19. Spring is in the air (but perhaps not for long)

We've spent the day outside today, it's still cold but dry and bright. It's also calm and still so the low battery light is flashing on the inverter. I lit the fire first thing but am trying not to have it burning all day. We're getting through our wood at quite an alarming rate and hoping not to have to buy any more just yet. There's still lots of planks and old wood from the house to saw up but I've been favouring the logs because they look nicer, burn longer and smell lovely.
Rich has started building a wood store, we hope to get it stocked up before next winter, I was hoping for a hot tub but Rich insisted it's more important to have a wood supply!
I've been cutting through gorse and brambles in the side field, there's a bit of garden we haven't actually seen yet so am determined to get to it. I found an old buoy which had been buried, it said made in Norway on it. I think I'll keep it in the garden with the 4 horseshoes I found yesterday.
We've been looking after a neighbours hens so have had an abundance of fresh eggs. We've been having spaghetti carbonara most lunch times to use them up but today I thought I'd bake a cake. The oven is in the house and is very old but still very useful. I have to be careful lighting it as there's a bit of a gas leak on the front control panel, I put a lighted match near it a couple of times and managed to light the whole front panel. I had to blow it out quickly and now don't strike the match until I've opened the oven door. The sponge cake was a bit flat but tasted good. I've started using wholemeal spelt flour for my bread because it doesn't take much kneading and only needs a single prove. This has made my life easier as it no longer takes the best part of a day to make our bread.
Rich has bought some bird boxes online, he was going to make them himself but worked out it was cheaper to buy them. He's started to put them up so it'll be interesting to see if we get any birds in them.
Rich has the area in the croft marked out where he wants to put the polytunnel, we just need a couple more poles then we can get the wood and the plastic pipes needed for the hoops. He sowed some broad beans which are now outside in the raised bed and we have 250 onion seeds in modules on our windowsill. So things are moving forward, outside at least!