Cleaning frenzy

My definition of "frenzy" has changed somewhat as I've become older, stiffer, less well.

Yesterday my brain decided, against advice from almost every other part of me,  that I needed to clean the kitchen.  This involved clearing the worktops, cleaning the worktop, cleaning the items, putting them back, and creating a pile of "I don't know what to do with these" in one place on the breakfast bar.  I also cleaned the windows, inside and out. 

In my less decrepit state it would have taken me at most 2 hours to achieve what actually took me nearer 5.  I gave up before I got to the stage where I needed to mop the floor.  I meant to do that later, but I'd had (more than) enough.    

The pile of stuff on the breakfast bar is still there, but it's smaller.  I binned some,  I put some in the boot of my car (charity shop), some needs DH's intervention, and some....I have no idea. I I might just put it on a tray and stick it temporarily underneath one of the units; we don't have plinths, it's easy, I've done this before.   

It's an attractive option because I've ordered  made to measure plinth pods for one run of units, so it could only be a short term fix.  I did, tentatively, pull out one of the trays from a previous cleanring session... and decided to put it back to deal with later.  I told myself it would all be easier when the plinth drawers are in, as some of those are designated for crap we don't know what to do with,

Today I'm thinking about moving on to the dining room,  but part of what is in junking up there is waiting for one of the plinth pods to arrive,   or for some Ikea bits to arrive,  or for DH to put some shelves in the Kallax unit I bought the other day so I can finish putting the sideboard contents away,

 Did I mention I got rid of my lovely Skovby sideboard and replaced it with a Kallax?

I used to have a 4x2 Kallax which worked well as a sideboard/storage facility.   When we extended the cat tree, the Kallax was too big, the next size down was too small,  so I replaced it with a lovely Skovby sideboard.   The sideboard was a proper, although compact, sideboard.   Inside, it wasn't quite as capacious or adaptable as Kallax,   but it looked so much better. Looked lovely. Gorgeous grain, full of character.   

Then, when looking at something for my Mum,  I saw that Ikea had started doing cat bed  Drona boxes (Kallax inserts).  I bought one for another Kallax unit I have , and I really liked it.

I had to order some stuff for my Mum (she is a Kallax convert now she has limited space), and on impulse I ordered arecently  released 3x2 Kallax for me.   I left it unopened for a while,  so I could see whether the moment passed.  

Surprisingly, it didn't.   So, we now have a Kallax unit in place.  Doesn't look anywhere near as good as the Skovby, but it is immensely practical - and it has a cat bed in it!

 

 

Skirting around the issue

I've been suffering from bloating, and it's been very painful.

 

I decided to make some skirts with bigger waistbands, to relieve the pressure on my abdomen.   It took me about a week to clear the breakfast bar,  clean it,  get out the cutting mat, get out the patterns and cutting tools,   and sort out the pattern  - I wanted to make a skirt from a woven fabric, like cotton, which is much cooler in the heatwave, and I wanted a full maxi skirt not one with a split.   I decided to try 5 out of 4's "Virginia Maxi".

 

5oo4 Virginia

Eventually, I managed to cut the skirt out, and to sew it up. I then considered whether to just do one of my normal yoga waistbands or whether to try and do something a bit better.  And I pondered on whether I should gather the skirt first, being as it's woven,  rather than using the stretchy waistband to gather while I sewed.

 

I used up all my available energy thinking about it, and my back was killing me,  so I just put everything in the spare bedroom until I'd recovered,

  

Eventually I really needed the new skirt - or the large waistband -   so I decided to just do the usual waistband routine.  It worked better than I expected. I'm really really happy with the end result.   I wanted to make another one but it needs wider fabric (because its quite gathered), and I couldn't easily find something suitable in my stash.  

 

A few days later, I used my go-to pattern (Pattern Emporium's Heartlight) for a stretch fabric maxi skirt and I cut out two skirts before my energy was sapped.  While I had the cutting mat out, I  used the remainder of the two pieces of fabric to precut some yoga waistbands for other skirts.   If the fabric has enough recovery, I use the same fabric to make the waistband as I use for the skirt.  Some fabric doesn't have good recovery which means the waistband gets looser and looser during wear, until the skirt slides off.  That's where these waistbands come in.    I've long given up tucking my top in so no one but me knows.

 

I can only find a photo of one of the Heartlight  skirts, I'll add the other later,
EDITED: took a photo of the other skirt

 

 

 

 

 

Chickens

Hazel, the hen we rehomed,  has been relentlessly bullying the two mophead Arauacana.

Its unnecessary.  They capitulated the day she was introduced, and have not tried to move her down the pecking order.  They keep out of her way.

And she seeks them out to bully them, ripping feathers out of their backs.  It's most unnecessary.

One of the mopheads, Olivia,  became unwell.   She was being bullied even more mercilessly by Hazel, and she was keeping herself apart from the flock.    I could smell something on her breath, and I could hear a faint rasp.  I couldn't see any obvious signs of "cheese" in her throat or nostrils,

I started her on Harkers, , which is a treatment for Canker.  Every day I put on chicken-nursing apron,  disposable gloves,  and go and catch her and take her to the catio where I could sit and feed her.  I added Critical Care powder to some wet food which was put in a paper muffin case, and used a disposable straw as a spoon.  I also added Critical Care to some water, mixed in eiter a jam jar or the cut-off-bottom of a milk cartonm, and droppered it in to her beak,  Each session was finished with NutriDrops, in a bottle now labelled with her name so it wouldn't be use for anyone else.   

When we were done, I'd put her back in the Run, far away from Hazel.    All the paraphernalia was disposed of each day, fresh paraphernalia the next day, and the apron was laundered each night. 

She improved a little after a couple of days, and I got some undyed maggots to feed her (it was too hot to get mealworms delivered) to encourage her to eat.

At the end of the course of  Harkers, the smell had gone, and she had definitely improved.  She was brighter, happier, and was eating normal food. I continued with the rest of the regime for a bit longer, adding in yoghurt to her diet. She started to crouch when I went to get her, something she rarely did befoore she was ill. 

She's still bullied by Hazel, but she's now back to being part of the flock. 

Sometimes she crouches for me, and I'll bring her back to the house and give her a treat (some sunflower seeds, or a bit of cucumber or tomato).

I'm really surprised at how well she is doing. 

 

Mum

It's been a busy, and mentally quite draining,  time with my Mum.

My brother and I took her for a weekend away to Llangollen.    Last year she said she wanted to see the aqueduct, that she'd wanted to go for as long as she could remember.    We couldn't take her back then because we were still sorting the house out, then she wasn't well enough, then it was the wrong time of year.

DB and I planned to take her at this particular time,  aswe always try and do something on dates that are significant to her.

It was a successful trip. We stayed in a lovely Air B&B.  As usual, I had searched for one with a downstairs bedroom and bathroom, and this one was very close to the aqueduct.   We stayed for 2 nights and visited the aqueduct twice. 

The first time, which was the late afternoon we arrived,  Mum wasn't up to walking over it, even with her lovely ByAcre.     The second time was the following morning, and we had booked a boat trip across.  There was also a last minute booking of a large group of German tourists, and that made the crossing even more fun as everyone was very jovial and jolly.  The weather was lovely. 

We had to wait a while to enter the aqueduct itself as there were a lot of boaters coming the other direction.  Some of the boaters were part of a canoe experience group.  These were the canoes like the Native American Indians use, rather than the kayak type.

When the first canoe came across,  one of the German tourists said to his companion, in German,  "Oh look, an indian boat" (like a native american indian boat).  More multi person canoes came through, and I had to chuckle when I saw one of them in particular -  it was steered by a chap  wearing a turban.  The tourists roared with laughter (at the coincidence of the man describing the boars as Indian Boats, and then having an Indian man in one), much to the bemusement of the rest of the  passengers. 

We went into Llangollen, bought some Oggies (welsh pasties) and some other bits for dinner, and had an ice cream.  Mum was shattered when we got "home".

The final day we had another quick look at the canal, and then headed back to Mum's "home", stopping to visit a particular Welsh flagship shop on the way.

It was a long day for DB and I. On top of the journey from Llangollen to Mum's home,  we then had another just under 4 hours to get home ourselves.

..... 

A couple of weeks later,  Mum  announced that she wanted to leave the Home and go and live on a residential retirement mobile home park.   She had found a site which had a plot for sale.  She wanted to watch the fishing boats come in and go out, she wanted to buy a scooter and scooter herself to the local shop to buy sweets.

She's been very happy at her residential home, and vigorously resisted our early attempts to get her to consider moving into sheltered accommodation (or to buy a small place, maybe even near us) instead.  Back then, this would have been a viable option.  Now time has moved on, and Mum has grown used to the convenience of being looked after.

We thought something must have happened at the Home to upset her.     It took a while to unpick what was going on and why she now wanted to move, and to work out what the root causes of  this decision were.    

Mum is perfectly compos mentis, and a grown woman,  so we want to support her in what she chooses to do.   Even if we think something is a bad idea,  we don't just dismiss it out of hand.  We have no vested interest in her staying in her current home,  apart from it being a really lovely place and by far the best home we've ever visited. 

We reassured her that if she wanted to move out of her current Home,  that was absolutely no problem.  She doesn't have to stay where she is.   

If she wanted to move  to another residential home, anywhere in the country,  that would be fine .  If it turned out it wasn't as good as the one she was in now, she could always move back.  

If she wanted to move into sheltered accommodation, truthfully  I'd have concerns about her ability to manage,  but we would support her - and if she found it too difficulty she could always move back, or into another Home.    

But her proposed movewas really cause for concern, partly because we thought she would struggle to physically manage but mainly because it would be difficult for her to just change her mind and move back should the need arise.

She tried to articulate what prompted her to want to leave,  and we talked about whether her proposed move would actually solve the issues she was experiencing.  

She could see why we had concerns about the mobile home site option,   but she still wanted to do it.  She agreed that doing a trial for a couple of weeks first would be a good idea. 

We took her to visit the site.  It was, indeed, a lovely site.  It wasn't quite as she expected, and I don't want to go into the details on a blog post.  There would be no scootering, and there was no local shop.  The local town was a bit further away than she remembered,  and she could see that she wouldn't be able to get herself there.    Mum could see that it wasn't going to be quite what she imagined, so we moved on to working out what we might be able to do about sheltered accommodation if she really wanted more independence.

While we were sitting in a traffic jam, waiting for the bin lorry to complete its round along the narrow street of the nearby town,  I asked a couple of unrelated questions,  and a whole lot more information was forthcoming.  We came up with some very workable suggestions, and she seemed happier.

I asked her if she had thought about moving rooms made a suggestion about moving rooms, and Mum told me she would like to, but there were no rooms available.  I pointed out that she lived in a retirement home and that, at some point, a room would be available.  She asked me to speak to the Home to see if she could go on a waiting list.  We also said that, in the meantime we'd buy her a second BAcre so she could have one upstairs and one downstairs, which would remove one of the problems she was experiencing

The Home were brilliant.   The end result was that DB and I were back for 2 days a couple of weeks later, decorating her new room and getting her moved in.   And the visit 2 weeks after that, was us bringing some additional Ikea furniture and doing a bit of rearranging for her. 

She's now very very happy, and has not mentioned moving out again.   

Not yet, anyway.  

 

 

 

 

Chaos

I kept starting and stopping writing a blog post -  life kept moving on.  It's been like trying to pin down a gas.

 I don't know if I can actually remember everything that has happened in the last month or so. I'm not sure I want to commit some of it to a blog.

Mum.  Weather.  Chickens.  Health. 

 I need to write some of it down, just for my own reference.

Hazel, again

It's been interesting integrating Hazel My Lovely into out established flock.  It's gone really well (so far).

Initially, I'd sectioned off a large part of the Run so that Hazel had her own space and her own coop.   Early on, I left the top door open.    The only hen that was likely to fly in was Fay, and she and Hazel had already come beak to beak.  I knew that hazek could fly into the main coop, but she'd also be able to fly out if things turned nasty.

To my surprise, she flew into the main run that evening, and roosted on one of the chairs.   I decided to leave her there.

During the next few days as she skirted the egde of the Establishement,  Hazel tested the waters.  She quickly dominated the two araucana, who are at a disadvantage as they don't see too well due to their mop heads.

There were a number of spats between Hazel and Ophelia, the palomino Vorwerk.   Ophelia was number 7 of 7 while Elizabeth was alive.  Elizabeth took a dislike to Ophelia, and kept her firmly at the bottom of the pecking order.  After Elizabeth died,  Ophelia became a more confident and happy chook.  She didn't do anything to try and move up the pecking order, but she was happier to make sure she got her fair share of treats, etc.

With Hazel's arrival,  Ophelia seems to have decided that she'd like to move up a bit.   She and Hazel had a number of beak offs,   nothing malicious.  It currently looks like Ophelia won, and so Hazel and the two Araucana are now 5, 6 and 7.

Hazel also took on Astrid, who was probably number 3 of the Establishment.  So far, Astrid seems to have retained her place.

Hazel is not taking on Fay, but Fay does do a bit of an eff-off peck every now and then.

There has been no ganging up,  no real nastiness, and now Hazel is permitted to roam and eat with the Establishment.  They won't currently let her in the two coops at night, so she's roosting on the back of a chair.   If the weather is bad, we go in and move her into the spare coop, otherwise we leave her where she is.

The Girls rearranged themselves a couple of nights ago so Bott (top chook) was the sole resident of ne of the coops, so I guess that Hazel has to decide to go in there one evening.

The run is huge, so it's easy for people to keep out of each others way;  we have plenty of feed and water stations;  the free ranging area is large and it's easy for hens to keep out of each others eyeline;  and Hazel is old enough and sensible enough to take things calmly.

She's a lovely thing.
 

Hazel, my Lovely

I introduced the new Hen to my brother and told him this was "Hazel my Lovely (Long time since you've seen the light of day)".  

Yesterday I opened one of the doors to Hazel My Lovely's part of the run, and encouraged her outside with sunflower hearts.    She spent a lot of time exploring, and we had to block off a couple of bits where she could get in and we couldn't get to her.

We decided to give her access to the entire garden, rather than sectioning an area off, so that she could come and see us for company. It also meant she could see the other girls and they could see her.

Predictably, she and Fay came beak to beak on one of Fay's excursions (Fay is unfenceable).  There was a skirmish, and then a lot of ignoring.  Hazel followed Fay,  Fay ignore Hazel, Fay finally jumped back intot the main enclosure to escape Hazel.

Evening came, I shut the girls in their respective runs. After watching Hazel,   I opened the top gate between the two runs, and left it open.    Fay would be able to get in,  most of the others wouldn't.   I went out later to check that Hazel had found her way to bed and found her gone.

I checked the bushes in the run (it used to be our fruit cage, before we put a chicken run on it).  Nope.   I went into the main run, and found her roosting on the back of a wooden chair.   I stroked her for a bit, and saw the others watching from the open coops (too hot to close the coop doors).

I decided to leave her there.  She'd chosen to go in, she could have gone back if she had wanted to.  She could fly back in to her own run in the morning if there was trouble.

I thought I'd bring forward my plans, and let them do a bit of free ranging together tomorrow. 

,,,,

I woke up at 5ish.  There wasn't a cacophony of complaints.  I checked the camera, and I could see that all 7 birds were milling around.  I checked the recordings and saw that there had been several scuffles that morning,  none of them serious, and all of them were 1 to 1.

I went outside and opened the dividing door, in case things escalated.    I watched them for a few minutes and I could see that the 2 araucana (numbers 4 and 5 in the Establishment) were being dominated by Hazel;   Ophelia (number 6) was trying to assert dominance,   she's been ready to move up the pecking order since Elizabeth, who kept her in her place, died .  Astrid (Number 2 or 3)  was "attacking" Hazel, but only in the expected way, nothing too horrible.   Bott, who is number 1 or 2,  wasn't bothered at all,  top chooks rarely have to do anything much.  

 Fay, who's place in the pecking order I've never been able to fathom,  just kept out of it. 
I'm wondering if she and Hazel had establised things yesterday?

 It's likely to be the calm before the storm,  and Hazel hasn't tried to join them in the coop at night yet,  but it's going OK.

For now, we'll let things carry on and see how it goes.

 

 

 

Chicken of Fate II

A post on my village FB group was looking for a home for a lone hen, after her siblings were taken by a fox. Sensibly, he didn't post a picture of the hen.

I thought about it for a while, considering the likelihood of the fox returning.  I contacted the owner to say that I would be happy to take her, but I had 6 hens and it would be better for the hen to go somewhere with just 2 or 3 (because 6 established  on 1 new hen is awful).    I added that I 

could take her as a temporary measure, as I had an emergency coop,  while he looked for a suitable home.

Her name made me chuckle.   I saw a  pic and it made me laugh out loud as she looks like our previous Chicken of Fate, Coffee.

 

She arrived this afternoon, just her in a plastic box (not shut in one, it was obviously just a receptacle for him to carry her).  I checked her over for wounds and for lice. 

 

It turns out that the fox attack was a month ago, and the owners were debating whether to get her some friends and hadn't decided what to do.  The chap is away from Monday,  so I guess this brought things to a head.

 

She's a sweet little thing, about 2 years old.  She's never been in a run, I assume they just had a coop in the garden.  

 

We've sectioned off part of our run, a large (4m x 6m) area which is well shaded and has an emergency coop in.  We've popped her in there for now.

 

The Establishment are not happy, as that area contains (or contained, now, I suppose) their large communal dust bathing area.     I've put an extra dust bath in their part of the run,  but they aren't amused.

 

Fay, my uncontrollable Fayoumi,  has already come face to face with her, and reacted as one might expect. She is currently patrolling up and down the outside of the run, and complaining loudly.

 

I'm going to leave her there,  shut in for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, she can go out in an area we will fence of specifically for her.

 

We'll then think about how to move forward. 

 

 

 

 

 

Jiggy

There is a series of lovely jigsaw puzzles that I've been doing and framing.   

 

I've had one in its box under the sideboard for probably 2 years now, maybe 3, and on impulse I got it got the other day.  It's part of the pain management thing. I mentioned to DH that I was going to need him to make me a frame.   

 

They are delightful puzzles to do, lots of colour and interest,  and they don't usually take too long.    This one took a bit longer than I expected.

 

After a few hours I realised that it was a 1000 piece puzzle, not a 500 piece.  That explained why it was taking me so long.  I also realised it was going to be too big to frame.  

 

It was a lovely puzzle to do 

 

 

 

 

No news

Lofting has ground to a halt.    Mainly because I've been in too much ...discomfort ..... to actually do an shunting,  but also because it's like an oven up there.

For a while, I did related activities, like trying to finish dealing with the pile of paperwork,  and sorting out the last few bits sitting on top of the filing cabinet in the box room. (That counts, in my head, because the filing cabinet shift around was prompted by the loft). 

I've done very little since the stabbies.  

It's all been a bit weird, unsurprising really.   It's like I had a smoke alarm going off because my house is on fire... and then I've taken the batteries out of the alarm.    I don't have the noise from the alarm anymore, but the fire is still raging.

I've used the ultrasound wand a couple of times, but it's hard to reach the area.    I've restarted using the Infra Red (Near Infra Red, actually, as I need the deeper penetration) panel, and I've used it 3? 4?  times in the last week.  I think it's helping.   I'm trying to use it as soon as I gt out of the shower,   I find routine ias key to getting these sort of things to become habits. 

I've also been using a breath app /device suggested by my chiropracter, which I'm using to try and help me meditate a bit.  I haven't found a habitual slot for it yet, so I need to work on it.

The energy I do have is spent doing dull domestics and other necessary tasks.   I disinfected all the chicken drinkers over the last 2 days.  I routinely scrub them when I change the water,   but this time I used Virkon to give them a really good scrub, and then soaked them in Milton.    Three bell drinkerxs and 2 enormous Omlet drinkers are now all done.

I also decided it was time to do a full breakdown clean, scrub and disinfect of our bird feeders.   We are getting through a lot of feed at the moment as there are a lot of chicks to be fed.  I couldn't take one out of action at this time, so I bought a spare feeder and put that up, then took one of the existing ones down.  Disassembled, scrubbed, rinsed, put in Milton, then left to dry thoroughly for 24 hours or so before it can be refilled.    I'll move on to the next tomorrow, replacing it with the one I've just cleaned.

And I'm shortly about to embark on trying to sell the non runner of a kit car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stabbies

The consultant I saw yesterday could feel the extreme tightness in the muscle. Maybe we;ve founf the source of the pain - it's been 4 years and 10 months now.

 

Steroid injections along the length of the muscle.

 

Sore today.

 

Hope it helps.  It would be good to finally have pinpointed the problem. 

Exit, Elizabeth

Elizabeth died yesterday.

Hatched by us in 2018, she was one of three we kept that year: Violet, Elizabeth and Bott.     Violet died two years ago,  Bott is still with us.

She was, like all the Welsh Blacks and their descendants,  an absolutely beautiful girl.  Her black feathers shimmered with purple and green iridescence.  She was, we think, the daughter of Annie,  a very particular Welsh Black with a very small pea comb,.   Her father was Bertie, the Vorwerk.  She didn't have any obvious Vorwerk traits, unlike her sister, Bot, who inherited his flat comb. 

She had amazing eyes.  One side was completely back, from the Australorp side of the Welsh Back heritage the other eye was orange and black, from the Indian Game part of her Welsh Black heritage.

She was an interesting girl.  While living on the allotment (when all our hatches went to the allotment once the boys started crowing),  she disappeared.  The allotment had Heras fencing all round and was accessed through a locked gate.  We had netting over the top.   We looked everywhere,  under everything, in everything.  We couldn't find her.    We assumed she must have been left out one evening,  and got taken by a fox 

She reappeared weeks later, she was just suddenly in the gang again - and we have no idea what happened to her in between. 

She had absolutely zero tolerance for being picked up, even if treats were on offergh she did do "jumpy uppy" when she was a baby).   She would take treats from our hands, if there was no other option, but that was it. Despite that, she was a mostly good natured girl, and I will miss her very much. 

 I noticed that her comb was a bit dark yesterday, but it was dark red not purple (purple is an indicator if imminent heart failure).  .  She was eating fine, and showed no sign of being unwell.   

She was up and about first thing, when DH opened the run and let them out.    When I went to shut them in at 16.10, she was dead in the middle of the run.    The run camera wasn't recording (of course we've only just discovered that).     The view from the other two cameras to where she died was obscured, so I've no idea what happened.    There's a bit of noise on one of the mid morning recordings from one of the  cameras, and I'm guessing that was it.    We didn't see anyhing because I was on my way to a routine  hospital appointment,  and DH had to come and get me as I wasn't allowed to drive afterwards.   I wasn't feeling great when I got back, so neither of us had been in the garden until I went out to shut them away.

 She was 8 years old, which is a good age, and she had a quick death which I am very grateful for.

Most of the photos of her are as part of a flock, and none show her well.  Even this one only shows her "game" eye rather than the gorgeous black "australorp" eye.

 

 

I'm down to 6 hens now.  3 of those are golden oldies (who could go at any time), and one is a youngster who doesn't look like she'll be long lived.  Mind you, I thought Fleur was going to go at any moment during most of her amost 9 years.

I've got to consider at what point I should wind things up.

 

Hairy Moments

My back has been giving me some gyp again, which is a bit disappointing.  I'd begun to believe that the relief accidentally provided by the calcium channel blockers was going to be permanent.

Today my brain decided that we were going to clear up the dining room.    I put on Now 1973 and got on with it, stopping to do stretches often as the pain bit.     I carried on into the adjacent dining room.  A simple tidy up became a bit of a marathon, as my  brain decided that I was already in pain, so moving the sofa to clean under it and move it a bit wasn't going to make things any worse.

And then I had to have a more in depth clean and sort out. I labelled plugs. I sorted extension leads.  I hand swept dark corners.   And it went on, and on, and on. 4 hours, with a half hour stop after I'd put the furniture back so I could have breakfast.

I got Raymondo to vacuum the floor, and he did this with only a few stops for complaints. 

And as I'd nearly finished, I decided to give the cat tree a brush down.  It's been a loooong time since I last did it, probably before Christmas I think.    I was using one of those old-fashioned sweep-in-one-direction hand devices (bloody marvellous),  which needed shooshing and emptying a lot. 

I was standing on steps to reach the top platforms of the tree, so I just dropped the hair on the floor each time I emptied the shoosher,  which was every couple of minutes.   I got Raymondo to come and sweep up.  

I saw him pushing a pile of cat hair and hiding it under the sideboard.  I told him off  for being so devious,  and he packed up at that point. 

The App said "Clean Raymondo's brushes".  I flipped him over, and I could see why he was having trouble.    

I cleaned him up and then just piled the hair  next to him, and carried on piling up the hair as I finished the cat tree.

When I was done - and I had removed the piles of cat hair - I sent him to vacuum again, and I'm just about to mop the floor.

 I need to go and sit on the power plate, and/or lie on the floor.

After I've washed it. 

 

Single file

Slight detour on my lofting journey, but still related.

I bought a 100cm wide, 3 drawer, sidefiler cabinet from some distance away.  DH had to drive me there to collect it as it wouldn't fit in my tiny car.  It was a lovely journey,  we added in a couple of other bargain pick ups (one for us and one for my brother), and we had lunch on the way home.

The new filing cabinet weighs a ton, has concrete in the bottom.  DH took it apart and we enlisted the help of DB to get it up the stairs and back together again.

The reason it's connected to de-lofting is that we removed a 4 drawer standard filing cabinet from the loft the day before.   That was fun. My DB came to help,

Two of the drawers were full of CDs, which are now crated and labelled.   Two drawers were crammed with paperwork,  some of which I'd already organised into box files so the kids would know they could just dispose of it.    I decided I'd dispose of it myself, but this required me to go through everything to make sure it had been scanned, and to scan (or rescan) where necessary. 

We replaced it with a 2 drawer cabinet from the study,  which I'd emptied into crates.   The other two drawer cabinet was damaged, so that was emptied into more crates and taken to the tip.

I took the opportunity to pull out old paperwork, and I've been working every day at making sure everything had been scanned,  and reorganising the electronic files.   

The paperwork to be burned was piling up, a crate full.  Two thirds of it came from the fuilking cabinets.  The other third came from me emptying my old work related loft boxes.   It didn't seem right to just bin some of the paperwork I had,  so that all needed burning as well. 

 I've been waiting for an unsunny day to start burning stuff, and today was the day.    I'm not quite through it all, but I should be finished tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, the lateral filing cabinet is in place, and I spent Friday and Saturday (and part of today)  trying to organise stuff/  The organising of this spilled over so I was trying to go through everything in the study as well.   

I've removed a lot of stuff which doesn't belong in there, and now the guest bedroom also needs a sort out.  I'll get to that later. Much later.

The study is the box room, and it contains the traditional "big cupboard " over the stairwell.   This also needs a bit of a sort out,  I'll have to see what enthusiasm I can muster.  I'm ignoring it at the moment,  I'm focussing on the pile of stuff from the rest of the room.

 I've made good progress.   I've been ruthless, again, and I've got a pile of stuff to donate and a load of stuff I've binned.   A few items are saleable, but I don't have the patience for that right now.   

The files that are remaining are back in the loft filing cabinet, and I've only used one drawer. 

The four drawer cabinet was advertised and collected the following day, which was great.  

My focus for the next few days needs to be getting the study back.    However,  I've put more (empty) crates in the loft, ready for my next foray up there.  

 

 

 

 

And the new cabinet is in place.   

Keeping on keeping on

My enthusiasm and stamina for de-lofting is wavering.

 It's physically quite hard work, even without the added challenge of the below chest height beams.   DH has removed some of the Ikea shelving which had been making access to one area almost impossible.   I did my glutes in trying to extract a heavy box, and that box was only at floor level.

The first aisle is now mostly waiting for DH to go through stuff, and I'm happy with that.

The stuff in the middle aisle has mostly been sorted through.  Crates are on shelves and stacked on the floor,   not necessarily in their final place in the eventually-sorted loft,  but out of the way.

The third aisle has extra Ikea racking (even with DH haveing removed stuff), and this still holds quite a lot of stuff that was "I can't think about this yet" stuff as we sorted.     INitially it was packed with stuff, but I've dealt drastically with loads of it.  It won't take long to sort the remaining bits, once the rest of the loft is done.

There are eaves on one side which need to be gone through,  but I've decided to wait until my now-limited enthusiasm returns before I start tackling that.

If I run out of enthusiasm, I want to leave the loft in a way where it will be easy to pick up again later.

My strategy for doing that is I am now doing soimething in the loft every day, but only a (relatively) small something.

I write a list of the small somethings each night for the following day.  This has worked out well, although some things turned out to be less small than I expected. Others were fantastic.

A small something was "go through the memorabilia box that is by the loft hatch".  That was actually very enjoyable.  

 I found a few things in there that I didn't remember at all, so they went.    And lots of things that brought me much joy.    
 I shared photos os some of the items  with relevant people so they could have that warm memory too. 

Another small something was "empty 2 box files of paperwork".   The previous couple of weeks I had sorted the paperwork into separate box files.  I didn't need it, but I didn't want to throw it away.  I also didn't want the kids to have to deal with it, so my plan was to write on the box that it could be destroyed so they didn't have to go through it.

I realised that (for some of the boxes) it wasn't really worth keeping them.   As a compromise, I decided I would make sure that everything in the boxes had been scanned, and then I'd destroy the originals.  That worked well with one box file, but then it wasn't that easy.

Several of the boxfiles contained booklets of personal information.    At the time I'd received them, I'd scanned the most important pages,  I'd had to use a flatbed scanner so the quality wasn't great.   I decided I'd  slice the booklets so I could then use my normal scanner to scan everything.    This meant that every booklet had to be taken apart and trimmed, then scanned, then added to the pile of stuff to shred or burn.

 It took a while.

Another box file contained pension history.  This was a mix of booklets and data.    I went through everythin, item by item, to see whether I had a scanned copy.  Some bits I hadn't scanned (I presume I scanned them and then didn't file the scan properly).    Some items were too big for the scanner so I had to tackle apart, trim and scan.    I did keep some of the paperwork for this, but I was so ruthless that I'm happy with what I've done.

It took quite a while.

Some of the small tasks are peripheral.   The large filing cabinet in the loft is going to go (that will be fun!).   I'm going to put a small filing cabinet up there, one of the two that are in daily use.  They are being replaced with a sidefiler.   One of the small tasks was "empty filing cabinets into temporary crates".  Another task for a different day was "bring fc1 downstairs" (fc1 = filing cabinet1)

As my enthusiasm wanes, some tasks are very small indeed , such as "print labels for record boxes and stick on".  "bring wedding china downstairs and stack in crates" (no stressing myself out my making myself do assomething with it, yet)

I've already decided where my likely hiatus point will be,  and  I'm really just trying to make sure I get to that.

Not long now. 

 

 

Now and Then

I excavated a load of old cat toys.  One of them was an "activity centre" that I bought for the kittens in their first few weeks with us. Its been in the lift for a year, maybe two (maybe more).

It was particularly favoured by Shelby, and I wondered if she would remember it. I put it in the living room, expecting her to go gaga over it.

She ignored it, of course.

Part of me was disappointed. A bigger part of me was happy... happy that I could dispose of it  without guilt.

Shelby must have sensed this.

She spent the evening in it, lresumably being a kitten again.

I looked through my photos from 2019 to find one of her in it.  She was tinier then

Mountains Molehills

De-lofting continues.

I finally managed to get some tote crates.

It was a slowish loft day today because as well as blitzing through things, I was also going through memorabilia boxes, which just takes time. 

I did a lot of rearranging of stuff, moving "DH to review" stuff from one part of the loft to another,  and moving some of the cat stuff in its place.   I looked at the mountain of caterobilia,  and lobbed a load of it through the loft hatch.

I'd been bending and twisting to avoid beams, and my glutes started to really hurt.   I called a halt at that point.

I'd brought down some items to sell (my lovely wedding china,  some furniture),   and I also brought down a huge box of Molerabilia, from the days when I collected Moles.

I then created a disaster zone in my living room as I went through the Mole box, unwrapping everything.   So many of the pieces made me smile.

I put a couple of items, including a mole made for me by DH's kids about 38 years ago, to one side.  They will go back in the loft, in my memorabilia box.   I also found some misfiled Winnie the Pooh figures,  which were Disney ones (sadly) and were a present from my lovely aunt.    I think I may put them to one side to give them to DGS/SGDiL to mark the birth of their baby.

 The rest needs to be dealt with. 

But not today.

 

 

 

 

Head aloft

I managed to maintain enthusiasm for loft cklearing for quite some time.

For a week or so, I spent several hours a day actually in the loft.  Pulling stuff out,  going through boxes,  sweeping up the mess.

I was absolutely ruthless with "my" stuff, which includes "our" stuff which is really my mine to make decisions on, rather than "our " stuff which is really my husband's to make decisions on.

 I realised that there was stuff in the loft which  I was waiting for DH to make a decision on, and he was waiting for me to make a decision. We've now  got a box each, where the other can put stuff in to sort out, which has solved that issue.

More stuff given away, sold, donated, binned.   

Stuff that has been allowed to remain is being stored in tote crates, which I've organised and labelled & dated.  These are stored so that the ones that are likely to be added to are accessible.

I don't have enough crates, and I'm having trouble getting responses from the network of sellers,  so I'm now having to store stuff which should be crated in a (temporarily) different way.   I've got a run of shelving for this, so at least I know I've reviewed the items on it and given them leave to remain.  

DH has been busy trying to sort out the greenhouse to get ready for planting, so it'll be a while before he gets a chance to get up there and do "his" bits. 

FB marketplace is being the joy and the nightmare that it always is.  I have to psych myself up to list things, and I try and do a load at once so I can then have a break from it.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll maintain the enthusiasm, but it doesn't matter. 

 

 

Mugging

Well I managed to give my head a wobble, and much progress has been made.

I cleared quite a lot of stuff out of the loft, and was able to squash stuiff up in the resuklting space so we could get in and make some changes to the shelving.

While DH did the shelving, I excavated boxes, and we soon had a car full of stuff for the tip and stuff for the charity shop.  I also had a busy weekend selling bits for next to nothing, and I'm happy with how its going.

Today I brought two more boxes down.  One contained a load of stuff from when I worked.  As I sifted through it,  I was amazed at how organised and professional I had been back then.

I have a box of papers which need destroying,  some rubbish, and some recycling.

The other box was labelled Dunoon Mugs,  and I had a lovely half hour looking at the gorgeous things.

I've put some of them up for sale.  It was quite a difficult decision, the mugs are mainly Cat mugs.   However, I reminded myself that (a) I'd forgottn I had them until I saw then, and  (b) they are stoneware and I prefer bone china (and (c) I have many many  mugs that are already in use).  

I was tempted to leave them in the loft, I told myself my step daughter wouldn't mind havig to deal with them.   But the reality is, there's already loads of stuff for her to have to deal with, and I'm trying to remove as much as possible.

Also in the box weresome superb bright Whittard cappuccino cups and saucers, which I've decided to take to the charity shop tomorrow.

And two Winnie the Pooh mugs (EH Shepard version, of course),  which are also stoneware but have a very special place in my heart.  They are going back in the loftm along with the bone china Winneie The Pooh mugs I've got stashed there.

While DH has been moving the shelving, I've been sorting stuff I brought down.  

I've also been sorting out the box room, while I've been unable to get in the loft, and I'm really happy with how that's been going.

DH is ready to move the next lot of bit shelving, so that'll be  another go at emptying tomorrow and Friday,

My Mum is coming to visit next week, and I'm on a deadline to try and get straight.

 

 

Blocked

After a few more successful steps forward, I'm now in a sort of paralysis.  It is very frustrating, completely irrational,  and I'm annoyed with myself that I can't just push through.

I've got a whole load of conflicting larger-than-they-look tasks and activities that I need to get done.  They all need doing, it doesn't really matter what order I do them in (many of the sets of tasks are unrelated to any other set)  and I just can't make myself start any of them.

I very rarely get caught like this (when it comes to actions, anyway),  I've no idea why it's a problem now 

I'm hoping that writing it down will help me.

Except I can't (won't) write down any more than I just have. 

I need to just....just.... pick any of the sets, and just get on with it.