Sunday 29 November 2015

Wall Hanging

It's been a long weekend, as we had Friday off. We spent the day helping Cath & Jason move house—they've not gone far, so it was five of us with a Transit van, while baby & dog were with Cath's mum. It wasn't too traumatic, in all: they completed around noon, and their buyer wasn't actually moving in on the day, so it wasn't too stressful. Fortunately, we managed to corkscrew their sofas up a rather unpromising twisted staircase...which was by no means certain for a while.

Today and yesterday have been relaxedly getting on with the wall-hanging/curtain for the dining room for me, which is almost finished, while Liz has got on with bits and pieces around the house. Yesterday, that included painting the downstairs windowboards and reveals, which are now looking really good. The gloss could do, really, with another coat, but that'll wait until spring, when I hope to do the window frames too. The weather's been atrocious, so the only things we did outside were to rearrange a delivery of firewood on the drive, ready for chopping, and harvest some Jerusalem artichokes (delicious), parsnips (one good, one rather forked), and scorzonera (to be eaten).

Sunday 22 November 2015

Plaster, Primer, Paint

Liz has spent today and yesterday painting the walls downstairs: a coat of white, and then a top coat of 'Timeless' emulsion to finish.  She's even managed to do the bits of the sitting room that we haven't re-plastered (around the door into the dining room, and the wall behind the sofa/bottom of the stairs. I've been doing bits and pieces, getting the biomass boiler fired up for the first time this autumn (the stove is no longer able to keep up with the cold outside), priming window reveals and boards, and repairing (finally!) the sewing machine.

We did manage to have yesterday evening off, though, and spent a pleasant evening at Eric's, a nearby restaurant, with Cath and Jason. Delicious food, and lovely to spend the time with them both.

Wednesday 18 November 2015

Window Reveals

I've been at home today, and have managed to get all the window reveals and curtain boards filled and caulked, ready to paint. It's taken ages! They're looking a lot better, though, so once the walls and they are painted, downstairs will look almost finished. I also spent a little while trying to repair the sewing machine, which I've not yet succeeded with.

Sunday 15 November 2015

Ditches and Drains

Yesterday, I spent a very pleasant day with David in Leeds, whereas Liz has painted the sitting room and dining room walls with watered-down basecoat. They're a bit patchy, of course, but they look loads better. Next weekend we will hopefully get one or two of the proper coats on top.

Today then I've done some bits and pieces, which hasn't really felt very productive: but Liz has first-coat painted the rest of the kitchen, including undercoating the big window's reveals. Meanwhile, I've filled the screw holes on the reveals in the sitting room (almost), and started undercoating them.

The really heavy rain of the last few days has meant there have been two little rivers flowing down the orchard. We've had about 4" of rain, which is a large fraction of the annual 48"—that's about a month's rain in two days. The ditch is just about keeping up, but the silly drain that I keep meaning to change is, well, being silly, and flooding some of the water onto the lane. That's a pain, as it scours the potholes. However, it's all worse still for the New Barn, as everything in the ditch and track finds its way to the crossroads, and some goes down to them. The ditch for this has, really, been inadequate for this much water, and they're in serious of danger of a flooded ground floor. Madness, for 1100' up in the Pennines, to flood, but there you go.

In brighter news, my part-made pond (where I dug out clay for planting the pond) has filled. I suspect it will empty again, as I don't think the walls are sufficiently clay-heavy to hold it. Never mind: as I make more ponds above it, to create a chain of reservoirs, and eventually line them, they'll clearly fill—and they will help slow the flow of water.

Sunday 8 November 2015

Christmas Cake 2015

The Christmas Cake bake was upon us, having soaked the fruit for a couple of days. It took a couple of mugs of tea, which is more than the recipe, so we'll see how that's worked. It took 4:20 to bake, which is a bit quicker than last year—I don't think this is a precision thing, though. Anyway, it's made, and it looks very tasty. We'll probably marzipan it in a couple of weeks, and ice it the first weekend in December—so I need to remember to give it a drink a couple of times before then.

The curtain isn't finished, partly because we had a machine failure: the feed plate has stopped feeding, because a gear broke. I need to order a replacement, and figure out how to fit it... However, the bit that's done looks really good, so that's very pleasing.

Friday 6 November 2015

Christmas Cake Fruit

We're getting on well with the wall hanging, but it won't be finished this week! We're going to bake our Christmas cake on Sunday, so we've also had soaking the dried fruit for that. It's the same recipe as we made last year, which was very tasty: notes to follow on Sunday.

Monday 2 November 2015

Wall Hanging

We're just back from a weekend visiting David and Ann, which has been really relaxing. We called in on Liz's sister on the way home, too. Back home, now, and this week we're planning to make progress on the wall hanging/curtain that will cover the insulation on the gable wall of the dining room. I hope to make good progress, but I'm not convinced we'll finish it.