Tuesday – Â A madly sunny day. I had half a plan to head down to the village to visit Ali and meet her new kitten Buttons but got stuck into outdoors stuff and then Poppy & Evie came to call for Scarlett who was planning to come down to Ali’s with me so I never got there. Instead I made a pen while Ady made a house, using the circular saw and the drill and the staple gun. I LOVE the new cordless power tools 🙂 We have had a cordless drill for quite a while but it’s quite heavy and I’ve been a little nervous of it so preferred to use a screwdriver instead (we rarely use it for actual drilling, almost always just for putting in and taking out screws). Obviously cordless is the only practical tool for us with our power constraints. We’d been talking about a smaller drill or a cordless screwdriver for a while and keeping an eye out online for something suitable. We also do a lot of sawing wood, mainly pallets and had bought a cordless jigsaw a while ago but taken that back as it didn’t really work for what we wanted. A trio pack had come up on Aldi where we buy quite a bit of stuff online as it’s free delivery which had two batteries, a small drill, torch and reciprocating saw so we’d bought that. We were really pleased with the drill and the torch but the saw was not really suitable for what we wanted either – great for cutting through things like nails but no good for the pallets or chunks of wood, so we invested in a cordless circular saw. A lot of money on power tools but they really do change our lives and save us sufficient time to justify the cost. The circular saw is amazing and the smaller drill is ideal for me and I’ve lost my fear (though not my respect!) for the power tools which is great. So while I was doing one task Ady was getting on with another which also makes us work so much quicker than waiting to take turns with tools.
We made a further three houses so we currently have two empty pens and four empty houses, which is good as we have ducks galore arriving (muscovy ducks and their ducklings being rehomed from Muck and runner ducks coming to us as soon as they are grown from a poultry dealer) and another two broody hens still to hatch their eggs. We had the big speaker outside (another cordless rechargeable Lidl find) in the sunshine and it was a lovely day. Ady had The Eagles on his playlist and we were most amused to see both a golden eagle and a sea eagle at various points while they were playing 🙂 I utterly failed at the sun cream task though and had sore back of the neck and upper arms as a result. Just as I was sorting out our dinner Fliss messaged me to ask if she could pop up for a bit and bring refreshments. I had a quick shower and she arrived while Ady was on the phone to Chris so Scarlett sorted her out a G&T and sat chatting to her on the sporran. I LOVE that girl 🙂 Unfortunately it set the scene of the evening and while Ady took over dinner and fed the kids he and I didn’t eat and between Fliss and I we sunk the whole bottle of gin. I have never been drunk on gin before, it’s usually a start of the evening tipple and I just have one or two glasses, not half a bottle. There was a truly spectacular lightening storm which was amazing to watch and then torrential rain which Fliss left to walk home in. I had a cup of tea and was then very poorly. Curse that gin!
Wednesday – I was rather on the delicate side so not up to much, although it was another rainy day so not much opportunity for outsidey stuff anyway. We met the ferry as we had shopping coming off and then walked round the village a bit waiting for the post to be sorted. We picked some raspberries from a couple of wild patches around the village, chatted to Neil and then came home for lunch. Scarlett went off to hang out with Poppy & Evie, Davies, Ady and I watched the end of the film we had abandoned when Bob pig got out. An early night all round. I managed a bit of crocheting but that was about my capacity. I also did some online stuff but was not entirely productive.
Today – This morning I sorted out my wool stash as it had been gathering down the side of the bed in our room and was really annoying, all now packed in vacuum bags and stashed away again in colour organised fashion. I packed a picnic and we headed down to the Sheerwater. Only saw seabirds today but Debs came on the boat and so I had a good chat with her which was nice.
Ady saw the GP on the way back as he was over, took some more blood samples to try and ascertain what is happening with his swollen foot and I made him tell the doc about his indigestion which I think is symptoms of a hiatus hernia. Doc agreed.
Home for a cup of tea, some faffing with animal pens, released another two ringed chicks. Scarlett and I marked 20 odd eggs under a broody hen who we suspect of nicking more eggs off other hens each day and watered the polytunnel and checked on the strawberries which are definitely the next job to get sorted – we have loads of runners on this years and some new plants to go out, must get that sorted.
Davies helped me make dinner and we watched the season finale double parter of Lost season 3, halfway through now!