Returning to MFW, my elusive unicorn!

coldcazzie

Weather looks good today too! Looking forward to butchering the currant bushes!

coldcazzie

Grogged said:

I've only ever had one house with a garden that long. We did what most other neighbours did at that time, fenced it off at a more manageable 30 foot.
Sad, but true. 😟
My only (poor) excuse is that we were young and had other priorities, plus a small terrace house was all we could afford at the time...  How times change.

You're allowed to have been a different person back then  

Well we did indeed clear some garden, but a much smaller section than either of us hoped and we were once again reminded of just how horrifically overgrown it all is on the other hand, I think I'm in love with this shredder, and we have a solid plan for the new coop and how it fits in with our already existent plans.

I'm knackered and ready for bed, but I'm going to try to get a bit more CPD done before I turn in.

coldcazzie

TT today of £20.47 bringing OP total to £375.72, which is 75.14% of target 66% of the way through the year!

Rang the window company to query what was going on. They were very surprised to hear from us and that we hadn't had contact from anyone, so we must have fallen through a crack 🙄 we now have the fitting arranged for the 15th. However, in trying to take out finance for some of it we discovered we could only pay for 50% up front when taking our finance, and the finance must be over 12mos, as the finance company have withdrawn the longer options "in the current climate". (I'm coming to hate that phrase!) This means payments of £92.something pcm for the next 12mos but the flip side is it means we have a bulk lot of savings that we can use to address the chicken run changes that are needed, without worrying about the fact that we're dipping into door money. It is not ideal, but on the other hand, 0% interest, and we get our new door before the winter, so...

Chickens are doing much better today (relatively speaking - one is still much worse than the other, but better than she was). I am not worried about their survival now, just their happiness!

Grogged

Yay Chickens! and I think Yay(ish) windows and Yay door!

Hazelnutty

Garden shredder sounds amazing and am tempted to research them! OH bought an incinerator bin thing in Lidl at the weekend and is loving it so shredder might be phase 2 of taking control of the garden (which will be a major effort once the building work is done.

coldcazzie

Hazelnutty said:

Garden shredder sounds amazing and am tempted to research them! OH bought an incinerator bin thing in Lidl at the weekend and is loving it so shredder might be phase 2 of taking control of the garden (which will be a major effort once the building work is done.

DO IT!!! Although, they didn't have any left when I went back to get more gardening gloves, but definitely worth researching and buying from somewhere else. Honestly, AMAZING. I took some pictures for a friend, I started with a pile of brambles and currant branches which was about 4x2x2 foot, and ended up with about half a bag of shreddings. The bag that fits on the bottom is just over 12x12x18 inch. I'm not keeping anything with bramble thorns in (ew) so all of it has gone in the garden wheelie bin, and in 2 days I think I emptied the bag (at about 2/3rds full) maybe 4 or 5 times. Plus we mowed the lawn, and other things. Usually, something like that pile would have to be cut up with secateurs into little pieces and would quickly fill the garden bin, and then some extra garden bags which we would have to take to the tip, and it would all be a lot of unnecessary extra work. Needless to say, I'm pleased!

Yesterday we moved paving slabs but not much else. Today I dug out some bramble roots (one of which was an interconnected mass about 2 foot long?!), and moved a few logs/rocks/the old wheelbarrow which had a frog living in the sludge at the bottom (whoops), but then got rained off about 1pm. I did go to Dunelm and pick up some hook&loop and some pvc fabric to attempt to make a chicken nappy. It's not bad for a first attempt (in my opinion, Hattie was deeply unimpressed with me!), but the design definitely needs some tweaking!

Big Small is officially starting college on Monday morning, and she is going for a hair cut in preparation on Friday.

H~M~R~C have finally decided how much tax credits we're receiving...... except it's less than they originally said they were going to allocate us when they thought she was leaving education. How that works, I really don't know! Spoke to a friend who did not have anything nice to say about them at all and she suggested I ring and make sure they've not c0cked up, so that's one of my jobs for tomorrow (as well as ringing the vets, which I STILL haven't done). Honestly, this is not the time for a substantial drop in income.....

coldcazzie

Rang the vets. Invoice was correct but badly written. Drugs cost a grand total of £6.56, which I'm very impressed with. This is now paid and money transferred from the pets account.

coldcazzie

Rang HMRC. Details are correct, but apparently I need to give it longer to do the calculations needed. The fella empathised and reassured me that it would be sorted but takes more time. So I'm throttling back for the time being lol.

Chickens are now in the shed. I've bought more puppy pads because they can't be on anything dusty while they've got open wounds, and also popped into Asda and found that they now have "no sweetener" cordial, which I am thrilled about!,  bought some so that I can start Mary on these abx. Hoped they wouldn't be necessary but her back wound is looking off so, drugs it is! The blackcurrant cordial helps it go down as it apparently tastes horrible.

It's 3pm and I feel like I've been doing stuff all day but have very little to show for it?

Soup and crusty rolls for tea tonight.

It's Thursday, right?! I'm losing track.

Grogged

I'm sticking with meh?day, until the real ones come back...

coldcazzie

😂😂😂 you may be on to something there G! Real ones start on Monday when Big Small has to be in college at a set time! gonna be a big culture shock I reckon!