Simple living in the country - back to basics

themadvix

Your chickens sound like they know what they're doing if the kitchen is cool! But I know what you mean about daft animals - our two have quite long coats but apparently our dining room (with full sun through French doors) is the place to be this morning.... I keep threatening to clip them - don't think they'd like that though!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, they know the kitchen is where the treats come from! 😂

Happy wheel done - I made £49.04 today which means I'm now at £258 for July which is very pleasing. Hoping to get over £300 - over £400 would be nice given the big win at the start of the month but we'll see.

Checked salary last night. We get put up an increment on the scale each August, so I've worked out what that would give me. Usually the scale itself is uplifted a bit, so I've worked out an approximation of that too. Obviously if I do get this promotion, I'll jump to the bottom of the next band on the scale, which isn't that much of a jump, as I'd be at the top of the current band next month anyway with no promotion, but it does at least mean I'll move up from there rather than being stuck.

Anyway, worst case scenario (no promotion, no uplift of scale) means about £59 extra a month, best case (promotion, scale itself uplifted) is approximately £150, so we'll see what actually happens. Should find out about both in the next couple of weeks.

Right, banks, and then I'd best move on to phone calls else they'll get off for the whole day.

Cheery_Daff

OK, banks done and dosh allocated. All good. 

Rang the pensions people, but Mr Cheery doesn't want to speak to them today because it's too hot and I was on hold for 10 mins so put the phone down - might as well just have one lot of being on hold when it's cooled down a bit 🙄 (it's actually perfectly cool in the house)

So not exactly being super productive here 🙄 going to put the radio on and get up the ladders to sort the ceiling out.

Hope you're all not melting too much!

Cheery_Daff

Well, what a palaver today has been! The chickens came in about lunchtime, and as we were hanging out in the kitchen (me up and down the ladders) they mostly stayed there, since it was SO much cooler than outside. 

I nipped out about 5 for a couple of hours, and we decided to keep them inside til I got back as it was still baking. Normally we'd shut them in their run before 6, but it was far too warm. I got back about half 7 and they were wildly protesting and trying to get outside to go to bed, and Mr Cheery was tearing his hair out having cleaned up far too much sh*t 😂

We've had their house door shut all afternoon and a frozen water bottle in there - that's brought the temp down from 30 this morning to about 25 🙄 We've shaded off all the sides to stop direct sunlight, I've now poured water over all the hard surfaces and a lot of the woodchip so it can evaporate, and we've cleared the top of the house and laid a couple of wet towels on there as advised by the British Hen Welfare Trust.

What a palaver. They were very pleased to get into their run - three of them had settled in a line on the sofa, clearly deciding they were sleeping in here tonight 😂

Apparently the main road through town has been melting and keeping hold of people's flip flops 🙄

Tomorrow is meant to be warmer!

Fortune_Smiles

I love the thought of a road stealing flip flips 😂

Fortune x

Karmacat

That's a fascinating post - I love the image of the hens lined up on the sofa and the road stealing flip flops will live forever  

Cheery_Daff

Sadly I've yet to see photographic evidence, and I'm not going over there myself for obvious reasons! If I find a photo I'll link to it, ai agree it does sound amusing (although very annoying if they're YOUR flip-flops!)

Checked on the chickens about 10. They're ok, a couple standing with wings slightly lifted from their bodies, which they do when they're hot. We added another bottle of frozen water, and them temperature in their house had got down to 22 degrees so that was good. 

I suspect we'll be fine - I generally run pretty cold anyway, and have had a hot water bottle every night for several years (including last night). Don't really need it to keep warm at the minute 😂 but having it seems to send me to sleep within seconds 😂

Mr Cheery rarely sleeps well anyway so tonight will probably be no different. The current (old) bedroom is in the coldest bit of the house - the new one is theoretically, but had a load of extra insulation when the builders were here and is now pretty warm. Good job we're not sleeping in there yet! 😂

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon all 😊 A perfectly ok night here - I slept pretty well, although have had a right sore throat today 🙄 Apparently I woke Mr Cheery up with my snoring last night so that might be why 🙈

We had half a plan for some friends to nip out for a cuppa today, but that's not happening. Instead yet more lazing around. Mr Cheery has created more shade for the chickens - they don't need it, there is PLENTY of shade, but he's shaded their favourite places so they can still hang out in those 😂 We're refreshing water regularly and throwing frozen blueberries in - they duck their heads in to get them which gives them a nice refreshing dip, like us bobbing for apples 😂

More ceiling pottering today. I WILL get to the end one day (soon!!) I promise 😂 The newer bits I did are much better, it's just the older pieces where the caulk etc needs tidying up. It does look so much better - one of those jobs that nobody notices you've done, but they'd definitely notice if you didn't 🙄

Kitchen is definitely the coolest place to be today. The postie looked very warm this morning - they're under instruction to go back to depot if it reaches 35 degrees - but that's 35 degrees in town, not in his car, which has no air conditioning 🙄 I did offer him an ice pop 😂

Right, going to finish this tea then get on with the ceiling, and hope this sore throat passes quickly 🙄

badmemory

My post arrived today before 11am as it did yesterday.  Normally after 1 pm.      What  stars they are!  I'm surprised they even delivered at alll.  Cos I am still melting.

Elisheba

Cheery_Daff said:

Hmm. Having spent quite a while clearing the assorted shelves and sh*te off the top of the worktop, and the worktop itself, and hoovering behind the machine etc, it occurred to me to try checking the filter first. 

Needless to say, I've never managed to remove it before, but I put more effort in and it came out - along with rather a lot of smelly water, several coins, bits of plastic, pieces of chicken corn, and a load of black gunk 🙄😂

Hope that's solved the problem. Mildly annoying because the filter is at the front of the machine, so I needn't have moved everything 😂 Going to do a trial quick wash to see before I put everything back...

Here's the filter in all its glory. Domestic goddess I am NOT 😂😂

Hi @Cheery_Daff
Nancy Birtwhistle says in her book Clean and Green that if you give the washing machine a good clean to start with, and then start using the homemade products to wash with (her washing liquid recipe is very similar to the Rhonda Hetzel one we have both made) then the machine should stop getting mould. It's something to do with all the chemicals apparently. Also leave the washing machine door and drawer partially open. Not much to be done about the filter getting filled with chicken corn though