Potting up the seeds (by sarah)

Yesturday we started digging over the plot and putting a turf path through the middle of it to make two smaller managable plots - I could not really get to everything last year so we are going to see if this improoves things!

We still have a bit more work to do on the plot as we have the ground dwelling catipillars to get rid of for a start!

Still today I started potting up seeds but becuase I am a skin flint I decided that the peat pots from last years house guest forgetting to water cuasultys could be used this year - so there I was and later Al, emptying them and trying not to crack them in the process!

I used the soil from the wormery - and oh what bliss! Compared to last years mole earth and riddling compost through sieves milarky!

However I did randomly find a pice of blue j-cloth in the wormery along with some of those stickers they put on fruit! The bizarest thing was that the j-cloth had some how become rubbery and elastic when the ones we use are not elastic at all!

The only down side to the wormery soil is that I had to extract some worms before using it but I dont think this is too high a price to pay!

I potted up cucumber seeds, cauliflower, carrots in a seed tray (this is a bit of an experiment and is completely against the instructions!), lovage and tarragon.

I was sad to find the globe artichoke packet upside down with no sign of the seeds especially as I was going to give some to Barabara who had realised she had forgotten to get any this year and wanted some.

Jean’s a Big Girl Now! (by sarah)

After the disastor with the highchair and the fact that Jean is now hapy to sit in chairs we decided to see wheather she could cope with eating at a table. So we dug out the little blue kiddies table and the two little chairs from various garages.

We sat her at the table gave her, her food and waited for the carnage - waited for her to wail or escape and walk about - but no - she just sat there happily munching!

The table is also useful for her drawings - this is good as when she was sitting next to me at the big table a)I was worried she'd fall off and b) there was a high chance that my paper would end up crayoned in a helpful Jean attempt!

These pics were taken three weekends or so ago - I lost the camera which is why its taken me so long to post about it - it might onlt be two weekend - hmmm not sure now!

The Lunderette (by sarah)

On Tuesday we decided to finially take the bedding to the lunderette as we had no power. So off we went - first off we had to walk down quiet a long road and as we had Jean and three dovets! this was quiet a challenge and one we managed to muck up!

Yep - we managed to walk past it - of course I was looking for it on the wronge side of the road for a start and then we managed to get into a deep conversation about how the universe works or the like.

Then it turned out that niether of us had change, well I did but I hadnt expected it to be that pricey to be honest. So after a quick trip for Al to the little corner shop for a bottle of coke we turned our attentions to the machines only to promptly discover that we did not have the right change for the soap powder machine. So after a quick trip to the corner shop for me to buy a bottle of diet coke with lime, we were ready to roll.

Ok fist off we were using the big big machines and we couldnt find the tray to put the powder in so I thought we just put it in the machine - WRONG - it goes in wholes on the top of the machine which even Al had trouble seeing though he at least could reach them - grrr to the hieghtest person who thought of that one!

Then Alaric managed to get the money jammed in the machine - there are two slots but niether of us realised until we had jamed it that one was for the pound coins and one for the twentys - the poor staff had to dismantle that section of the lunderette to fix it and they took our money so that they could put it one once fixed and told us we didnt have to wiat.

Now we had bumped into our publisher friend on route which might have been part of the reason we walked past the place as we were chatting - she wanted to meet up with me for coffee so I hurried out but managed to go the wrong way. I realised after a while that something was wrong and turned around - I met back up with Al who took me to the coffee shop but of course this had all taken so long that our friend and her duaghter where no longer there 🙁

I'm afriad that I got grumpy with slow dawning realisation discovered that I was very hungry as it was 3 o'clock and though Al and Jean had eaten I hadnt yet had breakfast what with having wanted toast when we had no electric!

One sandwitch and coffee later I was a civil human beign again and we went back to check on the washes - they had finished so we put them in the tumble dryers and headed off to explore the oriental and forieng supermarkets along the same street - these were excelletent and we were very happy picking up those odd ingredients that cost a bomb in the normal supermarkets but in these shops were pennys (as these are things that generally can not grow in this country unaided we do not fret that they are not local produce).

We went back to check and sure enough the tumble dryers were finished so we checked and the dovets were still really wet, puzzeled we put the machines on again but had to go and change a pound. We were still faffing with the third tumble dryer when the other two stopped - ah... thought 20p was cheap.

So surely we need to put more 20pees in yes? Yes but you can only put in one at a time for a whole 5 mins of tumble drying - GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Anyway so off Al with a grumpy Jeany whilst I sat there with a pile of 20 pees fortunatly I had some work with me I could do. I still somehow managed to melt the out side of one of the dovets, even though the bleep bleep thing was still damp!

By the time we had finished this comedy of errors it was getting dark then when we got back we found that the power had come back on at 3 o'clock! So Al got grumpy about all the working time he had missed - sigh. Steep learning curve - thats my current mantra to deal with our lives lived in Interesting Times!

Jean and Pretending (by sarah)

Jean regually picks up her plastic bowls and spoons and pretends to eat out of them - she will even pretend to feed you and say 'all gone' and tip the bowl upside down after a while, whilst grinning her head off!

Unfortunately as you can see she has been proving hard to photograph again!

This one we are saving for her 21st birthday!

She looks ruff! an tha be no mistake!

Make your own spirit level! (by alaric)

You can easily spent £25 on a large spirit level. Even a cheap 60cm one costs £10.

Since I have some plans to build a wall across uneven ground, a long spirit level to check my footings are level is a requirement. But I didn't want to spend a lot of money.

So I went into B&Q and, for £5 plus a few tens of pence, picked up a two-metre length of extruded steel box section, a square tube about 1cm on a side and strong enough to not flex noticeably under its own weight.

And for about £2.70 I picked up a small hand-held magnetic spirit level unit.

Combining the two, voila - for under a tenner, I have a two-metre long spirit level.

And although there's only two vials in the magnetic level unit, it has the functionality of a level with lots of vials, since I can position those two vials at any point along the level I require. So I can have them in the middle, for traditional "is this rubble-filled trench roughly level" checking. Or, when nailing a series of pegs into the ground and wanting them to all be at the same height, I can bring the vials to one end of the steel tube, balance the other end on an existing peg (ideally with a helper to hold it there!), and easily read the vials as I adjust the peg I'm leaning my end of the tube on.

And when I'm sick of building walls, I can store the pocket-sized magnetic level away, and think of something useful to make with two metres of steel square tubing, an arc welder, and a brazing set...