Water, No Water, Clutter, Less Clutter - Edited

Posting because I feel like posting.

Enjoy

Yesterday, on the third day of water pouring from our property across the patio and down onto the road into our roadside drain, where it can water no flowers and do no bloody good whatsoever I decided to do a job I had been putting off for ages.

Sort out our HUGE collection of Dvds.

Now Dvds are pretty much going out of fashion so you can pick them up for a song, just £3 each in Asda or Tesco if you wait for a couple of months after release before you buy them.  Even better they go for anything from 20p to a pound at a car boot sale ... although the girl who thought I would pay £15 for the boxed set of the Walking Dead must have confused me with John Gray.  So over the years I have built up quite a collection.

I love to settle down with a good film, and most of my collection are films that I will watch again and again, but they were taking up too much room.  And the clutter-y look weighed me down, yes ... even though they were behind closed doors in the cupboard.

And not just in that cupboard at the top, also in this drawer.

And on this little shelf in the spare room, where I retreat to watch films if Alan is watching rugby.

So I set to, to sort this out while the workmen finally started digging to find  the cause of our deluge.

A couple of hours later all the Dvds from the covers in the cardboard boxes were safely nestled in the little black carry case.

And another couple of hours saw the rest of them following suit.

Now the cupboard is much clearer.

And the only Dvds still in their original boxes are the large boxed sets or the few that I want to stay in their original cases for the information on them.

Oh and the little pink weights did go back in the cupboard ... after I stubbed my toes on them once too often while they waited on the floor!!

Next I did my Cd collection, quite a small one now I use our Brennan and have discovered downloads but still a few I wanted to keep.

Just as I finished the guys found the root of the problem and finally sorted it out.  A manufacturing fault on the blue water pipe.   That teeny, tiny little hole has a lot to answer for.

But it did mean that I got stuck into a job I had been putting off for ages.

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EDITED

I  thought I would just edit this post to add that although the insurance appointed workmen fixed the leak and managed to restore water to the house, in the process they completely removed a valve they said was faulty ... it turns out this valve was all that stood between us and seriously high and very damaging water pressure.  

We now have no ceiling in our hallway after a deluge from the upstairs toilet.  Thank goodness I'm married to an engineer who cleaned out the valve and replaced it as soon as he got home.  Now we just have to wait for floorboards and carpet to dry out and for a new ceiling to be installed. 

Now I'm away, and poor Alan is at home sorting this second mess out

It never rains ... literally ... but it pours.

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Don't expect me regularly.

But do look out for me now and again.

Sue xx

The Net Tunnel - June 2018

The Net Tunnel June 2018

Fully planted.

To the left from front to back -

Baby trees in pots (just visible)

Red Onions

In tyres - Courgette/Leeks/Carrots

In front of tyres - Two Aricula Primulas

Courgette

Two Cucumber plants

In front of courgette and cucumbers - Lavender (Hidcote)

Strawberry Bed

To the right from front to back -

Pots and tubs of Potatoes

Ox -Eye Daises

Turnips

White Onions

Leeks

 In the centre -

Bath containing Carrots

3 Blueberry Bushes

To the left of the front doors -

Tyres containing a Courgette plant

... with a supervisory Pug looking on

To the right of the doors -

Tyres containing two Cucumber plants

Opposite both Tunnels - 

Red Currant bushes

Sue xx

By Special Request

Someone recently asked how our story began

So here it is from the beginning 

Click here


 If you wish to read in chronological order

 Simply click on the Newer Post link at the end of each post

I'm busy

Sue xx

For Sue

Sometimes you hear news so sad you have to reappear to let a very special blogging buddy know that your heart has gone out to her.  To tell her that she is in your thoughts and prayers,  and will remain so.

With all our love to Sue on her sad, sad loss ❤

Sue and Alan xx

This Year

This blog is on hold for now ... for this year at least.

Sue xx

Well THAT was 2017 ... and Onward into 2018

It's been a good year overall,. we've done lots, achieved quite a bit and moved our lives forward in the way we hoped to.  I'm not going to go on and on but will leave you with a mostly pictorial post summing up our year.

I started the year participating in Veganuary .... and stayed vegan  :-)

I also stopped blogging, well on here anyway.

Even with no blog posts to compose, February saw us carrying on as usual, very home based and emerging from Winter in a good position, with stores from preserved Summer crops still feeding us nicely.

And with March's arrival back came the urge to post once more about our activities and Our New Life in the Country sprung back into life.

In April the chooks were on the hillside, enjoying early sunshine and the first flush of Spring.

In May we snuck off to the Cotswolds and stayed in the delightful Spring Cottage.  We visited The Black Country Living Museum for the first time during our stay over the border in mid-England.

In June car boot season was upon us and I started sorting through the house for things we no longer needed and also planting to sell.  Splitting houseplants and sowing extra seeds in the polytunnel of annuals and perennials for re-sale.

July saw us with new hens over in Chicken World, the first four arrived at the start of the month and another four later on, known forever more as 'the green girls' and 'the blue girls' after the colour of the bands on their legs.

August was Show month ... we had a great day out at Trelawnyd, meeting a couple of my lovely readers ... 

... and then two weeks later I had a very successful run with my homegrown and homemade wares at the Llanrwst Show.

In September Ethel came into our lives, wandering in off the main road and following Alan into our paddock.  We got vets and farmers advice and treated her wounds, meaning for one weekend at least, she was 'the best dressed sheep in North Wales'.

She is currently off with the tup ... and some of Will's sheep ... on fresh grazing, and after being scanned to she if she is in-lamb will be coming back to us in the next few weeks.  If she has not managed to get pregnant and provide her own company for the future, the plan is to see if we can get a couple of lambs of our own to join her on our hillside later in the Spring.

October was all about books.

I had managed to sell enough over the course of car boot season to completely empty one bookcase, so all the other books were re-organised and checked.  I'm sure a few more will go during 2018 ... well they have to, to make room for the new books I've bought recently  ;-)

In November we  re-decorated ...

... and restyled the living room.

And here we are on the last day of December.  This month our world turned white. 

We used some of our Christmas money to re-visit The Black Country Living Museum to have a weekend away for ourselves,  and to pickup some inspiration for next years Challenge.  

Our egg sales are so successful we now sell out on a regular basis.

We hung our stockings and had a very merry Christmas.

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So it's goodbye for now from Our New Life in the Country ...

                                                    .... which after all is not so new after nine years   ;-)

Happy New Year 

from Sue and Alan xx