De garaging

We rent a garage, and for the past year it's been a waste of money.   The rent was increased by 50% in one hit,  but we have been reluctant to give it up as we might not be able to get one again if we need it in the future.    I've been doing next year's budget, and it's just such a waste of money that we are going to have to let it go

A few days ago we went to see what was in it, to see what would have to be done to clear it by the end of the year.

I immediately started de-garaging.     The easy bits first.  The two bikes, used by various grandchildren and now outgrown,  have been found new homes.    I'm pleased for them,  as they will get to be ridden a lotmrather than spending most of their time in the garage.

There are a few other bits that will be relocated in one of the sheds,  and I'll aim to move those when we next have a dry day. Our shed space is lacking since we had to bring everything back from the allotment, we've already had to dispose of a lot of "come in handy" stuff anyway.

There's a pile of  roof tiles which we will probably argue about (argue about wheter to keep them,  and then where to keep them ).    And then we have to deal with some of the more emotional/memorabilia things, where there won't be arguments, just decisions to be made.

I'd like to get it wrapped up in the next couple of weeks,  rather than the next couple of months, but the weather - and Covid -  will have a part to play in whether that can happen.

 

Logging

The log delivery arrived this morning.  They'd given us a "7.30 to 12.30" window, so I was up, showered,dressed and ready at 7 (been caught out before!).    They arrived at about 9, which was fine.

Our usual log supplier, a big local estate,  no longer does logs.  They've sold the timber part of their business to some national chain,  and the logs part is no more.     It's a shame, as they delivered large loads (3 cubic metres) unbagged, and were (comparitively speaking) good value.

I tried the log chap before that (who used to deliver in cubic metre bags, so not  quite so many per cubic metre), but no more.  The chap who, last year, got lots of local recommendations?; he and his facebook page are no more. 

I wonder if its the new Stove regulations that are coming in to force?  Or Covid?  I've no idea. 

I looked more widely.  There were a few national companies, selling kiln dried logs.    These were selling closely stacked pallets, where 1.8m cubed was apparently the same as 3 cubic metre bags.   They had pictures to prove it.     That seemed like an OK idea, but when I looked at ordering, I saw that they were all coming from a long way "up North". (Yorkshire and Aberdeen);  this would mean a lorry coming hundreds of miles, and that seemed stupid.      

Some local chaps were advertising,  but I doubted that the logs genuinely were seasoned.  Some were advertising by weight, so I definitely gave them  wide berth!

In the end,  I picked someone about 20 miles away, and I was expecting an unbagged delivery.  It was a bit weird because the lorry came with cubic metre bags on,  and they emptied 3 cubic metre bags by our gate (and took the bags away).   So, from that point of view,  it wasn't quite as big a delivery as I had expected.   On the plus side,  I remembered that, according to their website,  their logs are barn stored to season them,   so I guess that bagging them makes sense.

It's nearly all Ash, which is great.  I've no idea how well seasoned it really is, I'll find out when we start using it in a week or so (my log basket is full of the last of last year's logs at the moment). 

Log deliveries usually cause arguments between us.   This time, we agreed on a compromise , and it was the best of both approaches rather than the worst of both.

We still had some old cubic metre bags from a few years ago, so DH laid 2 of them out in the greenhouse (which he'd cleared in preparation).    I started filling the two wheelbarrows while he did this.  He came and got a full wheelbarrow to empty into the big bag,  and I started filling the "carry into house" bags.  (Thank you Ikea for the perfect sized bags!).

Each time he brought back an empty barrow (and went off with a full one), I filled the empty one, then continued with the grab bags.

It's difficult to tell that the pile is diminishing,  so to help keep me motivated, I cleared the centre of the pile making 2 smaller piles.   Then I worked from the edge of one to the middle.    That way I can see how one pile relates to another, and I can see it diminishing.

I had a different type of bag for the tiny bits which we use for kindling,  and another bag for the small "logs".  In previous years, these bits got kicked to the side and then picked up at the end. This time, I dealt with them as I came across them, so they weren't handled twice.

We ended up with two cubic metre bags of loose logs,  and a cubic metre's worth of grab bags.  DH's preparation meant that everything was tidy.

It took a while, and I had to stop to do some Pilates stretches a few times,  but then it was done.  And it didn't take too long.

I wish I'd taken some before, during, and after photos.  I'll have to remember next year. 

Rabbit Hole

I disappeared down a rabbit hole on Thursday.

It started.....I'm not sure I can remember how it started.

I think I was putting something in the wardrobe, and I had  realised some other stuff in the drawer could be  chucked.     No, that's not right.

It occurred to me that I might be able to use my little handycam as a webcam.  I tried it with the USB and it didn't work.  I could play back to the laptop, I could upload to the laptop, but I couldn't live stream.   My handycam has an HDMI port, and I wondered if that might work (I now know the answer is no, but I didn't know that at the time).

I pulled the box of cables out of the cupboard in th living room.  I'm very organised.  Every cabke is labelled.  Cables that go together, are bagged together and the bag is labelled.   The problem is the stupid Ikea boxes are spatially inefficient.       As I looked at the mountain of neat bags, I decided there had to be a better storage box.

I had a big plastic box in one of the cupboards upstairs.  It was fulk if vacuum cleaner attachments.  I emptied that on to the sofa, and put the cables in the box.  I could get so many more in, and it was a better use of space. 

It looked stupid on the shelf next to the other Ikea baskets.  I was sure I had more of these plastic things somewhere.  And that is when I slipped down the rabbit hole.

I ended up all the cupboard turned out, all over the living room floor.    In the search for replacement receptacles for the Brannas (sp?) baskets that had been in there, I had also ended up turning out one wardroobe upstairs, all over the bedroom floor),  and one shelf in another wardrobe which had things like odd socks in the tubs that I needed.

In the end I managed to reclaim  2 large Variera rtubs and 5 small ones.    I also found various other shaped containers that might(but didn't) work, and their previous contents were deposited wherever they happened to be.

Not only that, but I decided to remove a cubby hole shelf from the cupboard, so I had to relocate the contents,   put two extra (glass) shelves in the cupboard,  and so on.

In normal times I would just have bitten the bullet, driven to Ikea, and bought what I needed. 

Instead, I had a trail of destruction all over the house.  

I couldn't stop myself. I had to carry on until the cupboard was sorted.  Once that was done, I'd be able to fix up everyrhing else.

Well, I managed to get the original, glass fronted, cupboard  sorted eventually.   I even managed to move photos off the windowsill in to it, which was a bonus.  Teh kittens keep knocking them off the windowsill.  

I managed to box the "Camera Accessories" from the original cupboard along with my old camera, which had been stuffed in another cupboard. I use my phone to take pics now, so I decided to pack the camera and bits away in the loft, and think about selling it.    This led me to rearrange that other cupboard as well, as I had some unexpected space in it.

The wardrobe contents were sorted.  I binned stuff, I put stuff in the Charity pile, I rearranged stuff, and that's now less clogged up.  The odd socks went into the bin. I do have a craft book with suggestions on uses for odd socks,   but I wasn't in the mood.    DH went through the binned socks retrieved 5 to reunite with the orphans that he had been keeping in his sock drawer (having forgotten that we have had  an orphan sock box in my wardrobe).

It took hours.  It took all day, all evening,  and part of the next day to get under control.  

It's neat and tidy now.  The plastic boxes are less aesthetically pleasing than the baskets they replace,  but they work better.  The cupboard looks less cluttered, even though it actually has more stuff in it.

The wardrobes look better.

Some of the other cupboard.....well, I need to find suitable replacements for the plastic boxes.  

But I'll worry about that another day.

 

Wins and fails

Lots of clutter clearing: Done
Boxes and packaging, for a friend who is downsizing: Done
Quick trip to Waitrose to get puectin/Certo/Jam sugar to make Quince Jelly in Jam Maker: Done
Quince Jelly in the electric jam maker: Done
Sewalaong on Zoom, run by the lovely Jane from Jane White Tuition: Done

Actually, I've an almost endless list of little achievements, all done.

I'm hyper hormonal, which is a bit surprising and very annoying for both me and my husband.   It's horrendous.  

It's so bad that I'm starting to wish I hadn't had the Mirena removed.  I wish I could help you appreciate  what a monumental statement that is.   I can't articulate just how bad that makes it.   

I hope to god this is only temporary, I don't know what the eff I am going to do otherwise.

I don't really understand how and why this should be.    The Mirena was 8 years old and all the stuff I'd read suggested that it would long since have run out of Progesterone. The doctor confirmed this at the time I had it removed.    Effectively it was just a piece of plastic (or whatever it is), so it wasn't doing anything.  

So how come I'm now getting all PMT?

he only saving grace, if there is such a thing, is that I am aware of it.  I can't bear not being in cotrol of my emotions, and I am trying to keep a lid on the boiling mass of rage,  anxiety, tearfulness that I am experiencing.  

I'm failing at that somewhat, but I'm aware enough of what's going on to try and apologise for it, at the time.

I'm taking paracetomol for the discomfort.  It's not extremely painfull, it's just low grade dull sensation, but it is very wearing. It's adding to my snappiness.

Honestly, with all its potential faults, having a Mirena was better than having this.

 

 

Cat Beds

Since the kittens arrived,  their 'stuff' has proliferated to the point of ridiculousness.  The worst offending item is the cat bed.

It's my fault. 

It started innocently enough.  I had an Ikea dolls bed in the loft, which I'd bought for our cats to use having seen some cute pics on Facebook. Izzy and Wash had other ideas though, so the bed was relegated to the loft. 

The kittens, especially Shelby,  love it.

While I was up there, I found a couple of old soft beds. I think I'd bought them for the other cats when they were kittens, bbut they were difficult to get the fur off and weren't particularly washable.  I also found a cat mat type thing, covered in VetBed.  I had a use for the VetBed, and I decided to defur the other 2 beds and ive them to a cat charity.

As soon as they touched the ground,  Lewis found one, and decided it was his.   That now sits next to Shelby's bed.   The second bed from the loft was put under the kitchen table, was discovered by all of them,  and is now a shared bed in the kitchen.

I put bedding on the sofa cushions, to keep the sofa cat hair free (ha ha ha).     One is a donut type bed, the other is a piece of VetBed  that covered the cat mat I found in the loft. Now that its cold,  the VetBed actually has a little electric blanket, set on a timer,  underneath,  as this helps ease Izzy's arthritis.   The mat that had been inside it which was put on the floor by the doors to the garden andhas now been adopted as a bed by anyone who wants some alone time.

I bought an cat activity mat to help keep them amused.  Shelby uses it a lot, and I was surprised to find that she likes to doze there as well.  

During the heat wave, we bought a cat pod where you can set the temperature to cool or heat.  That was a flop.   It's still sitting in the living room, and I will be moving it to the loft at some poing.

The cat trees (did I tell you about my mega cat tree?) provide a bed in the crows nest,  a hanging bed frame, and two caves, plus fluffy covered shelves. 

The 3 cats have 10 beds downstairs.  That's not counting the cat tree beds,and the seats that DH and I occupy each evening, and the rug in front of the fire

The old laundry basket,  made of  palm leaves, or water hyachinth, or whatever it is,  lies on its side in another part of the kitchen.  It wasn't an old laundry basket.  It was my actual laundry basket.  But the kittens played in it, rolled it round the kitchen, used it as a bed, chewed it to pieces,  so now it's theirs.

I've tried to remove one or other bed from time to time,  but the cats end up searching for it and sitting around looking lost.

I will rationalise them.

Eventually.

 

Quince

DH has mentioned quince a few times.

This year, for the first time, we've had lots of them on the tree, and DH picked them and put them in his workshop to finish ripening.  He's been mentioning that they are getting very ripe, as what I'm sure he really wants to say is "for god's sake woman, you wanted this bloody tree,   why don't you do something with the damned fruit"

So, yesterday,  I set about doing something.

Firstly,  I started on Quince Jelly.   I ran out of home ade Quince Jelly some time ago.  I bought some Tiptree Quince Jelly,  and it wasn't anything special.  The Quince Lady, who used to produce loads of stuff over in Henley, doesn't any more,  so the only option pen to me was to make my own.   So, I cleaned and chopped some, and put them on to simmer, then put them in a jelly bag to strain overnight.

Secondly, I had decided to try making Memnrillo, which I was sure I'd read someone had made using Thermy or CookEpert.     I found a CookExpert recipe for Membrillo, on a spanish cook expert site, pasted it into Google Translate,  and had a go at making some of that.   It's currently sitting in trays, drying out, in my kitchen.     It will be there for a few days.  There's no point taking a picture yet as the trays are covered in parchment. One of the trays was a collapsible thing, specially designed for moulding of hot sticky confections, which  I bought about 10 years ago to try making Turnkish Delight.  Needless to say (but I'm going to), this is its first time being used.

This morning I woke up with a sugar headache, a result of testing the lscrapings of Membrillo from various stages yeaterday.  The last thing I wanted to do was to make jelly.   But I did. 

I'm not sure my Jelly is going to set.   It's a shame, because it looks amazing. It tastes heavenly.   I remembered why I stopped making Jam as I cleared everything up.  I even had to put the hob thingummies in the dishwasher.

There was a lot  of juice still in the pulp, and I resisted the urge to squeeze the bag.   Clear jellies only come from unsqueezed pulp.   It seemed a shame to dispose of the pulp, so I blitzed it in the CookExpert,  and decided to try drying it like fruit leather.  It might not taste great, but I could probably turn it to powder and it would be a fab addition to apple pies.

I do have an electric jam maker, bought as a bargain from Lakeland some years ago and never used. I had previously had a Tefal electric jam maker, which I sold as I hadn't used it for a long time.   I think I was suffering from sellers remorse when I was shopping in Lakeland the day I saw the Ball one at a much reduced price.    I'm going to try using that to make a second batch.  I'll use the same recipe (as the Ball website denies the existence of anything called Quince) as I do when I make it myself, but hopefully the jam maker will get  me a good set.  I hope so.   

I looked in my old UK preserving book (from some food Council or other), and that explained how to test for pectin content BEFORE getting to the add sugar stage of the process.  Getting an accurate guage of the pectin content impacts on how much sugar needs to be added,  so it might be quite interesting to do.   It involves methylated spirits, and I think I might try it tomorrow, before I attempt to use the electric thing.

Meanwhile,  DH is thinking about bottling his off the cuff cider.  When we juiced the final lot of apples, he decided to turn it in to cider.  Hw used to make cider regularly, and had got good at it,  but we'd got out of the habit.

The only ...what's the word?  Teh thing that you put your stuff in and leave it to .... fermenter we had available at the time was a huuuuge one,  and that's now been  sitting on the breakfast bar for a while.   We eat breakfast round it, and don't really noticce it when we're sitting down.

The kitchen is chaotic - even by our standards.   We've got two other fermenters which have home made apple wine in (it's a bit strong!) on another worktop.    We've got bags of kindling on the floor (the kindling box is a bit full),   we've got the harvesting baskets piled up in 2 places on the side,   a two tier shelf thing with membrillo on,    the jars from the quince,  the box with the unused quince in, and the last of the tomatoes to process. ....and that's without the mess that I've got on the kitchen table. 

Once the tomatoes are done,  Preston (our enormous pressure canner) can go back in the utility room, and that will make a difference to how junky the kitchen is.

Despite the chaos, I am plased I've at least tried to do something.   It'll likely be tomorrow now before I prep the quince for juicing, so it'll be Monday before I make the next batch.

Overlocker 'Oliday

A couple of weeks ago I brought my overlocker downstairs.  I mentioned my plan to my DH who said "Is it having a holiday?" (By which he meant, "Please tell me this is only temporary")

I was attending a babylockalong (with the lovely Jane White at Jane White Tuition), and I thought that having my overlocker on the kitchen table might encourage me to sew a bit more. 

I did the Babylockalong. Wwe used the overlocker to create some tissue pouches very quickly.  The picture - the only one I took - is of my first and worst attempt. It doesn't do justice to Jane's easy design and excellent teaching.

I also ade one with piping round the opening and I wish I'd taken a picture of that.

Over the next few days I had a go at mask making, and then found I needed to press things so that all stalled a bit while I re-covered my tabe top ironing board.

Since then, I've had a play at making some reusable cleansing wipes, and that's been about it.   The table has been a bit congested, which doesn't help - but that's just a convenient excuse.

I've got another babylockalong on Monday,  so I'll keep the machine down until Tuesday, and then I'll move it back to the guest bedroom.

I've no idea why I can't motivate myself... I have a pile of things I'd like to make, but just no appetite for it.  Maybe the list is too long?

BioFilm

I read an interesting blog post by Shann, from Chuckling Goat.   It's about something called BioFilm which  is of interest to me as I have had a serious bout of food poisoning in the past,  and I have been dealing with a series of auto-immune issues.

https://www.chucklinggoat.co.uk/do-you-have-biofilm/?mc_cid=359987af76&mc_eid=eff9fd728f 

I ordered some of the two tinctures she recommends, and I started taking them today. I've started on  a much lower dose than suggested, and I'll stay on that low dose until I've been able to talk to my GP about it.

At the recommended dose, it takes 3 months to notice a difference, so goodness knows how long it will be in my case (if at all, of course).

 

Scrambled!

Moulting continues.   The flock looks so neglected.

 

A few mornings ago, I found a pile of light coloured feathers at the bottom of the ladder. They loked like Big Bird's feathers (yellow),  but I could see it wasn't her.

Later, I saw Nora (our oldest hen, 10 years old, blind in one eye) standing quietly in a
cloud of little feathers.  The scene reminded of  PigPen (in the Charlie Brown cartoon).

I walked up to  her and could see a mounting pile of feathers around where she had been standing.  As she walked off,  she left a trail of feathers behind her.
 
The poor girl is 10 years old, is still laying the odd egg,  nd now she's moulting!

I noticed that a couple of the girls had dried carp  clinging to their bottoms so  I came inside,  whipped up a large batch of  scrambled eggs,  armed myself with a brush and gloves, and set about catching and inspecting each and every one of them

Some of the girls are happy to be caught. They've worked out that it involves something tasty.  Nora, Phyllis,  Poppy and  Kathryn..all done in a few seconds. They loved the scrambled egg.  I then had to
set about capturing the others.  They are nearly all moulting, so no one wanted to play jumpy uppy.

Part way through the  proceedings I caught Shelby sneakily stealing some scrambled egg.  

I ended up having to "chase" (walk behind) the girls into the runs so that I could corner and catch them.  I'm not surprised they don't want to be caught.  Some of them had new feathers coming - just the shafts pricking through the skin,  and this is really uncomfrotable for them.  It's difficult to pick them up without causing them more discomfort.  

I did it with as little handling as possible,  and everyone enjoyed the eggs.

 

 

Everything for the kittens

I love my cats.    

One of the things which always amuses me is how they assume that everything that comes in to the house is for their benefit.   I love that they have to explore every box, sit on every item.

Most things aren't for them,  and it makes me smile when they've explored an item, and then looked at us as if to say "Thank you for the thought, but.... what are we supposed to do with it?"

A few days ago I was sewing some different masks.   Both types had lots of pressing in them,  which I skipped because I was downstairs,  the iron was somewhere in the guest bedroom, I didn't want to have to go and ut the ironing board up and find the iron and then go running up and downstairs to do it.  And I definitely didn't want to cart them downstairs and set them up in the kitchen.

The masks were OK but definitely shoud have been pressed as specified.   I remembered that my recent excavations of the small room had yielded a table top ironing board.  It had been put in the "needs fixing" pile,  and the fix was that it needed a cover.      My excavations had also yielded a new, full-sized ironing board cover, which I had bought in a Lakeland sale and was earmarked for recovering my steam press.

I retrieved both items, and decided to try recovering the tabletop board.  DH suggested that I use grommets (as I have a tabletop press and lots of grommets), and so that's what I did.  It took a while, but it looked good.  I left it on the cutting table to settle overnight.  

Within moments it had been appropriated by Shelby. 

When I came into the kitchen, she was curled up asleep on it.  By the time I'd got my phone to take a pic, she was sitting up on it.

Izzy had her monthly Vet appointment the other day.  I got her in her carry bag, and pt it on the floor while I got my handbag, car keys, mask, etc.  Lewis decided it was some sort of double decker cat bed.  Izzy was not amused.

Grass

The grass on our "lawn" (that small area between the house and the summerhouse that we try and keep hen free) is recovering reasonably well from the drought.    There are still some horrible bald patches which could, if the Girls get on them, turn into large raw aras.

The grass inside the area fenced off for the girls was not recovering so well.  Not surprising, as there were so many extra feet and beaks on it,  it just can't recover.   We changed the shape of their area a while ago,  taking some of the baldest patches out and goving them some untouched areas.  Those bald patches arestill baldish - less so, but not well enough to put back in.    The new areas are well trodden and grazed.

DH surprised me the other day by suggesting we open up the vegetable beds to the girls.  I was thinking of suggesting we do this when winter was more underway.    To have DH suggest it at all was a bit of a surprise,  so I agreed and he went off and sorted it out.     It gives the girls a bit more grass,   a border,  and a couple of raised beds to explore.  

The Girls were very pleased

It means they now have about 2/3rds of the garden.

I imagine that we will end up giving them the whole of the garden before winter is out.

 

Foreign body

I had my Mirena removed yesterday.    This one, my second, was in for 8 years and I'm hoping there won't be too many negative side effects The progesterone should be long gone, so it's expected that my body won't react to that.  

Removal of this one was, briefly, very painful (I involuntary "oh fuck" ed a  couple of times, ).  It was much less painful than putting it in had been,  and a walk in the park compared to last time's removal when that one had become embedded in the lining.      I had an evening of period like cramps,  but I felt OK this morning. 

I'm sharing this delightful info because I want to make a note of it.  I am not so secretly hoping that the removal of something which is a foreign body will have an effect on some auto immune issues, and I'd like to look back and easily find the removal date.

Weather gloomy... but we need the rain, so no complaining. Yet.