July was, thankfully, a little less chaotic than June. Two weeks off work, only one trip to the vets, and no visits to the dentist at all. The weather was quite disruptively hot (for round here, anyway), which curtailed any garden activities that didn't involve just lying around. We did make quite a lot of progress in July though, on all kinds of projects. Chicken run extension The most exciting project in July was the chicken run extension. At the end of June, it had three sides and no roof. One pair of friends put in far more effort than we could reasonably have expected, spending four days here lugging stones, mixing concrete, and hauling roof panels, and others helped with smaller tasks, and throughout July a working shelter miraculously appeared. Of course, the garden turned into a building site in the meantime. Eventually it acquired a working door, mesh all the way around, and finally a roof. We still have a couple of additions to make, but it's waterproof (enough) and fox proof, and we are delighted. Tidying up The chicken run extension generated quite a lot of mess in the garden - leftover wood, tools, stones, and all manner of other detritus. Added to the remaining bits of our garden shelter which collapsed over the winter, the garden was a bit of a tip. Hours and hours of shifting and hauling and moving, and a couple of trips to the tip, and we finally had a more spacious parking area and a lawn. I'm utterly delighted. Having both the house and the garden in a mess was getting a bit wearing and I am thrilled to be able to just sit on the lawn. The veg patch and windbreak The veg patch came into its own in July, and was lush and prolific even compared to last July. I spent some time clearing the weeds from part of the edible windbreak, which meant I had to have somewhere to put them, which meant turning the compost, which meant putting the newly made compost onto the veg patch. We didn't do much harvesting in July, but things were slowly starting to get ready. No plums this year, but a few apples, and plenty of kale, beans, squash, tomatoes, basil all looking to be ready soon. Painting the house One job I'd been eyeing up for a while was painting the house, and in July we finally had a warm spell long enough to get on with it. For once, this was much simpler than I'd imagined, and with the aid of a wallpaper scraper taped to a broom handle, and a newly bought roller on a six metre pole, I did the whole thing myself over the course of two evenings. Not perfect, and it'll probably need another coat at some point, but it was straightforward and is good enough for now. Inside the house Inside the house, we're getting ready for the builders. We've chosen our kitchen, and have paid the deposit. We tried so hard to find a second hand one, and very nearly managed it, but sadly it fell through at the last minute, and we've ended up with a handmade one made by some local craftsmen. In the meantime, I've been painting the ceiling, and trying to sort out the floor. We've removed the old vinyl tiles and are have been trying to clean up the terrazzo tiles underneath, which is easier said than done. Apparently the builders are now coming 'later in August' (which I suspect means the end of September - just as my busiest period at work starts) so we need to clean, seal and grout the floor before they get here, as well as taking down the ceiling in the bedroom. Yes, the builders could do that, but we want to keep the cladding and it seems safer (and cheaper) to do it ourselves. Hanging about Quite a lot of July was very warm, and as I had two weeks off work, we spent quite a bit of time just hanging around, both on our own and with visitors. Overall July was pretty relaxed, pretty social, and pretty productive. Let's see if August brings us any closer to a kitchen...
1 Comment
Maria
8/8/2021 08:26:11 pm
It was really rather too hot to do much for a while there in July! It coincided with me finding myself in Scotland for a weeks holiday and I was very glad I was on holiday rather than trying to work from an overheated home (new build - overheats like no ones Business).
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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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