Fleas my fault (by sarah)

I am an idiot - I washed the cats flea collors!

doh doh doh.

And Minni's been having her treatments becuase she doesn't have a collar!

Fleas (by sarah)

'Alaric when did the cats last have their flea treatment?'

'Erm, can't remember why?'

'Becuase I am covered in flea bits! Havent found any on Jean. Didnt you mark it in the calender?'

'Oh dear, no why should I have?'

'Yes its supposed to be done every three months isnt it?'

'Oh no we only ever did it when they got fleas...' I will not type what I said yet as it would be lots of stars! Approximatly it was along the lines of...

'Nonononon... we have a baby we dont let the cats get fleas in the first place! Same with the worming tablets.'

....

'You haven't given them their worming treatment either have you?'

'But they dont have worms...'

Ok so I had three flea bits but still - I'm afriad poor Al got moaned at quiet alot as he'd said he would do the cats meds as he's brought cats up before.

Good job I'm already in the middle of spring cleaning!

A Home Wiki (by alaric)

Since I've been getting our home network a bit better organised lately, the home server is now actually accessible from both the wired and wireless networks (and could be accessible from the outside, too, once I've sorted out suitable security measures), so it's high time I started making use of it.

The first thing I've done has been to set up a home Wiki. There's various bits of information that Sarah and I share, but that one or the other of us is 'in charge of' depending on whose computer it lives, so rather than putting a bunch of text files on the shared file server area, it seems logical to do it with a Wiki.

I'd been wanting to research the current state of the art in Wiki software anywhere; the only other Wiki I run, the ARMuC Wiki, runs on UseMod, which I've never grown to love properly.

Anyway, my researches led me to PmWiki, and I'm quite sold on it - it's written in PHP so doesn't require CGIs, and it has a software design philosophy that I agree with; a simple core with modular extensibility.

So we now have a Sutton's Mill Intranet for our domestic odds and ends. And with a little bit of simple plugin writing, the home page lists the status of important household sensors - currently just the incoming mains voltage and frequency (we get a lot of mains power problems out here!) and the battery backup system status, but hopefully soon to include external temperatures too.

We're using the Wiki to store our monthly budget, our goals for each month (chosen at the New Year), our template shopping list of things we need to check we have sufficient stocks of, and our list of favourite recipies (since we have a habit of forgetting them, then one day going "Blimey! I've not cooked that lovely Thai turmeric rice in months!"), and we'll shove more stuff in as we come up with it - basically, from now on, whenever one of us has to go and look something up for the other, we'll Wiki it for posterity.

Babes in the Snow (by sarah)

Yesturday we took Jean out in the snow - now there was snow last year but she was not old enough to appriciate it!

The first rule she learnt was that its better to have gloves on rather than off - she normally just pulls them straight off and struggles if you try to put them back on but outside she cried if one accidently fell off and would point at it so one of us would pick it up and put it back on her!

Hydrogen who followed us and explored tentitively until she found what great fun pouncing snow was! She got snow on her nose though and for about an hour after we came back in the house she sat on a chair infront of the fire sneezing - in a comical cartoon kind of way!

Al tried to show Jean how to make snow balls but she was a bit uncertian! This didn't stop me and Al having a snowball fight though!

Al then build a snow man out the front of the double garage! Jean 'helped'.

We then went up onto the lawn so Jean could play but she seemed a bit uncertian about what exactly was going on!

So we built a snow cat! Ok well it was supposed to be another snowman but I made a misshapen head that looked like a cat so we decided to go with that instead - Hydrogen seemed to be drawn to it so I think it must have been a pretty good snowcat!

Snowed In!!!! (by sarah)

Well we are not going anywhere!

Yep we are snowed in!

Unfortunatly we're supposed to be going to a Wedding on Saturday but we may not be able to get out of the vally to go :'(

Luckily we have (becuase I am paranoid) tins of baked beans, chooped tomatoes, spagetti, various soups, refried beans, bean sprouts, water cheshnuts, bamboo shoots, mushy peas, new potatoes and other sundres in the cupboard - not to mention cheese and jacket potatoes. We also have cooking plans for if the power gives out - ie jackets done in the fire and pastas and soups on the trangia!

The only problem is that without electricity we would be down to the fire (which we have plenty of coal for) and the parabolic gas heater - so we'd all have to sleep down stairs and put a blanket over the entrance to the stairs as all our heat tend to go up them!

As extra messures we have pegged a thick curtian sideways on over the kitchen window (pegged to the net curtian) - this is becuase the curtian rail still isn't up so we only have a net at the window - plus the curtains we do have for it are light summer ones - still need to make the thick wintre jobbys! Also closing the door to the office has made a great difference as has the insulating foam strips my Uncle got for us. The office is over the stable which is pretty open to the elements and its floor is basically floor boards laid over the beams so it gets a tad nippy in there. I am really not happy about how much heat we must be just pumping into the environment 🙁

Still we fixed the issue with the fire not burning hot enough and all the hot air going straight up the chimney - its called a tin foil sheet but more on that in a later post!

Here are some pictures of the grounds at the moment!

The crocuses are determined to flower anyway and the fur tree seems to be enjoying it!

The cows at the end of the drive didnt seem to bothered either - I couldnt beleive some of them where sitting down in the snow - mind due these are rare breed ones so are a bit more hardy.

Purely artistic this shot - I was looking for something that showed wintre and the forest in one.

I thought the stream looked a bit like it belonged in Narnia!

The Water garden looks so different from how it did in the summer!

We are starting to look like a packet of christmas cards I feel! - good job we made loads of fat and seed bird feeders last night with the scouts! I think the poor wildlife is going to need it!