Keeping myself busy

Family is still spread out across three continents. Poor Fahed is still sitting with his poorly sister and I wish I could see a good ending for this. And I won't even dwell on poor Fahed's family as i think everyone knows about Syria now.

Jamal is heading south from Texas to Brazil. He tells me he is chasing hurricane Erica. Happy days. I hope the hurricane goes faster than his ship.

So instead I try to avoid the TV and the news pages and keep myself busy.

I bought a fermenter and 2 pressure barrels from ebay for a bargain price, i think it was £16. Inside was also a thermometer, a hydrometer and a funnel. And a kit for making some sort of Mexican style beer. Result. I wont dwell on the fact that no-one around here drinks beer :) I assume it doesn't go off too quick so hopefully I can give visitors over the coming months.

I have gathered more plums, sloes and blackberries from the hedge row. My lvoely best friend came over from the island at the weekend to keep me busy and my parents and eldest son are also dragging me here and there.

I bought some chalky duck egg blue paint to repaint some folding chairs which look rather sad. So far I haven't got far as I need to herd all the cats into a different room before I open the tin or they just come straight over and jump on the chair

Lastly I mentioned before that the fridge died. It was, i think, more than 23 years old so it did well. Its hard to dispose of fridges so I am thinking maybe use it as a smoker, following these instructions from youtube? I mean, what could go wrong??

or perhaps we better stick with this one?