Rain, rain, go away.................or not apparently

Apparently someone has ordered 40 days and 40 nights of rain................and gales.

I made the very wrong mistake of putting the boxes from the kids Christmas toys outside next to the bin so now they are scattered and soggy across the little front yard/garden that we have which will make for a delightful job when the weather dries up for a bit, or at very best stops raining.

Found out yesterday that the second hand rabbit hutch we got apparently is not rabbit proof. There is a brief back story here so I will try and shorten it into a manageable chunk.

Last May Ben asked me for a pet of his own that he could cwtch and handle etc. (note we already had a dog and 2 terrapins), I told him he could get one if he kept his room tidy to which he agreed. I figured this would last maybe a few days at best, well 6 months later its now Christmas and his room is still immaculate. So I managed to talk him into a small pet, so we go to a well known pet store to pick up dog food for Bruno

 (Here is Bruno, after a long wet walk. He is our rescue dog, he is 11 at present and we adopted him when he was 4 years old. He has a few psychological issues especially with cold weather thanks to previous owners neglect and abuse. He loses a lot of weight with stress in the cold so we put him on IAMS senior to keep him stable otherwise his weight literally drops off him and he looks like skin and bones. He also has problems with chronic licking despite me or Ow always being home with him, a healthy diet and plenty of exercise and cuddles) 

Anyway my boyfriend Ow decides to point out the rabbits to Ben whilst we are in PAH. Now Ben gets his heart set on a rabbit, so we go to RSPCA and there are none there that he likes, but they tell us of a man desperate to sell his rabbits as he can no longer afford them and they are unwanted animals his daughter dumped on him. So we contact him. He has two Old English rabbits left which Ben has looked on Google and likes the look of. He wants £10 each or they are destined for the pot. So we drive 40 minutes to pick them up and I take £30 in case he has spare hay/food etc. We meet the guy with our cardboard box, Ow goes in and collects them and comes out with a suspicious smirk on his face, only for me to loo in the box and find 3 rabbits. 2 Old English and One Black Rex. He said the black one he just couldn't sell, no one wanted it so Ow took pity on it and re-homed it. Welcome to our home Splodge, Stripe and Bungle.

This is Stripe with the black stripe (Old English)

 Ben with his bunny Stripe.

This is Bungle (Black Rex) named by Owen and who is now Owen's Bunny. He seems to have taken to sitting on the back of the chair for hours on end.

This is Splodge with the um.......splodge. (Old English) and he is now Holly's Bunny.

Anyway get them home to discover they are all boys and within a week they are all fighting and since they are only 11 weeks old no vet will touch them for another 13 weeks. So we had one big hutch, which we had to divide for the 2 Old English's (although one side is considerably smaller, but they are all safe) and the Rex is in the old portable play pen. Then we brought a second hutch, now all bunnies have a hutch space, lastly we got a second hand hutch and all bunnies have a nice spacious home of their own.

Which leads us to now............

Yesterday I looked out the window to my horror to see Stripe who was in the second hand hutch sitting on top of Bungles hutch with a huge hole he had chewed in the old ones wall where it had obviously rotten.

Thankfully my friend had a barely used hutch in his garage though which I have swapped with him. In return for the hutch (which looks practically brand new) I gave him a bag of veg from the freezer, a bag of ready to roast potatoes, and two packs of Cumberland sausages - all of which were either brought with coupons or were brought home as waste from work.

So now all bunnies are safe and accounted for again.

I also yesterday listed Ben's old bike on Gum Tree. It is sat not doing much now as it was too small and he got a new bike for Christmas as his main present so we don't need it. I got it for £119 a few years ago and we lived in a flat so there was no where really for him to ride it, he only just learnt to ride it and therefore has really used it for a week before the weather turned nasty and he has outgrown it. So I'm asking £30 for it but open to offers - any money will be helpful but Id like to see it go to a home that it will be used

Plans for today though are,

• get the baby down for a nap. 
• Make a batch of stovies.
• Get some competitions done.
• Dishes
• and move Bens toys upstairs

That about sums it up for my jobs today. Thinking I might even use some of the left over sprouts up and put them as a side to the stovies to mop up some of the gravy.

Also does anyone have a good pizza base recipe? I want to get using my food processor and my two boys love pizza so I'm hoping to save a few quid by being able to make a base myself. 

Many Thanks all

x Sammy x