Our New Life in Devon

        One of several climbing walls  OH took Ava to a climbing wall center yesterday giving me a few hours to catch up on the washing and tidy around. Managed to dye my hair too which was well overdue. Ava is very active and confident at climbing as well as swimming, gymnastics, and playing football. It's very safe at the climbing center as the children all wear a full harness. She's been very well behaved here for us which makes it easy to look after her. It's been raining every day on and off and looks like next week is going to be the same. I'm hoping Halloween will be dry, at least for the evening, for all the children going out for Trick or Treat. Our dogs absolutely hate the rain, but love swimming in the sea and paddling in muddy puddles. Doesn't make sense really as the sea is just as cold and wet as the rain lol. We all stayed home today apart from OH taking the dogs for a run around the fields. Ava is happy watching TV and doing a jigsaw puzzle with ...

 Daughter arrived Sunday evening with both granddaughters as our other granddaughter wanted to come. Not sure if it's because our son and DIL are having builders in at the moment and there isn't any heating or if Carmen loves it here lol. Probably a bit of both. The girls got on well and were very well behaved. Lily, our daughter, took them swimming, the amusements, and collecting shells 🐚 on the beach. Today, Lily left with Carmen (11) to return home as she's flying to France for a trip with her friends. Ava (9) is staying with us until Sunday when daughter comes home. Then we will stay with our daughter over Halloween as she always has a party and takes the children out for 'trick or treat.' We went to the theatre this evening to see a children's play with Ava. Also shopping to Lidl, where we do most of our shopping as it's cheaper. Picked up a pumpkin ready for daughter's party,  some fruit, and a pizza for a quick tea. Our oven is now cooking at the...

 Engineer arrived this morning, an older person. Changed the motherboard, door seal, and various other bits. Tested everything and found the bottom element wasn't working but looked new when he removed it. The top element was working though. This could explain why this oven has always taken 10-15 minutes longer and a higher temperature to cook everything since we purchased it! He was here for 2 hours, a lovely person, very friendly. So tonight we're cooking tea, nothing special just pie and chips and it's so much faster. I should have complained when we bought it really but had not had this sort of oven before. I'm busy catching up on the cleaning and washing atm ready for Lily and Ava's arrival on Sunday morning. We've booked the theater for Wednesday night as daughter is leaving Wednesday so it will be a nice outing for Ava. It's called Junior Frozen. Ava is staying with us until Sunday as daughter is going on a trip with her friend. Then it will be all ba...

 Engineer arrived on time, unscrewed the oven, turned off the mains electric - so far all good. Then started pulling the oven out without disconnecting the cable and OH grabbed the cable and undid it before he pulled it out the wall!! Unscrewed everything, had a quick look and put it all back together again! I asked what was wrong and he said it's the mother board. I'll order one. I mentioned my son programmes chips to make equipment work at which point he said he's ordering all the parts unless it's something else!! Coming again in 3 days or it might be a different engineer, I didn't say hopefully lol. Didn't turn the electric back on either Fred Homepride Flour Grader Went to the Post Office with OH with 2 parcels I've sold. Then dog walking in the fields. Stopped at a few charity shops on the way home and bought a 1978 Fred Homepride money box for £1.30 and a book for the granddaughter's school.  Dinner wasn't successful as OH bought a steak bake ...

 Yesterday I sorted out the paperwork to contact D&G who we have the oven insured with. Its only a few £s a month and they come and fix or replace it free on the insurance policy. Sounds great but here's what happened. I had to go online, register an account, click on an email link to verify. Log into the site, put in name address and phone number. So far all good. Then it got difficult. You have to put in the model number which is either on the oven or in the instruction book. Definitely not in my instruction book, or installation guide that I still have. There are 6 sets of numbers inside the oven doorway and none said mod or model which the site told me I was looking for. So I put each one into the booking repair site and every one was rejected. Rang their helpline, on hold for 40 minutes. Finally got through then the line went dead. Tried all the numbers again and still all rejected. Searching through all the paperwork but no sign of a model number. Rang the helpline again ...

 A few things need fixing here but we're managing mostly atm. About 6 months ago the toilet flush push in button didn't come out again unless you pressed it a few times. Added to that the shower started dripping and a plumber advised we need a new shower. Our roof has a small leak around the chimney flashing. OHs friend was going to fix it last year but it is still waiting. Last month the tumble dryer door wouldn't stay shut but it's still working so I'm propping it shut with a chair. The bathroom sink has developed a small leak so I've had to move all the towels stored in the cupboard underneath.  And tonight our electric oven stopped working completely. No lights on, no time display nothing! OH pulled it out and checked there was power going to it with one of his thousands of tools. His last job before retirement was buildings and maintenance management. He's fitted loads of bathrooms, sinks, showers and toilets. Done quite a few plumbing courses too!  So ...

 Well the weekend was busy as we had a full house. John, our eldest son rang at 6.30pm to say he was on the way to visit us with Carmen, our 11yr old granddaughter. They caught the train and OH picked them up from the station. John doesn't drive since having spinal surgery which left part of his foot numb. It's improved since and doctors have cleared him to drive but he choses not to. It was a mad rush to move the ironing pile and OHs clothes from the spare room to make up the Z bed for Carmen. Our youngest son,  Mark, helped make up the bed with me. John brought a large inflatable bed with him which we put in the lounge. Granddaughter loves the beach collecting shells, and the slot machines. Mark had a phone call from his employer's health department on Saturday to arrange a medical. He's been staying here on and off for a few months now as he's had back problems but is much better now. He's hoping he can return to work as  soon as possible as he loves his job....

 Well they lifted the ban for hosepipes then turned off all the water due to a leak in a road. Four hours later it came back on, then after a few hours off it went again. According to a local FB site they caused 2 further leaks further down the road while fixing the first one. Lots of people moaning about roads shut off. Finally had water again in the evening. My lovely neighbours brought us 2 bottles of water from the supermarket. We have nice neighbours here and OH cuts their v small front lawn. They water our plants while we're away, take in parcels etc. It's nice but we don't live in each other's pockets but know we are there for each other if there was a crisis. Sorted out all my winter clothes this week, and the summer clothes have gone into the loft. Seriously have too many clothes, probably because I rarely throw anything away. I've order a dozen new hangers as I don't have enough for all the trousers. Also bought some new hand towels as I like a clean o...