On Friday my shed was delivered from B&Q and it has been sat in the garage over the weekend ready to be erected.  Today my father-in-law and I decided to have a bash a putting the thing together.  Well I have to that in the face of adversary we have done a rather good job.

We came to the shed in the morning which is all in bits in the garage and the first thing that we looked for, obviously, were the plans.  The first (major!) problem was encountered here.  No plans.  The shed came in 3 packs.  A base pack (pack A) which is needed for all sheds and then extensions (pack B x 2).  Therefore, rather annoyed at the lack of instructions I was on the phone to B&Q.  After having left it ringing for fifteen minutes (and not I am not joking here!) I finally got through to Steve.  He said that he has the plans there but couldn’t get them to me.  He had no email (which I also couldn’t believe!!).  Therefore my wife on her way for the weekly shop picked them up.

Meanwhile we were using the instructions that we had from pack B to work out what everything was.  The week before we have started to lay the base for the shed and done around the outside as it were.  It was clear however that the shed had 3 strips of wood down the centre and therefore we would need something in the ground in order to level it out.  Therefore we had some bricks left over and we decided to berry these in the ground with some chippings and dry mix cement, to level it up.  Once these were in the bases went down, rather well actualluy, and then we fastened the bases to each other.

The shed then went up rather smoothly with the bits and bobs accounting for themselves really.  Then came the final rather large problem.  No door hinges.  At this point it became obvious that we were a bag missing, which would have had the plans in as well as the screws for pack A.  Still we had managed to make do with the using my own screws.  Tomorrow I will be off to B&Q to ‘claim’ my hinges and perhaps a few packs of screws from them.

I have to say that I am not happy with B&Q.  Delivering a shed without any door hinges or even instrucitons is like selling it with no roof on, or selling a brush without a handle.  It I had paid someone to come round and fit the shed I would no be well out of pocket.  We will see what tomorrow brings when I head to B&Q.

The weather was absolutely sweltering hot today in the garden.  In fact it must have been well over 30 degress C and working was particularly difficult.  Ticked off the list of things to do today was doing the electrics in the aviary, re-constructing the aviary and finishing off what my wife and I are now calling ‘Pets Corner’.

We have a south facing garden which is brilliant as it gets to sun all day long, but today it was relentless as the sun was high and very hot.  We started the day finishing off from yesterday with a quick trip to B&Q in order to buy an outside light and some wire.  We then finished connecting the electrics in the aviary as well as at the top of the garden on the new patio.  Hooray it all worked wonders.  So now the birds have a light in the aviary and one outside in the fly bit.

After cleaning all the aviary we then reconstructed it on the newly laid concrete slab that should make sweeping the floor much easier.  It went back together surprisingly easy and once the gate was changed to fit the new position of the aviary pets corner was finished.  Just a latch for the gate and some wood to go on top of the fence to prevent the rabbits from escaping.

Then at the end of the day, after a little pitch and put with the lob wedge from the golf bag (and 15 attempts to chip into the rabbit run without succeeding) we started to dig the footings (trenches) for the new shed to sit on when that arrives shortly.

After that it is a big tip run tomorrow to clear out all the rubbish and then on with the garage clean out ready for a conversion in the near future.

Its funny isn’t it how for so long over the last few weeks I have had very little to blog about, and then all of a sudden there is so much to say that you need lots of posts to do it.  For this reason this post is a mix of this and that, that has been happening over the last couple of days.

About a week ago now Daphne (our female breeding budgie) hatched another two young.  They are both coming along nicely and seem to be developing well.  They have even coped with the moving of the aviary (see below).  Another couple of weeks and they should really start to look like littlle budgies.  At the same time however Goldie is not doing to well.  She had a lot of mess around her bottom this morning and when Helen cleaned her up it is clear that she is bunged up with something.  A trip to the vet means that she is on Antibiotics.  Hopefully she will pull through in a day or two.

Yesterday and today was the big aviary move ready for concreting underneath the aviary.  We first had to dismantle the shed and avairy then it could be moved onto the patio that was constructed a few months ago.  There is was part reassembled so that the birds could go back in there for the next week or so while the concreting and electrics are done.

We have been waiting all day today for the order to arrive from Berrys (the local builders merchant) and as I write this the materials are still not here!  Therefore today has been tidying up this and that.

Finally the rabbits.  They too have not escaped the moving of the aviary, as moving it meant their pen was now open.  Therefore they have been relaxing in the sun all afternoon in the old rabbit run.  I think they have quite enjoyed siting in the shade next to each other, eating grass and apples.  They certainly looked relaxed.

Now that the holidays are upon us this means that it is time to finish the garden once and for all.  The only thing left to do is to concrete under the aviary so that it has a solid base.

You remember a while back that I have written about the work in the garden on many ocassions.  Although it has been fun to redevelop a plain space with grass into something much nicer and to be able to sit out on the patio with a glass of wine or a beer it has been hard work, and I am glad when it will be over.

Over the next few days I will be posting pictures etc. of the transformation of the underneath of the aviary.  The first job tomorrow is moving the aviary and with baby budgies recently hatched it will be a delicate operation.

After months of trying and the prospect of having to go through IVF treatment in order to become parents, my wife and I have managed to become pregnant - yeh!  Below is the 12 week scan of baby Wilkinson.

He/She (my wife doesn’t want me to call it, it!) will be around 6cm long in this scan.  He/She was not very forth coming in terms of having his/her photo taken as he/she wouldn’t really get in a good position for it.  Anyway I am going to be a dad so good news there.

My parents have always had a small vegetable garden at their house, growing all types of vegetables from salad stuff to peas in a pod.  With me now having a larger garden with some more space I thought it was time to give it a go.  So here it is, my first vegetable garden.

Well it is only really a few lettuce at the moment, but who knows, in the months, years to come it could be a fully fledged vegetable haven with all manner of colours in there.  Lets just see I if can get these to grow first shall we?

I thought I would also update on the escapee rabbits.  On Friday evening I put the top off the old run onto the corner where they were escaping and it has seemed to work.  Therefore today I have constructed a more permenant (although we will do it for real in the summer) ledge in order to stop them climbing over.  You might notice that it is a piece of the left over trellis from the back wall behind the new patio!

On Saturday night I experienced my first comedy night.  We decided to take a trip to the Guild Hall Preston for an evening of comedy with the Red Dwarf computers.  Off course the Red Dwarf computers, for those who are not ‘Dwarfers’ are more (actually perhaps less) commonly known as Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge.

I have never really been to anything like this before and therefore didn’t know what to expect but I have to say that it was really good.  I have always been a fan of Red Dwarf and therefore new the two comedians.  They both did about a 40 minutes stand up and then did some Q and A from the audience.  Well worth going to see.

I have been so busy over the last few weeks with finishing off the garden, going back to work and then lots of web designing to do for Equal Design that I have  had little time to update the blog.  Anyway I have a minute and so here goes

A couple of weeks ago I got my new mobile phone on the 3 network.  It is a Nokia 6288, which is interesting as I have not had a Nokia for ages.  In fact I still love my Sony Ericsson K750i but depsite numerous attempts I cannot get it to unlock to the 3 network.  I really like this Nokia, which is surprising since it is in White (still it matches the MacBook!).  Everyone has always said that Nokia’s are the easiest to use and I think the evidence from this phone is that they are correct.

Just finished entering all my numbers into the phone which took ages.  The one negative so far is that iSync doesn’t seem to be compatible and so I am struggling to Sync Address Book with it.  Still I think all my numbers are in now.

Well finally after starting all the garden alterations in February we have managed to complete what I am calling the first phase.  We can now sit out in the garden and all the livestock have their homes.  Looking forward to the summer now.

Yesterday was the final push to get it ready for entertaining and using basically.  We were planting trees and the garden looks so bare without them.  Five trees were purchased for just over a ton and then the debate was held as to were they should be placed.  We finally settled on 4 trees in the raised bed that was constructed back in February and one over the other side of the garden.  We also came to the conclusion that we needed another two trees to finish it off, and it was decided that Apple trees would be great.  That way we could place one next to the rabbits pen and then when the apples fall from the tree they would have a ready supply for troughing.

Also we erected some hanging baskets at the front of the house as well as some wall mounted baskets with some smaller bedding plants in to provide some colour when they start to flower, hopefully fairly soon.

Jobs that we still need to finish include concreting underneath the aviary, which we cannot do until the baby budgies are old enough, electricity around the garden including a light in the aviary and perhaps the rabbit hutch and the possibility of widening the drive at the front of the house.  It is all working progress but I feel that we have made one big step to how we want it now.  Here’s looking forward to some nice weather so that we can sit out in the garden and enjoy our work!