Yesterday I met the son of a former class mate who has borrowed my incubator in the hope of raising some chickens. I offered a rooster disposal service but apparently he works at Bonorong so any roosters will be food for the birds of prey. Bother. A couple of carcasses would be a useful addition to the kitchen.

The kitchen is slowly making progress - the corner cupboard is in its final position as I found the 200mm filler following a major search of the house. It was hiding in plain sight, naturally. Today I pulled out the door and searched for some undercoat. It seems I don't have any, or if I do it is not in anything resembling an accessible location, so I used the clear varnish I bought for the countertops to cover the door. It looks rather interesting as they have used two different colours of MDF to make the door, but I think that now it is sealed, I will cover it with some gloss paint that's a closer approximation of the rest of the kitchen. Besides natural timber tones would make the floor and cabinets run together.

I was sitting in the kitchen trying to decipher the instructions on the tin when a local knocked at the door. After much gesticulation I managed to persuade him to back away from the door to a safe distance before I emerged. He had been to the tip and ran into a man who was throwing out a bag of fleece. He thought I might like it.

Now anyone who spins knows that the results of this sort of offer can be highly variable! So I fixed a look of polite interest on my face and went to have a look. He's a good spotter - it is a rather nice merino with 7-8cm staples so eminently spinnable.

So that was set to one side in the kitchen after profuse thanks to encourage similar offers and I returned to the varnish tin. This being able to cook meals in your own kitchen is a rather novel experience after the last few years, but it is definitely encouraging. A second drawer now holds my kitchen knives and the larger of the two cutting boards is a temporary bench top so it's all making very encouraging progress. I anticipate installing a third drawer tomorrow in between tip runs and bank cleaning.

Meanwhile I am enjoying the warmth of the fire as a rather chilly wind whistles around the house - snow on the Mountain, but just the odd drop of rain here.