Adrian Hollister

The great thing about having your own land with barns is that you have a lot of flexibility - at least in terms of what you can do and what you can store. This year we were able to secure a large number of bags of kindling and general firewood from off-cuts and general wood waste. So up I trundle with a landy full of bags of wood and logs and I safely stored them in the driest part of the barn for safe keeping. I brought back the last two bags a couple of weeks ago now and busily set about using the wood in the fire - which has been an especially good boost over this cold winter. Anyway, most of the way through the second bag I noticed the dogs going bonkers at the bag. The usual alarm bells went off in my head thinking it was rats or similar (something the dogs especially love to chase when we walk the field boundaries), so I dropped the bag and let the dogs loose. After a few minutes of the dogs sniffing like a loss-less vacuum cleaner should they came up with nothing apart from a lot of old leaves, a few seeds and what turns out to be a very large mouse nest.

This normally wouldn't be a problem, but the bags were stored in my outbuilding and there were no sign of the mice. So I did perhaps not the most humane thing and left the dogs to stuff around the whole of the outbuilding looking for other signs of life, but they were not interested in anything but their large bag of dog food (no surprises there). So thinking that this was an old nest I cleared everything up and didn't think any more about it.

In hindsight this may have not been the best tactic. Last week whilst moving the filing cabinet I noticed a trail of little bits of paper underneath the filing cabinet. It's not one we use often and generally stores our serious 'to keep but no need to look at' type documentation. So with a slight opening of the top draw of the cabinet it was clear that all was not well with my files. Only a super enthusiastic shredder would have done a better job on them. They were just piles of paper dust. But alas no sign of mice.

With my finest Shelock Holmes hat, pipe and super large magnifying glass I followed the shredded paper trail to find my first nest. I say my first as that day I found three others the last of which the dogs firmly pointed out were in my tool box. It's a plastic thing, industrial enough to stand on and no obvious holes in them (I have a few of them). Anyway, the dogs were going mad telling me that the tool box was 'hot' - actually one dog (the boy dog) was insistent that I should look at the big bag of dog food - daft thing.

With tool box in hand I took it outside and gave it a thorough examination. In one corner there was a small hole with neatly nibbled edges. Out of that hole was a small nose and whiskers. I'm not sure who was more shocked: me the mouse or the dog. Anyway the mouse got a away and the daft dog just sat there looking at me as though it was my fault. The inside of the tool box was a mess - smelly old mouse nest with bits of paper, bag and anything else the mouse could gnaw away at in there.

Feeling slightly more confident I went back in the outbuilding with the dogs and let them loose again. No surprises that the boy dog went straight for the big bad of dog food again. I know he's a little (well ok a lot) motivated by food, but this was a little unusual for him so I went over to the bag to look it over. It's in a clear plastic bag so I could see through into the brown contents. Sure enough in one corner was a little hole and yet another mouse nest. I shouldn't have chastised the poor dog so much but to be fair he did find a nest so I gave him a treat.

After a good sweep out and a clean of every cupboard, work surface and nest area I felt quite confident that they were now all gone. At least I felt confident until yesterday when I opened one of my tool cupboards to find a ruddy huge nest on the top shelf. How the bleeding heck the things managed to get into a closed cupboard I've no idea, but get in there they did. Electrical wire, some tools, gloves and anything non metal has had a bite or two. So another round of cleaning has begun and tomorrow I'm off to find some mouse traps. Humane ones if I can find them, if not it back to the basics and off with their nibbly little heads.

What a great village hall in Speen. We had a small jumble sale today to raise funds for the Green Party - made a nice amount of money and met some really great people too. So from Adrian Hollister: Thanks to all those that donated items for the jumble sale, those that can along to help and those that turned up. Hope to do another one in a month or so and see you all again!

As Tory policy starts to fall apart under scrutiny it's looking more and more like a hung parliament. It's easy to see why people are questioning the Conservative policies who's headlines seem to be to make the top 2% much richer and the rest of us have to pay the countries debt off. Not a great set of policies by any stretch of the imagination. I also can't help thinking if the latest Gordon personality bashing has been inspired by Tory spin doctors - doesn't sound like something New Labour would actually release at this time - their spin machine is just far too professional; but the reports of concessions the Conservatives have offered the Murdock news empire may explain their entry into print.

So now we just wait for the official release of an election date and see how things pan out. Adrian Hollister said "Let's hope it's possible to change the political system during the next parliament - from confrontational to co-operative; from unfair voting systems to a fair one."

The darn glass has cracked in my Charnwood multifuel stove. It started with a little crack and soon developed to a full blown glass falling out of the door sized crack. This is a right pain as the old screws holding the fixing plates in place are just stubs of their former glory. So I've let the stove go out and cool right down. Taken all the glass out and have had to drill the four screws out and re-tap them. Only managed to do two of them today, but that's enough to get the new glass back in with one of the two screws in each of the glazing bars. It's a good enough hold for the moment and I'll have to work out how to safely drill the other two without breaking the cast iron doors.

Interesting though the price of new glass: the two local fireplace shops in and around Newbury stock glass at over £96 for just one door; Charnwood themselves are cheaper even including delivery; but I ended up searching the web and got the glass and the gasket for £20. It's a wonder these local shops get any business - if their stove prices are the same as their glass prices it won't be too long before all of their potential customers look in their showroom, get a price and then compare it to web prices.

My other gripe for today is why is the price of wood and coal 50% more in West Berkshire than in Somerset or Devon - even from the same branded shops?

How the Tories have changed. They have embraced elements Blairism and decided marketing is better than real policy; sound bites are more important that real decisions; and honesty is allowed to be embellished to sell the Tory message. A lot of the Sunday rags and online web sites have made great fun mocking the Tory need to airbrush Cameron's picture to make him look - well who knows - perhaps more human? less like a dodgy car salesman? less like an Etonian toff?

My favourite site out there has to be 'Airbrushed for change' by http://mydavidcameron.com where there are a multitudes of mockup's of the latest Tory posters. Perhaps my favourite is entitled 'This is going to hurt. Don't worry your not going to feel a thing.' or 'My chums from school and I are going to absolutely, thoroughly, bloody-well sort the country out.'

Either way it's good for a laugh at the latest tory sham sales campaign - aimed to make you all think that it's in your interest to vote tory.