Repurposed Gin Barrel.

 Many years ago I inherited two stoneware barrels from my grandparents on my mothers side of the family. In all that time they've just been around collecting dust mostly, infact all the time we've been at our present home they have been stored away and not even seen the light of day. Well recently we have been going through things and having a clear out and it was during this that I came across the barrels and as they have never really contributed to anything I felt under pressure to get rid of them which I was reluctant to do with them being my grandparents and also something I remember from my childhood. So I came up with this idea which would give them a purpose and so save them getting the chop so to speak. Yesterday I put my plan into action and below is the result. 

I have the other one to do sometime but I need some different fittings as the tap is stuck in the closed position on the other barrel so I need a different way to route the wiring as I don't want to alter the barrel in anyway. I will have a go at freeing the tap but I don't hold out much hope of that being successful. 

Drax Power Station.

 A picture of Drax power station which is apparently being switched over from being a coal fired power station to one that burns only wood.

No More Football.

Today head gardener Timothy-Michael has had to go back to the vets as there is little or no improvement with his leg so he had to go and get kncked out so the vet could give a proper examination. He doesn't take kindly to vets, they only have to look at him and he growls at them, not a good patient at all. Anyway they have found that he has torn some ligaments in the knee of one of his hind legs which is quite serious and could need an expensive operation if it doesn't mend by itself. He has to have six months rest and is most likely the end of his footballing career. Knowing Timothy-Michael niether of which will be something he would wish for.

Also today I put in an order for my retirement greenhouse. We have a big outbuilding with a pretty boring wall so I've decided to go with a leanto style greenhouse to go against the wall. I also figured that when I no longer require it as a working greenhouse someone can make use of it as a sunroom type building should they choose. The diamensions are 16 feet by 8 feet so a reasonable size although not as big as the one I've been used to at work but my new garden isn't anywhere as big as the one at work so I think it will be okay.

The picture below is of the leanto from the website. Mine will be plain aluminium with white glazing bars. Done in colour the cost would be a great deal more so I chose to have a larger size than a pretty colour.

Second Hand Window Cleaner.

There has been know painting for me today as I've caught up with what I can do until I know what else Vicki intends. I think I've done okay for a novice decorator though, I've got two rooms ready and painted the ceiling throughout the rest of the house. So I had a bit of a tidy round this morning, took out all the painting things from the dinning room and gave it a sweep out and put some things back on the wall that I removed for decorating.

This afternoon I spent quite some time cleaning down a second hand window that I've got for the garage. There was all sealant around the edges from when it had been in it's last location so I cleaned all that off and washed it all down so it looks as good as new. It's a plastic frame so there's no rot to worry about.

 

Painting The Dinning Room.

 Today we have been painting the dinning room walls. When I say WE I mean Timothy-Michael and I. Although as I said previously Timmy is under strict instructions not to over do things on account of his injured leg.

The first job was to piant around all the edges and corners which proved a more difficult and time consuming job than painting all the rest of the walls. I still have some work to do on the radiator but I ran out of time also I can't get properly with the brushes I have so Vicki is going to fix me up with something else which she says will do the job. Lets hope it does or we may end up with a stripy radiator.

There's No Fooling Timothy - Michael.

 I finished work last Friday until in the new year so me and the head gardener are spending this week doing some work up at the cottage. One of the first jobs was to stack up some logs that we had delivered last week. I didn't have time to do it when they were delivered because I had to get back to work. I wasn't really skiving off as such as I am going to be feeding sheep and stuff over Christmas and New Year so I will more than make up for lost time then but I don't like to abuse a situation and I have plenty of time this week to stack up the logs.

Unfortnately the head gardener is not going to well at the moment as he has hurt one of his back legs. The vet doesn't seem to think he has torn or broken anything but he has several different lots of medication to take and has to rest as much as possible. There is one particular tablet that he has taken a dislike to and it's proving to be a challenge to get him to have it. Mostly he will take his medicine in cheese but not this tablet, he knows it's in there and just spits it back out. I even ground it up and put it in milk which he likes but there's no fooling him, he wouldn't take the milk. I've had some success today by dripping it in marmite and then wrapping it in cheese and then leaving it in the corner somewhere for him to discover for himself and so far that is working out okay.

Potting Shed Spruce Up.

 Me and Timmy stayed over at the cottage again last weekend and one of the jobs we did was to tidy out the potting shed and give the walls a coat of paint. Because of distractions such as going for walks, drinking tea and playing ball we only managed to get the top two thirds of the walls painted in white. The next time we go to stay we will try and paint the bottom part with grey and then we can start moving things in when we move them up there.

Kicked Out.

Me and Timmy sent the weekend over at the cottage. Because we are just finding our feet there at the moment the ok only heating we have is a couple of log burners which go out during the night and when they do I end up with Timmy trying to move in to the sleeping bag with me. This picture was taken in the morning after I vacated it - I think he had ideas about having a lie in.

Camping Out At The New House.

 At the weekend Timothy - Michael and I spent the weekend camped out at the new house. We had a few jobs to do and I also wanted to get a feel for the place. I think we arrived roughly at the same time as  Storm Arwen because not long after arriving the power went down and didn't return again until the evening for a couple of hours before once again going off not to return for a further twenty four hours but we were okay. We got a stove going in one of the rooms and we had a propane cooked to boil up water for tea and make something to eat, we were actually very cosy. We didn't get a lot of work done on the Saturday as it was to wild outdoors and it was a bit too dark indoors to do a lot but we did meet the neighbours who are really nice people and made us feel very welcome indeed, they even lent me a pan for the cooker as we didn't have anything there like that, just an electric kettle and a microwave which were both useless. We also got to find out some details of the area from our visit to the neighbours. 

My bed for the night in the corner.

Timothy - Michael tested various sleeping places within the room during the night.

New Beginning.

First of all I will apologise for this post being out of sequence as it should have been before the previous post but the computer with the pictures on it was out of order but it's back in action now so here goes.

Over the past few months we have been looking to buy a property as the house we live in belongs to the estate which I get as part of my wages so eventually I would either need to start paying rent or leave so we decided to buy a place so that when the time comes we have options.

So after lots of searching and disappointments we found this cottage and was fortunate enough to get the chance to buy it. That was back in July and it has taken until last Friday 19th November before everything was sorted and we were finally able to get the keys and use it as our own. For the time being we are going to be decorating and sorting out a few other little jobs with regard to the décor and of course in time there will be some jobs to be done in the garden.

Below is the front of the house taken from the lane. 

Again, this the front of the house but looking the other way. The front garden that you see here is south facing so will get lots of sunshine.

This is the end and back of the house. There is another property joined on to the end of our house. We haven't met the neighbours yet so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

This is the view looking from the back of the house and this is the view Timmy has from his perch at the top of the stairs which I showed you in the previous post.