Wednesday 27th July 11

Another day trying to sort out my finances.  I managed to get two invoices written and sent off.  I have at least two more to do but I just couldn't focus.

We had Justin coming round in the afternoon so I got the affected area tidied and cleaned and ready for him to look at.   When he came he had 'Mick the brick' with him who said yes to filling in the gap, currently filled with wooden battens, with bricks, and then rendering over the face of the bricks so it looks like some sort of stone pillar.  Once that is done, Justin will come and do the wiring and put it in some trunking.  He found the plug socket which had apparently stopped working was in fact working.  Very odd.  And no sign of a rodent. 

I did a bit of cleaning elsewhere, too, whilst Gill went to get her hair done, mainly hoovering and washing up.

I attended the Cosy Homes meeting in the evening, and we have the first draft of the leaflet for tenants ready, and other bits of the project are ongoing.  I managed not to volunteer for writing minutes or anything else.

Tuesday 26th July 11

A busy day, got a fair amount done.  I got up fairly early and managed to get my head around the difficult email.... a compromise, I sent a simple message with hardly any detail, saying that if it was OK, I wouldn't need to send a more detailed one.

I then had a phone conversation with a Council person, re a grant I applied for to put on an energy saving event.  With my York in Transition hat on, I've been given £500 to spend on a one-day event to promote energy efficiency and domestic renewables.  I agreed to go to the Council Offices to sign the paperwork at midday.  I got wrapped up in the washing machine stuff with Gill, and then realised, at 11.43, hat I had to be at the office at 12... so i quickly got washed and dressed and on my bike and powered down to St Leonard's, getting there at 12.02. Not bad!  However, In waited another 10 minutes for the Council official to appear... so I needn't have rushed.

So I signed for this and I'll have the cheque in about a month. I need to find a venue and a date and stallholders and do publicity.....

I then went to my building society and withdrew a wad of notes to pay a good proportion of our Council Tax... and went straight back to the Council offices to pay that in.  From here I popped into Millers Yard to say hello to Dylan... and met a new resident of York, a hair-braider called Tamsin.  We talked about street entertainment and red tape.

Then home via Freshways... 2 sacks of compostables here. Came home to find Gill sorting out the conservatory, as she's convinced there's something in there, and it might have been responsible for causing the washing machine to stop working.  I helped her for a while, pulling the washing machine out and taking rubbish to the dustbin and compostables down the garden.

I then spent a bit of time organising my September visit to Basingstoke.  I'm going to travel down to near London on the Thursday and stay with a friend until Saturday, when I'll then travel to Basingstoke and do a Fiddlesticks and John the Composter gig, and come back to York after that.  When talking to the client, I'd found ticket prices which added up to about £70 for the three journeys.  However, today, I had a good poke around the East Coast website, and got the three tickets for £58... including one which was advertised at £10 but when I actually bought it, turned out to be just £9. So I was well pleased with that!

Gill couldn't see any nibbling on the electrical flex, and wondered if the damage had been done in the void between the back of the house and a freestanding wall, a gap which I'd boarded up and filled with insulation, and had been invaded by a rat or rats several years ago.  But she had a brainwave.... maybe the problem was the socket box... so she got the extension flex and plugged the washing machine into that, and Voila! It worked!  So as the wash was doing, and we were chatting about our not now needing a new washing machine, I removed the wooden shuttering and insulation.

Gill rang Justin, our electrical and plumbing angel, and by chance he was doing some tiling just down the road.  He said he'd be with us in an hour to see the problem.  He came, looked around, and said he'd bring a bricklayer to fill the void with bricks, and would see about fixing the electrics... tomorrow!  What service!  He's not cheap, but he is reliable and really nice!

I then spent ages on the phone trying to get to the Tax Credits renewal people.  I eventually got to them and told them our net earned income... which last year was the lowest ever for Professor Fiddlesticks.  The problem is partly that I still have the expensive directory advertising which now isn't bringing in as much work. 

So after this mainly sedentary day, I spent a bit of time in the garden and dealt with some compost and some weeding.

I had a small tea and at 7.30, set out for the Green Party fundraiser at City Screen.  This was very enjoyable, as loads of my friends were there. One person was there whom I've been playing Scrabble on facebook with for ages, but never met.  So I was very happy to meet Carol, who was sitting with her two friends and my friends Jane and David.  When the music started, Jane and David had a dance and some others joined in.  I particularly enjoyed the band 'BlueSaloon' which played funky blues numbers, and had a female guest singer for a couple of numbers, which was good.  My fiend Keith Jackman was the drummer for both bands.  I was very pleased to see him working... well, mainly hear him as where I was sitting I couldn't see him very well.

So, some nice music, good chats, a couple of pints of sweet cider, and I enjoyed the evening quite a bit.

Got home between 11.30 and midnight, lit the stove to get washing up water and continue drying off the fruit leather.  A late night, 3am bedtime.

Monday 14th February 11

A good day, despite most of it being inside and doing assorted paperwork and admin stuff.

At 10, Will came to meet our eldest and to see if they could work together... Will is a maths enthusiast and we've asked him to help us home educate our eldest.  He's coached two GCSE students already, so we discussed that too.  They just had various discussions and tried out various number games, but next week I'll start paying Will 10 Yorkys for the hour's tuition. 

Just before lunch I had a good telephone conversation with Nathan from Promessa UK, sorting out a few facts to help me write clearly about it on Novaterium.com. 

I also had some conversations with Keith, whom I know from Freecycle.  He responded to my 'wanted' post, where I asked if anyone had a spare electric chainsaw as mine had ceased to be able to be used.  I explained what had happened, and he said he'd have a go at fixing it.  However he was having a busy day himself, so we arranged to meet later.

I got a message from a teacher in France asking if I'd be willing to talk to her students about being a 'freegan'.  I replied immediately and said yes, she was delighted and found me on skype, and at about 3pm we connected and I answered questions about my green lifestyle.  They were a group of 20 year olds, not sure what lesson it was, but that didn't matter.  I had their questions relayed to me by the teacher and they listened to my answers.  One student later found me on facebook, saying he'd lived as a freegan for a couple of years.

I did a couple of hours work in the garden, and sorted out some Mediterranean-grown new potatoes which had been thrown out as they had blemishes and damage from the harvesting.  Later, I washed them and trimmed them, and cut them into cubes and made a potato salad on the stove.

Gill made a celery soup (just 2 potatoes, an onion and a whole head of celery) and an apple crumble with stewed apple from the freezer.  This was a delicious tea.

Justin called to pick up his cheque from the two days work he did, and to leave us the certificates and circuit diagrams of the house wiring, so that anybody doing any further work knows what is what, as this house has really weird wiring.  I told Justin that the lights he said wouldn't work after he removed some crappy flex were actually still working, so he'll need to come tomorrow and check the status of that wire, to check there isn't some problem there....

Then I cycled round to Keith's house in Tang Hall/Heworth, to see if he could fix the chainsaw.  The problem was that I could not undo the nut securing the blade, to tension the chain, as the bolt was turning with the nut as I tried to undo it.  Somehow the bolt had come loose.  He had a good poke around, trying to see if he could get to the base of the bolt to hold that still, but no.  So he undid the screw/bolt things holding the plastic casing together, which then showed that the base of the bolt was encased in the plastic casing.  After some thought, he reckoned that putting a blow torch on the bolt would enable him to pull it out of the casing as the plastic would soften.  This worked, once he'd found the blow torch!  The hole that was left was the right size for a bolt he had in his extensive collection.  He decided to anchor this two ways... by drilling a hole across the head and also into the casing of the saw, and sliding a pin through both case and bolt.  He also had some glue called Sticks Like Sh*t which he used to fix the bolt head into the hole and the pin in place.  We then had a bit of bother getting the case back in place as there were a couple of springs which needed easing into place, and the on-switch was difficult too.  BUT we got everything back in place AND the machine worked!  Whether the chain stays taut when I'm cutting is another matter, but we shall see!

Keith didn't want anything in return... as he'd offered to help me.  I said that if I ever asked him for help, I'd expect to give him something.  I asked again if there was anything I could do by way of thanking him, and he said, well, he was looking for a rhubarb crown.  I said I'd be able to help him with that!

Keith is an example of a person I would like more of in the community around me.  If more people were like him, the world would definitely be a better place.

I got home and did more washing up, cooked potato salad, helped Gill open a PayPal account as she wants to buy something tomorrow, and I found out I won't be in York tomorrow as Ali has two ill PAs and wants me to go over and work... hence Gill needing to open the PayPal thing, as I was going to do that transaction for her, but won't be around.

Tuesday 1st February 11

Up early as Gill took our little one to school and I had to be up for Justin to come and do the second day of sorting out the electrics.  He did a few more tests with the power off, and then a load with the power live.  One of the problems was apparently our outside lights, which are connected either with hifi speaker cable, or something called 'festoon cable' which is used to string temporary lights up, and the lamps just screw directly into the cable.  Ideally we'd need this replacing with proper cable, but we can't afford to do this so Justin has disconnected the most dangerous bits, such as the garage 'spur' and given us a certificate for the bits which are safe.

I worked with our eldest on a project about the Romans, and I think I've suggested something he likes the idea of.  So I helped him develop that, chivvied him along.  Justin got to the loft where there was a socket which had been damaged by an impact, so he was going to drive up to B+Q to buy another, but I suggested that I went instead, and he said that would be a better use of his time.  So I bombed up there on my bike and spent £1.48 on a new 'back box' which was the part which was broken.

At 1pm I had lunch and at 2 I rolled up to St Nicks for a meeting with John and Edward, to review the new arrangements with my volunteering as a Rotter.  The meeting was short as all is going well.  I had a productive chat with Catherine about the compost training I'm presenting on the 12th February, and then I had 3 things to discuss with Ivana.  I was cycling away by about 3, and as arranged, popped in on Maria to discuss the science lessons she's giving our home-schooler.  She loves doing it, and can take him up to GCSE in Chemistry and probably physics.  In return.... and I'm so pleased with this, she's asked me to dig out her compost heap. I'll bag it up and then either I or she will spread it on her front garden.  Woo hoo!

I got back to an empty house as Justin had finished and Gill had gone to pick up our youngest and had taken our eldest with her.  I was able to go on the net for the first time today, as for the rest of the day, the power had been on and off, so I hadn't bothered.

Once done, I did a bit of sawdust riddling... I now have about 6 sacks of riddled sawdust, a mix of recently produced white/yellow particles and the stuff underneath, on top of the tarp, which has started to decompose and is dark coloured.  This is ideal compost-toilet cover,and is good for any compost heap which has a lot of nitrogen-rich materials, such as grass cuttings, fruit, veg or manure.  I wonder if I could sell it?

I had soup for tea, with a pile of pasta shells and broad beans in it.  Lovely, and exceedingly simple.  At about 6pm I sped off on the bike again to Langwith College to the People and Planet meeting.  I wanted to see how the Waste Food Feast meeting went today, but it seemed that maybe it didn't happen today.  However, we did some planning for the Go Green week, which I'm going to do some stuff in.  Should be good.  I was reminded that Phoebe sent me a document about composting at the University which I said I'd comment on, so that was my work for this evening once I'd got home.  I did however get distracted by a very good programme about explosives.

Monday 31st January 11

Gill woke late and leaped out of bed at 7.30 to get our youngest off to school in the taxi she booked last night.  We are using the taxi today as Rachel has offered him a lift back home on Mondays after school.  Gill was then going on to the Credit Union to get a big cheque out, almost the last of the Uncle Tom money, to pay for one term of the Steiner School.

I was woken by the phone.  I got downstairs just too late to speak to the caller, but used 1471 to get the number and ring back.  It was Justin, our electrician friend... and yes, he'd rung last week and said he'd be available on Monday, to check our rather dreadful wiring.  We've had to turn the loft spur off as when we used it, it tripped fuses, and the 'under the stairs' area looks like electric spaghetti.

So Justin came back and explained that he would first check the state of the sockets with the power off, then with them on.  But when he got to the junction box, it was such a mess that he said it needed to be replaced, so he got on with that.  It'll cost us a small fortune, but we really do need the wiring sorting.  When we bought the house, we took advice from my father not to get a survey done.  We are now regretting that as we didn't know that actually, the best thing to have done would be to rewire the house.  It has been installed by a succession of amateurs, and bits added here and there, and it is a fire risk.  Hopefully, two days of Justin will make it a bit safer.

So, we had the whole day with no electricity.  Glad to have the stove to make hot drinks.  I got on with some tidying outside, stacking, pruning and tying in the loganberries.  Gill set our home-schooler a task.  We kept Justin fed and watered.

Half-way through the day our Polish roofer friend Artur arrived... I'd seen him in the street a while back and asked him to come and fix a couple of slates that had been dislodged by the chaps who took the chimney down and installed the solar panels.  Artur and his chaps fixed the missing slates in about 15 minutes.  Good to get that done.

Justin worked til after 4pm, and will be back at 10 tomorrow.

I cycled round to Amanda's to pick up another load of her waste wood.   I started to riddle the sawdust from the front, to separate fine sawdust from bigger bits of twig, wood etc.  The sawdust is my compost toilet cover, and the bigger bits of woody stuff goes in layers with the fruit and veg composting, so a productive day.

Monday 8th June 09

A relatively slow start to the day but awaiting our friend Justin coming round to look at a malfunctioning plug socket, one of the rocker switches has been, on occasion, not switching off.. so definitely time to replace it.

Moving some furniture to allow access meant doing some cleaning, and I lit the stove to do a large pile of washing up. I also blanched about 5 bags of grapes and put them on the tray balanced on the pan of washing up water to dry. So a quite domestic day.

We did spend quite a bit of time with the Euro Election results, which in the UK at least are quite disturbing. Glad our two Greens were re-elected, very unhappy that the electorate in two areas think that the British National Party are worth voting for. Do they not realise that these people are Nazis? Griffin has even been convicted and put in Jail for racist activity! I am ashamed that the people of Yorkshire and Humberside have voted in Andrew Brons (there's a Teutonic name!) and he doesn't represent my views. Not In My Name!

I did a little bit of stacking and hedge cutting then shredding before going out to see the first showing of The End of the Line at City Screen. This was quite disturbing. As I don't eat fish, and haven't for 25 years, I feel I'm doing my bit to stop the devastation of our oceans... but there is a lot more I could be doing. One thing I'll do is to write a review for my Community Care blog... I haven't written a blog for them for 2 or 3 weeks so it's about time to do one!