Almost, but not quite!

Moving in day, of course it is. It's raining so goes without saying! Dropped eldest boy at services this morning he has gone with a group of cornish boys for a footy course at Taunton. One of his sports teachers put him forward, it's a young leaders course for boys passionate about footy. So as long as he does his best hopefully he will be satisfied. So treated myself to a starbucks coffee and hit the supermarket very early. Quite a good time to go, no shoppers just loads of shelf stackers in the way and then no bloody tills open! Just another frustrated blogger I guess.

I got back home just after 10 and yes readers builders are still building, no shower door now as wrong size ordered, no kitchen fitter, painter still painting, last doors being hung but still I cannot get in my home and make it well, homely!
Still yet to sort out curtains but not too worried as no near neighbours, just the guys rendering outside the bedroom window and then I guess the painter will be painting the rendering - one day all this will be mine again. I just want slippers, comfort no dirt no horrible workers boots around. Did I mention previously that the downstairs shower/wc and boot room will be boarded up from house so builders can get those rooms up and running so in actual fact house not really finished at all - or am I just being picky? Can't believe that I still have this bunged up nasal/head thing this is my fourth week, it's so much better but I nead both hands for a really good blow and that does relieve the pressure for a little while, can't smell anything or taste for that matter but don't worry about me i will solider on.
Just another note, not sure if it's because we are so busy here but I haven't had time to panic, or have anxiety at all not sure if it's the head? Normally I wouldn't be so bunged up, what could be happening to me? Am I becoming fulfilled and leaving the remnants of my past behind? Am I looking to deep for something that was my get out clause? Who knows, Frankie quit the gibberish!
Might just nip to TK Maxx and buy the lovely bedside lights I fancy?
Too rainy to move just now and house too full of men, well that's my justification anyway.

Who said it was a good Friday?

I am not a whinger, but I shall have a go. Fitted furniture? Well it seems the company who supplied us are bull****ers, several small vans have delivered furniture every other day since last Friday. Today the last van load of stuff has arrived, so you would think we were on target for Sunday move in, NO No No it aint happening until Wednesday now. This has been my ultimate decision to make, I have disappointed the kids and myself, his nibs wouldn't really notice we had moved at all, as long as he is fed and beered! Because furniture came in dribs and drabs the fitter could only fit what he had which in turn meant he was working in 3 bedrooms at once, which then meant, carpet fitter couldn't fit, so he has delayed rest of fitting until Tuesday. So, feeling better already - it is good to talk! So it makes more sense to put things away into units and do everything else but leave the beds till last.
It's Easter hols, kids have gone to the beach to play footy with his nibs, I am ploughing through washing and looking forward to being clean and tidy in new home.
On a different note, shepherd has taken ewe and lamb away to help them bond, baby duck is doing well and I am enjoying the lovely weather, time wise it will be two years since my beloved step dad died on Easter Saturday, I always feel his presence and the kids love to remember him too, I am so glad the youngest child can still remember him.
Have a lovely Easter everyone, not toooo much chocolate and spare a thought for the real reason we are celebrating, (gosh nearly went all religious on you, sometimes the catholic upbringing rears it's head from time to time)!

Are we there yet?

Well readers, the answer is nearly, I know, I know a long and drawn out process. Deadlines passed with a laugh and a scream - both from me. But we have turned the corner, the decorator has almost completed upstairs, kitchen men PROMISE to come back on Monday, the carpet is due to be put down Wednesday and Thursday and the fitted furniture is being fitted as we speak! Yes that's right, on a Saturday, he started yesterday morning and is working 12 hour days until finished on Easter Sunday which we think will be our first night in the house, very exciting. Apart from me starting with a head cold last week, missed a girls night in as would not have been good company to now have throbbing head, watery eye and sore sinuses, so guess who still has to cook, shop, wash, clean chickens, pick poo, plant out and on top of all that (did make the hairdressers for cut and colour which was final countdown for house move), my 3 sheep started to have their lambs, lamb number one easy, born two days ago with ears like dumbo and enormously long legs, oh and a massive scrotum hanging between legs, think that may be a ram says I. Number 2 sheep goes into labour, waters break and not much happening, 1 hour later head and one leg appears, hubby and friend tried to push back in to get the other leg, wouldn't budge, we ring our friend the shepherd who swings into action like the cavalry, however, lamb is dead, me sad I didn't cry just walked away left others to it. Builders had all be routing for the lamb, they seemed more upset than me! Then out of this tragedy comes hope, shepherd has an orphan lamb 3 days old at home, so (sparing details) he makes orphan lamb more attractive to the ewe, smells etc, and within 2 hours orphaned lamb is sucking from it's adoptive mother. They are secure in a stable at the moment but hopefully soon they will reunite with their friends in the field and gambol around together. Number 3 ewe due soon may well be expecting twins. Help.....

Just when you think they have moved out!

His Nibs made a special journey yesterday, he went and collected first born from Uni. The course was not right for her she wants to be more hands on, so having done her research she can go to night school in September and achieve a much more satisfying role for her, we are all so different how we learn. So footy boy has moved out of his room and into the caravan with rugby boy! He didn't complain so I am wondering if he thinks he has done a favour there is a good chance he may get a better prezzie in his birthday ummmm. But thinks are moving on plastering takes forever to dry and can only paint when plaster is dry! Only 10 weeks until our first holiday guests arrive, crikey and we are still living in the cottage double crikey.

We have just hatched 3 chicks and two more are cracking through their shells as we speak I love the hatching it never ceases to amaze me! Hopefully they are not all males.

Births, Babies,Children, Adults.

There are sometimes in life when I just need to rant and today is one of those days, if I can just be allowed to get something off my chest and then I will continue with a normal post.
Thank-you, I shall begin.
My third child is a lovely, lovely boy. He will 15 on Sunday 1st March and no he is not called David, that just wouldn't be my/our style. He looks about 12, under fed and a boy you just want to hug. He is extremely popular, with adults, all ages of children and particularly the girls. He copes brilliantly with his lack of height by being very charming and I know he is my son but it works. He is also a fantastic footballer, he is a striker and for the past 4 years (apart from the spell when he had an ingrowing toenail removed) he has consistently scored between 40 and 50 girls per season. What he lacks in stature he certainly makes up on speed and agility. So, at the end of last season his manager was moving on in the world of football to help bring on the college students through Cornwall. My boy was approached by another team to go and play for them but he turned them down as he wanted to stay with a bigger club, he felt loyal he said. So he was picked up by a manager of another existing team within his club and age group. He never misses a training session and constantly at home practises his tricks and skills. Managers son is also a striker, according to others not a very good one, so my boy scores consistently in training, my boy plays in first few games and settles in to scoring hat tricks and more, my boy has become an obvious threat to managers son, just by having skill and natural ability. Some of us, believe me I am slways the first to blame my kids rather than their friends, are able to rise above this and recognise talent but not this guy my son has for the last 6 games been allowed onto the pitch for 8 minutes, if he is lucky I sobbed for my son on the way home yesterday, not sad just frustration. So my son has approached old manager to see if he knows of any clubs needing a striker, the funny thing is that he got the old managers contacts from his son who is in the same year at school and played together last year, showing that even another footballer recognises my sons talent. He even said he would happily play for a lesser side and help get them up the league table! As a quote often used in this family " what could be better than playing for Manchester United?" " Why playing for Manchester City of course!" - from the film Jimmy Grimble , well worth watching!

Quite a long post for me but for anyone who reads this I am sure you will have come across this behaviour at some point in your life.

It should have been Friday 13th!

All was going well, we have had a visit from the local constanbulary who have suggested where we should place our eggs for sale so they are secure. They were really nice guys who I think wanted a little trip out.


The house is coming along great, windows are in and being stained as I write the tiling is almost finished the biggest remaining job is still plastering, it really is like the forth bridge. His nibs and his opo decided a bit of landscaping was needed so off they go with the digger leaving loads of mess and rubble, carrying on with my business off to the laundry room to check my emails (only place I can get an internet connection) next minute feet from under me thud! Bloodied knee bruised bum and shoulder and all they could do was laugh - so after I had a). stopped crying, b) stopped swearing I composed myself and carried on with my business. Needless to say the pair kept a very low profile for a while. So one of the joiners decided he would stand on a piece of wood which was lying against wall at an angle - next minute it leapt off the wall and hit on the eyebrow, so if that wasn't enough painter moved his stepladder got back on it but didn't check where the feet of the ladder were - one foot had fallen into the gap between the planks on scaffolding, sooooo 3 cracked ribs later, not sure when he will be back. They (whoever they are) says it comes in three's!

Eggciting!

Well a catchy title for my post that I bet has never been thought of before ha,ha. The egg bit is all down to the fact that last week between the daylight hours of 11.30am and 1.30pm someone stole our egg box. This was actually a large'really useful box' - sold in staples and the like,it contained about 4 dozen newly laid eggs a money tin (meant to be an honesty box) and the cardboard egg boxes. This is not an opportunist thief, this is someone who has done the rounds and sussed out what is available for the taking. The box sits in a pull along green garden trolley just to make it easy to pull along and lock away at night. The annoying thing is that there were at least 7 builders on site, there is a constant stream of delivery vehicles at all times of the day. It couldn't be anyone in an ordinary car because the box would be too big, it must be an estate car or van etc. Anyway really, really angry so told local police they didn't laugh but took the whole thing seriously, the stupid thing is the box cost more than the contents! So we are moving the eggs further down the drive at least we can see what happening and who is around.

So and on to the snow, that is the citing bit of the title. Yes at last we have had snow in Cornwall so much so that the High School is closed, we had a text this morning to say so, I looked out of the caravan curtains and could understand why, a lovely winter wonderland. Great to see the kids faces and suddenly age doesn't matter the youngest daughter playing in the snow with her two brothers as if they were all under 10 - a lovely sight, great until the tears came, which happened when they sent snowballs her way I could see it from her point of view, she had straightened her hair for college this morning - did I tell you she will be 18 in June?
When we told her college was shut she cried - she is dyslexic, mildly but boy is she a creature of habit. She has to know the order of events every day of her life from getting up in the moring until bed time and if that routine changes for any reason god help the bearer of the news of the change ie his nibs said this morning, could you go and tell the Rottwieller that college is closed, so guess who got it in the neck, yup. The lovely Cornish man which works with us to bring our dream together turned up for work, in the truck, he only lives in the village but it was a dangerous journey, some would say foolish for trying but he couldn't stay at home I have never known a person so committed to work, then the chief builder arrived from the same village bringing in the chippy also the from the same village. So our man is working in the house to help with the plasterboarding! All hands on deck, last night the fitted furniture surveyor arrived 4 hours late and even with temporary lights couldn't survey all the house in the remaining light, so he drove off in a blizzard to find a bed for the night nearby. He said he would be back this morning which he was quite late, but lorries had skidded along the main road, cars were all over the place, so he took his time in his van and got here in one piece. As I sit in the laundry room looking out, the sun is shining and the snow is starting to melt, there is some more forecast but we shall have to wait and see, the danger is if it hasn't all melted it truly will be 'dancing on ice'.
The good news is that according to local radio February will be the month that people start looking at booking their summer holidays, so although we are beginning to get some cottage bookings, we could do with a few more, so fingers crossed, the caravan site is now in the new caravan club directory and we have had a lot of enquiries so much so that I turned someone away for an August booking! Hopefully with hubby getting us linked to different web site addresses folks will find out about us. In a way I don't want to be too busy the first year, last year it was just the 5 caravans, I thought people would be self sufficient, but it seems quite a lot of folk like to chat and of course check if they are allowed to walk around and see the animals which is fair enough, just as long as they are not stealing the eggs. Of which I will go and clean out their laying boxes. I might try to add some photos, you would think I would have got the hang of it by now!

Is it possible to be nice to the builder?

and mean it?

Well honestly fantastic builder I take my hat off to him - well according to my family I should never wear a hat! But, when we started on this project and spent a long time getting planning through and sourcing the builder, we have gone from him wanting to build the kitchen the bedroom furniture - sourcing mood lighting etc etc etc. So now we have had someone doing the roof, someone else doing the blockwork, it is so easy at the start of these projects to feel impressed by the confidence the builder shows and think it will be okay. What you cannot do is legislate for builders going sick, wind and rain being so poor that work has to be halted outside, but at least that gets the inside moved on again, hindsight is a great thing. I don't think we would have used another builder because he is brilliant but if ever there is a question to be answered he will ask me and then ask his nibs. No I am not phased by that attitude at all am I?
Who the bloody hell does he think he is, basically he should know by now that I have a budget for the interior and what I say goes. His nibs doesn't bother at all, up until 3 years ago he wouldn't even know where or when we were going on holiday, he would never of noticed if I had decorated a room. He didn't even know that I had moved no2 daughter to another school in year 3! So now he is getting quite wound up about the builder going behind my back it doesn't nothing to help relations at all.
So thanks, much better for ranting it really does help. So 67 sleeps left - hoping to move back in over the last week end of March, the stairs have gone in and look great I have offered to wax all the spindles which will start tomorrow - I bet I get that wrong.

Yesterday was lovely for the weather is was nearly warm well sort off. At present sourcing low energy lamps and fitting, hardly anything decent about, but we'll get there you have to have 25% of fittings low energy to pass building regs, but I am happy with that we are hoping to go along the green tourism route so is anyone has had experience themselves we would welcome any imput.
First born rang today very upset - feeling pressured by some uni girls to take the smallest bedroom right by the front door for her second year house share at uni. Mum wont do needs dad so he told her to pull out and stay in halls, it seems there are a few others who will be doing the same, it is horrible when she isn't here but needs a loving arm. Anyway she is happy now hopefully the row with the particular girl will blow over.
What will tomorrow bring?

Windy, but it wasn't the beans!

Well folks having spent the first part of the morning, battening down the hatches, we keep an eye on the weather forecast but it seems the wind is about to blow quite severly. I am sure anyone living on the west side of the country will also be feeling a little worried. We have secured as much as we can and have airbeds in reserve if we need to decamp to the barn from the caravan again. Having looked at the met office weather forecast it appears the worst is through the evening and over by midnight. Maybe a few glugs of red will let me sleep through the night.
The second part of the morning was spent getting a late breakfast at Smokey Joe's transport cafe, all went well until having ordered and had a long wait when the food finally came I felt light headed, had a couple of mouthfuls and decided to wait in the car, I felt a bit mean but his nibs and the boys ate quickly because they were worried about me.
I feel fine now, I just think things are beginning to tell on me a bit. As previously posted his nibs is a wurling dervish and his mouth is the worst culprit, he offloads from the minute he wakes up until he goes to sleep at night and even then he has been known to talk in his sleep. Sometimes I wrote things down so as not to forget, in the past there was quite a bit of swearing he must have felt so stressed nowadays it's more of him organising himself. So consequently I will blame his nibs for 'going on too much'. I also feel the need for a leisurely bath and a lie-in, which just isn't possible in the caravan it is so noisy in there without insulation. Still 70 odd sleeps left in the van it's downhill all the way now yippee. The stairs are still waiting to be installed lying on the kitchen floor I keep tilting my head to work out how they will look when put in place.
I hope everyone stays safe in the wind, have a good weekend whatever you have planned.

Brassed off!

I'm sure everyone is suffering with the brass weather at present, myself included!
Just had a small row with his nibs, he thinks I am making something out of nothing but I thought that he could have been a little bit more supportive. We have not had water since yesterday morning, so half way through washing my hair in the shower yesterday the water went, it returned slightly so 17 year old managed a quick shower last night. Today water frozen again, it's fine for the boys they don't care, but I look like ???? I am running out of knickers, can't do the washing, dishwasher will have to be unloaded and washed by hand. Sorry should I go on? At some point I will need to go out for supplies water, food, and the car showing -7c and to top it all I need air in one of my tyres! All I wanted was his nibs to say darling let me book you and the kids into a hotel for a couple of nights, Ha Ha, trouble is I look like a homeless person at present, so cold and wearing anything that is warm and clean, his nibs says if I kept busy I wouldn't feel the cold, don't you just love him?
The good news is it's meant to be getting warmer tomorrow, hopefully that might let the blockworkers back to keep putting the walls up, it has been so cold that even with stuff in the mix the cement was freezing before they could put it on the blocks.
Sorry to be ranting, it's just everytime I have a mole hill to climb it suddenly turns into mountain.
The good news is - yes there is some of that, the chickens are freezing their vents off, but coming back in to lay! Mathilda is definatly looking pregnant, exciting stuff looking forward to the spring - i seem to spend my life looking forward, I suppose it's because I can see my house coming along and all I want is to wake up in a morning, put my slippers on, pad downstairs and make a coffee, take it back upstairs and have a lovely hot shower, get dried with warm fluffy towels, do hair and make-up whilst being a TOG and then get dressed into smart clothes that match and that are clean and ironed I might even wear some jewels, they have been stored for 3 years now!
Oh well, onwards and upwards....