Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

debtfreewannabe321 said:

Ah thank you I've screenshot that and will write it in my notes to remind myself what to do (and it's name so I can research this 😁)! I will try it on my new lilac tree I just bought! X

Glad I could help   

dawnybabes said:

Love clean bedding day ! I got mine out on the line yesterday - every time I rolled over last night I smelt fresh bedding.  When agent millionaire arrives I will be having clean bedding put on daily by my housekeeper 🤣🤣🤣

It's on my list too!   

KK

KajiKita

It’s been a curate’s egg of a day …

In good news:
- Customer came in this morning and we battled through 12 samples including remaking one fail as we were on the run! Scanned all the reports and relabelled them all - it was an act of concentration to do this on a Friday afternoon! 😉
- I have hit 12K steps today already (my back is feeling all this walking this week, mind …)

- My boss agree to me finishing earlier today as I started at 7.30am to open up and set up all the samples. 

- Came home via my local plant centre and bought lots of lovely seedlings and plants. I have a happy weekend of planting and pottering coming up 😊🌱
- Managed to pick up my prescription, so that’s a job I don’t have to do tomorrow 👏 Also found some insect repellent bracelet things that people have spoken about on here and sound quite good, plus an ammonia based insect bites pen that I have never tried before. I am equipped for battle! 😉😂
- My friend who broke her femur had a really good physio session today and is starting to talk about going home in a couple of weeks - I am so proud of her, she has worked so very hard. 

- Grocery shop has come in under budget today 👏
- Dishwasher is here and arrived quite late in the day so Mr KK got most of a working day in before coming home.
- Mr KK spent the time at home working on the oak for the bench and is saying we might be able to sit on the refurbished bench on Sunday afternoon 😊❤️


In not so good news:
- Tree surgeon has come today to thin the crown of the Japanese Maple and has absolutely butchered it … 😳😢😢😢 I am gutted. It looks utterly dreadful. He’s thinned it a bit but the main thing he’s done is to reduce the height of it so it looks like a lollipop now - I wanted to see THROUGH it not over it!! He hasn’t even removed some of the ugliest branches and some of the ones that are touching / rubbing … argh! 😭 I can’t bear looking at it 😭

KK

Sallyforth

That’s beautiful @Sallyforth 😊 Is that thyme in the back of that corner bed by the steps

Afraid not - it’s pretty old aubretia I’ve trimmed back radically!

I have plans for herbs in various pots in a few weeks along with a riot of colours in hanging baskets and more pots - my outdoor space is tiny!

Brie

sad to hear about the maple.  it's hard to sync with other people's visions of things sometimes.  

KajiKita

Brie said:

sad to hear about the maple.  it's hard to sync with other people's visions of things sometimes.  

Thanks Brie. It’s a real shame as he did a good job in the apple tree pruning and the removal of the half dead viburnum under the JM - if I hadn’t known it was there before I wouldn’t have known he had done the job. So he’s a good workman but has zero aesthetic sense. 

I collapsed into sobbing about it over dinner last night and Mr KK said why don’t we do all our own pruning in future. I explained that I knew how and where to cut but that I don’t have the strength. Mr KK then says well I will do it if you tell me. I then had to explain that we had tried that before but he doesn’t listen to me about the mechanics of pruning and every tree he’s worked has ended up with an ugly stub that is at risk or dying or infection. 

We are going to try again this morning. There’s a little bit of tidying on the JM to do - some ugly spindly things the tree surgeon left and then I will coach Mr KK on how to ‘see’ where to make cuts on trees properly. I seem to have an instinct for it that he doesn’t. 

I am still ragingly angry and sick feeling - partly with the tree surgeon because he put me off being here to help decide what to do but mainly with myself. It’s utterly heartbreaking. 

However, I can’t be in suffering with this to the extent I am, I haven’t got the energy, so here is a picture of Madame Chloe being comfy-wumfy after breakfast, on my bed for once! 😉❤️And yes, that belly is as soft as it looks 🤩



KK

KajiKita

Weather forecast for this weekend is good all weekend 🤩👏🌞

Loose plans include:
- much gardening including getting sprouted shallots and broad beans in the ground
- tidy up JM and the dead weediness below it where the half dead viburnum was - some of the leftover bark can go there
- ‘walk the job’ with Mr KK about the path around the house so he can start measuring up for stone slabs etc - this will be transformative both visually for the front of the house and in terms of keeping our feet clean and dry as we walk around the outside of it. 
- see if I have any more liquid seaweed feed somewhere - the greenhouse needs it and my last lot leaked out by the water butts when it fell over last week … 🙄🤷‍♀️
- 2 loads of washing on the line - happy sigh 😊🌞 Might take advantage of the weather and do some fleeces, scarves etc as well. 
- YNAB updates and possible OP
- out for dinner this evening for Mr KK’s final birthday celebration 🥳 Question: if the monarch is the monarch partly because they have two birthdays, what does that make Mr KK for having a week long birthday - an Emperor? 🤔😂😉❤️

KK

f0xh0les

A lucky man!!  Wouldn't he rather be a General? or a pirate?
Have you thought about the 'electrical tape method ' in relation to Mr KK and the lopping? You put two lines of electrical tape where you want the cuts, and he gets to cut between them... it is a bit
✂️ --------------- cut here ---------------- ✂️ 
but you get to stay in control and get the shape you want, the job gets done, and the colours are strong so you can stand back to make sure you are getting the right shape before he cuts🪚🪚.  You: Forewoman.   Him: Labourer 
Basic fix, but easier than shouting " not that one!!!! and 'not bl00dy there you f00l!!!'
Happy weekend.  

~FlowerPot~

Sorry to hear about the hacking of the tree. Some people just can't 'see it' the bloke probably thought he'd done a good job!
Hopefully you've manged to 'tidy' it up a bit. And it will grow, hopefully quickly, now it's warming up.
It's been really lovely outside today. I even had my sandwich outside, lush! 

Brie

You mention Mr KK not following instructions.....I hear that and see my OH not listening and when I say "cut this flush to the main branch" he ends up with a crunch about 6 inches out which just looks so bad.  And then there's words.  Ones that Chloe's too young to hear.  Sigh. 

That's why I hire gardeners.  They get it right or they get fired.  Think I've landed with some good ones currently.

Sallyforth

Chiming in with sympathies for the tree butchering and hoping you can coach Mr KK to help. My husband is completely useless when it comes to gardening or plants to the extent I have to place a supermarket living herb in a separate bag in the front of the car with me to save it being crushed under cat food and tins etc!