Dear Diary: April 2023 - the one with two fewer chooks

WEATHER:

Cold change in early April, after a warm and lovely March.

RAIN

Spatters here and there, at one stage there was enough to fill the tanks, but then I opened the stopcock on the carport tanks and they've been pretty much empty since. Stagnant, too. Once the windows are done, I should disconnect them and clean them out.

CHOOKS:

Coldie died on Easter Monday, followed a week later by Shan. They were both sick, both had gone to the vet in the previous month but died overnight.

RIP 'The Banquet': our 'lockdown chooks'.

Q1, now known as Carambah (Caramel), is laying decent sized eggs. Q2, now known as Choquette (Choux Pastry) hasn't even got her comb in! it's really weird. She looks like a large-sized pullet, while Carambah looks like a full layer bird!

It's a bit weird without any of our 'older' chooks. I can't explain why, it just is.

OBSERVATIONS

Everything is dropping leaves and dying. The backyard is full of things mulching and it's not idea. I really need to hire those JW kids to come round, pull up the grass, put the cardboard down, and cover the paths with mulch.

PREPARATION:

Winter is coming: need to think about what I'm going to plant where and for what purpose...

I might just pull up the tomatoes in the APRICOT-AVO bed, because they're not actually producing anything, and maybe pull up the bed itself so it can go back to the grassy/herbal area that I'm planning for it...

PLANTING

Planted out a bunch of brassicas in the APPLE-CREPE bed, watered them in with brassica water (rotted purchased brassicas) so they get the nutrients to grow and flower.

RIPENING

Pomegranates: not sure when to harvest them.

Tomatoes - some of the late varieties I planted - might be the Blue Smurf, or the other ones I got from Elisha (I think; look it up)

HARVEST

Pomegranates. Persimons. Pumpkins. Lots of Ps in there.

Also: Avocadoes!

PRUNING

EVERYTHING needs pruning and chipping and digging up. All the grass in the backyard.

THOUGHTS

We have the windows in as of ANZAC day and that's a relief. There's still some sealing up to do: both along the skirting boards and along the undersides/tops of the windows. I need to find somewhere that sells the kind of filler that they were using (turns out it's Anywhere That Isn't Hammerbarn). Also need to pry open a skirting board somewhere where it won't be too spotted and see what it looks like there... Could be a bit hairy!

Maybe leave that for Saturday.

next thoughts on the house

Next thoughts on the house

1. sealing up between the skirtingboards and the floorboards - particularly in the study and the lounge and my bedroom (all major draught areas)
- probably should use something between a silicone and latex sealant: very narrow tip (pinprick, really) and with a shaped nozzle to keep it lined up. White? To match the skirting

2. painting the inside frames: they're primed, but they'll need a coat of paint.

3. external awnings (b1 wants external awnings - at least to the west, so she can let down the awnings at will; I'm more for a vergola, myself...)

4. creating some kind of a seal/stopper for the wall vents, at least for the winter season, to determine if it helps the thermal profile of the room (may want to keep them for in-wall ventilation)

5. cleaning up all the paint specks and wood fragments from around the garden and the grass; might have to ask if there's a kind of 'external vacuum' and whether I could use it to get the worst of the paint chips, etc. up.

Inside the house: more cube storage things and the boxes that fit in them so we can put things away

outside the house: more storage spaces and boxes-that-don't-break-down (or maybe just go with plain cardboard ones)
- chooks
- pruning and tying up
- netting and fruiting
- sprays and pesticides

Need to do a "cleaning tools" day with PSN

windows windows everywhere

Windows are here and they look pretty good!

Goodbye old wooden-framed single-glaze windows, draughty in the winter, letting in the heat in the summer!

It's a little sad to see them go: they served so very well. Also, I hate seeing waste, and watching them be pulled apart/destroyed (because there's nowhere that will take them) is awful. I probably should have researched into places to get them deconstructed and the glass (at least) reused...

We had to take the external awnings off, and looking at the construction, I don't know that we're going to be able to put them back on again...

It's amazing how large the window holes actually look!

And then the window frames and the glass installed:

That window has three openable sections: one awning in the middle, two tilt-and-turns on the edges. For better north-south breezes.

Now let's see how the installers do on the 'sealing it up and not negating the point of having double-glazing in the first place' part of the deal! They've assured me that they'll be sealing up around the windows with a polyurethane sealant and it will be airtight.

We shall see...

oof it's a window replacement

Double glazed windows are about to be installed!

It's not a cheap project, but it will hopefully make a fairly big difference in both soundproofing and draft-proofing. I did what I could to seal up the gaps, but the breeze still came through. Once these windows are in, though, the seals will be pretty tight!

Next gap to seal is the one between the floorboards and the baseboard. I think I might just use some kind of caulking to seal that gap. Need to go watch a bunch of YT vids for options.

After that, I'd have to think about the tiny cracks happening in the architraves.

About half the household is in storage, and will probably be there for a couple of months. I know the risk of putting things in storage is that you never get them out of storage, but it is nice to have things out of the way and be able to rethink the space around here...

I wonder if I could put a couple of rolling bookshelves in the study? Or how much it would cost to get shelving that would go all the way up to the ceiling? Also, whether it would cost much to make some cupboards above the wardrobes in our rooms.