New Homes and Back To School

The painting is finished and on Sunday we put the Chuck Wagon in its place. I don't mean we gave it a good talking to, I mean we positioned it where it will be for when the chooks eventually arrive to take up residence in their new home.

Isn't it just fantastic when something you envisage turns out just like you want? I had this picture in my head when we decided this was the perfect place to put the hen house. I am squeeling with excitement inside because I really feel we are getting on with what we moved here for. The boys are looking forward to feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, well Alfie is a bit unsure of the hens; he thinks he might get pecked! We cleared the area around it and set it straight. Posts for fencing will hopefully be here by the end of the week - slowly getting there.

After that Jon decided to start on the frame of the greenhouse! He is using very sturdy reclaimed wood but we are going to polythene the windows for now. Eventually we will put new windows in the conservatory, a bit down the list yet, so we will then reuse the current ones for the greenhouse. Have to make do and mend for now on that subject. We also emptied out one of the Belfast sinks lurking in the garden and I think I will use that for herbs. 

We have not done anything else in the garden re the bamboo yet as we are waiting for Jon's dad to come and help with a mini digger. However I am tasked with cutting one of the bamboo bushes down this week as we cannot see the hen house from the top kitchen window right now! We hopefully have access to some mahoosive tyres from the saw mill so could use those as raised beds for things like potatoes and carrots.

Yesterday was the last day of the boys' Easter holiday; it feels like they have been off for weeks, all due to Easter being early this year of course and we had quite a busy day. We did some last reading for school, Alfie was practising his recorder, they brought wood in for the fire and whilst Alfie was off doing something very important me and Harry were baking and made biscuits, but Alfie was there for the tasting of course! I know I will be baking today as they have not lasted long!

They had a bit of a Lego-off and after watching something about Archimedes they were drawing pictures of traps and things!

Whilst they were getting up to some of this I was cleaning shoes, tidying up school bags, checking uniform, making sure trainers and pe kit were clean and where they should be and, thankfully, they have both had a haircut before they start back.

I managed to finish off some leek and potato soup I made yesterday and had some with a salad for lunch; this lot is going in the freezer.

In the afternoon they wanted to do some papercrafting so they made some tags to use as book marks and the cover of a book about Harry Potter and quidich. 

I had been making a card for my mum in the morning as she has just moved into a sheltered housing complex. 

She found it quite stressful I think, mainly because she couldn't get her head round the fact that she needed to get rid of things. She is elderly and thought she could sell some of the furniture etc but people of her age don't understand that it is not worth much, apart from to people like me and Jon who like the look of older furniture but then we have not paid a lot for our things. Anyway, I have written to her and assured her she will settle in soon and my sister is still quite close by but won't have to check on her quite as much now which will give her a break.

I am in parental guilt mode, yet again. Alfie was complaining of a tummy ache but we always get this the night before, and on the morning of, the first day back after a break. I had a bit of a set to with him and as usual promised I would fetch him if he was still unwell and managed to get him on the bus with a note for the teacher.

Ok, I've vacuumed downstairs and brought the firewood in so now I'm going to tackle the ironing, yes Dee happy to!

That's all for now.

Lou.x