Too hot…..

….. to do anything

I’ve spent the past few days either lounging about or asleep!  I’ve done the have-to’s – keeping the animals clean, fed and watered but that’s about it.  Oh, and we nipped out for half an hour to pick the remaining elderflowers, they’re brewing now.

A couple of bottles of elderflower champagne exploded in the shed the other day.

I applied for a Booker’s cash and carry card last week, we visited on friday.  Some things work out really cheap, others are cheaper to buy in Morrison’s.  I was sensible, Mr MB was not!  Here’s his purchases -

All chickens are now happy with their new perch.  Actually when they all tried to get on, we realised it wasn’t long enough so we built them an extension.

 

Christmas

I KNOW it’s only June   But I have to get to work on Christmas crafts now or I won’t have enough to sell at the beginning of November.  I’m making cards, gift tags, tree decorations and kid’s notepads (for stocking fillers).  I’d like to do kits of make-your-own decorations for kids, but I can’t find supplies at a decent price.  I’ll keep searching.

I bought a guillotine a few days ago.  It’s great, I’m very speedy at making notepads now!  I still use the paper trimmer, it’s better for cutting notepad covers.

We’ve got a new perch for the chickens (well, an old piece of timber, lol).  Some were elated and jumped right on, others tried it and didn’t like it, a couple seemed terrified and wouldn’t go near it.

The hand lawnmower cuts better than our old lawnmowers, one was electric and one was petrol.  It’s so quick and easy, we now argue over who’s going to cut the grass.

Weeds everywhere….

I worked full time last week.  After work I only had time to bung some washing in, clean out the guinea pigs and chickens, eat, shower then go to bed.  The garden was watered but not weeded – you should see the state of it.  I’ve just been out and pulled some weeds up.  I filled two buckets (the chickens appreciated them!) but it looks like I’ve hardly touched it.

Our new lawnmower has just arrived, it’s a Qualcast Panther 380.  That’ll save a bit on the electric bill.

I’m still playing around with my notepads, just when I think I’ve got it right I change something, lol.  I’m almost there.

I’ve discovered that my sewing machine has more than one use – if you take the thread and bobbin out, it’s great for perforating paper.

RIP Boris Pig xxx

Every few months, his digestive system would shut down.  The vet would give him something to kick-start it and I’d have to feed him with a syringe for a few days.  It happened again last week, he had his usual visit to the vet and I took him to work so I could give him food and water regularly.  But it must have been too much for him to cope with this time.  He’s buried near the cherry tree.

Quick catch up

I’d love to post every day but some days are so boring that it’s not worth it.  Then on my productive days, I don’t have time.

It’s about time I took photos of the garden, kitchen, animals and crafts.  So I turned the camera on, it was fine for a couple of minutes then the ‘low battery’ thingy started flashing.  That’s OK, I have loads of batteries charged and at the ready.  So I swapped them – nothing.  Maybe rechargables lose their power once charged then left?  So I tried 3 lots of ordinary batteries and still nothing.  My camera is dead   We have another camera but I hate it, all my photos come out blurry on it.  OH takes good pics with it though, I’ll have to get him to do all the work.

The girls are laying well, I collected 10 eggs yesterday, even with 2 broody hens.  If they don’t come out of it soon, I’ll have to break them myself.  Not looking forward to that, they seem so sad when I lock them out of their shed.

I keep hearing people saying their tomato plants are huge, or flowering, or both.  My tallest one is about 8 inches, and not a flower in sight.  Not sure what’s going on there.

The veg is growing well, especially the spinach.  I sowed the seeds in nice straight lines, the birds must have been playing because they’ve grown in messy clumps, lol.  Still very tasty!

I was hoping to spend this week putting notepads together and designing more calendars.  Turns out I’ll be working all week instead.  Just as well I love my job!  And think of all the lovely crafty things I can buy with the extra money, lol.

New chicken shed

The girls have been in their new house for a few days.  They were nosing around (read getting in the way) while we were building it and while it was empty, as soon as we put their nesting boxes in they stayed away.  Not impressed!  They took some persuading to go away at bedtime.  They spent the next day trying to get into their old shed to lay, I’m sure they only laid in their new home out of desperation.  Still, they’re settled now.

I spent most of last week playing with paper and card, the end result was calendars and mini notepads.  As soon as I’ve finished them, I’ll post pics.

Just realised I haven’t shown you the latest additions yet, here they are -

Red mites and clear drains

Horrible, itchy little things, mites!

We’ve managed to keep on top of the mite problem before.  But this year, they’ve beaten us.  We emptied the shed and sprayed it with Net-Tex Total Mite Kill, then dusted the girls with mite powder.  It seemed to have no affect at all.

So the wooden shed had to go.  For a few years, we’ve been saving Argos vouchers (OH has been given them at work, for good sales figures, etc) so we spent the lot on a plastic shed.  It was delivered this morning, can’t wait to assemble it.

Neighbour HAD rung the council, she just didn’t bother to let us know what was happening.  She seemed a bit embarassed, turns out it wasn’t our fault, or the other neighbour’s.  It was rubbish that had found it way down the storm drain on the road, then collected in the shared drain and blocked near her house.  Felt like saying ‘ner ner ner ner ner’.  But I didn’t, lol.

Blocked drains

Yesterday was supposed to be productive.  We’d taken up a badly laid patio, and our neighbour J was coming round with a breaker to help us break up the concrete underneath.  When he opened his back door, he was met with sewage that had backed up and overflowed onto his path.  So we checked our manhole cover, it was full to the brim.  On the other side of us, S’s drain was full too.  And it absolutely STUNK.  S declared that the problem is tampons (how do they KNOW this?  You can’t see the blockage, the drains are full) and it can’t be their fault (no-one actually blamed them) because no-one in their house uses tampons.

We borrowed some drain rods and set to work, going in every direction.  All clear, except for S’s side.  We explained that they’d have to arrange for someone to come out and sort it because the blockage wouldn’t shift.  “Why me?” – Well it’s in your garden, I don’t think they’ll accept a neighbour ringing.  Their house is owned by the council, so if they’re lucky, they’ll get it done for free.  If not, then we said we’d split the cost.  They said they’d ring first thing this morning then let me know.  It’s 11am and I’ve heard nothing from them.

I can’t run the washing machine, empty the sink, etc.  (Bet S is though, apparently there’s no problem because their toilet still flushes.  Doh).   All the water will make J’s problem worse.  I’ve stored the washing up water in old milk cartons til the problem is sorted.  Which should be today, if S actually gets round to making the phone call.  If I’ve not heard by 4pm, I’m ring Environmental Health.

New egg-layers, new job

The new girls are both laying eggs, though Rocky has taken to escaping and laying in the front garden.  She always comes back once she’s done her duty.  We’ve had to put extra netting up to keep her in, hopefully once she’s found a new spot and is happy with it, the netting can come down – it’s really ugly, lol.

I started a new job at STROUD CARPETS, the bosses (husband and wife) are fab.  OH works there too – he started 3 weeks ago.  We have completey different jobs so shouldn’t annoy each other too much!

The veg is growing well, the fruit bushes have plenty of flowers and we’ve just picked more rhubarb.  We’ve promised the neighbours a rhubarb crumble, will probably make that tomorrow.

Here’s the view from work -

     

Finally……..

The seeds are all sown!  We’ve done everything about a month later than previous years, so we’re hoping it’ll be OK.  We have -

• Tomatoes
• Salad leaves
• Radishes
• Yellow beans
• Berlotti beans
• Beetroot
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Potatoes
• Swede
• Parsnips
• Sprouts
• Cucumbers
• Chilli peppers

We also have fruit – strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, blackberries and blueberries.

The new girls

  Rocky                                                                     Red
                        

I obviously need more practice with the camera, lol.

Red is 23 weeks old, Rocky is 19 weeks old.

They’re so friendly, when we walk into their run they come over to be picked up.  They’ve both had their wings clipped, but Rocky can still jump up onto a 6ft fence.  I’m hoping that once she’s put more weight on, she’ll be too heavy to jump more than 2 or 3 feet.