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It’s that time of year again… continued

Well the dishwasher seems to be working so that didn’t decide to give up… yet. But I wish I could say the same for my laptop! It’s a Compaq Presario R3000 and for a while now it’s had problems charging. I thought it was the connection and kept fiddling with it. Now it wont stay on long enough to use and it wont charge either. It looks like this is a common fault with these machines. It wasn’t a cheap laptop either when I bought it; it cost over £1000 because it was the only one in PCWorld that had a dedicated graphics card which turned out to be a waste of time because it was a “special” mobile version of an NVidia card and wouldn’t run my games.  I’ve found a great thread that explains how to fix it but I’m not sure I have the patience or the skills to do so.  Only one way to find out I suppose…

One a better note I’ve found a website that I’d highly recommend if you have problems with your major kitchen appliances in the UK. It’s called UK Whitegoods. They have a forum to ask for help. I posted about the dryer, someone replied the same day asking for more info, I posted that and within hours someone had told me what I needed and gave the details of how to get it! I emailed asking for a quote and again, had a response within hours. He is going to add the items I need to the online shop so that I can buy them! How good is that?! Now if I could just find someone to fix the DVD recorder…

Foundations started

In between the blustery rain I’ve been trying to lay the bricks for the greenhouse. It wasn’t very easy because we didn’t prepare the foundations properly. Using S’s laser level, I was trying to get a good corner and straight edges but because we didn’t clear the site it was difficult. The foundation is neither level nor straight! So I’ve been trying to pack it up and out where it’s needed. I spent most of my time out there trying to set it out and felt like I was going around in cirlcles.  By the time S came home from work I’d managed to get one side and half the front down. Hopefully, now that it’s marked out with bricks, I will be able to get stuck in!

The rain was only drizzling while I was laying the bricks and I wanted to cover it all so that it would be protected from any light rain. But I forgot… and guess what? It’s 9 o clock and it’s been tipping it down and now it’s snowing! The bag of cement is covered with a plastic sheet but I bet when I go out tomorrow it has seeped underneath and the cement will be no good.

More seeds arrived today and again from Ebay. These are Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) for making a lawn; eventually. I want my greenhouse back! I want to get started!

L cleared all of the rubble away – well bagged it up – after I asked nicely. S was happy as it saved him a job. Now I need to empty the wheelbarrow, which is full of sand for doing the greenhouse base, so that we can take the rubble to the tip.  When that’s gone, we need to have a look at levelling the area (after the terrible concrete job that was done on it) to erect the shed. Honest, one day we’ll be sorted…

Going potty

Today the concrete was starting to go off nicely albeit slowly due to the cold and damp. I would have made a start on the base but it was raining intermittently all day. I had to buy a new trowel as ours is buried somewhere so I went to B&Q.   They had seed potatoes there on offer; a 2.5kg bag for £3.48 or two bags for £5. I hadn’t got a clue what type to buy! I think there was Earlies, Second earlies, Maincrop and Salad types. There were Aaron Pilot, Maris Peer ( I got this one), Desiree (and this one), Maris Piper, Charlotte, Nicole and a couple of others I think. 

The Salvia apiana seeds came from Australia today too. I bought them off Ebay. I will sow them later this year when the greenhouse is back up and I think I’ll keep some in a pot to overwinter in dryer conditions.

I was pleased with myself when I popped to ASDA this afternoon. I actually looked at where the produce came from before I bought it and only put items in my trolley that were produced in this country. This isn’t some patriotic attempt – although we should support our farmers more – but an attempt to reduce our carbon footprint. Most people have now heard of this but aren’t really doing much about it. Buying food that hasn’t been bought over in an aeroplane is one step we can take. It is difficult to walk away and leave all of the salad produce on the shelf and I did wonder at the waste of it all. I think everything I picked up was grown in Spain. It can’t go back can it? I bet it isn’t composted either because no one is going to sit an open all the little plastic bags… What else is frightening about our “food miles” is that our food, even if it is local may have been transported miles around the country, or even out of the country, for processing and packaging. This is putting hidden miles onto items and is much harder to spot. I am going to try and cut down on the waste food we have, use the car for shopping less by going shopping less often and I look forward to growing our own this year and make most of our food miles go down to food feet!

It’s that time of year again…

What is it with new year and electrical appliances? Every year something decides it’s not going to do another year and gives up in the first few weeks! This year it’s the DVD recorder and the tumble dryer.

As Yule has now finished and I took all the decorations down yesterday, I thought I’d get all the films etc that we recorded on to disk. I went to turn the recorder on and nothing happened. I changed the fuse and still nothing. I’m gutted!  River Cottage is on there; the Escape series and the Forever series. The DVD is a Packard Bell EHR2080 and so far, apart from being a bit noisy and taking a while to boot up, it’s been a good recorder. OK, I can’t compare it as it’s the only one we’ve had. It was also expensive at around £300 when it first came out. It wasn’t really used very much but since we’ve has Sky+ with its ease of recording entire series’ even weeks in advance, it has been used more. I wouldn’t say it’s had its money’s worth though so if you’re thinking of buying one, look at something else unless it’s cheap! Looking at the Packard Bell forum it isn’t really a good buy. My main problem now is how to access the recordings on the HDD. Is it possible to? I would have it repaired if I knew where to take it. I rang our TV repair centre and they said it needs to go to a computer shop!? I did explain that what it was but they insisted that it was computer related not TV… Hmmm…

The other appliance is the tumble dryer. Now to be fair, it’s not all the dryers fault. It’s a Hotpoint CDT40 and like the DVD, isn’t very old but for a while now it’s been making a terrible noise. So loud that you can’t use it at night. So S had a look at it yesterday. He took the panel off the back and noticed that the fan was rubbing on the machine. It was very loose so he put some tape around the pin to hold it in place and stopit rubbing. When he turned it back on it was quiet; it wasn’t rubbing but it wasn’t heating up either. I’ve had a look today and it looks as if the element is broken – no idea how that could have happened. I’m not very good with this type of thing but the element(s) looks like a coiled spring around a foil coated card. The card in the middle has snapped. I don’t think this will affect the element but I think it may have tripped the thermostat. Just guessing as I’ve got no idea. So, I need to get another element and probably a thermostat if I want to fix it.

Great… I’ve just gone to unload the dishwasher and it’s still got water in the bottom. Please let it be a one off!

Getting organised – sort of!

I’ve started a “to do” list on the computer which I shall probably put on my website (as I can’t lose it!). Although I’d love to, I can’t keep all of these magazine full of information as I just haven’t got room so I’ll edit it down and make my own. It will take a while but I’ll do it a bit at a time. I need to find out from somewhere how long various plants are in the ground so that I can make some sort of plan.

Greenhouse foundations

Today we got a bit more done in the garden with only the odd spot of rain. I did think it was going to pour and asked both silently and out loud for a dry afternoon to finish the greenhouse base (I’ll be doing the same tomorrow if that cement has gone off). S volunteered for the yucky job of cleaning the old mortar from the old bricks while I made a channel for for new foundation of the greenhouse. I found most of the old cement foundation so have tried incoporate it where possible.  When it was dug out I had to clear the bottom of the garden again to find the sand! This garden is like a game of musical chairs with half of our stuff being moved backwards and forewards. One day we’ll have the garden sorted!
We carried on outside until around 5 o clock using a floodlight on the back of the garage for the last half hour. We mixed up the concrete for the base and I made an estimated foundation. I mixed the first couple of batches and I’d forgotten how tiring it is! 15 years ago, it was easy – I am so unfit. S said I was a wuss and he had a go; thankfully, it had the same effect on him! The foundation is now ready for the brickwork to go on. I’ll get the brickwork level by packing where necessary.

I also pruned the cobnut today. I read somewhere that they used to be pruned so that the person picking the nuts could reach them. This meant just over 3 metres for me. It’s surprising how much tree I cut off. It didn’t look that big when it was pointing up in the air but once it was cut and on the ground, there must have been 2 meters lengths cut out.  I found it difficult to find free information on the web about pruning them and haven’t got the energy to dig out my books but I assume that now is a good time to prune as it should be dormant shouldn’t it? It doesn’t look completely dormant as it’s getting its catkins…

Speaking of cats, the cats seem better today. I am continuing with the antibiotics but Whisper is almost back to his normal self and Pepsi can breath with his mouth closed sometimes and his eyes are no longer so runny. Whisper’s breath also doesn’t seem so bad.

Greenhouse gone

Today we managed to take the greenhouse down. What a job! Who’s crazy idea was it to silicone all of the glass in to stop drafts and leaks? It didn’t work anyway and made it a complete nightmare to dismantle. What should have taken an hour or two, took all day. It’s done now though.

I took the kittens to the vets today with this bug they have. I was convinced that they had some type of chest/throat infection due to the smell of their breath; especially Whisper who I can smell whilst he is on the floor and I am standing! Before the vet even looked at them he told me that there are several things that the symptoms could be including a cold, leukemia, a type of herpes and a type of cat AIDS. He said that we’d need to know their vaccination status to rule out various diseases. He recommended I contact the rescue centre to find out. He said we could treat the symptoms they were showing. I asked about the smell and I explained that I’d been training as a Nurse and that it smelt like infection which I presumed, as they were having difficulty swallowing, were coughing and sneezing, were full of mucus and had a temperature was caused by a chest or throat infection. He said it was their teeth! They are only 20 weeks old! They eat dried food and these teeth are either their baby teeth or a very new adult set.  I don’t see how it is their teeth. I came home a bit scared that it could be something nasty, a bit disappointed that he charged me £17  to smell their breath and put a stethoscope on their chest (plus another £15 for the medication) and a bit  lacking in confidence in his diagnosis of bad teeth… He did give me some antibiotics so if it is a throat or chest infection those will help. I rang up the rescue home and they haven’t had their vaccinations so I will be booking them in for those soon (actually a quick look at that site adn the symptoms of those diseases don’t match the ones Pepsi and Whisper have – more research is needed here I think). In the meantime, I’ll carry on with the antibiotics and steamy room treatments and keep a close eye on them.

L came home today – I have missed him! So have K & J. It was really wierd without him not here over Yule and the New Year. It’s nice to have him back.

yey!

Yippee I’ve finished the greenhouse base! What a nightmare. I’m no builder anyway but faced with an uneven foundation – yes my fault – and old, inequal bricks it’s been an experience… And that’s putting it mildly! The weather hasn’t helped; what with the rain and winds but this afternoon it dried off a bit so off I went to finish off. I was out there till 1900 hours and I had really had enough. S put the security light on for me so I could see but it kept turning off and the sensor wouldnt turn back on again. I was almost in tears at one point. My back is killing me and I was cold and wet. I will never move that greenhouse again!