Lofty ideas

I had a go at sorting out the other side of the summerhouse yesterday and today.    It looks a bit tidier now, and we can actually get to the freezer, so that's a win.    I can no longer reach two of the boxes which need sorting, but that's OK,  I've got plenty of other stuff to get on with.

 

Today I decided to pop up in to the loft, which is bursting at the seams, to have a quick scan through to see if there was anything I could easily remove.   I actually  wanted to get to two sets of bone china, as I've decided to get rid of one of them and to box the other one up in crates.

 

I couldn't quite get to them, but I did manage to chuck a load of stuff through the loft hatch in my attempt.

 

It would have been better not to have dropped the stuff through the hatch,  but it was quite effective.  Apart from the confetti of frayed plastic which covered my landing and bathroom.  I've vacuumed it up now, and moved the stuff downstairs.

 

I've got a few items I was going to post on local freebie/selling groups, but I've decided to tak to the charity shop instead.   

DH broke down all the cardboard, and took the stuff I'd identified as "Tip" and stuffed it all in his car for a TipTrip tomorrow. (We tried to go yesterday, but our enthusiasm was squashed by length of the queue so we came home again, untipped.

I've got a couple of items left that I'm thinking about advertising locally, but I need to work up the enthusiasm.

(elapsed time passes)

I won't bore you with the details, but I've offered one item and decided to send the others to the Tip 

I need some quiet time now.

Spring Cleaning

There was a whiff of Spring in the air, and the weather looked warm.    Time to tackle the first seasonal deep clean of the chicken coops!

I used to do all the dismantling, cleaning, drying, disinfecting, re-mantling of all  the coops in the same day.   I wasn't sure I had enough energy for that,   so I worked out a plan to do it over two days.

Day one went well, better than I expected.

I emptied one of the Cubes (not the one the Girls use to lay in), and scrubbed and  jet washed everything, even the front.    We are in a shaded art of the garden, so everything gets covered in green stuff, and it takes some effort to remove.

I did the spare coop, if I hadn't done it at that point it wouldn't have got done.   Then I did the outside of the second Cube.      I was meant to stop at this point,  but I decided I'd do the poo trays and part of the inside, and I'd leave the nestbox until the following day.

I'd been scrubbing the roosting bars, poo trays, nestbox divider, and coop back, on the patio, and then jet washing them. The patio was striated where the algae had been partially blasted.    So, while I was waiting for the coop stuff to dry enough for me to disinfect with Poultry Shield,    I decided to jet wash (part of) the patio. 

I did one section at a time.  This gave me some satisfaction as I joined up the striations. It enabled me to see clearly what progress I was making,  and it meant I could stop at any time.  I did enough so that we could put the yet-to-be-emptied-at-that-point summerhouse contents out on it.

After I'd done the disinfecting,  and the re-mantling,  I was pooped and didn't finish the patio.

The next day it was cold, and then it rained, and then it rained and it was cold.

It took until Yesterday to get warm enough for me to finish the second coop, which required all the inside cleaning again at this point.  I didn't have the energy to finish the patio.    I did suddently remember that I had a patio head for the pressure washer,  so I got it out of the recently emptied MyShed, and it's sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to go out use it.   We've got a big swing seat thing on the patio, and I can't move it on my own. And the weather is now rubbish.

That's my excuse, any way.  

Shedding

Last week, before we had a go at emptying and reorganising the summerhouse, I decided to have a go at emptying MyShed.

 

DH and I have always had our own sheds, each called MyShed (or YourShed if we are talking about the other person's shed). 

 

MyShed was originally used to store the mountain of chicken parephernalia that we had when we had a flock of girls here,   and a breeding flock and pen of growers at the allotment.  We now have only one small flock here, and we have reduced what stuff we have.   MyShed has gradually acquired overspill from HisShed and other areas.

 

I had a go at clearing it a few months ago, and I did get rid of quite a bit of stuff.  I also couldn't bring myself to dispose of some bits.

 

Last week I was not in the best of moods, and I was looking at MyShed to see what I could remove to create space to take stuff from the summerhouse.  And that was it.

 

Before I knew what was happening,  I'd made a large pile of stuff to go to the tip.  It was full of stuff that I'd looked at previously and decided I wasn't ready to part with it.   I've discovered that being in a bad mood is almost as effective as being in pain, when it comes to decluttering.  That, and the weight of having cleared my parents smallholding and wanting to reduce the amount of carp that my Executors will have to deal with, of course.

 

I could have donated some bits,  but I was not  in the mood for faffing around so it all went to the tip. 

 

I did manage to  advertise - and sell - a large feed bin. The lady who bought it was lovely,  and it turned out she was going to be using it for chicken feed.   I gave her some of my chicken paraphernalia (I had a spare Chicken Guard auto opener, and some large drinkers, and some small feeders that I didn't want to throw away but couldn't face advertising),  and she seemed happy.

 

We immediately moved some stuff from the summerhouse into MyShed. Stuff which needs cover, but can withstand being in a shed.  It's still a bit of a dumping ground but it's a darned sigh emptier (at the moment) than uit has been for years.

 

DH was mildly spurred on by my pile of stuff,  and he decided to have a quick clear round before we did the tip trip.

  

 

 

Letting go

We are part way through a slow kitchen refit, and are thinking about doing an extension elsewhere in the house a bit later in the year which will have the knock on effect of enlarging our utility area.

 

As a result, we've been holding on to all our "spare" kitchen bits, as we don't yet know what we aer going to need for the utility. 

 

They have all been residing in what we used to call our Summerhouse.  It's been a storage area since my Dad died and my brother and I were emptying my parents house.  Then came the kitchen.  And next..
 

A walk in larder popped up for sale.   I've let two other walk in larders go because we haven't decided what to do in the Utility.   This one, I really really wanted to get.  It matches the one we already have.  It's not expensive.  If we don't use it, we can re-sell it.

Except we don't have anywhere to store it (even flat packed).

So, we decided to empty out the 2/3rds of the summerhouse which currently houses kitchen bits so we could review them.   Our patio was full of kitchen.  It took some time to get the stuff out and sorted,  and then more time to photograph the bits we agreed we would let go.   A few items are  by the gate ready to go to the tip.

Then we packed everything back in the summerhouse, with those "let go" items stored at the front so we can get them out easily.

I created numerous posts on various groups and selling/freebie sites (not Ebay, yet).  Many items I've decided to give away,  as I want them gone more than I want to recoup any money.  

I'm picking the larder up next week on my way back from visiting my Mum,  so I hope some of them find new homes before then (otherwise they will have to go to the tip, which is a shame).

 

One set of superb quality doors has gone today, which is a start (but obviously it's more help if the units go!).

I need to clear out the other 1/3rd of the summerhouse now as it's full of the "non-kitchen" bits and  access to the freezer is now awkward.    I planned  todo it today but the forecast is rain, so that won't be happening. 

 

 

 

Reminiscence and nostalgia

We aren't big on celebrating anniversaries.   We have a small series of particular Events that we remember each year with a nod and a mention.    This year marks a Significant Number of Years since we got together and the Events are worth a bit more consideration, perhaps. 

We've now reached the anniversary second Event which  gets an annual nod.

For the first time in..... ever, possibly,    I spent some time actively reminiscing (to myself), going over this particular day.  (It's quite innocent, just Very Significant in our story).

The reminiscing was quite a pleasant experience, especially as I'd never really thought about it in this level of detail before.   I found it quite moving really, and resisted the temptation to let myself reminisce about later events.

The detailed reminiscing made me realise just how many, seemingly inconsequential, individual decisions provided the right conditions.  Any one of them being different, and the day would have no significance now.

I idly wondered whether we would have got together without this particular day.  After much consideration,    I felt that we probably would have, eventually....  and then I wondered why I would think that. 

I thought back to the earlier Significant Milestone that we have an annual nod to. Yes, that was a key moment but.....there was something else.  

I realised that there was one other day, with its own incredible set of actions and decisions, where our paths crossed and without which we wouldn't be here now. 

It's not like I've only just remembered it this other day, I've told the story of the first time I encountered DH a few times...  but I hadn't really realised its importance.   It's always just been an illustration of what an unlikely couple we are and to illustrate why it's a miracle two such unlikely people would get together.  

We've never thought it worthy of even an annual nod.  I don't even remember the date of it.   I found the realisation of its importance quite shocking. 

 I decided to explore the memory of that interaction in more detail.   I allowed myself the luxury of  mentally putting myself back in that time and place,   and it triggered quite a few memories of the days following.    Such a little stone dropped in a pond,  and the huge  consequential ripples that were created.  

Everything started on this other day, and without it, I don't think we would eventually have gone out together.

For a brief time, I thought about us as we were then.   The emotion of the memories were quite overwhelming.   I remembered places in very bright detail.  Events and conversations and people that I haven't thought of in years.    The fragility of it was breathtaking.    It could so easily have just been nothing 

Because of that other day interaction,  DH was one of the faces I recognised in a crowd.    I don't recall him ever recognising me.     I don't actually know if he attaches any significance to that other day crossed path.  His recognition of my existence might have been much later.  

As I carried on re-living it, additional memories surfaced (for the first time) :  my friend C was concerned I was developing a crush.  I didn't think I was and didn't understand why she was saying that;      She told her friend M, who then teased   me about it (and I didn't really understand what he was getting at, as my interest wasn't like that). 

I thought about how we were, back then.  The reminiscence turned into a short bout of nostalgia, and I found myself crying a little. 

We've been so very lucky.

****

When I decided to write this post, just to preserve my memory of it,  I put some music on (which I very rarely do).    I found myself blinking tears away again.   Apparently relevant or pertinent bits from the songs pulled at my heartstrings,  just like they did when I was a teenager (although not the same songs, and not for the same reasons).