Firsts

It has been a few days of firsts.  We have been to Cambridge for the first visit of the new academic year. I enjoyed the break although the amount of rain that we had, meant that I could not do as much pottering around as I usually do. I did go for a few bus rides which keeps me out of the rain but still sort of outside. I had something that I wanted that Boots only stock at their bigger branches so I had been waiting to go to the big one in the centre of Cambridge. And they were out of stock! Grrr. Was not impressed at that, having waited for it. I had thought of ordering it online and collecting it at out local small Boots but they now say that I have to order £10 worth to get click and collect without paying a charge so I had been waiting a while for the chance to buy this item. I shall start looking for it earlier next time I need it. I also popped into Tesco in Cambridge and was amused to find not only Christmas chocolate and other edible goodies, but also Easter hot cross buns...

We lit the woodburner for the first time yesterday as we were cold. Oh I do love my woodburner : )    It is lit again today and I am sitting surrounded by washing that was hung out yesterday and came back in still quite damp so I just hung it around the living room. It is the first time I have had to do that this autumn.  We also changed the bed yesterday and put the medium weight quilt back on - so another first. We have three quilts heavy (15 tog), medium (10.5 tog) and a lighter one (7.5 tog). I found the usual 4.5 tog summer one to be too light and was delighted to find a 7.5 tog in a shop one day when I was looking for something else.

And I ate something which disagreed with me rather and have been feeling under the weather all week because of it. It has been several years since I did that so it is a kind of a first. The upside, if it can be called that, is that I have lost half a stone this week and have very little desire to eat now. I know I am going to put some of it back on but hopefully not all of it.

End of March already

I've been busy making lots of soup for the church coffee shop, acquiring wood for the woodburner for next winter, looking after grandchildren, visiting friends, knitting little chicks that will contain Cadbury's cream eggs for Easter, knitting little jumpers for "fish and chip" babies in Africa....  and there might have been a little bit of washing and cleaning and looking after animals as well.

I'm running out of ideas for different soups to ring the changes at the church coffee shop. So far I have made tomato, carrot and lentil three times, leek and potato, carrot and coriander, parsnip and ginger, tomato and basil, broccoli and stilton, vegetable (tomato based). I make two to three gallons each time and it gets divided up into boxes and frozen to provide a variety of flavours. It must be vegetarian and not too expensive to make (so I won't be making any asparagus soup even though I love it). If anybody has any bright ideas, then please do tell me. Thank you : )

We are giving little chicks with crème eggs to the children associated with the church during the Easter week. We need around 200 and I have produced 50ish. I've lost count at the moment. The knitting is very straightforward but then they need sewn up, a ball of polyester stuffing put in the head, a gathering thread run round the neck and fastened off to provide the shaping for the head, eyes glued on, a felt beak cut out and stitched on, a flat bow made and stitched on. The finishing takes as long as the knitting does! I am feeling that I am all chicked out now.

We have managed to acquire various bits of wood to squirrel away for next winter. Some of it came from a couple of skips near where we live and some is from a medium size tree that was taken down in my son's garden. It was old and leaning badly and looked like a gale would bring it down anyway. It is amazing how much bigger their garden looks without it. Had it been in good condition, we would not have taken it down but we have not only prevented a lot of fencing being broken (at the very least) but we have also got more wood for next winter. Considering that this winter was fairly mild, I am amazed at how much wood we have got through and so I am happy at having more for next winter.

The hens are laying very well at the moment. Old Hen died yesterday. I shall miss her because she was one of my "characters". She was just a little brown hybrid hen but she was over seven years old. I was chatting to her on Monday afternoon and she looked so old that I knew that I would not have her for much longer . I have another hen that is seven years old but she is a buff Orpington and they are usually longer lived. I've never had a little brown hen older than five years before.

I had a lovely mothers' day. I hope you did too. My son turned up at our church with his family. It was meant to be a surprise so I didn't let on that grandson had let the cat out of the bag during the week when he was talking to me. When the two year old spotted me at the front of church, she ran as fast as her little legs would let her and gave me a big hug and said "Happy mothers' day". Then she went to Grandad and wished him the same : )   In the afternoon, the girls came to call with their families and then my son popped in again too. One daughter had baked me a loaf of bread with sundried tomatoes and parmesan and it was lovely. I do like presents that people have made rather than just going to the shops.

I've been pleased with my perseverance at clearing things out. I do really find it very hard to part with things especially if there is a chance that they might come in useful in the future. A little bit of clearing out leaves me feeling quite stressed. My husband tells me not to be so daft but I don't find that very helpful as a coping strategy...  My total has risen quite a lot now so I am only a little bit behind my target.

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March musings

Well, March already now.  I've been trying to keep up with the decluttering and am going on alright. I've got a nice little pile waiting to go to the charity shop and another pile waiting to go to a contact who works in a homeless shelter.

And we've been given a tree that was blown down in the storm last week. We've given half to my friend down the road who also has a woodburner. It is ash so it will burn well next winter : )
We've got through a lot of wood this winter so it is lovely to have a bit extra arrive.  We've got plenty for next winter because of the wood we were given last year which was not dry enough to burn this year but will be great next year. There are lots of skips appearing in the streets so I need to keep a look out for any useful bits of wood in them. I would rather that I got it to burn than it go to landfill!

I was reading an article today that was flagged up by the Real Junk Food Project about bread being the number one food item that is thrown away today. They are saying that a recent study by The University of Sheffield shows that the fertiliser used to grow the grains produces 43% of all greeenhouse gas emissions! This is a link to the article on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/weneedtotalkaboutbread?source=feed_text&story_id=650639801793427

The hens are doing well and it is obvious that spring is on its way because the hens have started their spring mega-laying. At the end of January and early February they were hardly laying any and now they are laying loads. Even my oldest hen has laid four eggs in the last ten days. The middle aged ones haven't laid any and probably won't. they are your typical little brown hen and for them, middle age is the end of laying. My oldest is a Buff Orpington, a really big breed of hen, and they lay a lot fewer eggs each year but keep going for more years. She is my favourite and every time I set foot out of the back door, she hears and shouts to me to bring her a treat. It might only be a green leaf but she is happy with something extra. And she really shouts at me and tells me off if I don't arrive with the requested treat too : )  It never fails to make me smile.

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Whizz........

2017 seems to be whizzing past. We had a lovely family Christmas but it feels like months ago not just a few weeks.  We've been doing lots of things in the last month: acquiring wood, cutting up wood, finding yellow stickered things to share with my friend and my son and his family, sharing yellow stickered goodies that my friend found, cooking, knitting, making soup for the church coffee shop (a new activity for 2017), going for a trip out and buying hen food whilst out, and lots else. Hen food is cheapest for average quality at a countrywide store, I have found, but there are no stores near where we live. If we are travelling out of our area and passing nearish to one of these stores, we call in. Currently they are selling three bags for £18 and closer to home, we are paying £8.75 for the same size sack.

I did have one evening recently when I was cooking and suddenly there was an almighty crash and the microwave turntable shattered into hundreds of pieces. Didn't half make me jump! Fortunately the food was in a covered dish so no glass got into our dinner. We've only had the oven since May and it is still under warranty so we phoned up Tesco where we had bought it and eventually they agreed to refund or replace. I only wanted a new turntable but they thought that it must be faulty. The problem was that I had bought it in the last session Tesco had of doubling up the clubcard vouchers. They couldn't give me back the full number of vouchers and they couldn't refund the full price. They could not replace it because they don't stock any similar combination oven/microwaves (maybe they have had lots with faults.....?) but they eventually came up with a solution that was a happy outcome for us. Yesterday we collected our new one (from a different shop and a different model too) and I look forward to learning how to cook with that one.

And we have been out this afternoon to collect some nice silver birch branches from a friend who has had a tree pruned. Silver birch burns really nicely when the wood has dried out nicely. Those branches will get used next winter.

Losing a month

My goodness me, where did August go?  I seem to have blinked and missed nearly a month here.

We had holiday club at church. So that took up a week.  I was working with a group of six year old and my husband had seven year olds. My goodness were we tired by the end of the week! We had over 80 kids in total, aged from three to ten but with a couple of twelve year olds as well. It was a good week, though, and we enjoyed it and the kids did too. We had all the parents in with the kids for a bbq on the Friday. That was very popular. I ended up serving burgers. I don't thing I have ever even seen so many burgers in one place before. Think 80 kids with parent/s and sibling/s...

I have been making lots of jam and also a jar of pickled eggs.  I have been updating my previous "Preserving Year" post so that I know what varieties of jams I have made. The family will be pleased as none of them make jams at all.  I have been dithering about investing in some Kilner jars and trying my hand at bottling. I have got as far as looking up the price of the jars on Amazon and Lakeland. The thing is that the rings or metal discs have to bought new each year and that sounds expensive.  I know the food would be fresh and if grown yourself then you know what fertilisers etc have or have not been used. The food used would have to be cheaply acquired but then there is all the gas used and the cost of the seal not to mention the work involved.  Tins of tomatoes are on offer at four for £1 at the moment in Asda. That is cheaper than the cost of the seal and without any effort involved other than carrying the tins home.  I don't know anybody round here who does any bottling and I would love to have a chat with somebody who does. My freezer is always full and this would be a way of preserving some fruit for the winter without using the freezer.

Do any of you do any bottling?

We have also been trying to tackle our wood pile. In the spring, our chop saw broke. Then the chain saw developed a fault and needed a new part. It was still under warranty and we had a bit of trouble but eventually we got the part replaced and had a working saw again. And we got the chop saw sorted. The thing is that we were into exam season by the time we had the saws working again so my husband had no time at all left over to do anything with all the wood we had collected. So yesterday, our son and son-in-law came round and the three of them spent the whole day cutting up wood with both saws and also with the axe. They got through a lot of wood and we are very grateful to have such help and to have a good amount ready to burn : )

Our granddaughter came round in the afternoon and acted as gofer for the three of them. My job was to keep them all fed and watered. No easy job with the amount of physical labour involved in cutting up the wood.  I went shopping on Thursday evening and was delighted to get some of our favourite bread rolls reduced to 10p a pack. I would have made some nice bread in the breadmaker for them but these were posh rolls for less than it would have cost me to make the loaf. My secret weapon was a plentiful supply of cake and a huge pile of scones served with homemade jam and cream. There were only three scones left by the end of the day so I know they were appreciated : )

And then there is the allotment. Blink and you can't see the plot for weeds. The war is on!

And my little hens are laying well now. And eating for England, just like teenagers with hollow legs. Yesterday was the third day in a row that they have laid an egg each. Hence the pickled eggs mentioned above as it is a means of preserving some for the winter (for my lunches, probably in a salad) without using the freezer. I expect I shall be pickling a few more now that they are getting into a rhythm with laying.

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Winter has definitely come

I was woken up both this morning and yesterday morning by the sound of the central heating boiler switching itself on. Nothing unusual?  Well, it is for us.  We don't use the central heating except as a back up when it comes on because the frost stat has dropped too low.  We have the woodburner and that keeps the downstairs warm. The heat works its way upstairs and takes the chill off there too. We have a halogen heater in the bedroom and that heats the room as much as we want.  Halogen heaters us 400 watts per bulb and ours has three bulbs.  For 1.2 Kw per hour, it blasts out a lot of heat.

We have never had to buy any wood yet.  We collect bits if we are out on a walk; we look in every skip we pass; three times now people have given us fence panels when they have replaced their fence; several times people have given us branches or whole trees when they have had trees lopped or taken down. It all adds up to free heat and a bit of free cooking as well.

When I say free heat, there are some expenses involved.  We had to buy the woodburner in the first place and we need to have the chimney cleaned each year (£40).  We bought an axe and a "bomb" to split the large slices of tree trunk.  We also bought a chainsaw and my husband wanted another electric saw for cutting up the processed wood like fence posts and rafters and floorboards.  These are all items which will last some years.   The gas bill has dropped dramatically and we are plenty warm and therefore happy : )

Oops

Oops, my information was wrong - sorry. The Sun had only a coupon for £3 off a shop of £13 in Poundland.  My son ran into the paper shop and grabbed a copy of the Sun (embarrassment in case he was seen buying the Sun...) and ran out without looking at it (it always has a picture of whatever coupon on the front).  He was really disappointed not to get his free veg because they are a vegetarian family with a new baby and skint, to put it mildly.  Fortunately, I hadn't gone to get my paper so I bought it off him. I've never spent £13 in Poundland as I seldom find more than one or two things that are useful but I'm sure I can do it this once if I put my mind to it.  They sell plastic cups that we use at church, for example.  I would like to go back to making my own greetings cards as I used to really enjoy that and I know they sell packs of ready folded cards with matching envelopes. Actually, my eldest granddaughter might well like a pack of those in her Christmas stocking.  And the other grandchildren might well find something from Poundland in their stockings this year too... Sometimes they have the shampoo that I like in stock and just occasionally they have a food item that is cheaper there than elsewhere. But I too was looking forward to a free £5 of fruit to make some more jam for the coming year and am disappointed.

I am told that the voucher is in the pipeline so if you are interested, then check out the Sun each week, usually on a Thursday. 

On Thursday, our farmer friend was free to come with us to school to teach us how to take down a tree as there was a dead one and we had permission to do it.  It saves the school the cost of a tree surgeon and definitely benefits us!  The tree was not close enough to a building to be dangerous, which is why they were willing to let us have a go.  I was amazed how quickly it came down.  There was just the trunk as the branches had been cut off at some time in the past. However, my job was to clear up afterwards...  I spent a good four hours sweeping and raking the grass where the tree had been cut up.  We filled 6 sacks with the chippings and sawdust which, once dried, will be used to fill strong bags like flour or sugar bags or small boxes to make wooden "logs" to burn. There was still more but we had to be creative in hiding that in the bushes as we had no more sacks : ). 

Our friend cut the trunk into big slices with his ginormous chain saw and then left us to it. (He holds this chain saw steady in one hand and sharply pulls the cord to start it with the other hand - I can't even lift the chain saw...) Our job was to ferry the the wood to the car in a wheelbarrow, make the trip home, unload with a wheelbarrow  and go back and start again.  My husband did the ferrying while I cleared up.  I was SOOO tired.  Still, for the cost of some diesel, several cakes for our friend and a LOT of tiredness, we will have a nice stash of logs.  When we were just about ready to go home for the last time, one of the caretakers spotted us and said that he had put three pallets aside for us.  We thanked him kindly but I have to admit that it just about finished me helping to lift them on to the roof bars of the car.  We did not get to our lunch until after 4pm as my husband didn't want to stop to eat and I was so tired that I just wasn't hungry.

And I've seen my new little granddaughter four times this week since she was born.  Definitely a biased grandmother here.  I'm extremely partial to my other three grandchildren but there is something special about a very new baby : )

Thinking ahead

I have had such a quiet week and I've really appreciated it.  I have got through most of the mountain of laundry.  There are quite a few things left unwashed still but there is not enough for a full load of anything.  It has been so lovely to peg the washing out and bring it in dry but this in turn has generated a mountain of ironing - and it is far too hot to be ironing.  So I'll be wearing non-iron clothes this week until I get my act together : )

Today my husband is away at a meeting in Cambridge for examiners.  That will mean about five hours of driving.  It will have been alright this morning because he left home before 6.30 and before it warmed up but I'm sure he won't enjoy the drive back this evening.  I'm celebrating my peaceful day by having porridge for my lunch.  I love porridge but my husband doesn't so I'm having it while I can.  Since it is for lunch, I've put a handful of sultanas in it and they have all plumped up nicely.  Yum!

I'm still collecting anything wooden that I find - pallets, branches, a wooden dining chair (broken) that was left out for the bin men.  I popped back into school one day this week to collect some wood that was going spare.  Some of it has already been used to mend the sides of one of the rabbit hutches.  Some will be stored for future use in repairing things and some scrappy bits will end up in the pile for the woodburner for the autumn.  We had the Health and Safety bloke come to do an inspection at school recently.  Can you believe that we were told that the Design department was storing too much wood and that they had to get rid of lots of it.  This wood is stored in a purpose built concrete store which has been made as fireproof as possible! It is our gain but I still think that it is further evidence that H&S have gone mad.

The maths department were also having a major clear out at the end of term and I have been given two boxes of absolutely ancient books which are donkeys years out of date - but perfectly fine for burning. Some of the books which had a bit of life left were passed on elsewhere. And one of the members of staff who was retiring has given me all his notes and paperwork from the last ten years of teaching and this will end up as paper "bricks" to burn next winter. Just think - one paper "brick" burnt each day over the winter means at least 200 logs that we don't have to source or cut up (or pay for).  Every little helps.  The ash from this winter has been added to the compost heap and helps to aereate our really heavy clay soil.

H&S would have forty fits at the amount of extra paper that is in my house at the moment but come back halfway through the winter and there won't be nearly so much.  Like everything else in life, it is a case of "carpe diem" and I may never have the opportunity of having so much free woodburner fodder again.

1 down and 4 to go

It feels like it has been another long week.  Why do the weeks feel like they are getting longer?  It didn't help that there has been a bug going round school and it stopped off for a visit with me too : (  Now I know that a lot of the weight loss is down to water loss but if only I can manage not to put it all back on... 

Just four weeks to go to the end of the school year.  There is one reason why the weeks feel like they are getting longer. I've set myself the task of finding the back of my stock cupboard by the end of term.  It hasn't been seen for many a long day - too many boxes full of stuff in the way.  I've already managed to clear a bit of the easy stuff and lose it to the bin or to another home.  I've lost just enough to be able to spread some of the rest out so that it can be sorted through.  Some of it will end up filling up my house until the woodburner is in use again because I can't bring myself to throw away anything which we can burn and can be useful in that way. The nice lady who cleans my area has noticed and is muttering encouraging words because she has obviously been itching to give my cupboard a good clean and there is not enough room to get her vacuum in...

Long weekend - yay!

So it is May already.  I'm sure that time is speeding up somehow.

My husband has tidied out one small shed this week.  It is one where he stores his wood that is useable for projects and not for the woodburner.  The door doesn't quite close and when he got to the back corner behind the wood, there was a pile of leaves and a hedgehog curled up asleep in it : )
I wouldn't let him turf it out because I can see that a hedgehog might be a good friend and eat up some of the things that I don't want visiting my garden.

And we've collected even more wood.  The further into the future that we can postpone having to actually buy wood, the better.  My friend left us an answerphone message to say that she had driven past a house with a pile of branches at the front.  So we went down to the house and my husband sat in the car and sent me to be cheeky and ask at the door if we could have them. We could so he ventured out of the car and we filled our estate car twice over.  It always amuses me that he stays in the car and sends me out.  These are freshly cut branches again so they will be for the winter after next.  Tonight, we've been to a work colleague's house and collected a car full of wood and a roof rack full of fence panels.  This is the second time we've been to this person's house and come home with just about the limit of wood that the car would cope with.  Last time, some of the lap fence panels got used to roof two of the new log stores.

I've lost another hen this week.  She was old but not my oldest and she had not laid an egg for well over a year.  Actually my oldest is currently laying about 4 eggs each week and she is the sole survivor of her little flock.  The flock that succeeded hers have all gone and so have most of the flock that succeeded them.  So Bluebelle is doing really well!

I notice that I've had loads of visitors to my blog this last two weeks.  I've had as many visitors in two weeks as I usually have in 3 months.  People are very welcome to stop by but I'm just curious as to what it is that has sparked people's interest.  I love it when comments are left here and I go and visit other blogs written by people who think along the same sort of lines as I do. I started writing this blog as a sort of online diary so that I could look back and see what I've been up to and I'm always a little bit surprised but very pleased when other people read my ramblings especially as I've not really got the equipment to put lots of nice photos on the blog.  So if you are new here - then you are very welcome!

I am so looking forward to this long weekend.  I know that I've only been back at school for one week after the Easter holiday but tonight I feel that I could sleep the clock round.

Yawn...   Goodnight!

Easter has come - and gone too

The Easter celebration is over for another year. I never got to go on the Procession of Witness on Good Friday because an elderly lady had fallen and cut her leg quite nastily on something at church  and I was the chatty distraction while her leg was cleaned and dressed.  Then when we got home again, I mentioned something about the two Sunday morning services and my husband said, " Oops, I forgot to tell you that I said that we would prepare and serve the breakfast following the early service...".  Did I say that he was taking the early service as well?  And since we had been at a different church on Palm Sunday, nobody had thought to put out a sign up sheet so I had no clue how many we were catering for...  Sunday was a great day but so very, very busy.  I went shopping on Saturday and decided that I would prepare for 40 people with an extra box of cereal and an extra loaf "just in case".  And I got it about right.  We also went down to church and set up the tables and chairs and cutlery and organised as much as we could.  Then we were down first on Sunday morning to get the urns on etc.  My husband led the first service and afterwards I beetled out as quickly as possible to the kitchen and boiled the eggs while everybody had their cereal.  I had detailed somebody else to stand over the toasters and keep refilling them. The same kind person supervised clearing away afterwards because I had to move on to the next thing.

Then before I had quite finished eating my breakfast, the music rehearsal started so I had to rush up with my toast still in hand.  Ever tried singing with a mouth full of toast crumbs?  Don't, because it is not a pretty sight : ).  My husband picked up his guitar and he started a nose bleed.  A mega fountain (ok too much info, I know) which kept going for just short of half an hour.  I got him out to the gents where there was a plentiful supply of absorbent loo roll.  It is somewhat difficult being a lady and needing to go into the gents...  I got another man to keep going back to check up my husband but my mind was not exactly on the rehearsal much and especially so as time went on.  We had finished by the time my husband came back to us with a very soggy shirt where he had tried to wash out the front.  And the gents looked like a mass murder had taken place in there.  Then after that service we had jacket potatoes and salads (prepared by somebody else : ) ...) and we made my husband sit down for a while.  Then there were all sorts of games and I made my husband sit and watch lots rather than joining in.  After a while he admitted that he had a tremendous headache and was glad to sit out and just watch.  And after we had cleared up and tidied, we went home for a peaceful evening and early to bed.

My farmer friend went home then too - and then rang me to tell me that they had gone out to the hens and found that something (probably a fox) had got in and killed them all.  What a sad end to a lovely day.

On Monday, my husband was right as rain and just as well because he had promised to go and help a friend move some furniture.  That took all morning and he came home with a present of a bag of wood for the woodburner.  What a nice way to say thank you to us!

This morning, my husband had been detailed to go and help our daughter and her husband to lay some floor tiles.  While he was out, I happened to open the front door and heard the joyful sound of a chainsaw being used close by but out of sight. Then I saw a man come round the corner with a wheelbarrow full of logs...  I grabbed a key and rushed off to see what was happening.  The council had sent a team round to cut all the branches off a tree on the pavement that they wanted taken down as it was starting to lean a bit too much.  In that road, the trees had been planted a long time ago, so they were big but they are not really a suitable type to grow on a narrow pavement and close to the front windows of the houses.  There were two men standing to the side with their wheelbarrows and taking the pieces of branch as they were offered.  I was asked if I wanted some too, so I rushed back for our wheelbarrow and joined the queue.  I ended up with four heaped wheelbarrows worth of lovely big pieces of branch which will be wonderful.  I'd have been happy to take away some of the smaller branches too but the treecutters shredded them.  One of the other men told me that there is a tree being taken down in the next road tomorrow so I'll be listening out for that chain saw music : )

A lot of wood is better for drying out for two years rather than just one before burning and we are filling up our garden with wood.  My husband has built several wood stores with pallets (airflow) for sides and and some lap fence panels as a roof to keep off the rain.  We reckon we have enough wood drying for next winter and we are now working on the winter after.  It is not all brilliant wood like we have acquired today, but it was all free, which is very important.

Busy weekends

This weekend was busy.  Next weekend will be busy and so will the one after that.  It is the housework that usually gets left undone because we have to eat and clean clothes are needed for work...  so don't come and visit before the Easter holiday, please, so that I'll have a chance to play catch-up : )

One of the things that we did on Saturday was to go to an 80th birthday luncheon party at a pub near Stratford.  It was a very pleasant afternoon. As we were the transport for another couple, we were invited back afterwards for a cup of tea because the other couple were, if you see what I mean.  I had not expected that so it ended up that the whole day had gone because it was not very local... It was my first 80th party.  I've been to lots of 50th and 60th celebrations but not been to a 70th yet.  It will come : )

We don't tend to go out for meals but our invitation was the verbal kind that is kindly meant but extremely hard to refuse without giving offence and besides, the other couple would not have been able to go if we didn't, so we bit the bullet and went. We had expected to have to pay but discovered that it was all paid for so it just cost the diesel, which helped towards my enjoyment, if I'm being honest. I know I'm a skinflint sometimes but I like our cooking and it grieves me to pay a week's housekeeping money for a meal that is usually not as good as we could have cooked for ourselves.  I decided to order the scampi meal because I like it and my husband doesn't, so I very rarely have the opportunity to eat it.  And there were four different veg served with it, so that pleased me too.

Sunday, we had church in the morning (with music rehearsals that means 9 am until almost 1 pm - so it is longer than it sounds...), a quick trip to Lidl for milk and a glance at the weekend half price specials (pork mince £1.14 for 500g - nice!) and home for a quick sandwich.  Then off with son to help him move something which took longer than expected (doesn't it always?) then a super quick omelette made with a large number of my new girls' baby eggs and back to church for a special event.

I did manage a load of washing on each day and it was really good to bring it in dry at teatime, even the towels.  Since we have the woodburner now, I put up with an airer or two in the living room with us in order to make more use of the heat and keep away from the energy guzzling tumble dryer but I really like not having the room like the proverbial Chinese laundry.

And mentioning the woodburner reminds me to say that my daughter rang up to say that a tree had come down this weekend in her neighbour's garden and she has kindly volunteered our services to clear it : )  It is not a huge tree but it is free wood nonetheless and will help towards replenishing what we have lost at school.  The garden and tree belong to a single mother who is very grateful not to have to pay to have it cleared or to have the trouble of working out how to clear it. Win win, I think.

I'm cross!

Three posts in three days.  That is rather more than I normally manage.

I've mentioned before that the caretaker had given us permission to clear a fallen tree at school.  It saved him money in getting people in to clear it and benefitted us.  We had to get somebody in with an enormous and powerful petrol chainsaw to cut the trunk up into big round slices that my husband started to chop up with an axe.  The big slices were too big and heavy to move so they had to be made into smaller chunks so that we could load them into the car to bring home.  Then they get chopped into suitable size pieces to fit into the woodburner.

Well, we had big slices of wood and my husband had started the process of cutting some up and bringing it home.  Then he went down with a chest infection at the end of December and then the rain came.  He still has not got rid of the last dregs of the chest infection even though the few days in Wales helped a lot.  And where the tree had fallen was like a bog and not really firm standing for using sharp tools when it would be so easy to slip.  Besides, he just wasn't up to swinging the axe.  And when he called into school yesterday, he went to look at the wood - and it has gone.  Somebody has taken a winter's worth of wood with our name on it.  We talked to the caretaker and the other person did not have permission to take it and we did but the caretaker's main view is that the wood on his grounds has been moved and at no cost to his budget.  Grrr.  At least we've had a bit for which I'm grateful.  But.......

Eggs!

We've got eggs!  Yum!  All my new little brown hens have now laid eggs and all my older hens are laying two or three eggs a week apart from Tufty who is laying four.  So I can have eggs again and so can some of my customers now too.  I've been explaining to the new girls that they have to not only pay for their own keep but contribute towards the pensions of the older girls - and especially towards the pensions of those who are now too old to lay.  And how some future new girls will contribute towards their pensions when they are too old to lay.  They look at me so seriously when I talk to them that I can't help but laugh.

We went out to the feed merchant yesterday to stock up on layers' pellets.  It is about a ten mile round trip so I try not to go too often as it costs the same amount of diesel to buy one sack as it does to buy six.  It was such a lovely warm and sunny afternoon that we decided to come back through some of the little lanes before we got back to streets and houses again.  We were so glad that we did because we found not one, not two but THREE branches fallen and laying by the side of the road.  So we stopped, pulled the car in as far as we could, spread the tarpaulin over the sacks of hen food and got out our trusty little hand saw.  We came home with enough free wood for the woodburner for four to five evenings.  Somebody local stopped his van and told us that we were doing a grand job tidying the place up.  That made me smile too because that was not exactly our main objective although the place did look better by the time we had finished.

And I've hung outside my first loads of washing for 2014.  I'm now really looking forward to having clean bedding which smells of being dried outdoors : )

I popped into Lidl after church this morning.  My husband really likes their meaty crisps and they were one of their half price weekend specials.  The only pack left was torn and half the little packets were missing.  He was really disappointed - especially at £1.04 for all those packets which would have lasted him several weeks.  Their other half price weekend specials were pork chops (none left) potatoes (already got plenty) and mini salami at 29p for a pack of two and one of these minis is just right for upping the flavour in a host of dishes.  So I was pleased even if husband wasn't.