July was its regular busy self, the dread diary was fully booked. August, however, was delightfully quiet, not that I organised it that way, it’s simply how things naturally flowed.

We’ve cruised east on the canal, finding isolated mooring spots each time we moved.  We truly have been spoilt this summer with the most tranquil of places to set up home.

This year, for the first time, we experimented with growing potatoes on the roof, the grow was a success.  We’re chuffed and with our new confidence, we’re going to experiment with growing other foods; carrots, spinach, tomatoes, lettuce.

We’re now installing a second wood burner at the far end of the boat, because the boat is very long and isn’t open plan, the heat from our main stove doesn’t get to the other end of the boat.  This second wood burner will be a game changer for so many things.  Wood foraging, our favourite off-grid job, has already begun, we’ve got a huge stack of windfall, most of which we’ve sawn, chopped already; preparation is the key to living comfortably off-grid.  We’ve also been lucky to have acquired another solar panel.  The solar panels we already have do the job well, we run all our necessary electrics from them, which isn’t much at all.  However, the solars at present give power for 9 months on average, with an extra solar panel, we aim to get 10 months, thus reducing our diesel usage down to a bare minimum.

Now in September, the hawthorn berries are in abundance and looking spectacular.  We’re having a mini-heatwave which is lush and the dread diary is already fully booked, with October, November bookings already coming in; looks like I’m going to be busy this autumn.