Meet Kita!

She's been here a whole four hours now, and seems to be settling in nicely. She's definitely very smart, and highly motivated by food, so should be easy to train.

We've had a few wanders round the garden boundaries (on the lead), and a run in the snow:

and she's explored the downstairs of the house very thoroughly. She seems to have accepted her bed, and is currently enjoying a yummy rawhide bone.

Though she seems to think that I might take it off her...

The Boxes Return

Well, I've been spending a lot of time moving stuff from the old place to the new, and I can confidently say that the floor is no longer clear of boxes. I'm sure it will be, in time, though.

Why is it that the last 20% of the stuff takes 80% of the time to move?

Room by room summary as I see it - Yule 2005

I'll try and make a habit of posts like this one; they should do well at keeping us on track and letting us know how we're doing. We've been working hard and don't feel like we're camping here any more, so now is a good time to start:

The living/dining room is starting to look sane, which is *so* nice. There are now no boxes in it, the sofa cover and cushions are back on the sofa, and you can walk all the way through it. I've seen the old living/dining room look worse than this just from 'living'.

The kitchen is nearly organised; J's been spending the day as the plumber today. He's fixed a leak under the sink, and plumbed in the washing machine and dishwasher. Good lad; I wouldn't know where to start. We did a test run with each and tightened a connection or two, and they're now functional and leak-free. That means that all the cleaning stuff can go back under the sink (which I cannot *wait* to shine!) and the baking pans/tins can go back into the cupboard that has the plug sockets in. (The old owners had an interesting approach to DIY. Nothing is properly fixed to anything, and if they wanted to put a unit against a wall where a plug socket or any other outlet was, they just cut a hole in the back of the cupboard. We have outlets in some very strange places...) I don't think we have quite as much kitchen cupboard space as in the old kitchen, but I think we'll be OK. There will doubtless be much reassigning of cupboards before I'm done, though.

Our bedroom is a very similar size and shape to the old one; the bed is in (and made every morning!), but the wardrobes are currently in the 'second bedroom'. This is partly because we want to paint our bedroom, and partly because J doesn't want the bedroom to feel cramped; he's quite keen on the wardrobes staying in a different room. I don't like this idea; the second bedroom will be a guest room, and I don't want to have to keep my clothes in a guest room! Decision to follow.

The second bedroom is currently a dumping ground; J is, as I type, stripping wallpaper off the walls of his office (the smallest bedroom). That means that all the stuff that would go in the office is in the second bedroom, along with the chinchillas and lots more 'stuff'. Since J works from home (but is currently on vacation till early January), it is important that his office be set up quite swiftly, and that he is comfortable there.

My sewing room (the second smallest bedroom) is also a dumping ground; again, I want to paint it, but I'm happy to finish the rest of the move before concentrating on it. If I let myself start thinking about it too hard, I won't want to do anything else. :D

The upstairs bathroom is something of a priority; apart from being ugly, there has in the past been a small but persistent leak around the tub seal which has slightly damaged the floor boards in the adjoining bedroom (#2). We want to ensure that the damage is known, understood and controlled ASAP.

The downstairs loo also needs a quick re-vamp. It has a carpet (always a dubious idea in a household containing men, and especially boys, as in the case of the previous owners) and the wallpaper is a mildly unpleasant rose-sprig design. We can do better. :)

The garden is large for the age and type of the house, and has been well cared for in the past, but neglected recently. It's in generally good shape, but we have grand plans for it.

Stratigraphy of a compost heap

The weather was so good on Thursday that we spent most of the morning in the garden. I started raking leaves, but had nowhere to put them, so decided to investigate the compost bin that's been left in one corner of the garden.

It was an interesting experience. The bin is one of those with a 'gate' at the bottom so you can dig out the finished compost, and a lid at the top so you can add fresh matter. It was almost full, with a pile of green-black slime on the top. Not so much compost, as rotting grass.

However, the compost in the bottom of the bin, although very compacted, was dark and lovely. Hmmm.

Further investigation proved that on top of the good compost was a thick layer of dried, brown moss, and that was topped off by many mats of grass, in various stages of dehydration and failure to compost.

I suspect that the bin was originally owned by a keen gardener, or at least a keen composter. I think it was then neglected for a while (resulting in a luxuriant growth of moss), and then a novice composter has simply chucked cut grass on top of the whole thing each time they've finished mowing the lawn.

Anyway, the whole lot has now been dug out and the uncomposted material has been replaced in layers, along with layers of some of the mature compost and layers of fresh leaves. The green slime has been redistributed into small clumps, and may yet produce something worthwhile. We shall see.