Christmas begins

Sunday late afternoon and we had both forgotten about doing this blog until just now. I've got a few pictures, and looking through them I can see a few things have gone on, so it's worth while getting this one as quickly as I can. The thing I'm struggling with is the titles, however I don't want to do a chronological one.

Putting up the tree

Because of the struggle with the titles I'm going to begin this update at the end with something we just finished; we have put up our Christmas Tree!

That's a pretty cool sword, huh

A getting the baubles hung right

I was in charge of tinsel

All done and very happy

Now those of you who think you know me well will be surprised at this as I'm supposedly a well known grinch however that isn't strictly the case. What I dislike is being forced into doing something whether I want to or not and this isn't what has happened here; we both agreed that we didn't need to have a tree and then both came to the conclusion that it would be lovely to have one after all. A bought one which proved too small so we went to get another one on Friday and seeing as today is the 6th, and traditionally this is when the tree can be errected, we set ourselves to doing it, after lunch, and had a lot of fun in the process. We think we need some more lights so that is now on the list to be picked up early next week and we're also short a couple of presents that the postman is bringing us.

Vegetables

We have been out in the vegetable garden a couple of times this week to tidy up (the little caterpillars keep coming back, and they keep getting given to the chickens) and small as the vegetable patch is (this year just ending was very much of an experimental nature) we've got some good stuff going on.

Onions and a few rogue potatoes

A tiny cauliflower is growing

Awesome cabbage

First on Thursday A was out pottering around as she likes to do and she went into the garden and called me down from the office where I was working, telling me to get the camera. She had found that there were some extra potatoes, obviously left over in there after we harvested, that have re-seeded themselves and have now pushed shoots up above the surface. The onions, planted after we pulled the last lot, have also been growing well and we've been eating the leaves in champ potatoes and other dishes for the past week or two. There is one very small cauliflower coming on looking really well formed and finally there is some really awesome looking cabbage. Brilliant stuff and I can't wait to eat it.

Hopefully these will taste awesome

Talking of which we are having some of the broccoli (not that much has come up yet; the caterpillars really did get a good munch of these) in our Sunday Roast. There are quite a lot of very small florets growing which could provide us with more in a few weeks I hope. The raised bed has continued to prove its worth and the plants in there are now huge. I'm particularly looking forward to the Swede.

Various tidyings

We've had a good week of tidying and readying ourselves more for the hoped for snowfall. Both inside and out we're making progress. It's a pleasure at the end of the week to look back over everything that has been done and see how much nicer it is now things are tidy.

Now Thomas can get back in his home

Wood store temporarily co-opted for car stuff

First of all on Thursday lunch time we both went down into the garage area to give it a good clean and tidy. After a few days of putting Thomas in there the pile of wood from the oak tree pushed him out however the forecast is for some pretty freezing days in the next week or so and we wanted to get him back inside again. We shifted all the wood from the garage into the wood store, along with the laycorn boxes which eventually will be put into the other room as storage, We then swept out and finally shifted Thomas's back box first of all into the garage and then, in a burst of energy, right the way through into the wood room.

Freezer getting full

At the same time as all this A was also clearing the small freezer (that I brought back last time full of steaks) which has started to ice up very badly and bringing the food from it to put into the new chest freezer which has now been plugged in and is working well. She also reorganised the freezer in Room 13 so we have things we don't need as much (like the preserved stews in pots) down in the chest freezer. It's plenty big enough for us and will soon have even more stuff in it after I make my new pasta sauce, though you'll have to wait for next update to hear about that.

She's back at that chainsawing again

A whole pile of wood

Stacked the brush into the green building

Friday and Saturday was largely about chainsawing for A. She was determined to get through everything that was piled on the patio so we could finally clear that of leaves and twigs and other rubbish. She worked like a trooper and was so very close to finishing on Friday she got started on Saturday morning first thing while I was out shopping and when I came back she was all but done, Typically, after we had cleared away all of the brush into the green building, we found some more of the tea tree that I had chopped last week and pushed onto the front grass so there's still a bit more to do yet however it'll only take half an hour and will be an ideal task for one lunch next week.

A sweeping the old bottles out of the trailer

Usmivka smiling as Special One lights the bonfire

Hitching a ride the local way

The fire burns down

Space for potatoes has now been cleared

Trailer fits fine in its long term parking spot

As part of this push to clear the patio I decided that I would move the trailers from where they have been parked. The old trailer was still full of bottles pulled out of the bottle room (now the gardening room) by A while I was not here. I hitched it up and back it over to the big pile of metal and old windows next to the garden and started to load the old metal in on top of the glass. My initial idea was to leave this to empty the next day (today) however when I got it down to the dump point, where we're going to dig out of the pond next year, I realised I wouldn't really be able to lift and unhitch the trailer as full as it was so A and I worked together and really quickly had all the rubbish removed. Today I got round to finishing off the job and was assisted by Usmivka and the Special One. They came over to ask if they could have the old metal fencing that has been piled down there since last year to which I gladly said "YES!" as the only reason I had kept it was to give to them. They helped me to load the trailer with wood for a bonfire then we went back down and got the metal chainlink onto the trailer and took it up to their yard where they unloaded it into a corner; I don't know if they are going to weigh it in. After this I removed everything else that was left in this area and now we are ready to build the vertical potato planters. This won't be done til early spring but it's great to see how much space we actually do have there.

Some cracks in the plaster behind the petchka

Protective and Reflective

Hoovering with Henry

Top corridor before and after

Sunday morning was once more our tidying morning and we set to with a will. First thing I did the washing up and cleaned the fires out and then we set ourselves onto the clearing. I was going outside to get the metal cleared (as per the previous paragraph) but before I went we had some things to do together inside. Some of the hooks had come off the curtains so we went round with the ladder and fixed them all up and then I also had found that the plaster is cracking slightly behind the radiator above the petchka in the living room so we've fitted a silver metal reflective thing to protect the wall, and give us that heat back into the room. It's making quite a difference. I then headed out and built the bonfire as discussed while A went through bedroom, living room, corridor and Room 13 with a hoover and got all the dust up. Finally I came in having completed everything outside and swept down the stairs and now we have a lovely clean living area once more.

Measure twice

Cut once

The wall fell away

Finally got it hung

Also sealed the hatchway to the garage

For the past few weeks we have been talking about how we would seal the kitchen downstairs from rats and also keep it slightly warmer and drier than it is at the moment. I decided to make a door out of the chipboard we had bought for the guest room double door failed experiment and so, while A was chopping wood on Friday, I got stuck into making a very simple door. It went very well right up until A had helped me to screw the hinges in and at this point the plaster and concrete split and fell away and the hinges collapsed. The mistake I had made was to use a hinge that was too small and therefore too close to the corner. I bought some new ones which were perfect the next day and got it hung quite quickly. Unfortunately it will not be rat proof at all however the difference it is making in temperature is quite noticeable. A mixed success.

U-bend fitted

A different angle on the stream in the orchard

Our hens are laying again

One other task got completed this week. If you remember last week A tided out the chicken house during the downpour and we found that the chimney was letting a lot of water fall inside and onto the chicken coop. We moved it to the other end of the building but I was still wanting to prevent water and snow getting in so I thought a bit and decided to use some of the spare pipes we have to put a U-bend in which will stop most of the rain falling. I climbed up and fitted it without any trouble and then got some shots of the orchard from this new angle. We went inside the chicken house to check out how it had gone and decided to pull the coop back over to its original position. We were very pleasantly surprised to find four eggs that had been laid on the hay in the corner, not in the nesting boxes. Our chickens are back laying again.

Loose bottles and two swords

Sorting the books into alphabetical order

All the books about specific composers

The other books, compendiums and dictionaries of music

Finally for this section after my initial abject failure to put hinges into a wall I got a bit annoyed and decided to sort out the new bookshelf we had bought. A had said she wanted to put the loose bottles, previously on the unit next to the record player, on there and so I moved them over and then as there was some space I figured the two swords we have which have been gathering dust on the sofa outside Room 13 would fit there nicely and so they did. I then brought up the Encyclopedia Britannica but when I tried to fit them in the shelves I found the gap was too small. I did, however, still have all the boxes of music books sent me by the kind man on twitter and so, with some help from A, we hauled these all up and I started sorting them out. There were a lot! In the end I got A-Z of composers into the bookshelf and all the remaining ones are unsorted on the ledge above the stairs. The entire second shelf of the bookcase is books about Mozart. Amazing.

Th'animals

An update from the Old School would just not be complete without some pictures of the animals, and maybe a video (or two, like today), however there is an unusual extra special bonus for you this week.

Sitting attentively as A gets their rice pudding ready

Cuddly Thelma (a rare sight)

First of all, Thelma and Louise have been having a ball as always. Thelma is a solid bundle of muscle and she runs and runs until she decides to fall asleep. Louise is less energetic when it comes to exercise but she's begun to get back into the habit of playing with Thelma on the top bank and chasing around loads. The one thing they do both have is a love for cuddling, Louise more than Thelma normally, and they've both grabbed multiple snoozes on our laps this week.

Louise saying hello to Rambo

Thelma pretending she didn't want the stick anyway

While we were putting the brush wood into the green building the dogs were all out playing. Thelma had stolen a stick from Rambo and was dragging it around, squeaking and growling and generally having a great time of it. Louise sniffed around for a while then asked to come into the green building with me wherein she legged it around for ages sniffing out rats. Eventually Thelma's fun ended when Rambo came over and found her with the stick and took it away from her. We can't tell him off for this as it was his stick and he is not allowed near theirs. It was a lovely thing, though of course she stopped making the crazy noises as soon as I got the camera ready to film her.

She's munching away at the green goodness

Gorgeous Sassy

Now she doesn't appear much in the blog because whenever I'm with her, which is every day as she feeds and I give her a quick groom, I don't have the camera with me. Today A fed her with some scraps from the veg for our Sunday roast and I got the camera and got some lovely pictures while she was munching. Just as I left she stretched out and hopped around for a bit but the camera was off and I missed it. She's still a lovely bunny rabbit and she even lets me pick her up a bit more. Soon we'll have her on the balcony I hope and then she can really begun part of the family.

Celebrations

And so I come to the end of this update. I've eaten dinner by now (a lovely Sunday Roast chicken that was superb) and now the fire is hot and we're going to settle down and watch some Sopranos.

Mulled wine for Christmas

I'll leave you with our refreshment while we were putting the Christmas tree up. I bought these mulled wine sachets while still in England earlier in the year and finally we've got to take them out and give them a go. I'm not a fan of wine but you cannot beat a mulled wine while putting the Christmas tree up.

Cheers for reading.