Painting Almost Done

 

 We've almost reached the end of the painting, it's been a long hard slog with every room needing it's ceiling doing, two coats of paint on the walls and all the woodwork gloss painted, but at last, thank goodness, the end is in sight.

 

Lovely Hubby did the first coat on the walls in the conservatory last weekend.   We didn't get around to assembling the new henhouse as I originally said we would, which hopefully will be done this weekend instead, otherwise the chickens who are coming with us next week will have nowhere to sleep, instead we decided to concentrate on the inside of our house rather than the hens!!

 

 

Telling him he looked like he was worshipping his paint tray on the first picture he decided to actually do it on this one :-)

 

It's all looking very bare and clean in the conservatory now a completely different story to how it was before,  we used it as our store for all things DIY and without a place of their own.

 

 

The kitchen however, is a different kettle of fish, the worktops keep filling up with all the bits and pieces we are using over the course of each day and it's an on-going struggle to make space to eat every now and then, but one that we do do otherwise it will all get out of hand. 

 

In the brown paper box is my surprise Christmas present from LH, delivered to the house last week, I have no idea what it is .... but it doesn't rattle at all, is quite lightweight and smells of nothing in particular ;-)

Little finishing touches are being added all around.

 



 

I'm in two minds whether to paint the little gate that stops the dogs from going upstairs or leave it 'rustic' as it matches the carpet so well.  The dogs by the way do not seem at all bothered that they have no access to the upstairs, they sneak up for a peek every now and then when the gate is left open when our arms are too full to be able to close it behind us, but finding no doggy toys up there or nothing of interest they usually come down without even being asked.

 

Our lovely new mirror has now gone up on the bedroom wall, as well as the lampshade that we have brought with us from the bungalow, it matches the bedside lamps we already have and looks just as good with the new curtains here as it did with the ones back home.   Hopefully our king sized bed will fit on this weeks trailer load so we can finally sleep in our own bedroom rather than the guest room.

 

  LH has a friend coming round tonight to help load the trailer with some of our heavier items and is hoping to phone around some of our new contacts at the other end to help with the unloading.  So I better get off the computer now and go and get some more packing and shifting done in readiness.

 

It's nice to know that we're on target for our Christmas move.

 

Sue xx

 



The Sealed Pot

 

I finally got round to opening and counting the cash in our Sealed Pot, over a week after everyone else has been counting the contents of theirs.  

 

See SFT's Blog 'Life After Mortgage' for lots more information from SFT and the other Sealed Potters.

 

It didn't look much lurking in the bottom of the 'bread bin' .....

 

.... it appeared slightly more once tipped out ...

 

... but was most impressive when lined up and counted.

 

I toyed with the idea of taking it all to the coin counting machine in our local Sainsbury's, (our banks don't have them) but the thought of giving away 8.9% of our hard saved money swung it in favour of counting it myself.

 

I was glad I did ... there was 

 

 

 ..... a grand total of  £371.27

 

So much more than I thought there would be, mainly because there was £250 worth of £2 coins, I guess we had got in the habit of saving them.

 

I know I said I would ... but I can't bring myself to spend it all on shopping for Christmas as was our first idea ...  instead I have the twinkling of a plan, a new challenge for the New Year that needs some thrashing out in my head and on paper.  Can I really do it, I don't know ... it would be a real challenge, perhaps even needing it's own Blog or at the very least a page of it's own, or a day of it's own on here.  Even more of a Challenge than last years attempt to make the £480 we got out of the Sealed Pot then last for all our shopping needs for this year ( we didn't do too badly, it lasted until July).

 

I need a little more time to think about this one, but when an idea starts a brewing, my brain is suddenly in gear and I could be off in any direction :-)

 

Sue xx

Going To Work On An Egg

 

When you have a Lovely Hubby that has mastered the art of cooking the most perfect poached egg on toast ....

 

 

... it would be very rude not to start each weekend morning with said breakfast.

 

Eggs, the most complex and yet most simple of foods and we are so lucky that we get to eat eggs laid by our very own little flock of chickens.  The taste is absolutely amazing, and until you have tasted the eggs laid by true free ranging happy hens you have not tasted an egg at all.

 

 

 

We've been keeping birds for over five years now and we never tire of that magical moment when you go to the nest boxes and lying in the straw is an egg or two, this photo is our very first egg photographed for posterity. 

 

What a lovely way to start each day.

 

Sue xx

 

 

Baking for the Weekend

 

Firstly thank you to everyone who left such nice comments yesterday, we had a wonderful anniversary.

 

Baking for the weekend is something I have got into the habit of doing every Thursday, rather than waste precious time cooking full on meals while we are at the house in Wales it's nice to eat simply and take ready made meals straight from the fridge or freezer.  Not wanting to suddenly start buying in ready meals that means a bit of batch baking before we go.

 

Last week I made two quiches using up all the odds and ends that were in the fridge here and some of our own eggs.  Quick and easy to make and delicious either hot or cold as the fancy takes us once we are there.  They are also wonderful to slice up and take into the services with us to have with our weekly treat of a C*sta coffee, en route, I know I could save even more money and take a flask but we decided that this treat will stay while we are working so hard ..... we're worth it :-)

 

Today I am going to bake a loaf of bread, make another quiche with odds and ends and leftovers from the fridge and also bake a cake to have with our coffee while we work outside erecting our new henhouse (fingers crossed it is delivered nice and early).

 

 

 

 

We used to have two henhouses but sold one at the last Smallholders sale as our now lower number of chickens fitted neatly into just one of them,  we have sold the remaining henhouse that we are still using to our landlord who along with his wife has been inspired by the way we have used their land during our time here and want to keep chickens on their return.   It means that we do not have the hassle of transporting it 250 miles and having to unload it before having to settle the chickens in. 

 

The way we can do it now is perfect, simply load the chickens in their crates into the back of our pick up truck and then unload them at the other end to a ready made  henhouse.  Luckily their electric fence is in two parts and although we are obviously using one part now (the larger length) it means we can erect the other part round the new house so on arrival they will be able to have a peck around before bedtime after their long journey.

 

Up to now things are all going to plan and this weekend as well as hopefully seeing the henhouse built, we will also have the installation of our FreeSat television connection.   The dish is going way up on the top of our hillside on one of the trees where the last owners used to have their Sky dish, with the cables running down to the house along with the other wires that connect us to civilisation.

 

We are also having a complete day off this weekend and nipping over to Manchester to see Mum, who has now settled into her very own new home.   It's time to celebrate I think, because it's all starting to come together very nicely :-)

 

Sue xx

Our Anniversary

 

Happy Anniversary to my very Lovely Hubby.

 

Six years ago today we surprised our Mums and my Dad by getting married.  They had only met two days earlier and what better way to bond a family together than with the shock of their lives!! We had been together for three years and engaged to each other for just over one of them but there had been no talk of getting married, indeed we were both very happy as we were but then we had an idea and it grew and grew. 

 

We gave them thirty minutes notice that they were about to attend the wedding of the year.  After a few tears of joy and shock they threw themselves into the spirit of the day, which was all about love, laughter and a desire to be together, what else do you need in life except the one you love by your side for as long as possible.

 

There are two people from this photo no longer with us in body, but we both know for a fact they are with us in spirit and that wherever they are they are raising a glass, remembering that shock, love and laughter filled day and continuing to wish us well.

 

Sue xx

Keeping it Simple - Getting Rid of the Big Boys

 

 

In a couple of years when our master plan comes to fruition we will have to keep all expenditure to the absolute minimum, no regular monthly outgoings for anything but the absolute essentials and it is with this in mind that we are starting now to pare back the things we are setting up for the house.

 

 

 

One of the first things that was crossed off our list and banished from our lives was BT. 

 

We have had years and years of shoddy service, of lies over the phone and being made to wait in for engineers that turned up late or not at all.  Now I'm not saying it is the ground workers that are to blame, if you ask my opinion the company has just got too big for it's own boots and thinks it has everyone over a barrel because they need their service.

 

Well ..... not us. 

 

We have set up Satellite Broadband for our internet use and we have brilliant reception on our mobile phones for telephone calls.  It's all we need.

 

 

The next big boy to leave our company is Sky TV.  The price has crept up steadily over the years even for our most basic of packages, usually only by 25p or so, they obviously think you're not going to notice if they keep it small.  I got it back down a couple of years ago by phoning and threatening to leave then, so simple to do and even if it only saves you that 25p a month for a couple of years, well worth doing.  But now we have decided why continue paying the £48.75 a month that it has been costing us when for an initial payment for FreeSat box and dish installation it can all be ours with no monthly fees. 

 

So we bit the bullet and organised the installation for this weekend and we will be free of the second Big Boy that has been sharing our lives and costing us money.  For a one off payment to install the dish and squirrel proof cabling to the house, and the purchase of the FreeSat box, (which in total comes to less than £1,000) we will have television for just the cost of the TV licence.  As Sky was costing us £585 a year, this is less than the cost of two years Sky viewing and it will be ours for good, with a reasonable selection of channels and recording and pausing etc capabilities.

 

The reason for the sheep picture at the top of the post?

 

Well firstly I didn't want this to look like a BT or Sky advertisement on anyone's sidebar for the day, and secondly, we had the sad job of ringing the farmer who has his sheep in our field on Sunday morning to let him know that one of his lovely ladies had died during the night and two of the others were coughing.  Sadly he reckons she died of pneumonia, such a shame she as was only into her second year.  We pointed out the other two that were coughing "that nice looking one over there and the great big one" we said ..... "that great big one there is the Ram" said Will the farmer with a grin on his face.

 

 Ooops ..... shows how much we noticed .... in our defence it had no horns or anything visible (at first glance) to show us it was a boy!!

 

 

It's lucky no big animal sees our little Suky as a threat because she was in with them the other day, she pushed her way under the fence and went and stood next to her favourite .... the great big one!!

 

Sue xx

Friendship and Keeping it Simple

I've decided to keep this theme of 'Keeping it Simple' running as a thread through my Blog posts.

 

 Mainly because it helps keep me focused and keeps it on my mind and after all this Blog is really just my online diary, that you all choose to read it is brilliant and you are very welcome here, but the things I write are aimed mostly at me, so if I plug away at this it will, hopefully, become even more ingrained even more second nature and even more the way I want to feel about all the things that I am and do.

 

I had a nice couple of hours with one of my Blogging Buddies the other day, just a simple lunch with lots of coffee and chat, catching up on our lives since our last meet up.  It didn't cost us much, just a wee bit of organisation and a couple of emails.  We had lunch and then walked back to our cars and stopped off at a lovely little antiquey/junky shop that Karan knew of.  We both made little purchases, just small things that made us happy, mine was a lovely bunch of old wooden spoons for the princely sum of £2, including a Spurtle to join my other one.

 

They are already safely sat in a jug in the new house waiting for the day when I will reach up to grab a spoon to stir whatever pan of soup or stew is bubbling away on the Aga.  A simple thing to do but each and every time I do so I will think of that day, that lunch and time spent with a friend.

 

It doesn't cost a lot of money to have happy reminders, and rather than a naff ornament something useful and simple is for me, the order of the day.

 

They are photographed outside not because of some arty farty moment on my part but because it was so dark in the house the camera just was not picking them up nicely, the minute I stepped outside to photograph them I just had to grab the Rosemary plant that Karan  bought me on her very first visit to see me a few months back .... an edible memory of friendship too :-)

 

Sue xx