Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff · 30 September 2018 at 8:24PM

Right, a miniature list for the evening :j

* soup in slow cooker
* write blog post
* reply to friend's email
* email other friend
* lay out clothes for tomorrow
* get an early night - want to have set off by 7 tomorrow morning and my track record is NOT good in this respect... :eek:

Er, I think that's it

But I've been trying to do at least three of those things for a week and not got round to them so if I can do them I'll be very please :j

Cheery_Daff · 4 October 2018 at 9:24PM

Evening MSE chums :hello:

Not much to report here. Went out for lunch with a friend today, spent £6.20. Went out for lunch yesterday but someone bought me lunch, what a treat :j :j

Mr Cheery has been away for a fortnight :eek: Haven't said much about it online as I don't think it's wise to be advertising such things, especially not when you live in the middle of nowhere :eek: But I have managed admirably :j In fact, everywhere has been clean and tidy, I've only been food shopping once, and I have had no crises whatsoever, not even when one of the cows broke into the garden (twice) or when the car broke down :rotfl:

Speaking of the car... £60 to fix the fuel injectors on one, and another £60 for a battery for the other, which I've fitted myself (with the help of a chicken pathering round under my feet :rotfl: )

Anyway, I will be VERY glad to have Mr Cheery back in a few hours :j :j Tracking his flight as we speak - he's over Kazakhstan apparently :j All very strange - the longest we've been apart since we met is when I went to Norway for 3 nights

:rotfl: And I've never stayed in a house by myself for longer than one night

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Still, no time to be busy as I've been back and forth to work pretty much every day :eek: Diesel bill is going to be through the roof between now and Christmas but it can't be helped :eek: After Christmas will be far more civilised!

Someone at work just left to set up their own bakery. Worth a thought... (or it would be if I could bake :rotfl: )

edwink · 5 October 2018 at 3:52PM

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

I've only been food shopping once, and I have had no crises whatsoever, not even when one of the cows broke into the garden (twice) or when the car broke down :rotfl:

Speaking of the car... £60 to fix the fuel injectors on one, and another £60 for a battery for the other, which I've fitted myself (with the help of a chicken pathering round under my feet :rotfl: )

Anyway, I will be VERY glad to have Mr Cheery back in a few hours :j :j Tracking his flight as we speak - he's over Kazakhstan apparently :j All very strange - the longest we've been apart since we met is when I went to Norway for 3 nights :rotfl: And I've never stayed in a house by myself for longer than one night :rotfl: :rotfl:

Still, no time to be busy as I've been back and forth to work pretty much every day :eek: Diesel bill is going to be through the roof between now and Christmas but it can't be helped :eek: After Christmas will be far more civilised!

Someone at work just left to set up their own bakery. Worth a thought... (or it would be if I could bake :rotfl: )

You did well not panicking when cows got in to your garden Cheery :eek::eek:. We got chased out of a field once by some that had not left the field when the farmer rang the bell for them to come back home. We were taking our dog for an evening walk in the dark and went across a very shallow stream in to the next field only to hear a rustling sound followed by a stomping sound. My god that was it we ran towards the nearby gate which had a small gap in it and pushed the dog through, I climbed over followed my by hubby and he narrowly missed getting shoved over the gate by a couple of them. They were really not happy about us being there at all. Maybe we worried them so they went in to survival mode and ran for us. That was some years ago and boy was it frightening especially as it was pitch black and we could only hear them and not see them at all. We live and learn I suppose.

Motoring is never cheap is it? Our previous car began to get all and sundry wrong with it and started to cost a small fortune so we took the plunge and bought a Hybrid and have never looked back. We gradually paid extra on our mortgage, like you are now doing, and are now mortgage free which has made such a difference to us. So keep up the good work Cheery you will get there in the end. Up hill struggle doing it sometimes but very well worth it in the end.

Good on you with the battery fitting :T

Well if you can't bake Cheery you must learn if you get the time of course. We bake a lot at home now but hubby and I both worked in the bakery trade years ago so that gave us the experience we needed. Home baked tastes so much nicer you will find, honest. If you need any help/advice just ask its not a problem. We will get you baking in no time

. Oh and much, much cheaper too especially if you make things in batches and freeze. For example you can make pastry in a large amount and cut it up in to blocks and freeze in separate parcels until you need one. That way you wont be making pastry every time you want to make a pie or similar. Saves a lot of time. Have easy peazy recipe if you want one in the future and it really is so easy.

Bet your pleased hubby is on his way home

Take care

Edwink x

fannyadams · 6 October 2018 at 12:01PM

edwink wrote: »

For example you can make pastry in a large amount and cut it up in to blocks and freeze in separate parcels until you need one. That way you wont be making pastry every time you want to make a pie or similar. Saves a lot of time. Have easy peazy recipe if you want one in the future and it really is so easy.

Edwink x

Oooh Edwink. I never knew you could do that with home made pastry. I thought they (manufacturers) did something to the frozen pastry in the shop to make it freezable/thawable/usable after thawing.

Would love to get your easy peasy recipe please. Thank you for sharing.
FA
xx

Cheery_Daff · 6 October 2018 at 1:11PM

:eek: at your cow experience edwink :eek: ours are pretty tame - they live in our fields so we're quite familiar with them, and when you go towards them they turn and walk away so not difficult to get them out of the garden! I've always been a bit scared of being in a field with them, but I'd be less scared now. Still wouldn't deliberately walk through a big herd though, and I've heard they're not great with dogs, especially if they have calves with them :eek:

To be honest I've neer tried too hard to hone my baking skills - I have SUCH a sweet tooth if I baked too many cakes at home I'd be the size of a house before long

I sometimes do fairy cakes or scones if we have visitors, and am not averse to the odd Christmas cake. Mr Cheery can't eat too much fat so anything pastry-related tends to be out (we mostly eat separately anyway actually but again, I quite like pastry but I fear it may not fit with my slimming world goals...)

:rotfl:

Speaking of which, I have not been remotely following slimming world this week and have put on a pound. Not surprising ... But back on it now, bought a load of fruit & veg this morning and NO CAKE :rotfl:

Very cheery to have Mr Cheery back :j :j most jolly :j had a cuppa in the cafe & a scone & fairy cake (one each, not both!) £5.70 between us.

Had a quick potter round the charity shops, didn't buy anything. Tried on some jeans - I've lost nearly a stone and my size 14 M&S ones are literally hanging off me. I tried on some M&S size 12 - couldn't even do up the zip!!! :eek: surely there shouldn't be thatuch difference between one size and the next from the same shop!!

Hey ho. Off home now to play with the chickens and do a bit of batch cooking :j :j

edwink · 6 October 2018 at 7:10PM

fannyadams wrote: »

Oooh Edwink. I never knew you could do that with home made pastry. I thought they (manufacturers) did something to the frozen pastry in the shop to make it freezable/thawable/usable after thawing.
Would love to get your easy peasy recipe please. Thank you for sharing. FA xx

Here is the recipe for you and others if they would like to try it. Just be warned it makes a huge batch the size of a large bloomer loaf of bread:eek:. No weighing to be done which makes it so easy

You will need...
1 x bag of 1.5kg self raising flour
2 x packs of Trex (250g size)
1 x 250g block of butter
500ml cold water

Tip the flour on to a clean surface, rub in all of the Trex and the butter. Make a pool in the middle of the mixture and add the water and mix the whole lot together.

Should take around 10 to 15 mins to mix it all up in to a bundle. Cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour. Take out fridge and divide in to portions for freezing. To defrost leave in fridge overnight.

If you divide it in to 8 portions you will have enough in each portion to make the base and crust of a family sized pie with a little left over for some cheese straws or a few jam tarts.

For the cheese straws just mix some grated cheese in to the left over pasty, roll out and cut in to lengths, can add pepper too if you like pepper. Bake in the oven on a baking tray until they look raised with a slight colour change. Eat and enjoy, hopefully :rotfl:

Edwink

Dobbibill · 9 October 2018 at 8:55PM

Hi Cheery - I hope you don't mind me gatecrashing your diary. :hello:

I've recently joined the MFW thread and was looking around the board for some interesting reading, I came across your diary and got hooked within the first couple of posts.

Your country adventure sounds wonderful with the amazing chickens and the egg skelter.

I hope you don't mind but I've subscribed

Dobbi

Cheery_Daff · 10 October 2018 at 9:06AM

Thanks for the epic pastry recipe edwink, and welcome Dobbi :hello: - of course I don't mind! I am both delighted and humbled that anyone is willing to read my wafflings

make yourself at home

Nowt to report today. Not spending much at the minute, in the office every day but managed to avoid paying for parking at all through a combination of permits (9 a month), parking further and walking in, and arriving before 7am for one of the very few free spots :eek:

Also been taking lunch (uninspiring some days but hey ho). No time to go out for coffee much either at the minute! :eek:

Glorious morning here. Let the chickens out (in my pjs as I didn't crawl out of bed til 7.45) and ended up wandering down to the bottom of the field to take some pictures of the mist in the valley. So very beautiful. Feeling very lucky to live here today! :j

Going to be a long one today, hence the slightly later start... Got meetigs at 12, 1 & 2, and then a few hours to do some of my own actual WORK before a meeting at 7 (not work) til 9, then hanging around til I pick Mr Cheery up from band practice at half 10. Yawn. We usually don:t get back home til nearly midnight on Wednesdays, and sadly I"m back in at 9am tomorrow. Going to investigate possibility of staying with a friend one night a week to cut down on a bit of the driving at least...

Cheery_Daff · 13 October 2018 at 5:03PM

Evening chums :hello:

Hope all is good in MSE land

Had a bit of a tetchy day here, hormonal and a bit thrown out of kilter by this ridiculous wind! However, I have the evening to myself, and am determined that not ALL of it is going to be spent tidying! :eek:

So, a plan :j :j

5-.630: let the chickens out again to roam around for a bit and hang around outside with them, probably fixing up the fallen-down wall, collecting things that have blown around, starting to clear out the beds (and mostly just holding onto my hat).

6.30-7.30: wash dishes, hoover kitchen, and make food - want to do a bit of batch cooking, so probably a curry (and some rice), and maybe a kind of potato or pasta bake, and some crustless quiche egg things. Maybe some soup too but that might be overambitious...

7.30-8.30: flute practice - I joined the local wind orchestra and we're doing a concert in a couple of weeks and there is an embarrassing amount of stuff I still can't play :eek: Trying to do at least an hour a night practice now...

8.30-9.30: online tasks
- order chicken food
- order wool
- YNAB
- finish writing blog post
- sort photos out and line up another couple of blog posts

9.30-10.30: do some garden-related plotting and scheming

10.30: curl up and doze off :j

Let's see how much of that might get done :rotfl: First of all I MUST find some ibuprofen - got a right old stomach ache and it's not helping my temper! :eek:

Cheery_Daff · 14 October 2018 at 6:53PM

Evening chums :hello:

Well the only thing I didn't manage last night was a blog post! :j most productive

Excellent batch cooking :j Made

1. Leek, potato & kale bake
2. Sausage & pasta bake using up some far-too-liquid sausage casserole I'd frozen a couple of weeks ago
3. Spinach & lentil curry

:j Work lunches sorted all week and hopefully some teas too :j Helpful as Mr Cheery is progressing nicely with dismantling the chimney so the kitchen is a tip and coated in a fine powder of soot most of the time so cooking of an evening isn't that straightforward :eek: :rotfl:

Today started a bit grumpily - nipped into town to potter round the charity shops & have breakfast & do some food shopping, but when we walked into the charity shop (through the open door) we were thrown back out into the rain cos they didn't open for another 10 mins. Went to the cafe instead - walked in through propped open door (tey had music on too) only to be told to come back in 5 minutes cos the coffee machine wasn't warmed up yet :eek:

Clearly we weren't going to walk round in the pouring rain for 5 minutes waiting for them so we went to Aldi & then came home and had cafe-at-home instead.

Shame really - it's the only 'nice' cafe we've found in town but now not only have they lost our breakfast today, Mr Cheery flat out refuses to ever go back there. Their loss I suppose...

Still, after that I had a lovely afternoon sat on the sofa reading a book :j then about 4pm it FINALLY stopped raining so I let the chickens out and pottered about digging up the greenhouse base from the plastic one that collapsed yesterday, and carrying on with a bit of dry stone walling.

The sunset was glorious, lighting up the hills in a quite spectacular fashion :j

So all in all an excellent day despite the shaky start. And nothing spent either in the end except the food shopping :j :j

Cheery's country living adventure

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