52 Week Challenge - week by week through 2013

[Hazel at the Hill]

Week 38 Challenge

Clean the Oven

Here is a true Challenge - who can ever say that this is a job to be relished? Nope - didn't think so.

Funnily enough, I always thought that cleaning the oven came into the general category of 'unpleasant but infrequent household jobs about which you have to grit your teeth and get on with', but when I mentioned oven cleaning to various friends and relatives, I was astonished at how many get the OvenStar man in to do the job. 'It's £40 well spent,' they say, 'and they do SUCH a good job - better than you could do yourself!'

Hmm. Well forty quid is forty quid, and provided that you haven't let your oven get to the health-hazard stage, this is something I can do, and I would resent spending my hard-earned on. A much better plan is for me to clean the oven and spend forty quid on beer or something.

I'm starting from a good position here - I've banged on before about how in love I am with my delightful kitchen and range oven; it's all only a couple of years old, but it's been 12 months since the oven last had a good going over, I'm sure.

Brillo is your friend here, on the shelves and burners, and on stubborn burnt on bits on the windows and inner door/top/bottom - the enamel, crome, glass top gets a good going over with flash and a cloth. And elbow grease.

I even changed the extrator filter, washed the cover and all the tiles at the back and units above. I got the steps out and cleaned all the (rather revolting) greasy sticky stuff off the top of the wall units, trim and extractor ducting.

And to surpass all expectations I took the grill of the front and got a cloth on a stick to clean all the floor underneath. The only frustration is that I would have liked to pull the whole thing forward to clean the sides too, but it I had have done that then I would have been looking at 'week 39 - recover from hernia', so that's for another occasion when I've eaten 3 shredded wheat, or something.

And here's how it's turned out.



A very satisfying completion to my week 38 Challenge.

[bearded bloke]

This week I (under duress from Mrs.BB) entered the "6 veg in a basket" class at a local produce show








Am I chuffed or what

[PyreneesPlot]

Last week - uploading four years of photos up to an Orange Cloud. I do hope they don't float away.

[Sheneval]

Hazel at the Hill;1170625]Clean the Oven
"A much better plan is for me to clean the oven and spend forty quid on beer or something."

I find it impossible to disagree with you on this occasion


"I'm starting from a good position here - I've banged on before about how in love I am with my delightful kitchen and range oven; it's all only a couple of years old, but it's been 12 months since the oven last had a good going over, I'm sure."


I was severely tempted to emulate the UKIP guy who had the party whip withdrawn last week but in the interests of self preservation I'll merely say 'Well done - good job' should really have been worth two week's challenges

[veggiechicken]

Week 39 challenge. 23rd - 29th September

Apologies for the delay, folks, but you know what you have to do without me to remind you

[Sheneval]

VC - for week 39 my challenge is to start copying the 5th part of Troon Historian Walter Clearie's transcription of the Ayr Advertiser Newspapers between 1841-1850 to enable me to prepare publication of both Volume 5 book and CD and have them ready for sale by Christmas.

[veggiechicken]

Oops forgot to report my last week's challenge - not much of one really. For a non domestic goddess though it was a big step - I pickled some beetroot in wine vinegar laced with some homemade fruit vinegar.
Pathetic eh?

[Sheneval]

Oops forgot to report my last week's challenge - not much of one really. For a non domestic goddess though it was a big step - I pickled some beetroot in wine vinegar laced with some homemade fruit vinegar.
Pathetic eh?

Pathetic? - afraid it was not quite as good as that

On the other hand as someone who's culinary claim to fame is having burnt the water I would say it was quite some achievement

[veggiechicken]

Actually Shen, it was pathetic and tasted even worse Maybe it will mature ...........

My Week 39 Challenge will astound you all - especially I have completed it - although I still have 2 hours in which to weaken
I went teetotal for a week - not one teeny drop of red wine (or any other colour) has passed my lips. Have to say that red grape juice is way too sweet to be a substitute for wine. However, it filled the wine glass and made me realise that its having a wineglass in my hand at the right moment that counts - not what is in it I don't need alcohol to be silly

[Sheneval]

A mighty challenge indeed VC - almost certainly the greatest so far - my own challenge for this week which I have also completed was extremely easy in comparison - I have started copying volume 5 of Walter Clearie's transcriptions from the Ayrshire News so challenge for week 39 completed.

[veggiechicken]

Challenges completed to end of September :-
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

[veggiechicken]

Week 40 - 30th September - 6th October

Three quarters of the year down and last quarter starts this week
Anyone else want to join in - or return

[Tripmeup]

My challenge for this week is to get the necessary papers prepared for the soccer club AGM and to see if we can get some more helpers involved....boring one but still, someone has to do it.

[bearded bloke]

This week it is to get the materials & help organised ready for next weeks challenge,how I am going to be able to get 3 tote bags of sand & about 1/2 ton of cement hidden in the drive,without the wife noticing is going to cause a bit of ..


Next week while Mrs.BB is in Italy I shall be digging out the old floor in the hallway & relaying it on top of a layer of cellotex.

Week 3 will be sorting out the virus infested lappy so that this can go back to it's rightful place as the doorstop to my "mancave".

Week 4 will be held in abeyance as no doubt there will be some overlap from the previous three

[Sheneval]

My Challenges to end of September:

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.