Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

Merlin's_Beard

killerpeaty said:

Sadly I would not find the thing I was referring to. I would hate to send you a link to somewhere dodgy.

We were told that the cats need to be 3 weeks (maybe) from their last heat to get the op, but they're always on heat again. I don't get much say in it as I work the longest hours so that kind of thing is for the others. One of the cats likes to lick mum's hair though, it's very cute.

It might be worth double checking with your vet about that number because cats tend to have three week cycles, as you've noticed!

 @ArbitraryRandom eggs in many baskets definitely makes sense, I just haven't figured out how to do it yet! (or rather, I had figured out how to do it and then circumstances changed and then I hadn't)

 Kale has all pretty much been eaten by caterpillars, who are still populating the skeletal remains like the Lion King hyenas in the elephant graveyard. Will need to complete a small massacre tomorrow in the hope the kale can regrow.

savingholmes

I think you are doing the right thing Merlin with the pension option. There are lots of utubes explaining the difference between tax relief at source and the growth you get vs tax free money later. If you are lucky you will get a tax free lump sum and have some of the best of both worlds.

Merlin's_Beard

Quiet part of the month financially. Bought a lot of "organic soil improver" (manure, let's be honest) and spent yesterday weeding the garden and mulching it. Still got a bit to go but the back of the car was sinking under the weight so didn't dare buy more.

Petrol spends are high this month, but in aid of visiting friends for a gathering last weekend, so worth it. I'm never good at gatherings of people and I hardly knew anyone there, two massive points of anxiety, but I managed to have a good time.

Going to lunch with family today, but trying to squeeze in the end of the football (not normally my thing at all but for history....)

savingholmes

Well done on the garden and the socialising 

Merlin's_Beard

Spent most of the day trying to persuade myself to go on a run, finally made it (run 30/42 in a couch to 10k app).

Mad day of batch cooking because I've got a busy weekend ahead - managed to use herbs out of the garden which was satisfying if not very MSE on the whole.

For all I'm meant to be budgeting both garden and holiday, I've overspent in both categories. Pre-ordered some bulbs that will be delivered next month (£116/100 total in the garden category), and booked the Eurostar to head to Bruges in December (£122 return,£100 budgeted).

Hotel, train to London, all still needs to get sorted - the train I physically can't until the cheaper tickets go on sale, so I've got a reminder in my phone. And travel insurance as well which is more an asap job. Will probably book an annual travel insurance rather than one trip in the hope that I'm not waiting 4 years again for my next holiday. Cat sitting already sorted (my mum bribed me to stay in the village with free catsitting so now she has to pay up). But very excited to be going away.

As far as the bulbs go, I ordered a bunch that will probably go in the front garden - some of them will have to be for cat toxic reasons.

I was listening to a gardening podcast the other day that was talking about how people get their first garden and the only thing they dare do for a while is put things in pots, because that's small enough not to be scary. Definitely a good description of where I am right now! But I've got my pots, and my front garden, and my raised bed, and hopefully I'll start to nibble at the rest of it bit by bit.

Caterpocalypse is not going well. Definitely caterpillars 3 - 1 me. Kale is very skeletal and not very leafy. 

House is not very  clean and I have done very little about it. I think part of me is anticipating some busy weekends coming up and is almost hibernating in preparation?

savingholmes

Hibernation is valid. You've also had some busy social stuff recently so don't be too hard on yourself.

My first garden was a yard that was about the size of a bathroom. I bought a huge octagonal pot that I still have now and planted a fatsia in it and busy lizzies... that was decades ago. You definitely get less scared of the garden over time if you give it a go.

killerpeaty

Hey Merlin, thanks for letting me know. I spoke to my mum about the cats and it appears that she knows this already and I do not. I think this was all discussed about 2 years ago when I was sick and she was getting ill so must have just miscommunicated!

Sometimes you need to have a veg weekend and do the minimum of what you have to. Nothing wrong with that.

Merlin's_Beard

Good weekend volunteering, if a bit soggy. Came away with extra equipment after asking everyone about theirs for research purposes - someone had a spare they didn't need and went "oh don't buy any, take these". Always pleasantly surprised by how generous folk are, and happy to be part of the merry band that keeps the days running for competitors and spectators. Long days though and utterly shattered.

Two loads of laundry washed, dried on the line, and put away (or put back on the bed in the case of the bedding). Volunteering clothes that weren't washed have been dried out over doors and put away. Run 31/42 completed very slowly, but completed. Kitchen bombsite sort of sorted after being neglected from work and sport. Blood donation completed (after the run!) and next one booked for December. Can honestly recommend donation as guilt free reading time and guilt free snacking.

Very gentle weeding of the raised bed afterwards, plus some more fruitless war waging against the caterpillars. The spinach is also not growing amazingly well - I think I left too much of it in  clumps and it's having a small civil war, and some of it I decided I'd left too clumped and fiddled about with it after I'd planted it which I don't think helped anything. Gardening is a learning experience! The herbs are doing terrifyingly well though.

Cat is fuming that I pulled up all the grass shoots so she can't eat them then vomit them back up in surprise places around the house.

Tomorrow's plan depends on whether it's raining or not! Next plan for the garden is getting some bark mulch in to cover the bits I've dug, or I've got about five thousand jobs that need doing inside.

KajiKita

Wow, that’s quite a list! 👏 I am super impressed by the blood donation *after* a run - I would be wanting to hang into every corpuscle to recover! 😉😂

The cat will be planning her revenge …. (or scoping out other grass you haven’t noticed ) … 😉

Oh and gardening is most definitely a learning experience! Herbs grow well as they are less ‘fiddled with’ - closer genetically to their wild cousins so are often quite tough, unless they have been grown too soft. Otoh, plants that have been cultivated for millennia by humans to be more edible (vegetables primarily) tend to be tender and delicate and *very* tasty for creatures that then ignore the wild equivalents - I remember an article once where a gardener was musing on the decimation of their brassicas whilst the wild equivalent just over the wall was entirely unmolested! 🙄😂
For myself I am learning, about me, that I am far better and enjoy more, ornamental growing than I do vegetable growing …. (as I wrestle, largely unsuccessfully, with a huge veggie patch!). 😉

KK

Merlin's_Beard

I'm still eyeing up the ornamental plants KK - I think half the attraction of the veg is that it will be coming out whatever and I get a clean slate again.

Mulched the central part of the garden, mainly in the dry. BQ was selling reduced rosemary for £2 so that's gone into the empty pot with compost. It fell over on the way home so now my whole car smells like rosemary (not complaining).

Booked a day out in London listening to some writers talk about fantasy at the British Library. A whole day of books to satisfy my nerdy needs! Eyeing up some more talks from various authors in the season (online access available for those) but that will have to wait until next month, because I've spent to zero on the unassigned money.

Travel insurance also sorted (annual multi trip, to make sure I go away again), and eye test booked.