3 Course dinner Cooked By The Children

My wife was a way the weekend just gone, but me and the children still had a lovely time. We went to a friends for a fish and chip supper on Friday night, had a lovely sunny day outside on Saturday and Sunday we went swimming with friends and had a picnic in the park afterwards.  

On the Saturday the children were messing about making some fun fake food, when I suggested that if they liked they could plan a meal for when their mum got home, I said I wanted three courses! They jumped at the chance and grabbed some pens and paper to make a menu. 

They settled on Italian, I told them that before we go swimming we could pop to the shops and get anything extra they needed. The starter was fairly straight forward (above) and had everything they love! 

Trio Of Carved Toolboxes

 I've written a lot of magazine articles now, well over a hundred, and very occasionally I might hear back from someone who has read one. 

One of my first articles in Woodcarving magazine was about making a carved tool box for my daughters 9th birthday, this was a few years back now, so it was lovely to hear from Gordon in Ireland who had read my article and decided to make one.

He has now made three of them! I think the his use of colour on them is amazing! Talk about making  a project your own. 

April Homestead Tour

 I love this time of year. It's been a challenging spring so far (I know we're not even very far into it yet either!), but the sun was shining so I decided it was the perfect opportunity to go for a walk around the smallholding and have a look at what we've got going on. 

In this walk around you can see our downed oak tree as well as the garden ramping up production, everything is looking very green and lush, but we're still having lots of cold nights, so don't be fooled and get too much going too early! 

Let me know what you think (I'd love for you to leave a comment on YouTube as well if you would - helps loads! Even just a thumbs up is a big thing on that platform). 

Thanks for watching!

Stored Apples In April

Although we still have some good, tasty apples left in the store we have started buying some the last few weeks. 

The stored ones just don't travel well now and as four of the five of us go off every day and need to take lunch the apples look very bruised an unappetising by the time it's lunch! 

so although I'm eating ours from the (apple) store, the other's aren't. It's shame, I could do with growing some that travel a bit better at this age. The middlest still takes dried appple with her every day though. 

I think it might be worth stewing up some of these and dehydrating the better ones before they loose too much condition. I had a go through the other day and I think the mild weather has made a few of them start to turn. 

If you store apples how are yours looking this year?

 

Greenhouse Upgrade - Building The Base

 I've mentioned this before on the blog, but the little 8x6 greenhouse needed a bit of an upgrade this year. 

The base I put in some 12 years ago, it was just some 8x2 treated softwood I had left over from a job. It made a good temporary base and I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. 

The little greenhouse started it all off in the garden when we first moved here, it wasn't long until I got the bigger greenhouse, but it's always been useful. It's just the last few years it's fallen on a bit of disrepair and missed out on the love, becoming a bit of a dumping ground. As the base rotted out I just used it less and less. 

Oak Tree Downed By The Wet

I was a bit broken hearted the other day. My daughter noticed the tree on our drive to school, it had gone over. 

This oak was always a little stunted, trying to grow out from the huge veteran alongside it. Always leaning over. 

Watering Can Plunge Tank (mini one)

 Much as I quite like a few moments by the rain barrel to let my watering can fill up, I've decided that I'm wasting too much time doing it. 

So I dragged a water trough from the bottom field up tot the barrels at the back of the shed. It was just the right height (with the addition of a few slabs) to go under the tap. 

Polytunnel Clean Up

The polytunnel has been a constant source of shame for me over the winter. Full of dead plants and a thick green slime on the plastic. 

I was desperate to get it back into tip top form this year, it's such an amazing space for growing I really need to be making the most of it. 

So I've been trying to tackle it in spare moments when I could. Not that many spare moments make themselves known however... 

The Self-Sufficiency Garden - Book Review

My wife got me this book for my birthday and as she handed it to me she said "I feel this is the book you probably should have written." 

She also said that she knows I'm not the target audience, and as I write this review please bare in mind that I'm not the target audience. I've also met Huw once, a few years back, he's a lovely guy and I love his YouTube channel and what he's been doing. 

What I want to do is say that I think this book is great, but that also it's flawed in a few ways. I really think this book was on the very cusp of greatness, it could have been one that is alongside some of my favourites and then it didn't quite nail it. Which is a real shame as I think it does a few things so differently. 

The main thing it does is put it's money where its mouth is. Rather than reading about a theoretical garden and what could be done in it, Huw created a garden 10m X 12.5m, laid it out with raised beds, a small polytunnel and covered beds. He used hot beds to extend his season (something I'm really going to have to try again) and got multiple crops from each bed. He shows how the beds are built and has plans of things you can build. 

As well as this he creates his own compost, and makes sure each scrap of space is used. In the book he takes you through a year in this garden, show when he sowed the seeds, when he harvests it and the overall yields he gets from it. 

This section is incredible, it really quantifies what a space like this can produce, and it's brilliant to see the cropping and successional sowing he uses to maximise the beds. There's great information there, but I wish he'd included the variety of the veg he was growing - especially the tree cabbage he mentions quite a few times. It's laid out really well and broken down month to month. 

Then I have to talk about the bits I thought were a little lacking. The "In The Kitchen" section is where the book doesn't feel right. the book is written with another guy called Sam Cooper and I feel they haven't let him have enough space. Like there's a section on curry where he talks about it over three pages with a few quick recipes, or a few pages on pastry or No-knead focaccia which has two pages. It just seems a little bit chucked together and random and not really in line with the rest of the book. 

With the book only being 200 hundred pages it just feels like a waste of the page count to dip into these things, especially when it's obvious the other author (Sam Cooper) knows their subject, but not give them enough space to show this properly. If they had limited it to just one subject, like preserving, it would have been far better in my opinion. 

Maybe it's a reflection of what people want from books these days, a magazine style book. Snippets that can be read easily. I wish this was two books really, both of them having more space to share the knowledge, The Self Sufficiency Garden could have become a bit of a bible for growing food like this if it had.  

I still think it's an amazing book and I love what Huw has done with that garden. He writes brilliantly and clearly, the book is beautiful throughout, with thick high quality pages and great pictures and plans. It's truly worth buying for the middle section of the garden month by month alone. It will on the shelf rather than being passed on and has given me a few ideas of things I'd like to try.

Sowing Seeds And Potting On

With a break in the weather at the weekend I managed to catch up on a bit of gardening. First job was to pot on a good quantity of chillies and tomatoes. 

Some of these haven't grown at a rate I'd expect. And I think the compost is to blame, bought in, but it's so unpredictable. I'm going to start adding a bit of seaweed feed to the watering can, not something I'd normally do this early on, but I feel they all need a bit of a boost. I don't normally buy liquid feed to be honest but the comfrey won't take kindly to being chopped already. 

Wood Fired Pizza

 Saturday there was that yellow orb in the sky that we haven't seen for months. I decided to seize the opportunity, I got up early and set to making bread, then did my chores and lit the earth oven. 

I then tended it as I went about getting some gardening jobs (potting on far too many tomatoes and peppers), and invited some friends for lunch. Not much notice but it felt like we needed to grab this opportunity to worship the sun for a few hours. 

Make A Wooden Wheelbarrow

I managed to get a project I've been thinking about for many years done the other day - I made a wooden wheelbarrow!

Now this isn't a typical wheelbarrow, it's more of a flat one. I wanted one I could move seedlings about with, or other jobs around the smallholding. 

Insulin Pump

So we're over a year into our diabetes journey and our eldest has made the very big decision to switch from MDI (Multiple Daily Injections) for a pump on a closed loop system.  

So yesterday we went into hospital to go through loading a pod with insulin and fitting it, connecting it all up and working out the levels everything needs to be (this is after a visit to hospital last week to change the sensors over to a different type - dexicom). 

So as I type this, the pump is upstairs on my daughters leg slowly clicking insulin in at different interval. We're watching her CGM as her blood glucose find their levels in this new system. 

Wish her luck! I'll keep you posted on how it goes. 

Carving Tuition

 So at the weekend I gave my first days carving tuition. It was to a couple that had seen my videos on YouTube and enquired if I'd do some carving instruction. 

I was hesitant at first, it's not something I've done before, except with my own children. But I got talked into it via email!

As the day ticked around I was really looking forward to it. Something a little bit different to my day to day in the workshop. 

New Chicken Keeping Rules - Mass noncompliance needed - Resist

We need to take a stand against Defra's new rules on registering all poultry in the UK. Not just flocks of 50 birds or more. 

This was as the result of a consolation they did last year where the view was massively weighted by those who took part to keep things as they are. Yet in their wisdom they decided to do what they want anyway. What a surprise. You can see the results here. 

But they need us all to comply with this if it is to work from them. We need to stand up together and oppose this. Mass non compliance. Don't register. 

Flocks will "have" to be registered by October, although they've not updated all their web pages yet you can find information here - Government link. 

Planting a Gooseberry Hedge

I'm always walking around my plot looking at where I could squeeze in some more plants and increase the productive areas. 

One area is the orchard. I have one half planted up quite traditionally, but I also have one area where the trees are much closer together. In there is about 16 plum trees, plus a n area where I tried an experiment with soft fruit. The experiment worked, but not enough to make me think it was any better than any other way. 

I decided to change it over. the fence near the top needed a hedge (to my mind) and I had been thinking hard about putting in more gooseberries. A gooseberry hedge could be an interesting addition. I went and purchased around 15 different varieties and put them all in 3.5ft apart. 

This should give us plenty of fruit and enough different types to see which ones do really well here. Gooseberry is always going to be one of my favourite fruits, so it's nice to increase the amount we can grow here (I also put in a lot of rooted cuttings from the 14 bushes I already have here). 

Be A Real Man

 This is a video that isn't mine, but I liked it and it made me smile. Hugh and Fiona are going through a tougher time due to Fiona breaking her leg quite badly. It talks about the discuss of roles in a relationship and how you need to be able to step into each others shoes should you need to. 

I think it embodies how I feel about some things. Sometimes when I give my talks I discuss the fact that I went from doing a the very "manly" (traditionally anyway - I know anyone can do it) job of being a carpenter, to becoming a stay at home dad. and how that made me feel and how I saw other people's attitudes to me change, especially with my wife being the bread winner. 

Changing my days from working on roofs and hanging doors to looking after the children and making sure I had tea on the table when my wife got home from work. I left what is quite often a toxic industry when it comes to male chauvinistic attitudes. The guy who trained me to be a carpenter still won't cook tea, even if he gets back before his wife from work and never does any of the housework. 

I like to think we share our workload well here and that my wife and I are a brilliant team (unless you judge us on how tidy our home is - lol). I don't like the unfair split that sometimes exists, although sometimes I'm sure we may feel a little that it is one sided here, especially when things are busy. I like that our children see us equally in any of the household tasks, and yes we have things we're better at, or recipes we won't do because our partner does it better, etc. 

The children are involved in this as well. If I have to go off in an evening (a regular occurrence at the moment) I won't ask my wife to complete the chores I need done, instead I'll normally ask the Middlest to organise it, she'll drag her brother and sister along and get what needs doing done. They all understand helping each other in our family unit makes it easier and makes it so we can do more. 

What really choked with the video above was the mention Hugh gives me at the end. I'm never quite sure how you're meant to feel as a parent, a lot of the time it feels like I'm winging it, and only sometimes does it feel like you're getting it right. So it was great to have a nice mention, hopefully it'll push me to be an even better husband and father in the future and keep on pushing. 

Hand Pollinating Our Peach Tree

A few years ago I put in a peach tree. The first year I thought it had died, but the next year it came back - it seems to still be living through the neglect I give it. 

This is the first year I've seen any blossom on it though. As my middle daughter and I were cleaning the plastic on the polytunnel we couldn't see any bees. 

It's still early in the year and the polytunnel might not look very inviting to something buzzing around. 

ShireHike

 On Saturday we had a great day completing the 12km "ShireHike" with the Scouts. 

It was a big event with some 700 scouts of different ages attending. There were different length routes, we did the 12km (plus the 1.5km to get to the start), there was a 5km for the beavers (we couldn't get enough leaders to run the beaver walk as well), a 24km for the scouts (our scouts are all quite young so they stuck to the 12km cub walk) and a 37km walk for the explorers! The explorers group set off really early. 

We walk on the hills plenty and it was all routes we knew, but it was still a fun thing to do on a Saturday. The weather was kind. 

Unusual Greenhouse Clips

My greenhouse has been up about 10 years now, second hand when I got it, older than me and still going strong. 

I have been struggling with the clips though. When I glazed it I had to stretch the clips out a bit, using a few less than I should of. I've looked everywhere for some replacements but unsure what they were even called (I searched greenhouse band clips and got some similar) it was hard to search. 

"unusual" greenhouse clips

In the end I joined a Facebook group called "Greenhouse Spares Group" and A guy on there told me what my greenhouse was (BACO) and that he had some clips for sale. 

More Seeds In

This time of year is so full of promise, especially when my enthusiasm has been knocked back by the weeds yet!

I've been busy sown little and often. 

In the greenhouse I've put the little 1930s (I think) cloche mum got me for Christmas with some radishes under (and some alongside as well).

Mothers Day Gift Ideas

 A very quick video today, where I'm a bit like a market stall holder on the hard sell! 

I've got some perfect products for mothers day. Every product is made by me, here in Herefordshire. 

Making a Bee Hive Stand - National Hive.

The bee keeping course I've signed myself up for starts in just a few weeks and I'm really looking forward to it. In the meantime my friend, who did the course last year, has bought herself a second hand hive and is getting ready for this years bee keeping.  

The set she bought was lacking one thing though - a stand. 

Wooden Potting Tray In Its Natural Habitat

I got sent these pictures by a happy customer the other day and they were just so lovely I had to share them. 

I love this potting area! It just looks like such a great space to work and a lovely space to spend a bit of time looking at the view! 

Mission Creep - Greenhouse Edition...

 I kept standing in that 8ft by 6ft greenhouse and thinking it wasn't really big enough for me. My head touches the top (I know I can raise it up), and I love my bigger greenhouse, the air flow is better and it is the real hub of my veg garden. 

I decided then to have a look at buying a new greenhouse, there's a good range of them out there, but for the size I wanted (12ft by 8ft) they start at about £1,000 for a budget model (with some pretty terrible reviews) and upwards from there. One I'd be happy with was about £2,700, which is so far out of my budget! 

My last one was second hand, so I decided I should look on eBay and other sites. 

Mini Pancakes On Tin Cans

I sometimes help with Scouts as well as Beavers (and Cubs), last week I did a double stint. Helped with Beavers first - we were doing languages and world learning, but all run by the other leaders so I didn't do huge amounts. Then I stayed on to help with the Scouts. 

The Lesson sounded fun anyway - cooking mini pancakes on top of bean cans. 

Sow It Begins

With the bit of sunshine touching the bare earth here in Herefordshire I decided I should begin to put a few seeds in the dirt. 

Now it takes a lot of control not to go crazy here, but a few things do well really early, and I like to make a couple of gambles with some seeds. 

The peppers, chilli and aubergines it's perfect to get them in now (I've been trying to hold off). The mini cucumber is an experiment to see  if I can grow a couple of really early plants on the windowsill in our bedroom. The children love the mini snack cucumbers I sometimes get from the shops so they've convinced me to double down on those (I think I've bought 4 different varieties). 

Greenhouse Clean up & Plans

We've had such a wet few months I've not done hug amounts outside. But with flashes of sunshine it makes me want to be out in it - I even dried a load of washing on the line today! 

I need to get myself organised if I want a good growing year. The big greenhouse has been a dumping ground. Time to get it cleaned up as this is very much the heart of my annual growing here at the smallholding. Old plants out, all the rubbish gone. 

Short Rotation Willow Coppice - Managing 1 & 2 Year Regrowth

 Back in January I cut the next section of willow coppice. When I did this I also decided to tackle the job of managing the regrowth on the other sections I had previously cut. 

The maintenance for the willow doesn't take long, but it is essential it's done every year to keep it growing just how I want it. 

12th Year Pruning My Orchard

I pruned the rest of my orchard a few weeks back. Hard to believe it's been in 12 years now. That decade and a bit has gone so fast.

It's never been the ideal place to have an orchard, it's overshadowed by some bigger trees and in a bit of a pocket at the bottom of the garden, but it's fruited well. It's interesting seeing the difference of growth with some that get a little more light though. 

 I always enjoy pruning it, and it doesn't really take very long to do. I have one damaged tree I'm trying to bring back up to health with some heavy pruning, but the rest is fairly straight forward.

I filmed the process and have the video above, I know some find it helpful to see how others prune and to see that it's not rocket science, it's just a matter of getting in there and having a go. 

Let me know what you think. 

Juxtaposition - Carved Workbench

 I walked back into my workshop of Tuesday after lunch, it was wet and miserable outside, but the one shutter was open to throw some natural light into the room. 

I liked the juxtaposition of the chainsaw next to my workbench as the low light fell over it. 

I think it makes quite a striking photo. Although it does remind me I need to make some handles for that workbench at some point! 

Winter Scout Camp

 Scout Camp At Cranham 2024

For me this picture above sums up what children need more of. A camp fire, some hearty food, a bit of company and a few sticks to poke in the embers. 

This weekend just gone was hard work. I went as an extra leader for the scouts as normally I'm in Beavers. But it shows how long I've been a leader now as many of these scouts were my beavers some seven years ago! 

Knots Into Practice

The other day I went and did a job on a block of apartments in Malvern where I end up doing quite a few maintenance jobs.

This time they were having some chimneys repaired and had a scaffold up the 5 stories, plus extra to get to the top of the very high chimneys. 

On the roof were two very heavy cast iron vent pipes and one big vent pipe constructed with some cast and some asbestos. 

Willow Coppice For Firewood - 3rd Section Cut

A few weeks ago I managed to carve out enough time to tackle my little section of willow coppice. 

This is the third cut now and I'm really enjoying seeing what we get from it and the regrowth in its different stages. 

This is the wood from one average sized tree. Most only had one or two stems though as I've didn't do the cut it down at year one, it just hadn't put on enough growth by then. 

Pruning The Jostaberry

 I've been properly attacking my soft fruit this year. Last year I missed out on pruning the bushes and the quality and quantity of fruit really suffered. 

So I've got busy and really gone in heavy with my cutting on my dozen or so blackcurrants and dozen or so gooseberries. 

Seed Swap This Saturday

It's almost time for one of my favourite days of the year! The Seed Swap in Hereford! 

I've been going to this for nearly a decade now and I've been helping for quite a while as well (I think I started helping in 2018). Although I don't do much in the way of organising or planning, but I turn up full of enthusiasm, with a hundred packets of seeds or so and talk all day about growing! 

 So if you're in Hereford this weekend then please come down and say hello. If you don't have seeds to swap you can just leave a donation instead, you can honestly get all the seeds you need for the year if you time it right. 

I'm bringing a few blackcurrant and Jostaberry with me as well. 

Be great to see you there! 

Constant Orchard Maintenance

 Having fruit trees, for me, is something that I work  at every year. 

Each year I try to make sure I plant a few new trees, that way I always have some young trees coming on, some medium age trees coming into bearing and some older trees that are cropping. In buying a few trees each year it also keeps me really interested, I can hunt for new varieties or types of fruit. 

I planted three new plums on Saturday and filmed myself putting them in the ground. 

I don't do anything fancy when planting, just dig a hole and bung them in, I've planted thousands of trees in this way, treat them mean and keep them keen! 

Give the video a watch and let me know what you think, this is nothing fancy, no great editing, just 7 minutes of me planting fruit trees while I talk about it. 

12 Year Old Apple Tree Pruned

Although winter will never be my favourite time of year, there are bits of it I love. I like the time to get things in order, to plant trees and maintain the ones we already have here. 

One of my favourite jobs is to prune the apple trees. It feels such a privilege to have been able to plant all these trees here and prune them every year. 

 This short video above is me pruning a Scotch Bridgett apple tree I planted here 12 years ago. I love how this tree has grown and how I've managed to shape it over the years to be the right sort of shape for hand picking the fruit. 

Give it a watch and let me know what you think. 

Carving A Large Panel In Lime

 With a deadline due for a magazine article I was desperate to carve something interesting. I found inspiration at Worcester Cathedral after a visit with my family and some friends. 

So I dragged out a piece of lime from my store and set to carving it up. 

  As I tend to do these days, I made a video. 

First Garden Club Talk Of The Year

It makes me so happy when the garden club talks kick off again. 

Last week I went to Stoke Lacy, not too far away from where we live thankfully. It was a cold night but they had a good turn out for the size of their club (about 25 turned up). 

I gave it my all as always, glad to be back up in front giving a talk. I had loads of lovely feedback at the end and managed to sell a few triangle scoops and a bird feeder. 

Passing The Torch For Birthday Cakes!

 January sees two of our children having birthdays. Now normally I always display my cake making abilities on here and show you what I made for the children. Some have been great (My Olaf cake) some not so great (My Peppa Pig cake). 

This year is a little different. Our Middlest child decided she wanted to do them both her self with no help. She also wanted to make the cupcakes they were going to give out at the laser quest part they had as well. 

The youngest asked for a Lego brick, to match what he spends about 70% of his time doing! 

Fitting A Brinsea Chick-Safe Eco Automatic Door Closer

 Just before Christmas I got sent an automatic door opener from my friends at English Country Life. 

I've always wanted to try one so thought this was the perfect opportunity to try one out. 

Watch the video above to see how I got on. It was easy to fit, but I did have a few teething problems to getting it working correctly. Namely my new little chicken coop needs to settle in, it had rained lots and some of the boards had swollen up, making the pop hole door not run quite as smoothly as it could normally. For this opener to work properly the doors need to slide up silky smooth, so I removed it, sanded all the edges to make it glide easier then reattached it. Since then it's been working fine.

So a fun addition to my chicken coops, very tempted to get a few more and allow myself some long lie ins! 

Small Berry Basket

 I've had quite a few people suggest I should make a smaller basket in my range.

Well I've been thinking about it lots, drawn a few sketches and made a few prototypes, and this is the one I've come up! The Berry basket - Ideal for collecting precious berries from the garden or even collecting the eggs from the chickens. 

I'm really pleased with it, it has the "cute" appeal I was going for, but is also really practical. 

A Capable Young Lady

 Monday was the last day of the holidays before the children went back to school. 

I had planned to work in the workshop, we'd had a busy few weeks and the children deserved a "chillout" day to take it easy before the madness of schools, scouts and swimming starts again. 

But our Middlest got up early and started to make focaccia by hand, she then shouted up to me to ask if she could light the fire - she was worried the house wasn't warm enough to prove her bread. 

January Homestead tour

 It honestly feels like it hasn't stopped raining for months now. So with a few days of clear skies I thought I'd do a quick walk around the homestead and show what we've got going on. 

Of course, compared to summer things can seem a little quiet, but I feel like I have so many jobs to get through, as well as trying to do everything else. 

Alviti Bake Off

 The other day all the children had a friend round to play. 

the girls decided to partner up and do their own version of the popular TV show Bake Off. 

But the baking began before their friends even arrived. 

Forth Diabetic Check Up

So this week we went for our eldest's forth diabetic check up. Good to start the year with the first one done and good that she didn't have to miss any more school to go to it. 

We have to go to the local hospital so they can check all her levels and discuss any issues we have a few times a year. Normally I think it's a time when they get people to adjust levels and ratios of insulin, but we've been adjusting them anyway (we were told we had a good understanding and to do it), so for us it's normally justifying why we changed them when we did. 

I try to make it into something to look forward to rather than dread, so we went out for a little daddy daughter date first - Burger Shop in Hereford never disappoints. The first time I think I've got her an adult sized meal in a restaurant as well! Shows how quickly she's growing up. 

The checks went fine, but once a year they need to take bloods (to check for kidney damage and for potential gluten intolerance - We all fear that one I can tell you). Taking blood made her feel a bit faint though and we ended up staying for quite a while until she felt better. We were late being seen anyway, so with this as well I was glad I put plenty on the car for parking, we left home at a round 11.30 and didn't get back until 5.15! 

What was nice was that although the last couple of weeks have been terrible as far as levels are concerned - too many carbs are around in unpredictable amounts and chocolate seems to make blood glucose levels do crazy things. But they told us that if this was what we thought were bad levels then we were doing really well. I explained what I'd done about changing breakfast to get rid of the morning spike and how we'd increased the slow acting insulin to try to keep the average somewhere in the middle. The new consultant was fine about everything, telling us to look at a few other things, but as always to do changes to ratios slowly and to look at the graphs. 

There are more things I want to do to help. I often cook low carb dinners now, but I'd like to get going with sourdough again as I've read it supposed to be better for diabetics. Lots of little changes add up and as I've said before they do us all some good really.

And of course I'd like her to get on a pump and a closed loop system, but she still seems a little unwilling at the moment. 

One thing that is mad is the disability benefit/allowance she/we are now entitled to, this is to help cover things like all the hypo treatments, time off work to take her to things like appointments, extra bits that aren't covered by the NHS (silly things like stickers for CGM) etc, we still haven't seen a penny. Now for us it's fine, we're financially stable and always run with a little behind us, but for some families it must make it so tough. Let alone you have to reapply for it every three years -  for a permanent disability - and the paper work takes hours to complete, but then you have to wait well over half a year before you'll see a single penny, after waiting the first three months to be able to apply in the first place. Fine that they back date it to the date that you apply, but only fine if you can survive until that point. We're lucky we can, but the government doesn't make it easy for people. 

Anyway, another one ticked off. Soon it'll be a year gone and that seems crazy, I think we need to go out for it, not to celebrate it, but to show we won't be beat by it.

Books Read 2023

 I enjoyed writing this post last year, so I thought I'd do it again this time around. Makes me take stock of what I've been reading. 

And with nearly half of what I read the year before, I'm honestly a little disappointed in myself.