Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff · 18 May 2018 at 9:43AM

We certainly are enjoying country life in the sun PP :j :j MUCH more jolly than country life in the snow :rotfl: although that had its moments... :rotfl:

Yep, when our fixed deal runs out I shall be looking for somewhere I can overpay in dribs and drabs, and also somewhere with an online mortgage account! And I shall NOT be going through the stupid broker this time! :eek:

Must find out when the fixed deal ends - it's either Sept or Nov 2019. Not the full two years as advertised, at any rate, because they started the two year clock once they had all the correct application details I think, or perhaps once they actually got round to issuing it - and then we didn't move house for another 3 months after that.

We're a bit limited as we want both of us on it, so wherever we go needs to take a self-employed Mr Cheery until he's 80 :eek: However, they also get a full time me, and being a young whippersnapper, at that point I will only be 62

so it's not that much of a risk for them...

Also hoping to have overpaid a little so the borrowing amount should be under £200k by that point (which still sounds ludicrously high :eek: )

However I am very fortunate to jump up the pay scale an increment every year (as some kind of reward for having survived another year, I suppose...) so I will be earning more too. So hopefully it will all work out. We'll see.

Anyway, I am inspired by PinkyPig's list of MSE-related things so I have popped in to make my own

* worked at home yesterday and today, so all food from cupboards and fridge

* worked 8-4 yesterday, so popped out to one of the railway trails after I'd finished to do a 10 mile (flat!) bike ride - used my resident's parking permit so saved myself £1.50 on parking (if I'd have gone earlier I would have saved £3.50 as I was there for over an hour, but I didn't get there til after 5 and payments stop at 6 anyway)

er, that might be it :rotfl: Had a quick rub down with a flannel this morning instead of a shower - does that count? :rotfl:

Keeping an eye on Prolific too - I'm up to £12.91 on there now so hoping for payout this month.

Been outside this morning in the sunshine and did half an hour of scything (free exercise

) of the grass behind the house - Mr Cheery is trying to investigate mouse access to the loft (we rescued Mouse Number 28 last night... :eek: ) Still haven't been able to bring ourselves to kill the little blighters :rotfl: It's only one every few days so it doesn't feel so bad :rotfl:

Right, clearly I won't be finishing at 4pm today as I've not even started yet! Best get on!

Karmacat · 18 May 2018 at 12:46PM

Your ambitions for the mortgage sound very do-able, Cheery, I'm sure you'll get there.

The list of mse things is still great, isn't it

whether its to-do or ta-da. I do like reading them, and ticking mine off, plus incorporating great ideas

rubbing down with a flannel definitely counts, though I'm sure I wouldn't do that in the winter :rotfl:

How on earth do you get to the mice to pick them up? Oh, a humane trap? You're very dedicated

I have a theory that the ventilation spaces under the eaves should be netted over with insect screening, though I suppose mice could chew through that in a moment. Mine have been rats

and I'm not going to get involved with rats

Scything, yay :j I had a brief moment of scything one summer holiday at school, helping on a local nature reserve (oh, you may know it, Thurstaston). It felt very grown up :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff · 18 May 2018 at 2:03PM

I do indeed know Thurstaston :j Lovely place

I'm pretty sure we did some kind of raft-building exercise there on a school trip once

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be getting involved with rats either :eek: :eek: but fortunately we haven't encountered one of them yet... Ours have all been teeny little cute mice, some of them field mice, which are even cuter

Yes, it's all humane traps. We're getting pretty good at it now, although it's been quite time consuming :rotfl: Mr Cheery saw one coming from behind the sofa at first late one night, and we stared with a couple of traps in random places, and occasionally caught one... Then we got wise to where they were coming from, and blocked up a few holes. Now they're pretty much always in the attic - we'll usually hear a little pitter-pattering as we're sitting in the living room, and one of us will head into the attic and put out 3 or 4 traps.

Because we're sitting in the room underneath, we'll usually hear the trap go off within the next half an hour or so, and we go and retrieve it and take it down the field (with a bit of bird seed to encourage it to stay down there :rotfl: )

So they're never usually in there that long. Sometimes if Mr Cheery is late to bed and we still haven't caught it, he'll leave the trap out and I usually get up quite early so will check it as soon as I'm up.

I'm sure our friends think we're mad :rotfl: but for now it's a relatively peaceful co-existence :rotfl: Does require quite a bit of messing about though

:rotfl:

Sneaked off to the cafe with the treats budget (and some work) earlier

We'd got to the end of our loyalty card so got a free drink, making it £3.70 for tea and cake for both of us :money: And when we came out the mobile library was in the village :j I can't tell you how excited I was

Went in and joined, and got out a couple of books - but of course I have to be diligent about remembering when they're due back because it's only in the village for about 25 minutes every three weeks :eek: :rotfl:

rtandon27 · 18 May 2018 at 7:28PM

Cheery - any chance you are a cat person? - they do what cats do in regards to the mice...

...just saying...;)

...but i do agree that field mice are incredibly cute - as we too live in a rural location, we often have them in our garden where they try to get at the bird feeders- it's quite fun to watch the territorial robins chase the little things off over and over again.

gallygirl · 18 May 2018 at 10:31PM

Have you thought of numbering them with nail varnish or something to make sure it's not the same two or three? Maybe you've got a five star rating on Trap Advisor

fannyadams · 19 May 2018 at 9:12AM

gallygirl wrote: »

Have you thought of numbering them with nail varnish or something to make sure it's not the same two or three? Maybe you've got a five star rating on Trap Advisor

LOL @ Trap Advisor. I thought the same thing about the same mice coming back GG.
When I lived in the sticks in deepest darkest Dooooorzet, we used to put a dab of tippex on their tail. on the tip for first time caught, half way along for 2nd, and near the bum for 3rd.
I did read somewhere they need to be about 3 miles away to ensure they don't come back. Berkshire pest control site
"We are often asked this question (about if they come back when you release them) and the simple answer is, yes. The issue of humane trapping always ends with the question of disposal.
Animals will always return to somewhere they know they can find food and shelter, unless there is a better alternative. Therefore, when disposing of a mouse or rat, you need to take them at least a couple of miles away, or they will find their way back.
...Tagging experiments have shown the lengths rodents will go to return to a safe place with a reliable food source. There have been reports of mice and rats covering two miles to return to a property, and you should be sure to take any rodent you have trapped at least this distance away from your home to ensure your houseguest does not return."
:beer: perhaps they need to go with you to work? I think you said something about being near a park or something?
Although, having seen the pictures of your new abode, I'm guessing it's already well over two miles away where you're releasing them!

edwink · 19 May 2018 at 2:16PM

All the talk on here about mice reminded me of this little chap!

_99220758_andrea-zampatti_the-laughing-dormouse_00001732.jpg

Cheery_Daff · 19 May 2018 at 3:04PM

Aw, he's very cute Edwink! :j

So much excitement today that all mice have been forgotten - the neighbour brought us round some COWS! :eek: :rotfl: Just six pregnant ones, wandering around our fields to keep the grass down

Most exciting

Of course, they're not OUR cows, and we have no responsibility for them, and the actual farmer just lives over the fields and can check on them himself, but I can't help peering out of the window every now and then to check they're ok

pinkypig · 19 May 2018 at 7:00PM

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Aw, he's very cute Edwink! :j

So much excitement today that all mice have been forgotten - the neighbour brought us round some COWS! :eek: :rotfl: Just six pregnant ones, wandering around our fields to keep the grass down Most exciting

Of course, they're not OUR cows, and we have no responsibility for them, and the actual farmer just lives over the fields and can check on them himself, but I can't help peering out of the window every now and then to check they're ok

That is very exciting

:):).

Karmacat · 19 May 2018 at 8:42PM

Oh wow! Proper free range cows :j Also cute mice, thats still a bonus

So you're not buying a ride-on mower straight away

I wonder how many cowpats you'll have? Fertilising the fields is a wonderful thing :j

Cheery's country living adventure

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