Cheery's country living adventure

try_harder

Sounds lovely and must be wonderful scenery

You will be super fit with all that exercise you do too

rtandon27

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

...Discovered I can get a residents' permit for the national park car parks :j £25 for the year, but then I can park in them for freeeeeee :money: Must be a new initiative, because they do a non-residents one too for £40 which I might have had before if I'd known about it...

oooooo - what a find! - must investigate, now that nicer temps are here, we will be increasing our hiking again!

ETA - turns out the bit nearest to us has free parking! - and discovered that we are just outside the area that considers us residents - imagine that!

Cheery_Daff

try_harder wrote: »

Sounds lovely and must be wonderful scenery

You will be super fit with all that exercise you do too

I was fit once :rotfl: Sadly three years of decorating/house moving stress has taken its toll and I am rather less fit than I would like

Still, went out for another run this morning, and I might tog up and go for a walk for an hour or so this afternoon, so there's still hope

Nothing much to report here. Need to go and update YNAB though...

Mr Cheery picked up a load of wood he's collected over the years from where it was being stored the other day, so is going to crack on and make us some more book cases :j

I've found five pallets inside an outbuilding that were hiding under a load of hay - hadn't realised it was that deep :eek: But that's good - I'm going to get out and fix them together to make compost bins this afternoon, and then get started composting the hay and save some for mulch :j That'll save me buying stuff in :money:

Also going to start composting our own food waste. I did this for years at the old house and it worked really well even in a tiny little garden :j But here I didn't have a bin set up, and it's been snowing so much I couldn't even figure out where to put one :rotfl: And we have a food and garden waste wheelie bin from the council. But I don't want to send all that goodness off to them :rotfl: So as soon as I get these pallets put together, I can start putting it all in there :j

Builder has been round today to cost up the work to replace the floors and knock a wall down :eek: Never had building work done before :rotfl: Reckons it'll only take a fortnight if all goes to plan, but we should allow another week in case it doesn't (in my head I'm allowing six weeks :rotfl: ) When it's done we'll have two more usable bedrooms :j and a giant kitchen that we can have a table in :j :j

Right - YNAB over a cuppa, and then back outside

Cheery_Daff

Crikey, quite shocked when I saw the bank balance :eek: Until I remembered the mortgage had gone out since I last looked :rotfl: :rotfl:

Also got annoyed with the council for taking the council tax out twice - until I realised they didn't take last months (didn't set the direct debit up til after the 1st last month, so they've taken a spare payment to cover since we moved in til 1st April). Fine - but I'd not realised and hadn't budgeted for last months... :eek:

Hey ho. Just trying to decide where to pilfer the spare from Got £100.67 sitting in the mortgage overpayments pot from some insurance that was refunded so I could just use that... Need to pilfer another £69 from somewhere too though - possibly the electricity pot as we got £50 free for switching :j but we're going to get a bill from the old firm to cover the first month we were here at some point so possibly not...

VERY grateful that this is NOT a crisis - it's just a matter of deciding which savings pot to pilfer it from Not like my first days in MSE :eek:

Also realised that I have a pot of money that my nan left me last year (£2k) which I'd earmarked for things that would make life more cheerful in the new house, but that I wasn't about to spend my own dosh on :rotfl: So far I've bought several of those things (including a greenhouse) but not transferred the money from that pot... So if I *did* do that, it would even things up rather.

Will have a ponder...

Downshifterella

Loving reading about your country adventures cheery daff!

Lovely to be able to move money around pots rather than being in crisis !

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Downshifterealla :j :j

Tis indeed lovely, and I am very thankful and don't take it at all for granted :j :j

Sadly my compost bin plans were thwarted - got outside to find the new greenhouse (plastic, from Wilkos) had succumbed to the wind and flipped completely on its head :eek: Seeds and pots scattered all the way up the driveway :eek: Greenhouse itself was still largely intact, with only one of the connectors broken, a miracle really :rotfl: Moved it all into a field and put the cover in the garage and will sort it out when my sister's here tomorrow :rotfl:

I did make a compost bin :j but then decided it might be best to put the greenhouse in the space I'd put it, so started dismantling it again. However, I then decided it might be best to put the greenhouse in the NEW place I'd started putting the compost bin... :eek: So I abandoned it all to come inside for something to eat and try to make a decision on paper, rather than lugging pallets and breezeblocks around a field several times :rotfl:

ZTD

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

So I abandoned it all to come inside for something to eat and try to make a decision on paper, rather than lugging pallets and breezeblocks around a field several times :rotfl:

Weren't you just talking about fitness..?

Cheery_Daff

ZTD wrote: »

Weren't you just talking about fitness..?

I was :rotfl: :rotfl: But I'm quite unfit at the minute, and it wouldn't do to overdo it :rotfl: :rotfl:

Karmacat

Wow! Loving the process of setting up a homestead! But sorry the greenhouse went sailing

So for things like where to site stuff, with the amount of land you have, it sounds like you don't need to worry about making sure the greenhouse is in the sun all the time. But how about wind direction and shelter?

And you have outbuildings. And hay. Deep piles of hay, with pallets underneath. I'm in awe, Cheery, I really am

:j:j:j

edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

I did make a compost bin :j but then decided it might be best to put the greenhouse in the space I'd put it, so started dismantling it again. However, I then decided it might be best to put the greenhouse in the NEW place I'd started putting the compost bin... :eek: So I abandoned it all to come inside for something to eat and try to make a decision on paper, rather than lugging pallets and breezeblocks around a field several times :rotfl:

Hello Cheery & Chums

I did have a good laugh when reading this Cheery, in fact I couldn't stop giggling about it. I could just imagine you moving it all again.:rotfl: I wasn't laughing about your greenhouse though because I know how that made me feel when my new plastic one took off up the garden all by itself. I no longer use that now for growing seedlings etc. I use it as a dry store for all our equipment since being given 2 more greenhouses.

When we moved here we inherited a greenhouse, a summerhouse and a shed. So rather that move it all about and have to move it again I put pen to paper and made a drawing of how we wanted our huge garden to look like. Many years down the line I still have that huge plan/drawing and have such pleasure unrolling it, pinning down the edges making it flat on the kitchen table and sitting there for a time with it. I even roll it up when I am finished and put the ribbon back around it in a bow. So do remember to keep yours as they are nice to look at again in later years.

Keep up the good work.

Edwink