December 2015
At the beginning of the month our old and poorly car finally took it's final breath and had to be replaced, although to be fair M wasn't too unhappy with his new (2nd hand) car. However, one planned and most eagerly awaited arrival in the house was an electric blanket. I had resisted this unnecessary purchase for years, probably all our married life, but finally succumbed as it now appeared to be an essential item in this house. Oh my it was wonderful, gone were the days of racing to bed, getting changed quickly into layers of pyjamas and bed socks and that gasp when the cold bedclothes just took your breath away. No more cold sheets for us, a toasty bed and 6 different temperature settings!!
We were hoping that December would be a quiet month as the cold weather started in earnest and outside work slowed significantly. Lighting the fire and snuggling up inside made this an extra special time of year. Although we are not keen to encourage cold callers we did have an enquiry regarding biomass boilers which sparked an interest in how we could not only heat the house effectively but also efficiently and using green energy. Lots of research followed with the ultimate decision to be made in the new year.
I decided to tackle a few long overdue craft projects in a bit of a blitz of Christmassy joy and eventually completed my Christmas stocking advent calendar on the 19th. I seemed to have accumulated lots of mini cross stitch kits and was determined to do a couple of the Christmas ones but unfortunately I ran out of time to turn them into tree decorations this year, maybe for next year.
Then I found a felted bird kit which I think was a present and I must have had it for years so I made one of them for the tree. I had a go at making one of Sarah's
Repeat Crafter Me Christmas trees but couldn't find any little lights to decorate it, however, I still thought he looked cute.
Although very much a novice crocheter I have always loved having something to work on in the evenings during the winter months. M probably thought we had enough blankets by now but I couldn't resist having a go at a C2C in the beautiful colours picked by Heather at
The Patchwork Heart.
We always try to buy a new decoration at Christmas time and this year Doh arrived and was installed as a permanent fixture in the living room.
M is definitely the more creative one in the household and he set off to the woods in search of foliage to put together a table decoration. I have to say it looked beautiful and matched mum's Christmas table runner perfectly. It was a wonderful first Christmas in our new home.
M's birthday lies between Christmas and New Year and off to the beach we went to start another tradition of an early morning birthday walk. It was cold but the sun was shinning brightly and the dogs had a great run around. The house was filled with relatives for a few days of food, fun and lots of walking; all in all a terrific end to 2015.
January 2016
The post Christmas and New Year period often used to feel like a bit of anticlimax and it can sometimes feel a little blue but not for us this year as we had so many exciting things to look forward to. Once the decorations were packed away and the house was cleaned up we started to plan for the year ahead: fruit and veg, chickens, pigs, biomass, doors, windows etc etc....
The snow arrived and changed the whole look of the woods.
I loved the look of the snow on the bare branches, some of the trees looked so beautiful.
There were definitely no thoughts of any outdoor work being done although we did have a play and for the first time in many years I built a snowman. This is M's effort as his was much better than mine. We built a little family of them and I was amazed that they stayed for days before melting away.
Next to M's barn was an old byre and although the roof was collapsing along the centre, both ends were secure and pretty much watertight.
It provided some very handy storage for all the wood and logs and stuff left behind by the previous owners. We started tidying up and moving things around to see what we had, what would be useful and what definitely needed to go. We also made some enquiries about getting the roof fixed but out of the numerous companies we contacted only a few appeared and to be honest they were all pretty disinterested. This was a project for another time.
One of our first priorities was to tackle the cold and draughty house and initially this meant looking to replace the wooden back door (no picture) and the wood/glass side door (which was a nightmare to open and close). We also wanted to change the aluminium framed windows in the main part of the house as they just seemed to suck the heat out of the rooms. While we were finalising the doors and windows contract we happened to see a local kitchen company and on the off chance asked if they could sketch out a plan for our kitchen; little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for.
At the end of 2015 we had become interested in a new biomass heating system and so we began in earnest to put out feelers to investigate the possibilities, learn more and ultimately obtain a few quotes. With the byre, windows/doors, kitchen and biomass appointments this was one very busy month.
By the end of the month our excitement and enthusiasm for getting started properly on our smallholding couldn't wait any longer and despite the poor weather we decided to buy a chicken coup. Although we're both pretty diy savvy we thought the plastic design would be useful from a hygiene point of view as it is easy to clean and it should hopefully prevent any red spider mite problems. It arrived quickly and thankfully we were able to assemble it inside as it was still so cold and snowing again outdoors.
Now all we needed were some chickens.
