Wet, wet, wet!

I think we can safely say that the warm weather is over for the year and Paul and I are now having to adapt to living in a boat in a much harsher environment.

The tow paths are very quickly becoming muddy and treacherous and our winter clothing and boots are out at the ready.

We are also having to get used to washing down the stern and putting the pram covers up when we moor up for the evening (pram covers are like an awning).

And whilst Zak isn’t the furriest of dogs, he is having to have a good rub down every time he goes inside Daisy. There is then the problem of storing dirty and wet towels and clothes.

I did try to do a hand wash but it took nearly three days to dry some pants and socks on the airer so we have decided that we will simply have to do a few more laundrette stops.

Paul has created an indoor washing line which I absolutely love but we are limiting its use for tea towels, dish clothes and shower towels to minimise the amount of condensation that is produced.

We are also having to slow our travelling right down to a couple of hours a day to try and avoid the rain and also because everything takes that much longer.

I can see our stove being kept continuously alight as it quickly gets very cold inside and I definitely need to practice my fire lighting skills. I tried for about 30 mins this morning to get it going before throwing a strop and handing it over to Paul who, annoyingly, got it going pretty much straight away!

Also, due to the limited travelling we are now doing, I will have to put my slow cooker away as the batteries will no longer be getting lots of ‘juice’ from the engine and the solar panels are not getting as much juice from the sun. On a positive, the old faithful cooking pot is out and we currently have a nice stew cooking away as I write.

Yesterday we had a bit of a nightmare as the cooker ignitor switch and radio stopped working and we also ripped the zip on the front cover at a lock. Its suprising how quickly these things can get you down. However, we worked together as a team (me posting qustions on the friendly narrowboat FB page and Paul using his eletrician skills) and we managed to find a loose connection so the electrics now work fine. We have also managed to find a cratchbrepair lady who lives in Milton Keynes and who we will be passing!

It’s still all exciting as it’s new, but I suspect we will longing for a nice hot bath soon!

And for those of you who missed it on Instagram, please see below a hilarious video of Paul arguing with a young swan!

Love to all,

Jo & Paul xxx