Cutest Fathers Day Note

My eldest daughter almost made me cry this morning with her lovely note she had written me.

It reads:

"You are the best daddy in the world.
You grow food for us to live.
You buy chickens for eggs and meat.
You helped me choose my glasses.
You help me learn lots of stuff.
If something is poisonous then you say.
You are a great Beaver Teacher.
You cook delicious food especially flapjack.
You are an amazing carpenter, you made the whole entire kitchen.
Lots and lots and lots of love..."

She is always so appreciative of everything and constantly tells us how lucky she is. We're so fortunate to have such lovely humble children.

Pikel?

Growing up the tool below was used a lot on the farm.

It was used for chucking the silage to the sheep, as well as wads of hay and straw. With it's long handle it meant that they could be chucked quite far and dad would soon put what he needed in each pen with a quick swing of his arms.

He called it a pikel and until the other day I've never questioned that name! But apparently that is a really regional word to Shropshire, the county both he and I grew up in. 

So my question to you all is what would you call this tool?

And is there regional names for tools that you use that no one else has heard of?

Ruby Wedding Anniversary

Last weekend my parents had their 40th wedding anniversary!

I'm sure you'll all agree that is an incredible milestone for them to reach. To celebrate they invited us away for the weekend to Wales, along with my brother, his wife and baby and my sister with her partner.

Dad Combining

Mum sent me this amazing picture of my dad combining from yesterday evening. 

I thought it was such a great picture I had to share it with you all. 

I can remember many times going to see dad on an evening like this and bringing him some sandwiches, jumping on without him stopping.  

Extension Progress - Footings Poured!

Tuesday night it was 10 o'clock and I was stood in about 8 inches of water, with a flood light and a laser level trying to get pegs ready for the concrete that was booked for 8 in the morning. I didn't go to sleep feeling very happy about how prepared I was.

I woke early the next morning and had breakfast, I was outside just after six and there was my dad in the trench, already working, bucketing out the water. He was coming to help but I had no idea he'd be there that early, I was lucky that he did, as between us we got set up just in time before the concrete came. 

Both lorries turned up at once, just to add the pressure! 

Both lorries turned up at once though, just to add a bit of pressure. We had two dumpers moving it and between us we kept up well. 9 cubic meters of concrete, the footings took about 7.5 and the rest went to be used for a step on the patio (more of that in another post) or a slab outside my workshop. 

Poured in with the dumper, this made the job easier.  

In and levelled off

 We placed boards where we were tipping to prevent the splashing and had a the vibrating poker to make levelling the concrete easier, although we still had to use rakes and shovels as well!

The other side showing the step as well. 

It was a hard and long morning but we got it done and I feel so much better now it's all concreted.

I couldn't have got this far without the help of my dad, he has been an absolute legend in helping me (and pushing me late at night to do more). I sometimes look at him when he's working alongside me and wonder how he can still work so hard now he's 60, he's a machine and someone I always aspire to be more like. Having his skills and knowledge alongside my own in a project like this is amazing. 

Now I've got to wait a couple of weeks for my bricklayer before we can start building up higher! 

Wood Chip & Hot Beds

"Do you want a this load of wood chip?"

A phone call on Sunday morning from my dad. My brother had a big job on last week and had produced a huge amount of chip that needed a home. I didn't realise quite the size of the load until he turned up with it. I should know that they never do anything by halves! 

A "small" load of wood chip

Some ruts left to be sorted out

Some serious heat in those chips at the moment - it did give me an idea...

Levelling a patch for a little experiment

Frames added

When dad dropped off the wood chip, and after I got over the ruts he left in the field, I was quite intrigued by the heat being given off from the stack. It got me thinking about Victorian hotbeds and growing veg out of season.

As a little experiment I've decided to level off a patch of chip about 3ft deep and add a couple of frames to it. I then put a few cans of water over it and some of last years comfrey tea to speed up the decomposition. I'll leave it a few days now and see if it holds it's heat. If it does I'll add some soil and compost to the frame and grow some salad in the one and potatoes in the other. I've got some old perspex I can to the top to keep the heat in at night and I can remove it in the mornings. 

This should make an interesting experiment. I've also got plenty of wood chip to make some paths and to use as a mulch around trees. I've watched the video on the "Back To Eden" system of gardening but I'd never have a supply of chips regularly enough to do that, although it might be interesting to try on a small scale in the garden somewhere.

A Different Monday

So it begins today.

 For a change I'm not making sure that I've got the right tools in my van or the right materials on site. 

 I'm not having to cut wood or fix timber, drill holes or join oak.

 I'm not working out angles or checking for level.

 I'm not sat in my van eating my lunch.

 I'm not climbing ladders or walking on roofs.

Instead I'm looking after these two little terrors all day! 

This should be fun. I hope you all stick around to see how we get on!

£3 Family Day Out

It was my wife's birthday last week so to surprise her I took the day off to take us all to the safari park.

 We went to the park, saw lots of animals, had a great time and the total spend of the day was £3 (not including fuel).

 How come? Well we had to buy some food for the animals and that's why we spent the £3 pounds (if I'd been thinking right I could have taken some corn instead!).

My wife had ordered tickets using our Tesco clubcard points a while back (from our credit cards that we never pay any interest on). This lets you use £10 worth of vouchers for two adult tickets (normally £17.99 each) that have an expiry of about 6 months.

We also took a picnic lunch that I made up before we left, this means that we didn't have to spend any money on expensive "captive market" food but I included plenty of goodies but nothing that wasn't on our usual shopping list.

As our children are still young we also didn't have to go on any of the rides (there is no way you'd get Ev on one she's such a wimp) so that saved money again but there was so much to see and do that we didn't feel like we were missing out by not going on the rides anyway.

It was a really good day out and lovely to see how magical a safari park is to a two year old, but also it's great to put in to practise going out for the day on a budget without feeling like your missing out. We were also given a free return visit whenever we want over the next six months so their could be another cheap day out at some point.

Anyone else have any good tips for cheap family days out?