Stevie's Summer Slamdown

 I really wasn't looking forward to today.

A few week's ago we had been invited to a garden party being hosted by friends* in the village, and  today was the day of the event.  The thing is I am not a party person, and I have had a sense of mounting dread as today drew ever closer.

This morning was spent giving The Rat a run over with the clippers.  She was surprisingly patient today, and only squealed once during the entire session. Perhaps the regular rewards of malted milk biscuits helped calm her nerves. It was also really funny that every time we took a break, she would start to dance around the room and engage in vigorous play. It was almost as if she was expecting a reward for standing still like a good girl.

By midday I had finished clipping her body and legs, although I didn't have time to clip her feet. I'll get to them at some point in the next few days.

TP arrived home and joined us for lunch. I then had a snooze before getting clean, changing, and then heading down the road to Stevie's Summer Slamdown.

To be fair it was a pleasant enough event, and nowhere near as dreadful as I expected. There were several of TP's friends in attendance, who I knew fairly well, and several acquaintances from the village. I managed to make adequate small talk, ate some very pleasant food, and may have even found a buyer for our log splitter ... once I have finished using it!

In retrospect, the party was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. I did quite enjoy myself, but I still think an afternoon stacking logs has its merits.

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* The parents of one of TP's close friends

Chickens, Dogs 'n Logs

These three words neatly summarise my day.

This morning 30% headed off to the local gym with her exercise buddies. As she departed, she enquired about the best time to go and collect the chickens. I pointed out that I had quite an energetic day planned, and there was no way I would be remotely interested in catching chickens, if I left it until the end of the day.

Consequently we breakfasted and then headed down the road to collect the hens after their holiday with Paula.* I must be honest and state that I wasn't looking forward to this job at all. Chickens can be devilishly hard to catch, and this is best done at night while they are asleep. I was potentially faced with having to crawl around a chicken run on my hands and knees to catch the little sods.**

Fortunately the chickens were relatively cooperative, and we soon had them tucked in to boxes for transportation back to their home coop. Twenty minutes later they were being tipped, unceremoniously, in to their house. After a few disgruntled squawks, they recognised their surroundings and gentle clucking was resumed.

The rest of the morning was spent giving Hobson a haircut. Another heatwave is predicted and he, The Rat and Whiffler would all benefit from trim to help prevent overheating. I plan to get all three clipped before I head off to France at the end of next week.

Hobson was quite amenable to being shorn and, if I say so myself, looked very smart after the removal of what must have been a very warm coat.

I took a quick snooze after lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon moving logs in to the carport and splitting the larger pieces of wood. By the time I had finished I had created a large pile of logs. I will need to get them stacked away before I can split any more.

Tomorrow's plan includes giving The Rat her Summer clip.  That could be as much fun as catching hens!

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* A member of the coven and Grand Chief Vizier of the local Women's Institute

** I was quite seriously contemplating just leaving them with Paula, and hatching some more.

Mostly focused on beekeeping

Today ended up being mostly focussed on sorting out my beekeeping equipment.

I think that the reason for this sudden focus on my apiary equipment is a consequence of Tuesday's hive inspection. The inspection indicates that there might be a sizeable honey crop, and the store room will definitely need to be tidied in advance of the extraction.

However, my original plan for this morning was simply to get some honey bottled. Supplies for my roadside stall had run low, and I had a special order from a lady, who wants mini jars for her B&B business. I had put a batch of jars in the dishwasher last night, and had wandered out to the store room to collect some lids from the store room.

The untidy state of the room made me realise that the honey harvest was not far off, and, with plenty of other jobs to do as well, I should get my arse in to gear.

I shifted a couple of nucleus hives and then got distracted ... They had been sat on top of a crown board that I had knocked up at the end of last month. I realised that I will likely need an additional clearer board when I remove the supers from the hives, so I headed off to the workshop with the crown board and a plastic rhombus clearer. Half an hour later I had finished converting the crown board to a clearer and 30% was calling me in for breakfast.

The rest of the morning was spent bottling honey. I now have 18 half pound jars ready for sale, and these will hopefully last until I get back from my biking holiday in France. I also bottled 28 one ounce jars for the special order.

In the afternoon I headed out to the tomato greenhouse. They had grown well in the week that we had been away, and an hour was spent removing side shoots and tying up the vines.

I then returned to the store room and continued tidying up my apiary equipment. I had definitely been bitten by the tidying bug, as hive #2 has now been brought down from the apiary, broken down in to its component parts, scraped clean of debris, and is stacked away.

My plan for tomorrow is to give Hobson a haircut and get on with some log splitting, although 30% has already reminded me that we need to collect the chickens.*

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* They have spent a week boarding in a friend's coop, while we were away narrowboating.

Post Script

At one point this morning I was on the telephone attempting to make an appointment to have a steroid injection, to alleviate trigger finger symptoms in my right hand. While I was talking to the appointments clerk, 30% was excitedly trying to attract my attention. 

I shushed her and finished my call. She then told me that she had checked our premium bonds and that I had won bugger all this month. 

She, on the other hand, had won £10,000! This is the biggest win we have ever had. We usually get in the region of £150 - £200 each month, and, on one occasion, I won £1,000, but this is a fantastic surprise. I have a feeling that she may treat herself. A dental implant has already been mentioned.

When it takes all day to perform a simple task

I had already got a clear idea of what I would be doing on Wednesday morning, so I was mildly disconcerted when I was informed that my day would start by following 30% in to the Worcester BMW dealership. Her X3 is displaying a Restraint System warning message, and she had got it booked in for investigation. I was required to bring her home.

With that completed, we breakfasted and I got on with my original plans ... The brush cutter was extracted from the back of the garage and filled with fuel. I then spent a few minutes cutting back the swathe of Crocosmia that had surrounded our boiler.* The boiler was scheduled to be serviced this morning and I wanted to give the engineer a fighting chance of actually getting his hands on it!

With the boiler accessible, I grabbed a hoe and headed out to the veg patch. My parsnip experiment** seems to have been successful, and they are now ready to be planted out. I had just about finished hoeing by lunchtime, and there was still no sight of the boiler engineer.*** I left the weeds to wilt, and headed indoors for a bite to eat.

It will come as no surprise that a snooze followed lunch, and on waking there was still no sign of the boiler man. I chased him on WhatsApp and learnt that he was "on his way." I headed back out to the vegetable garden, set out a row for the parsnips and made a start on transplanting them, complete with toilet roll inner, in to the earth.

I eventually got the seedlings planted, although there were frequent interruptions to facilitate access to the boiler pipes and filter, re-pressurise the water system, and to be made aware of a couple of minor leaks.  The leaks and the late arrival of the engineer means that a repeat visit will be needed "towards the end of next week" to finish off the service and fix the leaks.

I eventually managed to find time to sit on my bum for half an hour before I was required to ferry 30% back to Worcester to collect her car.**** Our timing was appalling and we ended up in the middle of the mad rush of football fans leaving work early to catch the England / DR Congo match. The traffic was VERY busy.

So that was Wednesday. I found that today's theme was one of having to complete six or seven prerequisite tasks before I could actually get on with what I wanted, or needed, to do. By the evening I was absolutely shattered.

Let's hope the rest of the week is less manic.

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* This all looks so simple when it is typed on a page,  but, in actuality, it involves half a dozen other pre-requisites including finding some two stroke oil, mixing up another batch of fuel, fetching the wheelbarrow, and also the tidy-up that follows. Nothing is ever a simple five minute job!

** I planted the seeds in soil-filled toilet roll tubes. These were left to germinate in a propagator and are now at the first true leaf stage. They need to be planted in the ground before the roots are too long. I don't yet know whether I have left it too late to transplant. Only time will tell.

*** He was due to arrive "elevenish"

**** It needs a new passenger knee airbag. This will cost over £600, and will be fitted towards the end of the month.

I've taken notes

 Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been thirteen days since my last Journal entry, but, as this entry's title makes clear, "I have taken notes."  I do plan to complete the missing entries, but I have no clue on when I'm going to find the time. 

We have just returned from our narrowboating holiday and I am off to France on my bike in ten days time.  The intervening time will likely be filled with beekeeping, gardening and dog grooming, let alone actually getting my shit packed and some travel insurance arranged!

So, to be clear, this is not some rambling attempt to bring The Journal up to date. This is just Tuesday's shit.

We cruised into the boat yard at Acton Bridge yesterday evening and spent another boozy evening on NB Violet. This morning was spent clearing our belongings from the boat, and we were on the road by nine o'clock.

We were home by eleven, and another hour was spent sorting out washing and putting our stuff away, 30% then performed a minor miracle and managed to produce a very tasty lunch from a house that appeared to have less food than Mother Hubbard's cupboard.

In the afternoon I donned my bee suit, lit my smoker, and headed up to the orchard to inspect the bees. It had been close to a fortnight since I last looked, and I was a little apprehensive about what I might find.

I started with hive #1. This was the colony that had failed to raise a new queen at the first attempt, so I had given it a frame of eggs and brood in the hope that they might raise a scrub queen. This was to be its first inspection since the frame was donated on 31st May.  From the outside things looked quite positive. Bees were coming and going from the entrance, and a few were bringing in pollen. I gave them a few puffs of smoke and removed the roof and crown board. I was surprised to see a reasonable amount of honey stored in the single super on the hive. I then delved deeper, and started to check the frames in the brood box. As I got closer to the centre of the hive I was delighted to see a small cluster of larvae on one of the frames. They appear to be worker brood, which indicates that I have a laying queen.  I didn't catch sight of her, but hopefully I will at the next inspection.

I then went on to inspect hives #4, #5 and #6.  Each of these was doing superbly. They were doing quite well at previous inspections, but now they are magnificent. Their supers are crammed with capped cells of honey, and the brood boxes are filled with brood at all stages of development. Neither was there any sign of swarming behaviour. 

Clearly we have passed through the June gap and the bees are on to a good source of nectar. I am guessing that clover and bramble are the main sources. I added an additional super to each of the hives, and my thoughts turned to extracting honey at the end of the Summer. If the colonies continue as they are are at present, we will have an impressive harvest.

Having reassured myself that the bees are all doing well, I need to turn my attention to ensuring that I get as much done as possible, before I head off to France in ten days time.

Sometimes you need to be patient

Saturday started with a large and leisurely breakfast, before C&S headed home.

Their departure coincided with TP's arrival, and also that of an electrician, who was here to fit our smart meter. 

The rest of the morning was spent catching up with TP's news, before we had a light snack, and headed out to make a dent in the pile of wood by the garage.  TP manned the log splitter in the carport, while I used the chainsaw to cut the branches in to log sized chunks. 

After a couple of hours we had both produced two large piles of logs. TP's pile was ready for stacking in the carport, whilst mine would still need to be split, before being put away to dry.

It was then time for a kip, followed by a refreshing beer in the garden. After a busy few hours bucking* and splitting wood, I felt that a lazy evening was in order.

So that should have been all of Saturday's news, but as the evening progressed I checked my phone and noticed a new email in my inbox. It seems that I have finally sold the BMW R nine T seat that has been advertised on eBay for several weeks.

I was absolutely delighted as the seat had been relished several times and, despite attracting multiple watchers, had only received bids well below the reserve price. I was at the point where I was considering dropping the price, only to have someone hit the buy. it now button.

I am now £150 better off. As the title of today's entry states, "sometimes you need to be patient."

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* Apparently this is the correct term for cutting logs to the correct length for firewood

An evening of culture

This morning was spent tidying the house and preparing a bedroom for guests.

The reason for this flurry of domestic activity was that we would be hosting C & S this evening. Back in September last year we arranged to see The Tempest at the RSC and also Chekov's Cherry Orchard too.

It was The Tempest this evening, and 30% had reserved a table at the RSC Rooftop restaurant for dinner before the performance.

However, I am getting ahead of myself. 

With the house now reasonably tidy, I headed outside and grabbed my chainsaw. The last few branches of the ash tree are piled alongside the garage and I would really like to get them sawn up and ready for splitting and stacking. I could really only afford to devote a couple of hours to this job today, but I made a noticeable dent in the pile.

It was then time to get showered and shaved before C&S arrived. I even managed a short snooze!

C&S turned up just after four o'clock, and we had time for a quick cuppa and a chat before we headed off to Stratford.

The pre-show dinner was lovely* and the play was brilliant. Kenneth Brannagh played Prospero, and I later learnt that this was the first time that he had performed at the RSC in over thirty years. I had not seen The Tempest before, and found it hugely entertaining, and very funny. It just goes to show that I am an ignoramus that didn't realise that it was a comedy!

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* I had a prawn and crayfish salad to start and the sea bass as my main course. The pudding was a rhubarb and custard parfait. Considering I am writing this a fortnight after the event, I think this demonstrates that my memory is still functioning reasonably well. 30% would definitely disagree.

A Good Deed?*

This entry, and the following dozen, are likely to be on the short side. 

The reason for this is that it is now the 2nd of July, and I have finally found a spare hour to attempt to bring The Journal up to date.**

So, the morning of Thursday, 18th June 2026 was taken up with a good deed. 

A few weeks ago I had offered Tai Chi Sue a lift in to Worcester to attend an eye clinic appointment. The appointment documentation suggested that driving home was not a good idea, hence the need for a lift. I therefore spent most of the morning with my head in a book outside an anonymous building, nestled amongst industrial units, in the vicinity of junction 6 of the M5.

My notes seem to suggest that I snoozed on the sofa after lunch, and then went up to the orchard to check on the bees.

The slumber session is hardly newsworthy as this tends to happen on most days. I do, however, recall checking on the bees.

I only looked at hives #4, #5 and #6. All were going along quite nicely, and supers were added. The supers were not for the storage of nectar, as very little seemed to be coming in at that time, but to provide space for the burgeoning colonies. I didn't check on hive #1, as it was still too early to check for a replacement queen. 

I do recall making a mental note to check hive #1 when we return from our narrowboating trip. I also recall that I had managed to totally mess up my colony inspection dates, and that it would be a long interval before I would be able to inspect them again.

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* I'm not certain if one is allowed to self-certify their actions as good deeds, hence the question mark.

** The key word in this sentence is "attempt." This should not be regarded as any form of commitment on my part to complete any, or all, of the missing Journal entries.

Post Script:

It seems that my gallant offer of a lift to Tai Chi Sue has caused a minor episode of jealousy in 30%. I need to stress that this was never my intention, but, in 30%'s wild imagination, Tai Chi Sue is some hot, man-eating widow, rather than a pleasant, elderly lady who hasn't made that many friends in the village.

Assembly and repairs

I've virtually filled the log storage bay that I knocked up last Saturday. So, this morning was spent building another, using the pallets that we collected yesterday. By lunchtime I had the storage space to allow me to start splitting and stacking logs again, but that will have to wait for a day or two.

I wasn't able to continue my lumberjacking activities, as 30% had invited Mr & Mrs Tweedy over for afternoon tea.  We therefore spent the afternoon taking refreshments on the patio and inspecting recent changes in the garden,* and, of course, catching up with each others' news.

After the Tweedy's departure, I returned to the carport and reattached the trailer's light board** ... I just hope that the lights still work when I go to use it next.

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* New plants and fresh growth, as well as the large piles of logs and sawdust!

** It seems to be the season for things breaking. The outside light stopped working yesterday, and it isn't the bulb. I also have to replace a gutter bracket, that we recently discovered has been snapped when the roofers were here a couple of months ago ... the buggers failed to mention this little mishap!

When wood isn't wood

We will be away narrowboating next week, and I have been urged to a point that is now close to nagging. The activity, that I have been encouraged to perform, is clipping the dogs faces.*  So far I have managed to sort out Whiffler's face and toes, and Hobson is now looking gorgeous with his neatly clipped face too. ** This morning it was The Rat's  turn. After fifteen minutes I was able to report that she looks marginally less feral, and can now actually see where she is going. I really do need to clip back their bodies too, but I am unlikely to find time to do that before next Tuesday.

I then wandered outside and made a start on tidying up the carport and the grassy area that has recently been cleared of the tree trunk.  I raked up more of the sawdust, and schlepped it up to the compost bins in the orchard.

Next on my list was a spot of lawn mowing. I used the beast*** to tidy up the verges in front of the house.  These hadn't been cut for more than a month and were looking rather unkempt. Fortunately they had recovered from the activities of the tree surgeon and his crew, and this cut has made them look much better.

I then swapped the beast for the Mountfield, and spent the rest of the morning mowing the lawn at the front of the house. I know that it will be a few months before the grass in front of the garage recovers from the tree felling, but I am trying to convince myself that the gardens at the front are almost presentable ... Well, they will be, once I get the hedges cut.

In the afternoon we hitched the trailer to the car and took a load of the punky ash to the tip.  Our trip was on a weekday and we expected to breeze in, offload our rubbish, and be away within a few minutes. How wrong we were!  There was a queue of cars on the road to the tip, and it was over twenty minutes before we pulled up by the skips.

At that point we learnt that "Technically" our wood wasn't actually regarded as wood, and needed to be deposited in the green waste skip, rather than the wood skip.**** We also learnt that the chaos had been as a result of an operational hold-up while a full skip was swapped with an empty replacement.

I would like to say that our return from the tip was uneventful, but, a couple of miles from home, I heard a scraping sound. I stopped to investigate and found that our trailer's light board had become detached and was being dragged along the road. It seemed undamaged, so I lashed it to the back of the trailer and on we drove.

Our return journey included a minor detour to the local trading estate where we picked up another six pallets from the Removals and Storage firm that is based there. These will be used to construct another log storage bay in the carport.

We arrived home at about four o'clock and I really fancied just collapsing on the settee, but 30% had arranged for us to meet up with Rosie, Jim, Gizzy and Jules in Tewkesbury for a curry. After a shower, shave and haircut I felt marginally more human and we hit the road again.

We had a lovely evening at a rather good Indian Restaurant, and fortunately it was neither late nor boozy. We were home just after ten o'clock, and I was finally able to collapse on the sofa!

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* as a bare minimum

** I don't need to worry about Traitorous Bastard, as he has recently been clipped at the grooming school.

*** An old McCulloch mower that I use on the rougher ares of grass i.e. the orchard and verges

**** Apparently this is for things that are made from wood, rather than wood in its more natural state i.e. pieces of a tree!

out for a curry in Tewkesbury

Keeping busy

This morning was spent focussed on a three dimensional jigsaw, where none of the pieces fitted together properly.

Basically I found myself in the carport stacking logs in to my crude storage bay.  I was quite pleased with the results, and estimate that I now have more than two cubic metres of logs drying in the carport.* I now know that I won't need to touch these logs again until I take them in to the house and put them in the log burner.

Processing this ash tree has reinforced just how much effort is needed to turn a tree into firewood. There is the initial felling, followed by breaking the tree down in to manageable sections. The unusable brash needs to be chipped, and the branches then need to be sawn in to 10" lengths. These are then split in to logs, which then need to be stacked and dried for at least twelve months.  There is a huge amount of processing and handling involved, before you can burn the products of your labours.

I'll get a few more in there

Today also included my first business meeting in a very long time. I have been approached by a local lady, who is about to open an AirBnB business.  She is very keen to provide a breakfast basket for her customers, and wants to include small jars of our honey.  We discussed jar sizes, labelling and likely order quantities, and it all seems feasible. It won't make me a fortune, but, at a pound a jar,** there is a reasonable profit to be made.

After this business expansion, I returned to my groundskeeper duties and spent the rest of the afternoon mowing the lawns at the back of the house.

It is fair to say that I was very tired, by the time I wheeled the last of the grass clippings up to the compost heap.

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* There is a similar quantity stacked in Rose Cottage, and a larger pile nearby, that still needs to be put away. There is also a large pile of timber to the side of the garage, that still needs to be sawn and split.

** a 28g jar

A milestone

Sunday morning was spent in the carport, splitting logs. The log splitter is an absolute boon, but it is still hard, heavy work carrying the sections of tree trunk and hefting them up on to the splitter.

I was relieved when 30% called to let me know that lunch was ready.

In the afternoon I went back outside and was niggled by the sight of the two remaining sections of tree trunk.  I was determined to finish breaking up the trunk, so the chainsaw was deployed, and another hour was spent sawing wood.

I then returned to the carport and continued splitting. By the end of the day I had finally finished processing the tree trunk, and had produced a large pile of logs in the carport. I had raked up the sawdust, and had even made a start on stacking those logs in to my hastily assembled storage bay.

It is fair to say that I was very tired, but also encouraged by reaching the milestone of having finally finishing breaking up that bloody tree trunk!

A picture of something that isn't there

There is still a large pile of branches down the side of the garage, but, as they say, "out of sight, out of mind." I know it still needs to be sorted out, but at least I'm not constantly reminded of that fact, every time I look out of the window.

Work and play today

Today we had arranged to visit Pershore College's plant sale with Mummy Sheila, and Jane M. We first visited the college sale a couple of years ago, and I can report that things have certainly changed!

Back in 2024 we attended a sale of plants that had been propagated by the horticultural students at the college. This year was a much larger event and featured talks and exhibits from all of the college faculties ... arboriculture, through hair and beauty to animal care.  There were craft and food stalls and, of course, the nursery plant sale.

We had a splendid morning wandering around the college ground in the lovely sunshine, and we filled the boot of 30%'s car with plants.  We also had an interesting chat with the lady who was selling local apple juice.  It was all pressed and bottled on site, and the college will, for a fee, press one's apples and bottle and pasteurise the juice. The only proviso is that the minimum quantity is 100kg of apples. We are confident that the orchard can easily deliver that quantity of apples, so we may well be drinking our own apple juice in the Autumn.

In the afternoon I headed out to the carport, and attempted to reorganise the space.  I eventually cleared the left hand bay and then spent an hour constructing a log storage bay from pallets. I lad out two pallets on the floor, side by side. I then fixed pallets to the back and sides to make an open fronted bay.  It is very crude, but it will help to stabilise the logs that will be stacked in there.

It was getting late in the afternoon, by the time I had constructed the log storage bay, but I wanted to make a start on splitting the wood that I had sawn yesterday. I split a couple of small logs, and then started on bigger sections of tree trunk.

I definitely found my log splitting mojo, and it was close to eight o'clock before I unplugged the log splitter and retired indoors for dinner.

Getting there!

The weather was much improved in comparison to yesterday. So, this morning's first task was to concrete in the post, against which the gate will be secured, when open.  Actually the first job was to drain the water from the post hole. It held a surprising amount after yesterday's rain.

30% assisted with ensuring that the post was positioned correctly, and was perfectly upright. I'll be able to fit the latch and hook, once the concrete has set, as Phil the Postie delivered them this morning.

The rest of the day was spent breaking up the ash tree trunk in to manageable sections with the chainsaw. By the end of the day, I had dealt with all but two sections of tree trunk.

I am going to have a huge amount of log splitting to keep me busy tomorrow.