July has been rather soggy. That's not just me exaggerating - apparently in my local town, we've had roughly double the average rainfall for July, it's been the wettest July since local records began 160 years ago. I don't think it's rained every single day, but it's certainly felt like it has. Still, things have been achieved, and adventures have been had. My last day at work was 20th July, and I've been off ever since, which has been great (although I confess I would have appreciated a little more sunshine). Let's see what's happened. Ticking things off I have a long list of relatively small jobs that seem to just follow me round, interfering with my thoughts. In July, I decided to do something about it, writing all the tasks on little pieces of card, and dividing them into drawers - one each for 15 minute jobs, 30 minutes, those taking an hour or more, and ongoing jobs, where I could just spend 15 minutes at a time and make some progress. Early on in July, I picked out a card which said 'fix bird table'. Clearly not the most important job on the list, but that was the point - sometimes it's impossible to decide what the most important job is, and that can lead to doing nothing at all, so this was away of taking the decision out of my hands. And so I tackled the bird table, which was admittedly rather wonky. It turned out to be easier to dismantle than to fix, so that's what I did. It's slightly taller and thinner than the original, but I've salvaged the original pole and roof slates, and I don't think the birds will mind at all. It took me just over an hour, and is now one less thing tugging at my conscience when I look out of the living room window. Windowsills We decided that our next bigger DIY job would be windowsills. We currently don't have any in the kitchen, dining room or bedroom - five windows in all. We hadn't been able to find a satisfactory local option, and so we decided to make our own, from the giant old roof tiles that fell from our collapsed barn. It was quite an effort dragging them out of the field, but we've salvaged enough, and they're now propped up in the front garden, making it look rather like a small graveyard. Obviously none of the stones exactly fit any of the windowsills. The windowsills are large, and none of them can be done with a single stone. We've spent quite a lot of time with measuring tape, chalk, pen and paper, scratching our heads and drawing and re-drawing, and we think we've finally worked out how to put them together. We've also had advice from a neighbour who's done something similar, and we have a plan of attack. Not that we've actually put it into action yet, but these things are best done in stages... They'll need to be cleaned as well - another job best done in stages. It might be Christmas before they're done at this rate. More cooking I continued my enthusiasm for batch cooking in July, filling the freezer with more meals, and making sure I was eating healthily even after a busy day at work. I can't quite figure out why it's taken me so long to get into the swing of it. The garden The veg patch has mostly been left to its own devices, although I did finally plant out the courgettes and beans - probably a pointless task, as they're unlikely to have long enough to grow before the weather turns. The only thing I've harvested so far this year is raspberries, which persist in growing all over the place, although the birds get most of them I've been slowly digging the compost out of the floor of the chicken run - it's a lovely, rich mix of composted chicken droppings, bedding, and old wood chip, which makes an excellent addition to the veg patch. The greenhouse wasn't looking great in July - filled with yellowing tomatoes and in high need of some attention. It didn't get any though... One of the little jobs that I pulled out of the drawers was to clear the small terrace outside the front door - another thing now ticked off. Scything Before the end of July, I made a start on the scything. I'd managed two rows by the end of July - a good start. Rendering the house We made a start on another job in July - getting the side of the house rendered. I'd painted it last year, but the paint was peeling off again, and the water getting into the house, and it was obvious the rendering had failed. Not something I wanted to tackle myself, so we got a recommendation from someone local, and got a quote, way back in October last year. Finally, the rendering man (after some prodding) managed to fit us in. By the end of July we had the first coat of rendering on, and the old, rotten fascia boards removed, ready to be replaced by plastic ones that a neighbour had given us. Not an exciting or glamorous job, and quite an expensive one, but I'm glad to see the back of it - it's something that shouldn't need doing again for a good while. The craft room Another DIY-ish job got done in July - setting up the spare bedroom as my craft room. This room was our bedroom until recently, but now all the building work is done, we've moved into the bigger room, and this one was just housing a spare bed and some clothes rails. They're staying, along with bedding and blankets under the bed, but in July I also got round to adding what used to be our kitchen table in our old house, and a set of shelves (which had been languishing in an outbuilding and was in need of a good scrub) to house some of my craft supplies. Eventually, I need to sort out the rest of the craft supplies from the loft, add some extra shelves, find my craft books and also somewhere to put them, but for now, this is a calm, peaceful little spot to make a start on some long-neglected crafts. I imagine it will get more use in the winter, as I'm pretty focused on outside jobs at the minute. It also provides a useful second bedroom if one of us is ill, or snoring...
So that was July on the homestead. Quite a productive month, it turns out - being off work for over a third of it helped, of course. Some things have been ticked off, and lots of things started but not finished, so I'm hoping August will prove similarly productive. We've also done a lot of hosting and visiting while I've been off, but I'll post about that separately. Off to see what the rest of August brings...
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Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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