Find the SecondStar and soar, and then straight on till the morning…

SecondStar

Finally payday, after what felt like an endless February. Thank goodness there’s no rates bill for March & April, I could do with the extra £44!

I had to pay £40 for my reenactment insurance; I hadn’t realised it’s my favourite cousin’s 40th bday next week, so I ordered her a big bunch of Bloom & Wild letterbox flowers to arrive on the day; and the motorised head of my Dyson v7 animal vacuum dies a few days ago - I conducted an autopsy and found snapped wires in an inaccessible place, with no repair possible, so that’s £80 for a new head. £150 of unexpected expenses, straight out of the gate.

On the plus side though, I’ve started a new Monzo savings pot for Delhi, and my emergency fund is now at £4,368.65 / £4,500!

I ordered the sand and flags for the run today, which should hopefully be delivered by Wednesday. So I now have £200 in my DIY pot to pay for the timber, corrugated roofing, and chipboard pieces to repair the playhouse.

I combined the potential-Easter-trip and potential-hometown-trip pots, and have £846 sitting. I had planned to pitch the hometown visit to my partner, with the suggestion that I pay for everything, but costing it out looks like it’ll be over 1k for 4 days - which is just a Bit Much. I am tempted to take that money and put it into DIY / garden instead. Food for thought.

There was a local fb post for a free chicken coop not too far from here, so we’re hopefully going to collect that on Sunday. It’ll be sometime until it’s occupied, but it’s a start!

SecondStar

Marvellous March!

The sand and flags will be delivered on Tuesday, no time slot yet. Partner has Mon - Fri off work this week, with lots of his own projects to get done / started, but he’ll be up on Tues to get started on levelling and laying the flags. I’ll take the day off as well, to give him a hand.

Chicken coop owner wasn’t available this weekend, so I’ve messaged asking if we can collect on Tuesday - no reply yet, not holding my breath. FB can either be wonderful or woeful for freebies!

My future chicken patch sits opposite the rabbit run patch, and is about the same size - both areas were wood chipped on top on plastic weed barrier. The rabbit patch had gotten overrun with bindweed pushing through the plastic and the wood chip, and had a shrub growing in it, all of which took a lot of hard work to dig out. The chicken patch had no such issues, and I was able to whip the nasty plastic out from underneath the wood hip, like a magician removing a tablecloth.

Under all that plastic, the soil is the most solid clay I’ve ever seen. It could be moulded into pots and fired, it’s so dense and sticky. From what I’ve read, it seems that heavy clay shouldn’t be dug over or disturbed too much, but instead it should have mulch, compost, manure etc. added to rot down and condition the soil - not sand, as that can form clumps and bind it together even more. So I’ve spread the wood chips back over, and will hope that without the plastic underneath they will start to rot down over time. In time it will have a fixed chicken run built on it, so I’m not overly precious about the soil quality.

Today my partner built more of the external framing for the rabbit run - it now has 4 corners and 4 edges! I’ll get more timber tomorrow after work to make the internal framing, but that will come after the base has been laid.

i jet washed the inside of the fence line! It was much, much more difficult than the satisfying YouTube videos look. We borrowed my partner’s dad’s petrol jet washer, and within minutes I was soaked. I had planned to just remove the algae and muck from the fence, but it was so powerful it actually took the old coating of wood stain off as well. The fence actually looks beautiful now, almost brand new! I couldn’t do the dividing fence as the neighbour had his washing drying outside. Come to think of it, it might not be very neighbourly to jet wash into his back yard? I’ll maybe just use a scrubbing brush and some elbow grease for that side. I still need to do the outside of the fence as well, but by the time I was finished I was grumpy, overwhelmed, tired and very very cold and wet, so the thought of doing all of that work again is not appealing!

We also built the garden cart I bought a few weeks ago, it’s a sturdy, handy thing, which should do well for hauling the sand and flags.

I’m really proud at how productive we’ve been, and at how much we’ve achieved so far. I can see the vision coming together, and it’s very exciting! ‘Summer gardens are made in the winter’, and all that.

SecondStar

I took the day off work today and spent the morning cutting the hedges. They didn’t get topped before winter and had overgrown by about a foot, and with the new growth beginning it was now or never. They’re now down to their minimum height to keep the neighbours from peering in, which is just how I like them, and they’re looking very smart and presentable again.

The sand and flags got delivered at 10am, and I wish I knew the owner of the car parked alongside my house, as if I could’ve asked them to move it then the delivery driver could’ve lifted the pallet straight over the fence! Alas, instead it was a bloody good job I bought that cart as it was indispensable today. I hauled the 10 x 25kg bags of sand in by myself, and then put the kettle on whilst waiting for my partner to arrive with more 10ft lengths of timber.

We had decided to get the 90 x 60cm paving slabs to save on laying time and cost, and those things are BIG and HEAVY - 65kg each, according to the website. My partner could lift and handle them, but we couldn’t have managed without that glorious little cart, and shifting 14 of them required the 2 of us to lift and set them.

But we got the soil flattened out, weed membrane down, sand distributed, and 6/12 slabs laid - the other 6 need cutting to fit, and we didn’t have the angle grinder here today. My partner also built out more of the framing, and I stained down all of the raw wood.

I have the jet washer still here, so I’ll do the outside of the fence tomorrow, possibly. That’ll give it a few days to dry out, and I’ll hopefully paint it on Saturday before we finish up the paving and maybe start on the wire installation on Sunday. Then it’ll just need a door built, and the corrugated roofing bought and installed, and then my bun is ready to move in!

The current rabbit set up is 8 x 8ft, and the new one is about 8 x 10ft. The current run is only 2ft tall though, and the new one is a walk-in with 8ft at the front, and 7ft at the back. The new run looks enormous in comparison! I am very excited to dismantle the old set up though, it’ll free up soooo much space in the garden.

Work started on this project about 5 weeks ago, when I first began digging the area which had been covered up over winter to kill off the weeds. I think we’ve progressed quite nicely.

New_in_the_fens

i am so excited to see your new bun home! We really need to sort ours out this summer. The aviary is getting very old and decrepit - and in need of a refurbishment! 

SecondStar

Image is under the spoiler: this is where we got up to yesterday, my partner is 5’9 for scale!

There is fine misty rain starting, so I can’t stain down any more timber, or get any second coats on. Looks like it’ll be a round of jet washing after all, which I’m really not enthused about if I’m honest.

I’ll wrap up nice and warm, pop on my partner’s waterproof trousers, elastic band some rubber gloves around my wrists, and possibly put a bin liner on over my top half. I’m not kidding when I said I got drenched last time! The novelty of the activity wore off after a few minutes, and the rest came down to grit and stubbornness. By the time I was finished, my partner helped me peel off my soaking wet hoodie and the relief of not wearing wet clothes anymore made me cry! Overstimulation is not to be sniffed at.

But I can’t put it off - I’m in the office tomorrow and Friday, with no time after work to do it, and if I leave it till Saturday then it won’t be dry and ready for the good sunny painting weather on Sunday. I hate being an adult sometimes!

dawnybabes

Aww it’s a shame you’re at work tomorrow - just seen on the weather it’s expected to be 15 tomorrow ! That’s positively tropical 🤣🤣

How do the spoilers work ? I’m on my ipad and can’t open them ? Is it me ?

SecondStar

dawnybabes said:

Aww it’s a shame you’re at work tomorrow - just seen on the weather it’s expected to be 15 tomorrow ! That’s positively tropical 🤣🤣

How do the spoilers work ? I’m on my ipad and can’t open them ? Is it me ?

I’m on iPad too - the spoiler worked when I posted it, but doesn’t seem to work now?? Very bizarre! I put the pics under spoilers as they’re quite large, but if you don’t mind the scroll - 

New_in_the_fens

Awesome job secondstar (and partner!) 🥰

SecondStar

The rain got too heavy in Wednesday to jet wash, so I did a little bit on Thursday, and have finished the rest off today - at least 8 hours of work, over all the days. Goodness knows how long it’ll take to paint. I k ow I’m privileged to have one of the largest plots in the area, and I’m grateful to have a tall, strong, storm-proof boundary fence, but cleaning it was a lot of hard work!

I’ve chosen what should be a nice dark grey - I’m not a grey person usually, but for grey is a colour which blends into the background of a garden, rather than a more traditional brown, green, or red, which actually stand out more and draw the eye. Grey neutralises behind foliage and planting, which is exactly what I want.

It’s to be nice weather tomorrow, so there may be painting started if the fence is dry enough. However, I’m also conscious that my partner hasn’t had a proper day of rest for weeks, between his own work, commission projects, and helping me. We may down tools tomorrow, in favour of going for pizza and ice cream and walking on the beach. He says he’s bringing his tool bag tonight ‘just in case’, because he’s allergic to staying still!

I’m off for a much needed shower - the petrol jet washer was worth it’s weight in gold, but it did also blast a lot of algae, dirt, and old wood stain into every pore of my face.

dawnybabes

That looks amazing ! 🤩