Snow halts everything... Scheming on all things homegrown & home brewed...

Work on the boat has been postponed due to the snow, and with only a boiler servicing, an in-water survey and a cheque to write, this is more than a little frustrating! Feels like we're SO close! Jem has packed up all of her wordly goods, and I'm in the process of doing the same, we're really just killing time until the work is finished.

Investigating stove prices and insurance companies are the jobs of the week with regard to the boat and we're trying to decide whether or not to have the stove fitted ASAP or to hang on for a while and rely on the radiators to keep us warm for the first few weeks/months. I think our first cruise will be down the Grand Union from Daventry towards Milton Keynes but nothing's set in stone. We're waiting for the imminent arrival of Millie Bubbles too, Jem's neice-to-be, whose due date is today! She's been pegged as an Aquarian, but Pisces looms...

Also investigating the cost of polytunnel material or similar, to construct our 'Bow Garden' in the near future. Digging out plant pots and old seeds too... I'd like to grow the following but practicalities may change this list considerably:

• Swiss Chard
• Root Ginger
• Garlic
• Tomatoes
• Numerous herbs
• Peppers?
• Chestnut Mushrooms
  
• etc
  

The list is ongoing and very flexible at this stage. I don't think it's very realistic but I'm also looking into growing hops. If it's easily done in a small space (not too likely, so I'm told) then I won't have to buy it for the homebrew! But hops aren't particularly expensive to buy, and neither is the malt I'll be using in my first ales. I've not made homebrew before so I'm hoping to begin on the boat! As long as we can keep the bins at a relatively constant temperature, should be no problem. As for cost, ingredients and equipment seem to be available to buy online for very little, and I might be able to find my mum's glass demijohns which would be amazing, she says if we can find them we can use 'em so why not?! It'll be an ongoing experiment...

Music onboard is another issue, currently Wils is fitted with a tape deck/radio which is inconveniently located on the ceiling right where the future stove flue is going to fit so we're left with an interesting conunderum. Between us, Jem and I have LPs, 45s, CDs, MP3s (and probably a few tapes) that we want to bring with us. What to do? Having a record player onboard, particularly something like an old 50s Dansette, would be great, but storage of records is an issue. Do we copy everything to the laptop? I think we'll rely on CDs o the whole, and buy a small portable player. I'd also like to move the tape player as it is to a different location and run a line-in-tape plugged into the CD player for full-boat audio goodness if we can!

So things are on hold for now. It's beginning to look like the thaw is coming, slowly. Hopefully we'll be able to get up to Welton Hythe on Monday and introduce Simon, Anne and Mum to Wils!