Human Lifestyle

Up early despite a late finish last night.  I had been booked by Tara to help finish off her water butt installation, using the drill bit 'borrowed' through Freecycle.  This was achieved by saying in the WANTED post 'Wanted for drilling just three holes in plastic waterbutts, on one day only'.  When the lovely John the engineer contacted me, I said I'd be very happy to return it, which I intend to do early next week.

So, I set off at 9.30ish and got to her house on the dot of 10am... this time, she was yawning and not quite ready.  But at least she was dressed.  The water butt installation was actually very easy, the most difficult bit was cutting through the plastic downpipe to insert the diverter.  But all three went in and as it was a wetish day, we saw that they worked.  I did a little bit of couch grass root removal and explained how to prepare this for composting safely in a cold compost heap.  She has a lot of work to do, as the lawn is just a mass of couch grass and she wants to make a vegetable patch.  But I predict that next spring she'll have at least some of it ready for planting.  We also dealt with her beech hedge and wove some twiggy bits into a new fence.

She fed me sandwiches for lunch, and gave me two chocolate muffins as she's started a diet today.  I expect my boys will like these.  I also got a tub of highly fattening Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  I'll eat it slowly.  I should be aware of my waistline too...

And then away, zooming into town to call in on the Council Offices to find out about the fate of the Hull Road Ward funding applications I put in, and to try to find out about what the role of a 'sponsoring organisation' is, for future reference.  I met a senior officer but he didn't know the details of individual applications, so I got an email address and need to write to that officer.

And to home, via Country Fresh where I was a bit shocked to see that Rich had been in hospital with a cat bite on his finger.  His whole hand had swollen up and he'd been admitted overnight. Poor Richard!  However, had he not contacted NHS Direct, who told him to go to the drop in, who told him to go to A and E, who said, we need to admit you overnight, he could have lost a limb, or even lost his life.  Blood poisoning can be very very serious. He was given antibiotic injections into the afflicted area, and oral antibiotics, and was today pretty well recovered.  I picked up a couple of sacks and a box, and came home.  There was more, so later, I returned, did some shopping and picked up the remainder.

I had a relaxing afternoon, weeding the pond area, loading a compost bin, recovering fruit for drying.

In the evening I did that fruit management, jarring up a load of dried pears and refilling the racks with wet fruit.

I got up earlier than I'm used to as my friend Tara had asked me to come over and help install her compost bins. But that wasn't all... she also requested that I have a go at using the borrowed pick axe to break up the large lump of concrete which we managed to get out last time, and there were also 3 water butts needing to be installed. This seemed a lot to fit into a 10 til 1 slot.

However, the compost bins were easy to do... I used the outline of the base of the bin to make a little trench which the foot of the bin sat in, and the soil that was removed was then put back in the edge of the trench and on the lip of the bin to secure it. We put both of them next to each other in a sunny spot. Whilst I was putting the second one in, Tara chopped up some beech twigs to make an aerated base for the first one.

Then we undid one of her pots of potatoes, there were some but I think they could have been bigger, so I suggested the rest should stay. Then we had a look at her tomato plants which she's been growing on a window sill. They needed a bit of pruning but several of them had tomatoes on, and some will still produce a few more.

We were able to do some of the first water butt installation, by removing a section of down pipe, but then we got a bit stuck with drilling a hole in the side of the butt, so Tara made lunch and I had a bit of a bash at the concrete but I only got a few bits off, and some of these struck me on the face; one cut me and I decided that I didn't want to continue with this.

I enjoyed a cheese and onion sandwich and a hummus and tomato, plus dry roasted peanuts, one of my favourite treats, and then i had to go as I told Gill I'd be back around 2pm. I loaded up my wrecking bar on the trailer (I'd brought this in case we needed to lever the concrete somewhere) and set off, but I didn't get far before my trailer parted company from it's front part; the weight of the wrecking bar had caused one of the weak points of the trailer's metal bars to fatigue and break. It has broken there before, and been welded back together. I managed to fix it with bungees, and fix the wrecking bar alongside of my top bar on my bike frame also with bungees (I should have carried it here before, thinking about it) and gingerly cycle home, hoping that the bungees held the trailer secure.

As soon as I got in, Gill went to town to try to find some clothes for the boys for school.

I had a bit of time on the computer and did some housework.

At about 7pm, we all set off for Simon and Melody's party. I cycled down and Gill and the boys got a lift with Ros and her son in their car.

I had a great time, enjoyed chatting to Phil, and then Lynn, and briefly with Kate and Alison, and I prized myself free after 11.30. A really good social time!