Ash, water and bins all emptied this morning before breakfast (and nearly caught a shrew in the kitchen bin but it found a gap and escaped as I was running to get my boots to get it out of the house) and also had to bring a barrowful of wood in from the shed before breakfast as well. I was hungry this morning and not really in the mood for all that.

It’s still so very satisfying to be able to get the furnace all set up and lit quickly though. And my aim with the axe for splitting up a briquette for kindling is improving, I don’t totally obliterate so many briquettes these days!

So very very ready for coffee after all that.

And ohhh there was fresh bread waiting for me for breakfast too. And homemade blackcurrant and apple jam from the neighbours to go with it. Delicious! I remembered to put salt in the mix yesterday too so it was lovely and tasty.

Charley already no longer trusts my bread sadly, two loaves with not enough salt has left him wary. But. He loved the pølsehorn I made this afternoon, with the dough made from scratch! Haha. It was good dough. But not as sweet as the dough that the frozen pølsehorn we get uses, and Steve thinks the sweeter dough helps the flavour of the pølser because both times I’ve made pølsehorn from scratch Ben hasn’t liked them because of the sausages. Tweaks required there. But it was gratifying to know I can make decent bread and pizza doughs now!

Today I was reminded that I’d promised to get boxes down from the upstairs so the boys could build things with them. Ben built a rocket – and apparently we’re going to paint it tomorrow. I really don’t know how we’re going to achieve that! Charley and Erika beep beeped and zoom zoomed in stationary cars, screeching to imaginary halts, and then dragged their boxes around to make cozy sitting boxes.

I was so tired by bedtime that even once Erika was asleep and in bed (and I’d transferred a sleeping Charley from our bed back to his) (he’s still worried/scared about Big Foot having watched Top Gear while I was at school on Monday) I couldn’t stay up to do any crochet at all and was glad I’d got the kitchen jobs all dealt with while Erika was having her supper. Straight to bed. Still tried to finish writing my journal in bed but had to give up when I dropped the phone on my face!

In cat news, it’s been a bit of a swingers party for cats here today. There’s two boycats arrived and taken up temporary residence in the yard. Smudgey got tired of the goings on fairly early and has spent the day hiding on the garage door, or in the porch. Thankfully the boycats are being pretty respectful of the girls’ private spaces and won’t follow her in when she escapes. They are taking it pretty seriously though. One boycat even brought a gift of a dead mouse. I was genuinely impressed!! I’ve nicknamed the boycats Soxy and the Tabster. The Tabster is obviously the alpha of the boys, and even though Soxy was here first (and getting jiggy with our Tigercat last night) the Tabster has definitely muscled in and is getting pretty much all the action today. Our Tigercat appears to be insatiable. I wonder how long this is going to go on for?! Smudgey has gone to sleep by herself in the porch, I wish she wasn’t still so wary of us, that she’d let me give her a snuggle; she really looked like she’d appreciate the company while Tiger was still off gallivanting.