52 Week Challenge - week by week through 2013

[Tripmeup]

Well I got all my lights up on Saturday despite having a work do on Friday night....

This week's is to ENJOY CHRISTMAS with my family..........................Should be manageable

[Sheneval]

After having given it some thought I have decided to visit my grandkids on Christmas morning and help/watch them open their presents and then return to their house for Christmas Lunch.

Think I might have done this before

For further information visit confused.co.uk

[Hazel at the Hill]

I know what my Challenge is this week......do you?

Yep.

[Sheneval]

I am delighted to say the Week 52 Challenge - Watch grandsons opening their presents and have Christmas Dinner with daughter and her family has now taken place so Challenge for week 52 completed

Many thanks to VC for setting up the Challenge - have thoroughly enjoyed every week and have probably done some things that would not otherwise have been done or have at least done them to a higher standard

[Sheneval]

The Year 2013 Weekly Challenges Completed

Week 1 - Toasted my new Allotment on site on New Years Day
Week 2 - Limed 2 beds on my Allotment
Week 3 - Fitted a tap to my Allotment water butt
Week 4 - Taught my friend to research his Family History
Week 5 - Created a book from the Prestwick Burgh Records, covering the period from 1470 through till the late 1700s.
Week 6 - Bought seed potatoes for the first time ever - a total of 60 consisting of Rooster, King Edward and some Pink Fir Apple.
Week 7 - Started chitting potatoes.
Week 8 - Made a new allotment sign out of a bit of old tree trunk .
Week 9 - Built the first of a number of wire mesh cages to keep off the rabbits, squirrels and any other nuisances
Week 10 - Sowed Sweet Pea and Leek seeds indoors.
Week 11 – Tidied Garage to allow access to freezer.
Week 12 - Joined work party maintaining allotment site common ground
Week 13 - Made a Fire and burned all scrap and waste wooden material on allotment common ground.
Week 14 - Prepared bed for potatoes and planted same.
Week 15 - Cleared the 4 Family History cupboards in the library reading room to allow a new carpet to be fitted.
Week 16 – Won chess game which enabled us to win the match.
Week 17 – Helped on my daughter's plot and sowed peas, beetroot and carrots on my own.
Week 18 – Planted Onion sets, sowed some more pea seeds and netted cabbage plants.
Week 19 – Erected walk in greenhouse and helped layout daughter’s plot with paths, beds and sitting/storage area, also 4 Blackcurrant bushes planted.
Week 20 - Built a cage for brassicas.
Week 21- Erected protection pens for various vegetables planted on my daughter's plot.
Week 22 – Had a go at using the Allotment Site's Strimmer.
Week 23 – Covered brassica on all sides and across top with debris netting.
Week 24 – Finished off all my summer bedding and basket/tub planting.
Week 25 - Updated Family History Website.
Week 26 – Sorted through all my Hunter ancestry papers to enable me to respond to query from an Australian Historian.
Week 27 – Carried out Monthly Inspection of all Allotments - my first time carrying out this task
Week 28 – Lifted overwintering onions
Week 29 – Sampled blue potatoes from my Wolverhampton/Birmingham friend’s plot.
Week 30 – Week 30 challenge - replaced plastic cloche covers with debris netting.
Week 31 – 1st week’s Boating Holiday on the Norfolk Broads
Week 32 – 2nd week’s Boating Holiday on the Norfolk Broads
Week 33 – Entered veg in Allotment show for the first time - I got 2 x 2nds & 2x 3rds.
Week 34 – Catching up on work on allotments and garden
Week 35 - Printed replacement publication books and burned new CD's following very good sales at the Motherwell History Fair.
Week 36 - Got enough barrow loads of manure from free supply to cover the potato beds on my own and daughter's plots.
Week 37 - Completed the clearance of weeds and dug over 3 beds on my plot 18A.
Week 38 - Collected seaweed to cover the bare earth on the cleared beds on my plot to suppress the weed growth from now to next spring
Week 39 - Started copying volume 5 of Walter Clearie's transcriptions from the Ayrshire News.
Week 40 – Planted 100 red, 50 white onions, 20 shallots and garlic.
Week 41 – Attended meeting at St Nicholas Gulf club where I outlined the errors in the Tom Morris book to the Archivists, (plus a few other members).
Week 42 - Cleared the quarter plot I borrowed from another plot holder last year.
Week 43 - Monday: - went to allotment for winter tidy on Monday and went to Library for production of publications on Tuesday
Week 44 - Wrote a review of the book 'Tom Morris of St Andrews - The Colossus of Golf' based on my findings from a Family History viewpoint for inclusion in the next FHS Journal
Week 45 – Made up and ran a Powerpoint presentation of photographs, to accompany a talk about Troon in the 1940s to schoolchildren at the Library on Tues & Wed 5th & 6th Nov.
Week 46 – Sorted through 12 plastic and metal containers containing my family/local history papers
Week 47 – Visited Carnegie Library to view records held there and completed a report on the visit for the FHS Journal
Week 48 - Cleaned the Bathroom and painted woodwork
Week 49 – Replaced sealant round the bath and sink, freshened up the grouting on the tiles, fitted a new bath panel, plus a small tiling job and fitted a new floor covering
Week 50 Challenge - Collected enough woodchip to cover all the paths on my plot; my daughter's plot and grandkids' plot
Week 51 Challenge - Watched my grandson's nativity performances
Week 52 Challenge - Watched grandsons opening their presents and had Christmas Dinner with daughter and her family

[PyreneesPlot]

Congratulations to everyone who completed the 52 weeks.
Being unwell is really only one excuse for not finishing as I also ran out of genuine ideas and wanted to avoid things I would be doing anyway. Having said that, most of the weeks in December could have been get out of bed and walk unaided or put on trousers whilst standing up!!
Shall be trying again this year ...

[Jeanied]

I love this thread, great to read everyone's achievements. Not sure I completed any challenges systematically but I have made some big changes at home with my new dog, and two good walks a day with her is paying off in terms of getting me fitter and losing weight! Plus I have met loads of new people walking their dogs in the park.

[veggiechicken]

Week 52 Challenge completed.
I admit its not the one that I had in mind at the beginning of the week - but another Challenge, one that has been staring at me for a long long time Cleaning the electric deep fat fryer Its been in the garage, full of old oil and chip debris, for 8 years and I've been afraid to even lift the lid to see the state of the oil. A sudden urge for chips forced me into action, so, with the aid of an improvised funnel cut from a pop bottle, a milk contained and a helping hand to pour while I steadied the funnel, the job is done. The oil was cleaner that I expected it to be too.
I've just cooked fish and chips and blummin lovely they were too
52 weeks of challenges completed.

[veggiechicken]

52 week challenges for 2013 completed

Week 1 : Make a Grow Light box out of bits and pieces without spending any money
Week 2 : Plant a Tomcot Apricot tree and 12 Autumn Bliss raspberries
Week 3 : Clear the garage to make room for the car ahead of the snow
Week 4 : Make friends with celeriac!
Week 5 - Remove all F1 seeds from my stash (70 packets )
Week 6 - Go to a Seedy Saturday organised by Real Seeds and meet Marchogaeth
Week 7 - Plant a peach tree
Week 8 - Make yoghurt.
Week 9 - Stop running the tap while brushing my teeth.
Week 10 - Visit Raglan castle
Week 11 - Plant 2 hops on St Patrick's day
Week 12 - Start on the new fruit garden - planted rhubarb and blackcurrants
Week 13 - Plant 2 apple trees; announce the start of a massive redesign of the garden
Week 14 - Count and list my fruit trees - 36
Week 15 - Sow 13 Varieties of kale
Week 16 - Go to the RHS Show in Cardiff and meet some new Grapes
Week 17 - Make a raised bed from a pallet and some junk
Week 18 - Take a photo with my phone
Week 19 - Go to an Unusual Plants Fair
Week 20 - Make a Bean frame from a rotary clothes line.
Week 21 - Make another raised bed from a pallet.
Week 22 - Go on a Fungi Cultivation course and use an electric drill for the first time.
Week 23 - Learn about Herbal Myth, Magic and Medicine and make Incense
Week 24 - Get a Dog - adopted Lily, Dog No 3
Week 25 - Sort my drawers
Week 26 - Make nettle and comfrey liquid feeds!
Week 27 - Clear a space for a hammock
Week 28 - Fit a Bath lift chair for my 93 year old Mum (not a success )
Week 29 - Cook a meal in an Electric Wok
Week 30 - Accept the offer of a greenhouse and make arrangements for its removal.
Week 31 - Get rid of a Kiwi fruit vine and put a greenhouse in its place
Week 32 - Planning layout of GH
Week 33 - Help a Grape adopt a puppy from West Wales
Week 34 - Take a friend to a castle
Week 35 - Make a herb bed
Week 36 - Carry out a Home Check for a Dog Rescue Sanctuary
Week 37 - Work out how to receive Emails on mobile phone
Week 38 - Pickle beetroot
Week 39 - Go teetotal for the week
Week 40 - Uses for Green tomatoes - make chutney and cook Fried Green Tomatoes
Week 41 - Go to an Archaeology lecture about Stonehenge and meet old friends
Week 42 - Buy a new bed
Week 43 - Take some apples to an Apple day for identification
Week 44 - Record my name being mentioned on a radio programme
Week 45 - Take delivery of a new bed and rearrange furniture.
Week 46 - Overcome my suspicious nature with doorstep charity bags
Week 47 - Become a Moderator on the Vine
Week 48 - Reassemble a bed - follow on from Week 45
Week 49 - Take clutter to a Charity Shop
Week 50 - Try an alternative way to cook sprouts
Week 51 - Setting 3 alarms, to get up before 6am to take my Mother to hospital!!
Week 52 - Cleaning a deepfat fryer full of 8 year old oil and chip debris.

2013 Challenges completed

[Jeanied]

The best of this one is week 33 for me VC! Couldn't have done it without you!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Week 52 Challenge

Write a Poem

Now this year is nearly done
Let me tell you of my fun
A challenge for each week was set
Now have I won my weekly bet?

The New Year brought things to clean -
That's when I was really keen!
Windows, garage, oven, car
My cleaning powers are above par!

Fun things also I undertook
Here's the list, just take a look:
Sea swimming, nail painting, drawing too
Making sweets - all nice things to do.

I took my challenges to the plot
My paths a dressing of woodchippings got
A scarecrow made to protect my crops
The annual show - it was top of the pops!

A falling leaf is hard to catch
I thought that here I'd met my match.
Despite the cold and wind and rain
New running goals I did attain

Domestic skills I have acquired
By many things I was inspired
Knitting, quilting, making bread
I can't let this go to my head!

As the year draws to a close
My final task is this piece of prose
And with a glass of home made cheer
I wish you all a Happy New Year!

[Hazel at the Hill]

52 Week Challenge - full list!

wk1 update blogs
wk2 sort out photos
wk3 sort out attic room
wk4 participate in a seed swap
wk5 visit a cathedral
wk6 complete a jigsaw
wk7 complete a quilt
wk8 buy a pair of glasses
wk9 make bath bombs
wk10 tidy fabric stash
wk11 paint the toolshed
wk12 go for a bra fitting
wk13 smarten up clothes/shoes
wk14 repair mini greenhouse
wk15 clean the windows
wk16 give credit where it is due
wk17 have a beauty treatment
wk18 swim in the sea
wk19 read a classic novel
wk20 make alterations to a garment
wk21 clean the car
wk22 - run in the great midlands fun run
wk23 - clear out the kitchen cupboards
wk24 - go round a maze
wk25 - celebrate the solstice
wk26 - de clutter the wardrobe.
wk27 - Join in with the Work Party
wk28 - Make a Scarecrow
wk29 - Make a batch of Jam
wk30 - Re-arrange the Wine Rack
wk31 - Clean out the Fridge
wk32 - Enter an Allotment Show
wk33 - Draw a Picture
wk34 - Get a Full Week's Sleep
wk35 - Re-chipping the Allotment Paths
wk36 - get serious about running
wk37 - Grow a plant for seed
wk38 - clean the oven
wk39 - look out from a vantage point
wk40 - go rockpooling
wk41 - eat something new
wk42 - catch a falling leaf
wk43 - make christmas decorations
wk44 - make sweets
wk45 - do some knitting
wk46 - visit a new town
wk47 - grow a new vegetable
wk48 - make sourdough bread
wk49 - make a Christmas wreath
wk50 - clear out the garage
wk51 - attend a church service
wk52 - write a poem.

That's been fun, hasn't it?! All credit to VC for organising, and all those who at least had a go.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I've been noting my 52wk challenges down in a blog (as is my wont) and hope you don't mind me sharing the comment that my big sister Helen posted on my final challenge entry:

"Big Sister Helen's most impressed
By all the things you've done -
A year of weekly challenges,
Some worthy and some fun.

I went with speed each week to read
Your blog each Sunday night;
Admired the most your early rise
To greet the Solstice light!

So if this New Year's Eve you feel
You've nothing much to do -
Sit down and start another list
For next year's 52!

Well done!
BSH
xx"

[bearded bloke]

Well done on the poem Hazel's big sister Helen

[julesapple]

I was going to finish my list, there were only two or three to add. But the long list I typed out in the wee small hours, back a long, has disappeared.

Never mind.