really old style living?

westcoastscot

Nice to see you back Hippeechiq - do hope things are a little easier for you, or at least more steady. I've thought about you a lot whilst I've been working, and wondered how you are

WCS

kippers

Hippeechiq wrote: »

I've been caring for my daughter who has a serious mental illness, 24/7 for the past 2½ years and fighting to get her the right treatment, and for her survival, and I think it has finally caught up with me, and I've kinda lost my mojo -

Oh bless you, it must have been so hard for you. No wonder you have lost your 'mojo'. Wish I could do something to help. :sad:

Hippeechiq

Thanks Kippers & WCS - I appreciate your kind words

We've had a truly awful 12 months WCS, worse than the previous 18, and I do feel physically & mentally shattered, however about 5 weeks ago she started to make small signs of improvement, which is wonderful. I'm grateful for any improvement, and although it's just a small one, it's better than heading in the other direction.

Thank you for asking - it's kind of you to have had me/us in your thoughts

Made a very frugal tea tonight POTATO ONION & BACON HOTPOT Even with the cheese sauce, it's still an economical dish to make, and very tasty too

Hobsons_Choice

I was about the throw away an old 4.5tog summer quilt that was really flat. Had a brainwave (yes, it WAS lonely in there) and cut it in half to make interlining for some curtains. Hopefully keep us nice and toasty this winter....or NOW, looking at the bl**dy weather!

mardatha

Really cold here today and its just got very wet

kippers

Hobsons_Choice wrote: »

I was about the throw away an old 4.5tog summer quilt that was really flat. Had a brainwave (yes, it WAS lonely in there) and cut it in half to make interlining for some curtains. Hopefully keep us nice and toasty this winter....or NOW, looking at the bl**dy weather!

What a brilliant idea.

I got to my allotment at 6am this morning and it was foggy:eek:it felt very much like autumn was upon us. The sunquickly burnt the fog away though and then it was beautiful down there with the birds singing away happily.

Bought another two buckets of apples to juice. My dd's both helped me yesterday and drank loads of the juice..i'm surprised they didn't spend all night with tummy ache on the toilet lol

I can't quite decide what to make for tea tonight. I don't know whether to have fish in parsley sauce (i'll have to use the diary free marg and soya milk for it though) or whether to make the fish into a pie with either pastry or mash (again using my diary free marg). What ever i make i have brought back a cabbage and swede from my allotment to use and i have some runnerbeans or peas in my freezer.

I better go now as i need to start my 2nd round of juicing.

kippers

Managed to read upto page 33 of this thread so i still have a long way to go. There is so much information on here.

Today it is what we call 'potato day'. This is the day that my dh and two dd's dread me mentioning. We are all going to my allotment to dig up all the spuds (before they succumb to blight) and store them ready for the winter. Actually this is our 2nd 'potao day' this month now we have 3 plots, so we should have a lovely amount of spuds to store this year. The potatoes normally last us until Feb but hopefully this year we may get a liitle longer out of them.

My dh and i dig up the spuds while my 2 dd's sort them into 'good' spuds and 'bad' spuds (the bad are any with slug holes etc that wont store properly). We leave them to dry a couple of hours, turning them once and then bag them up to store. We make sure we eat the 'bad' ones first.

While the potatoes are drying we sit and have a lovely picnic, so the day is really nice, but hard work. My girls get a bonus in their spending money too.

I've got to say my dd's (aged 11 & 13) have been brilliant this year. Not only have they helped with the potatoes they have been juiceing apples, making passatta, picking at the allotment etc I am very proud of them...and hopefully they will be learning some O/S skills for when they are older and have their own houses.

Later today we will be having a roast chicken with roast pots, cabbage, swede,jeruselum artichokes (frozen from allotment) and either french beans or runnerbeans. All the veg from the allotment so that makes me feel good.


This is my plan for next week, i need to

• Work our money out (i need to do this more often to keep on top of things)
• Sort my dd's wardrobes and charity shop anything that they have outgrown
• Meal plan for the next month (first time i'm trying to do the whole month to cut down on visits to shops)
• Start my herb patch outside my greenhouse.
• Make tom soup/passatta with my ripe toms and freeze
• Continue using / freezing pickings from allotment

Anyway i better make a start on todays picnic and hang my washing out before waking everyone up.

mardatha

Since I started this thread I've changed totally how I do things. The aim was to copy the wild west pioneers/Victorian smallholders who only hit the shops 4-5-6 times a year - I failed in that, couldn't do it, but I found I could cut it down a lot and found it great fun. Now, reading Exacta's winter forecast I'm glad I know how to shop less often.
Found its important to grow more of things you like instead of trying to grow some of everything. Found that menu planning is very important and also having a good store cupboard in. Cos if you're tired and ill then you sometimes can't be assed sticking to the menu plan and you end up living on cornflakes. (Ask me how I know this )
And now the next big hurdle is WINTER... which they are saying on Exacta will be the worst yet :eek: So get out your copies of "The Long Winter" and be prepared !!

kezlou

It doesn't look good for us this winter.

Well all i know is the door curtains will be going up this year, even OH has admitted we need them. Going to start putting up some insulating black stuff, sorry i can't remember the name of stuff which seals up windows and doors. Ours has fallen off most of the windows, so its a much needed now.

Thanks for the tip regarding the fleeces on the windows, will have a go later.

Some main things which are needed i've started doing already.

1) buy a camping kettle - now done. So sick of the electric going off laast year due to high winds.
2)buy more thermals - getting some of the market int he next month
3) make gloves, hats, scarf's - ongoing as we speak.
4) make sure have lots of flour, powered milk etc - saved us last year. Yes we are in a large town, but the roads were that bad we started running out of milk, bread and fresh food. I'm not joking, so no its not panic stations, its just a back up.
5) get the door curtains up.
6) buy chimneys for oil lamps (yes i know, )

This year we'll be living up swiss chard, kale and leeks by tjhe loks of it, seems as though the snails and slug don't like them. Wonder why , saying they not my favourites either. don;'t have much of anything this of the garden to freeze, as we've literally only had enough to feed us. No matter though, thats life and next year will be better.

Must admit mardatha we've hardly been going to the shops either, last time we went, we ALL including kids walked out. I bought onions last week, got home to find most of them off. Not sure why, but i've noticed the quality of food is not as good as it used to be.

mardatha

I think supermarkets are buying inferior quality stuff because they're losing money as people are being more careful ... no?
TY for reminding me about oil lamps - I have a beauty here that I need to get paraffin for and forgot about. again
I find its got a lot windier in the last 2 years, more gales and more storms.And when that happens our power always goes out.