New shed Stage 2 + log splitting.

We got off to an early start and had the concreting finished and everything tidied up, cleaned and put away by 11.30. The ballast was on the trailer so it was easier for C to shovel downwards into the mixer. I did the wheel-barrowing and tipping out and he did the mixing and leveling.

We've put a plastic fence around so as to avoid small cat paw prints which were always a feature of any concreting done years ago.
Then it was in for showers and changing out of cement splattered clothes before lunch

After lunch  C was outside and came in asking did I know the wood splitter had appeared? We asked our farmer friend if we could borrow it about 4 months ago but it was being used on another farm. Then suddenly this afternoon there it was standing in the hayshed.
Of course as it was a chance to play with a bit of machinery, C was out there in 2 seconds flat! We have a couple of piles of wood to split, some already seasoned and some cut down after the gales in December.
I lagged behind a bit as I was still sorting and boxing the eggs,  then took the camera up for an 'action' photo.

Difficult to capture any action with an hydraulic log splitter!

 A few minutes after taking this a pipe blew off showering engine oil all over the tractor cab. Whoops. It was soon fixed although clearing the oil up will take a while longer. I thought I had better help so there we were, me lifting the logs onto the splitter, him operating the handle, some of the logs into a builders bag and some into the wheelbarrow for me to take them to the shed.
We got one pile sorted and then I rebelled as I wanted to watch Andy Murray at the French Open.

Thank you for comments yesterday about which of my draft blogs I should finish first, now I'm worried because I don't think any of them will be as interesting as you think! No time to finish them for a while either.

Nearly 3lb of strawberries picked today. Yummy yum yum.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Catching up weather.

Just a quick post today as I have a good book to finish this evening.
(Anna Quindlen- Still life with breadcrumbs)

At last a morning when I was able to get outside and catch up on work not done when the weather was bad.
C has got our small motor mower working better so that now I have to run to keep up instead of struggling to keep it moving.I didn't realise he had done it so it was quite a shock when I started it up and it went zooming off with me hanging on behind. I also got the flower border weeded and was pleased to find that several foxgloves and aquilegia  have  seeded themselves so there are several baby plants growing.

And my radio arrived, it looks brilliant and I'm so pleased I saved up for it. If I had gone out and bought it using money from savings I would have felt guilty for spending on something I didn't really need. That's the trouble with frugal living - sometimes you get too frugal and become unable to enjoy spending anything at all.

I have  4 posts half started in the drafts file, I really must find time to get them done.
Which one do you want first
Cost Effective Self sufficiency or Self Sufficiency at any cost?
Avoiding Gadgets?
10 things to take if you were a pioneer?
Checking Finances?

Then I will need to do the Year In Books Link for June  and my usual Review of the Month. I just need an extra day next week!

Back tomorrow ( after concreting the shed base)
Sue

Talking about comments

I love the way blogging is so informative. Yesterday I wrote about the bees under/in a small space on the cement mixer and Ellen commented that they look like Tree Bees and gave the site details for more info.
See Here
They certainly look like the picture and behave in the same way as the information says. The best thing is that they are brilliant for pollinating. Both raspberry beds are constantly covered with them. I think there is a saying that Nature Abhors a Vacuum, so have these bees moved in to fill the gap left by the absence of Honey and Bumble bees?
We shall leave them well alone and will be hiring a cement mixer for Saturdays concreting.

It's been a nasty day not a lot of rain, but grey and cold with drizzle every now and again. I managed to get some jobs done outside first thing this morning, 2 more pepper plants and 3 pots of Basil into the poly-tunnel, 9 squash plants potted from modules into pots and 2 cucumbers, bought from the car boot sale to replace the 2 that got eaten, also into bigger pots.
I put 3 pots of Basil and 3 bunches of flowers out for sale but only 1 bunch sold today but we did sell £20 worth of eggs so there must have been some passing traffic.

Our campsite stands empty tonight, the first night with nobody here since early April. The forecast is good for the weekend so maybe we will get a phone call tomorrow. I did wonder if we would get people wanting to come so they could visit Minsmere where Springwatch is being filmed.

Going back to yesterdays comments Jackie says she reads via Feedly, is there a way to find who follows via feedly? or are they all mystery readers. You are all very welcome whoever and where ever you are and Hello again to AlisonB43 in Scarborough, I thought you were down south somewhere.

Back tomorrow
Sue

A Buzzy problem

A much better day today even a little bit of sunshine this afternoon. On Radio 4 this morning they mentioned that Weybourne on the North Norfolk coast had 33 hours of continuous rain, I'm glad we didn't get that much. The big motorhome decided to stay another night as they know they are on hard ground and will be able to get off OK.

C has got the frame of the shed done and stood it up so I could see how big it is = HUGE. My old shed is 7' x 10' and the new one at 14' x 8' doesn't sound much bigger but there will be room for everything. I'm sure I shall soon fill it up and being the shed that's nearest the house all sorts of things get dumped there while waiting to go elsewhere.

We put the first produce out for sale today - 3 bunches of  flowers (Alstromeria, is that how to spell it?) at £1 bunch, and 5 bags of 'Fresh dug new potatoes' at 50p a bag.(Approx 500g) C wanted to see how the potatoes under fleece were getting on but as he had to dig 4 roots to get this amount, we will wait a while longer before digging anymore to sell. We never sell things by weight because if you do you have to have special scales which need testing by Trading Standards- much too much hassle. So everything is sold by the bag, by the bunch or by the punnet. If people think they are not getting value for money then they won't come back but as we sell everything we put out that's never been a problem for us.

C went to pull out the cement mixer to bring nearer the house for doing the concrete base of the shed.
He was surrounded very quickly by several  small annoyed  bees. They are not Honey bees and not as big as a Bumble and there are not hundreds of them, they spend a lot of time on the raspberries and we can't afford to lose them.

Difficult to take a picture of bees under a cement mixer but the brown bit almost in the middle of the photo is a bee and that's where they have decided to live for the summer. We have another lot in the roof of the workshop.
We don't want to have to dress in beekeeping gear to make cement for the shed base so it looks as if we may have to hire a mixer unless we can borrow one.

I'm trying to catch some of the French Open tennis on TV, I love the tennis season - French Open, Queens Club and Wimbledon. It's a pity it comes at our busiest time of the year.

Welcome to a new follower - Countryside Tales on Google friends and to some new people following on Bloglovin'- Elizabeth, Jane and Kate are all new I think although numbers have only increased by 1, so someone or two have un-followed! Shock Horror!
I'm pleased to see Vintage Vicki back in the world of blogging. She is the blogger who lives closest to us on the edge of Suffolk.
Thanks also to everyone else for comments yeserday.

Back tomorrow
Sue

Serves me right for crowing

I spent all weekend saying how nice and dry it was here and it's come back to haunt me as the weather has been awful for most of the day.
It was just about dry when I dashed out to pick strawberries - almost 2lb-  before lunch time and not too bad earlier when I popped to Mr Ts supermarket for milk and a few other bits to last the rest of the month. This means that I don't need to shop until June and that means there is £50 left in my purse. I'm not sure how, as food spending wasn't far under budget, but as we've been no further than the car boot sales all month there has been no occasion to use money elsewhere.

So whoopee! After 5 months I can order my Roberts red retro digital  radio.

Now I want to save for a better digital camera. Taking photos is something I've always done. Years ago I had a simple Russian SLR, cheap and cheerful but brilliant quality pictures. The little Canon that C got me for my birthday last year is OK but I find it very frustrating as the zoom is only x5. I would also like a viewfinder so I can see what I'm pointing at. There seem to be dozens of DSLR cameras on the market and they are not cheap. It will take a long time to save up for. I shall do some research.

We had no one due in on the campsite but a large motorhome arrived so we've put them on the edge of the campsite and driveway where they won't get stuck - in case we have even more rain.

C thought about taking a load of horse muck from our neighbours down to Leiston to his customers allotments but was put off by the rain, the tractor has a bit of a cab but not very weather proof. He was planning to bring back a load of ballast for concreting the shed floor. Instead he has spent the day working on the frame of the shed which he can do out of the rain. He 'found' some wooden window frames which were up in the roof of the workshop ( might come in handy) and has cut them down to fit.

The forecast for the rest of the week is pretty dire too and it's the Suffolk Agricultural Association Show tomorrow and Thursday. I used to love going to the show and  watching the show jumping, going around the food hall and craft tents and seeing how many free cups of coffee and other drinks I could blag ( Barclays Bank used to do Pimms - very nice too) but we haven't been for years. It's very expensive now just to get in and once in too many temptations and it's huge- miles and miles of walking around. It will be fun tomorrow for all the rich, famous and the cream of Suffolk families as the ladies struggle through the mud in their high heels, unsuitable clothes and with one hand clutching their hats!

Many thanks for comments yesterday. I've added westwickdreaming to my blog roll for reading - a new smallholder just getting started.

Back tomorrow
 Sue

Come outside and see my cherries!

Morello Cherries that is

coming along nicely.

And the gooseberries too,

they look as if they will be ready soon.

Hope everyone had a good bank holiday weekend, we were so lucky with the weather as it's been another fine day here.

Many thanks for all the comments yesterday
Back tomorrow
Sue

Bank Holidays are for other people, not for us.

When I walked up the field to let the chickens out just after 7 this morning the sky was blue and the sun shining, there was no wind so no road noise from the A12 which is 3 miles away, the tourists  were not yet on their way to Aldeburgh so the A1094 , which is 2 miles away   was also quiet. All the campsite visitors were tucked up behind the curtains in their campervans/caravans and I thought how lucky I was to be up and about on such a glorious morning.
A young hare ran across the field and two small rabbits disappeared into the undergrowth near the pond. Blackbirds and all sorts of other birds were happy in the hedges.
Then trundling up the road from the farm came the huge sprayer machine thingy, he turned into the field that goes all around our 5 acres and started going up and down. Peace shattered!
So the  farming contractors who farm all the land around here are working on a Bank Holiday Sunday and I suppose you could say we do too.
The caravan that's been here for 19 days was away today so C needed to cut the grass where they had been. A motorhome that arrived yesterday was having problems with their fridge so asked if they could borrow some ice packs - no problem. The campsite toilets and shower needed cleaning as usual and the bins checked. Two caravans arrived and needed welcoming and showing where everything is, and of course the eggs needed collecting,sorting and putting in boxes for tomorrow.
But before many people were up we had already popped along to the car boot sale and a few more treasures have been found.

The basket is something I've been vaguely looking for to replace the cardboard box that we have kindling in in the living room.Its the right size and was £4. I thought the picture was a print until I picked it up and looked closely and on the back was a label with an original price of £39 and some details,including the title 'Down by The Ouse' by someone called W. Henry. So I guessed it was an original watercolour. The geese and silver birch trunks in the background are quite well done. No information about the artist online so I think he/she is/was what they call a 'talented amateur'. That was also £4 but it needs reframing. The book is called 'Kindertransport', the biographical account of a young Jewish girl who fled to England just before the war. I paid 50p. The Sudoku book is old but unused and was 20p and the red pot holder 10p. I normally do a Sudoku or 2 when I'm having coffee mid morning - keeps my brain going I think!

Back Tomorrow
Sue