Poor Bobble (by sarah)

We came back from writting class which was great - and Jean behaved fantastically - she was soooooo good! But then as Al went to get her out of the van when we arrived home, she prjectile vomited all over the inside of the van 🙁

Jean is now sleeping peacefully after some initial wailing and needing hugging - we however have just finished using the upholstery attatchment on our carpet cleaner as milky vom had sunk right into the seats. We still have to make our dinner and do the rubbish - oh well its only ten past midnight things could be worse.

The Curse is Back >:( (by sarah)

SIGH

Yes you guessed it - everything is going wronge again 🙁

First of all the dishwasher broke - bang in the middle of the Foot Path inquiry - meaning there were loads of people to feed - I had volunteered to do the washing up as we have the dishwasher - but it keeps tripping the RCD (Residual Current Dectector) meaning that the not only is it not able to work but as we didnt initially realise - the power was down for a while including fridge and freezers.

We thought this was the bottom of the cursed machine filling up with water again - but two weeks on and its still tripping the RCD and is therefore dangerous 🙁 So this means we've been doing all the washing up by hand - so I hear you all say - I dont have a dishwasher grumble grumble grumble - except that it is harvest time and we have a glut - every time I turn around someone turns up with more windfalls to turn into something so sticky pots and pans and millions of extra bowls and choppign boards need to be washed.

Then we discovered on the third bowl of hot water that our 'boost' on the water heater has packed up meaning that we only have one tank of hot water to run on a day 🙁 So therefore washing up involves boiling kettles and the such like.

The day after the dishwasher broke I changed the water out of the tumble dryer and lo! The red light that tells me the water needs emptying now refuses to go out even though it is now empty 🙁 This has happened before to and was just down to some water pooling near the sensor which I mop up with a tea towl and then it may take 2 or 3 days to dry - not this time - oh no! Just as we start using the new washable nappies for Jean - the tumble dryer brakes - still not working - so thats washing hanging every where in the house making it even damper than it normally is - you know its bad when the condensation runs down the windows.

Then the left indicator on the van has started cutting out when its too wet - so looks like thats wonky cabling that needs fixing. Blower is also dead - and the most awkard one was the rear lights - not good for reversing in our parking space where there is the drop into the stream!

The kittens messed in the stable - we cleaned it up but hadnt realised there was a kitten egg just outside the door which we trod in and then walked all round downstairs before I started accusing all of smelling - this has ment a huge carpet shampoo so the furniture is all in much disaray.

Then poor Als laptop has become tempramental - going to sleep and not waking up with basically no warning. Not to mention the CPW thing and the bank having stuffed up direct debits into my account for my creadit card as my post keeps going walkys - so fines galour - I might have to strangly the next person that tells me that it may affect my creadit rating - when its there flipping fualt!!!!

The creme on the top - is that we may have found a leak in the roof - not sure yet though as its were there is staining from an old leak.

Fungus (by sarah)

Look what we have groing on a tree along the drive way - I think it is actually a space ship of some strange alien race! Wonder if its edible? Actually maybe it is the the alien - look its a mouth - it even has a tongue! I hope its not damaging the poor tree especially as I think its one of the fruit trees! It now has sinister black fringing which I assume are the spores.

Driveway mess (by alaric)

Last Sunday, it rained a lot. Since we live in a valley, this has its risks; our house is next to the stream, and our driveway and the stream run parallel for quite some distance before meeting the road, which comes down the hill on one side and goes back up the hill the other side. So lots of water, laden with mud and leaves and twigs and stones, came rushing down the roads to run into the stream, but due to the way the road is laid out, lots of it comes along our driveway before diving into the stream.

Now, we try and prevent this by having a hump of gravel along the end of the drive, directing the deluge down a ditch into the stream, but on Sunday, this was overrun with the sheer volume, and so the drive was a real mess.

I started clearing it up (click it to look at the large version and see just how much rubbish there is along the drive):

I was soon joined by Barbara, and between us, we shifted about six barrowloads of mud, leaves, and twigs, then collected the gravel and stones (which had been deposited closer to the start of the drive) and used them to build up the hump to try and stop it happening again...

Important Lessons (by sarah)

Well I have been making preserves again 🙂

The important lessons I have learnt are - do not fill my my preserving pan up with more than 9 pints of strained juice - I put 12 in thinking it would be ok not realising exactly how much space the sugar would take up!

Lesson No. 2 - always scaled the jelly straining bag - I am actually using a wine sieving bag but hey same prinicple. I couldnt work out why the first lot I strained went through brilliently whilst the second lot is still straining! Drip, drip... and drip again it goes. This is becuase the first lot I poured boiling water through to steralise it in a fit of hygien paranoia where as the second lot ent into a cold damp bag. I have since found out about 'scalding' jelly straining bags/seives - this is where you pour boiling water onto the bag inorder to allow the fluid to drain through it rather than being absorbed by the bag which then acts as a sort of seal for the liquid left in the bag.

Lesson No. 3 - make sure that when dealing with fermentation buckets full of juice for jam making or preserving pans or anything else - do it, especially any pouring - over a plastic matt.

Lesson N0. 4 - make sure that when Al is helping you pour hot liquids that he is wearing shoes! It saves on moaning!

Lesson No. 5 - no matter how many jars you think you need - it will not be enough - so double the number!!!

Lesson No. 6 - recipy books have a strange idea of temperature convertions! 220 F apparently equals 110 C - yeah right on whos scale? Not that this actually matters but it just annoyed me - I am aweare its the same magnitute but still!

Lesson No. 7 - make sure that there are enough tea towles clean.