Cabinet complete

It was so nice to get the last few things done on the TV Cabinet today. I am so pleased with how it turned out. It looks so posh (let alone the fact that it is now so handy with all the drawer and cupboard space).

This is a photo of almost before. At this stage we had already added the two drawers which served as two extra shelves until the front was complete.

Last night Brendon cut up some lamb we had been given and I decided to rather put the slow cooker on over night. As we leave around 4pm for bible study on Sunday's I think there is just not enough time to get it done on the day. I forgot to take a photo of my first lamb casserole - but I was very pleased with the results.

Photos of progress

First a fun photo of Patches giving Ruth a bath. She was licking her ear and it was so ticklish. Such a happy face. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

Ruth's hair is also a work in progress actually. We have had two sessions of combing. The first was really important as that back section knots really quickly. The top ponies have gotten smaller as I got a bit more combed and into twists. I really need to get it all done and then decide on the next style.

The progress we saw with Tiger today was really encouraging. You can obviously tell this is really important to us. Tiger had been sleeping in his normal spot (which is already an improvement as he has been hiding when inside the last few days) and Patches was sleeping in my arms. So I quietly put her next to him. He noticed her but chose to ignore her - keeping his head facing away from her.

But ten minutes later he had relaxed enough to put his head down. You can see from this angle that there was plenty of space still between them. But Rachel was just so pleased to see that he would allow his paws to even touch her. We do so hope they will end up good friends.

When Brendon got home we got a bit more work done on the cabinet. Finally all the doors are on. We still need to put a little wall in and then put the fronts on the drawers. But it's almost there now and I think it is looking great. We will probably be able to move it back into the house tomorrow which will be great. Those cupboards have been very missed these last few weeks.

This evening Brendon went to Bible study with Steve and so it gave me some time to catch up on my blog as well as play with my new toy. A film scanner. It's been great to get started - getting my old film into a digital format. I have found almost all of the missing Birthday photos for my facebook album (just Rachel's 4th to find) and have done over 100 photos already. It will be nice in itself to have digital copies of all these photos but it will also make it easier for me to scrapbook. I am a digital scrapbooker through and through. Even if you look at my 2003 scrapbook (which was all film photos) half the pages have been done digitally and I have stuck the printed photo on. So having the photos digitally will make it much easier. My hope in the next 5 months is to get Hannah's baby book finished (about 3 months left to do) and then get started on one for Rachel. She has a "old fashioned" baby book with photos stuck in but I think a baby book like the other two have will be much nicer. The girls love paging through their books and I would love to be able to give that to Rachel too.

Progress

It was great to get Tiger interested in playing with the string this morning. Hopefully he is realizing that this tiny kitten is not a threat but could actually be a nice play mate for him. He sat patiently watching Patches chasing the string but when it got close to him he could not resist joining in. It also helped Patches almost forget about being scared of Tiger as she was so focused on the game. There is hope for these two.

Having a rest after all that playing. It looks like Patches will like sleeping in the little hammock under the cat tree. At least as long as she can fit in there.

Rachel had forgotten her new bow and arrow in Timaru and our friends kindly dropped it off at the abattoir there for the driver to bring to us. Rachel got it this weekend and it was lovely to see her teaching her sisters how to shoot.

As Brendon and I were hoping to get more work done on the cabinet this afternoon I decided to leave Rachel and Ruth at ballet. Hannah watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and we managed to get quite a bit of work done. We got all the handles on the doors (which involved cutting the screws to the correct length as well as measuring accurately and drilling perfect holes). Brendon then fetched the girls while I got dinner ready. I was a bit nervous about Ruth having to sit "on her own" through Rachel's lesson - but she had a lollipop to suck and enjoyed watching the older girls dance. When the girls got home and saw the door handles they were so impressed. They had not even seen the handles we had bought.

Friendly Patches

Ruth having morning tea while Patches naps. She is such a cute kitten and when she wants to have a nap she will come up to you and meow. She just loves company (which we all love).
We were all quite thankful when she finally did want to nap as she had been full on playing in the morning. It was so much fun watching her play with Tiger's old kitten toys.

After her nap she went to play outside with Ruth. We are still watching her carefully when she is inside and making sure we take her regularly to the litter box so that she knows where it is. She spent a lot of time outside at the previous home and so they said she is not house trained yet. We hope she will learn quickly.

Monday again which means Guides for Rachel. Kerry did transport again this week so Hayley came for a visit. The girls had fun picking the last of the strawberries and raspberries.

Brendon and I were working in the garage with the TV cabinet and so Tiger had been lying outside the garage (he also keeps us company when we are outside). When we came back from the veg garden Patches followed us back. As she rounded the corner she spotted Tiger and stopped dead in her tracks.

Thankfully Tiger did not run off and so she got to show him she only wants to be friends. So sweet.

And for the update on the cabinet. The hinges are now attached to the doors. Brian lent Brendon this lovely tool to make sure they were straight as he said this was crucial. If this part is not screwed on properly the door will never hand straight. So we diligently worked on this and even got the first door attached to the cabinet. That's a much harder job though, so it may take us a few days to just get the next step done. But it's fun to see it all coming together finally.

Kitten, cabinet and craft

Brendon had to pop out to fetch some flour this morning and when he got back I heard him say "Ruth - come and help me. Open the box. Quickly." So I guessed what it was and came with the camera. A new kitten for Ruth.

It ended up being very similar to when we got the first two. We happened to pop in to collect some food stuff, had been talking about getting kittens, and just happened to see these lovely kittens who climbed into our hearts. This time Patches chose Brendon. Of the three kittens there she was the only one who came to him. When he put her down to put the flour in the car - she ran into a bush and he thought she would not come out. But as soon as he started walking the kitten came running after him. I wonder if his black and white top had anything to do with it. :-)

The girls are all so pleased. What a sweet little thing.

So even though Tiger is this kitten's half brother he was not too sure. Having a good sniff but happy to make a quick exit.

Thankfully he did not run off. He was happy to watch her from behind the door.

And as soon as she fell asleep he came for another sniff.

One very happy girl. I am also so pleased that we got a kitten who is again used to children but who is already used to sleeping outside. She is wonderfully affectionate and I am so pleased Ruth will have a kitten to cuddle again.

After lunch we got a call from Julia to say that the cabinet doors were ready. What a lovely surprise. His cabinet maker friend had a drill bit that was 5 times more expensive as well as a drill press - so the round holes for the hinges look beautiful.

Julia said they would bring them around. I think the main reason for this was so that Brian could help Brendon try and square up the cabinet. The cabinet is quite old and so it's not all quite straight anymore. This will make it tricky to hang straight doors. But Brian helped to try and get it as straight as possible.

They then put the back board on to try and hold it all in place. Thankfully the back board for the three cupboards on the left is separate. We will need to work from the back while putting the doors on.

I think Brian has enjoyed helping Brendon out with this project. It sure has taken us a lot longer than we first anticipated.

Julia did not come empty handed (as usual). She had brought a sewing project for the girls.

Hannah mainly had fun looking at the lovely buttons.

Rachel and Ruth got into it though and Julia got Rachel to do hers totally on her own. She cut Ruth's circles out but just showed her two or three stitches and then said "off you go". Ruth did a lovely job. Julia did help them put the pieces all together at the end.

While they were busy I was checking on the slow cooker pork stew that I had going through today. It would probably have been a good idea to follow an exact recipe for my first time - but as Brendon had cut up pork for me and I had the vegetables that I had - I just had a go. I was a little concerned about the liquid and so added an extra cup of water I should not have added. It was a little watery but was still enjoyed before bible study tonight. I am sure it can only improve from here.

In less than an hour they were all done and they looked beautiful.

Cake and candles

Just before it was time to cut the cake I put the jelly in the pond and put the candles on. Rachel was very pleased that both Lynn and Julia were able to come this morning to see her cake. They had both given her presents already on Wednesday but it was lovely to have them come for a visit today as well.

Kerry came a bit early to give her other children time to play. It was lovely to have a few more children here to share the cake with.

Then it was time to light the candles. The only green candles I could find were sparkly ones. Rachel got a bit nervous about the sparks and so she backed off a bit. She did manage to blow them all out though - after a number of blows.
It's been a very special year for Rachel and I am glad she will have wonderful memories from this time for years to come.

This afternoon we headed over to Brian and Julia again in the hopes of finally getting the round holes drilled for the hinges on the TV cabinet. Brendon had tried with the bigger (correct size) bit but it just ripped the wood. Brian had been practicing with the bit (as he had more equipment to hold everything tight) but when they tried on a sample piece of our wood it just did not work. The wood we have must just be too soft for this kind of bit.

We did have a lovely visit though. And a wonderful highlight for Rachel (and a perfect end to her day) was spending time feeding and patting the neighbours horse).

Brian was quite frustrated about the wood and called a friend who is a cabinet maker. He was not home though - so he left a message and told Brendon to leave the doors with him - he would get them done.

Originally when we left home I had considered staying home to sleep. I was quite tired from the early waking I got from the noisy girls upstairs. I am so glad I decided to go with though. I had a lovely time chatting with Julia. She is such a blessing.

Good and bad

Bad news first. That terrible ferret managed to open the door to the hen house and killed two of our new chickens this morning. One lovely big black one (that had already started to lay) and then the 2nd small grey one (the grey one that is left is hiding behind the others in the photo). We were all so upset this morning. I don't know why we did not think to buy a ferret trap while we were in town yesterday - but we organized to get one today and set them up. Brendon has also worked out how to secure the door so that it can't be opened again other than by us. What a very frustrating animal to have around. And to think it's just living in our wood shed waiting for an opportunity.

Before it was warm enough to get busy on the TV Cabinet Brendon got stuck into the garden. The potatoes in the straw did not work as well as we had hoped. We realized that we just did not water it enough (especially when we first planted) as there were still dry sections in it. At first I was just chatting to Brendon as he worked but it's hard to not get involved and so I got my gloves and got stuck in. It did not take much to get me panting through - so Brendon insisted I take it easy. It was nice to get a bit of exercise in.

Then it was back to the cabinet. We decided to buy a second tin of varnish while in town yesterday and we are glad we did. The extra layer is making it look really nice.

Ruth was pleased to finally have something to do to really help in this project. After Brendon lightly sanded (between layers of varnish) she would clean them off.

Then this afternoon I headed off with Rachel to Guides. It was on a Thursday this week so that they could do the linking with the Brownies.

An official link from Brownies up to Guides. The Brownies (including Rachel and Grace) all had pink stripes painted on their faces. Then the Brownies sang a fair well song to the girls and they came and had blue painted over (the Guides all had blue already). Then they had a welcome song from the Guides. A lovely special day for them.

This evening Ruth have Brendon a different kind of back rub - with her feet - while she got a cuddle from Smokey. :-)

Varnishing

Brendon spent most of this morning sanding down the TV cabinet and this afternoon he got the first layer of varnish on. It's already looking so good.

Then it was onto the new wood which got cut yesterday. I helped do the edges.

And Brendon picked our first pumpkin from the garden this morning- along with MORE marrows.

Wood cut

We had arranged with Brian to come and cut the wood for the cabinet this morning. Unfortunately on the very first cut something on the blade stripped and Brendon and Brian had to dismantle the whole thing to replace the blade.

Eventually after 11:30 they were back to cutting. Brian is getting old now and struggles to speak and is loosing his strength but he really enjoyed doing this with Brendon today. I don't think he can do much woodwork on his own anymore. And Brendon ended up learning loads about the equipment too.

In the afternoon he sanded the edges all down and the plan is to start varnishing tomorrow.

Because of the blade problems we ended up staying far longer this morning that we had originally planned and so Julia made lunch for us all. We had a lovely time visiting with her and she was really impressed with how well Brian had been talking during our visit. He does so enjoy company and he loves his woodwork - so it really was a win win situation today. We have beautifully cut wood and Brian had a great time too.

The girls were so funny this morning. For morning tea (at 9:30) before we left for Brian they shared some of Ruth's lolly. They were in the bathroom laughing hysterically at their blue tongues.