. I'm sure you'll find somewhere lovely with that much scope for looking!

Karmacat

That size of property sounds so wonderful to me - so much scope for whatever you want to do.

Cheery, your use of the phrase "drove to local town" made me think of our experience today: my brother's driving a rental car during his visit, and the satnav is on *the* most peculiar settings - it might be "geographically direct", I suppose, but it kept taking us away from "A" roads onto single track lanes with passing places.  And yesterday, it tried to make us drive down a bridleway, I kid you not  it was very odd.  Fun, mind you 

Cheery_Daff

They are quite ridiculous sometimes, aren't they?? 😂😂 Our postcode doesn't lead to our house which is most vexing as there's no way of changing it - you have to drive past our house sign, but invariably people are too busy watching the road, especially if they're on their own. I've found the What 3 Words website most useful for getting people here! 

Cheerful day today. We nipped to a nearby town and managed to get a few kitchen related bits, and then some friends came over for lunch. The sun shone! Are the initial showers which soaked my washing, of course 🙄 Mr Cheery and one friend did some musical stuff, and me and the other friend dis some scything and turning of hay. I don't have ache now though! But we had a good tidy up this morning so the house is nice and tidy. 

Picked some blackberries this afternoon, so will get them into the freezer shortly, and also got some calendula in the dehydrator (finally!!) so I'll be able to make a little bit of calendula balm, even if not much. 

We've got all the wall lights we need for both upstairs and downstairs now which is good. And we managed to get some cement, so Mr Cheery did a bit of reinforcing the chicken run. Friends brought 2 pizzas with them, but I'd already made pasta, so one has gone in the freezer for later in the week (and we have some leftover pastries too, which is never a bad thing).

What will this week bring?? The building site should start to look significantly different with most of the week being plastering 😮 At the minute it still looks like a building site, albeit one with more electrics than it did have. But hopefully by the middle of next week it will all be plastered and ready for the kitchen 😮😮

No other real plans except the dentist on Wednesday 🙄

beanielou

Have a good week to come