52 Week Challenge - week by week through 2013

[Hazel at the Hill]

My Challenge this week was a bit feeble - since many of the Grapes have already done it!

I've "made" some nettle and some comfrey fertiliser just to prove to myself that it smells as bad as everyone says it does - and I want to know which smells the worse. Ask me again in a couple of weeks

Not feeble at all, VC - I love looking at all the Challenges as it gives you inspiration!

I can't wait for the results of the 'which is the smellier' experiment. We expect full descriptions of the respective smells - not just YUK and DOUBLE YUK!

[veggiechicken]

Are you going to list yours to date Hazel - and choose your favourites?

[Hazel at the Hill]

Sorry VC, forgot! So my challenges to date:

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.


Most challenging? Getting up for the solstice last week (as I'm terrible at getting up), or the fun run (had to put in the practise and persevere for this one) - or maybe buying the glasses (n.b. my eyetest last week shows my prescription has changed for the first time in about 10 years - 'would I like to chose new frames...?' )

Most enjoyable? Hmm - tricky - maybe swimming in the sea, or going round the cathedral, perhaps.

Most satisfying? Every single one of them. Brilliant idea, VC, high fives all round!

[veggiechicken]

First Half of 2013!
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!
My favourites - Wk24 - Adopting Lily - who is a real sweetie; Wk 13 - giving myself a kick up the rear to redesign the garden, Wk 16 - meeting new Grapes at the RHS Show and Week 22 - learning about cultivating mushrooms

[veggiechicken]

Week 27 - 1st - 7th July

A new Month!! What will you do in July?

[Glutton4...]

More losses to report this week. Very small, but a loss is a loss!

I'm already down one dress size - my top and bottom halves are now the same clothes size!

Reading those challenges already completed is encouraging and daunting at the same time. I've slimmed my wardrobe twice in the last five years, due to house moves. Difficult when losing weight, as more things will fit...

[bearded bloke]

Listing challenges to date,is too much of a challenge so I shall wimp out & take on an easier one



Moving an upright piano into the house for Mrs BB to practice her lessons on

[Sheneval]

Week 26 Challenge - sort through all my Hunter ancestry papers to enable me to respond to the query by the Australian Historian.

Papers now sorted so Challenge completed yesterday and I left a message for the Archivist at the Golf Club to say I was ready to talk.

Interestingly I found a further 3 relationship errors in the Tom Morris of St Andrews book - it is a great read but I think they must have been given and accepted false information as, whilst the Hunter ancestry is convoluted, the records are accessible - the information may have originated from Ancestry as some people put a lot of tripe on there.

Will post full list of Completed Challenges later today.

[Sheneval]

Week 27 Challenge - Carry out Monthly Inspection of all Allotments - my first time carrying out this task.

[bearded bloke]

Hope you've given fair warning to those involved so they all know the judge is on his way ...........

[Sheneval]

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.

Most challenging? Week 9 - Built the first of a number of wire mesh cages to keep off the rabbits, squirrels and any other nuisances – the cage was constructed on the patio at home using electric drill etc. and then dismantled and taken to the allotment where it was rebuilt using battery operated screwdriver and the wire was attached using a staple gun – the sheer size of the cage and the lack of supports etc. made the reassembling a very awkward task, although I found using neighbouring plots fencing posts as supports greatly improved matters when I built the brassica cage which was 1ft higher.

Most enjoyable? Week 4 - Taught my friend to research his Family History – his reaction to every new find made this a most enjoyable day

Most satisfying? It is almost impossible to say – the results of so many of them are proving to having been well worthwhile – eg; challenge 23, the resultant growth is astonishing to my inexperienced eyes and the plants are so healthy and clean looking.

I have to agree with Hazel - It was a Brilliant Idea, VC. Well Done!!!

[Sheneval]

[QUOTE=bearded bloke;1145723]Hope you've given fair warning to those involved so they all know the judge is on his way ...........


Alas no - but the plot has to be in a bit of a mess before action is taken - not something that can happen in one month alone and extenuating circumstances are taken into account, such as having VC as a neighbour

[veggiechicken]

That's probably why I no longer have an allotment!!

[Sheneval]

By the time they finished laughing at your antics they would have had no time to tidy their plot

[veggiechicken]

Actually, most of them took it all very seriously (yawn!!). There were only a few who thought a misshapen carrot or courgette was funny Thinking about it, it was a bit cliquey with lots of old boys and very few females or families. I never felt accepted there - although once, just once, they invited me to join then for a cuppa in the old boys' tea hut!! I don't miss it