really old style living?

Gothicfairy

I have a barbour style coat and I love it , each pocket holds something useful or just plain interesting and it does smell a bit of damp dog but I couldn't be without it.
I would consider divorce if hubby through it away but then he doesn't have anything worth having so I guess I would just not feed him for a while to make him see the error of his ways.

I can't be doing with new boots, I like my old worn pair that just fit like slippers and I can walk for miles in. Whenever I have to get a new pair I seem to spend half the time moaning about them and as for breaking doc's in..ouch

ginnyknit

WCS and gothic one we seem to have alot in common, never been one for handbags, after all you cannot have your hands free :rotfl: I fill my pockets with allsorts. We took Dgs to the emergency doctor the other week and I stopped in the car park to collect acorns, there was a line of tiny oak trees set in the concrete car park??? Do they not realise they will grow and destroy the car park or do they not expect the surgery to be there for long? I have lots of shopping bags I have collected and they all have 'stuff' in the bottom of each. The other day I trying to remember when the wool shop opens as their times are a bit random, when the list of hours drifted out of the bottom of one of my bags :eek:

Although we are inner city dwellers there is a long ex- railway line at the end of my street turned into a walkway and the resevoirs are round the corner so when I wander to Dd's by either route I need large pockets full of butty bags for foraged bits and bobs. I just wish Dd had bought an O/S pram with a big tray underneath as these new fangled buggies are no good for the likes of me, and how can you transport 'found' furniture on a buggy with a child in it :rotfl:

I bought a tiny wicker shopping basket at a fayre in the summer and its quite useful as things don't get squashed in it like in a bag. OMG I sound like a bag lady don't I - pockets and bags full of supposedly useful things:rotfl:

prepareathome

Oh gothicfairy I know your life is hard, but the freedom you must have must be worth the price, its something hubby and I always wanted to do - get a campervan and just move around. Unless we win the lottery, and as we very rarely buy a ticket, that is unlikely to happen nor live away from people so this year at 55 I decided if I cannot have the life I really want I must make the best of what I have instead of just dreaming. So we live on edge of city, very conservative, all front gardens drive ways now, horrible all that flagging. I of course don't know what they are doing in their back gardens, but somehow doubt if fronts are flags they are doing much OS with back. Our back garden is a hill, a very small hill but still a hill and digging it and growing vegetables in it is a no go, tried and when it rains heavily plants and soil end up in patio - I did say it was steep. Side garden I call the field as rather large. Snag is we live in a conservation area with some ridiculous rules and fencing in front cannot be bigger than 3ft. As we live on a main road into city this means anything I grow is not just on view to locals but others passing through. So although have the space the cost of screening everything been putting me off.

Now I have made up my mind to try and live on what we grow as much as possible I just have had to accept I have to spend money to hopefully live more OS. So have planted 100 Hawthorn mainly mixed hedging to enclose most of side garden, although hubby cannot make up his mind if he will ever use the drive gates or not - they lead to grass at moment with maybe a drive to be put in, so cannot screen there grrrrrr and that is where we need the screening as kids have climbed over the gates and walk across garden and jump over front gate to cut off corner. Garden now has to be dug over for beds for next year - well I plan to have the grass where beds are to go removed but have raised beds as health will not let me get down to often, digging and all over heavy work, including hedges, is not done by me but a guy who lives locally and slowly building himself up a business of gardening - he studied all about it at college, but was very hands on course. Annoying I have to pay someone, but hopefully once have everything in place I will only need him to come and cut back hedges and turn over the soil and add compost to the raised beds. No money at moment for wood to go round the beds but hopefully through this forum will save up for it, or get hold of some old pallets.

The garden I think will be big enough to grow enough to feed us and son and his family all year round - if I freeze and dust off my old skills of preserving. My main problem is going to be peeling them - holding a knife peeling for more than a few mins has me in tears due to pain, maybe in future if I do succeed in growing things I could do a big harvest on one day and employ someone to do that for me. Up till now managed to peel the few I have grown and bought frozen veg, in fact more of them in freezer than anything else. Storage will be a problem for root vegetables so got to see what I can come up with to keep them cool and eatable. I have gone mad for next year, and its not very OS but have paid for a Constant Garden to get me started - http://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/showdetails.asp?id=697 I know very expensive but not sure what will grow and thought this will help me work that out plus get into place everything for following year when I will grow from seed as did when growing in pots in back. The weeks camping that comes with it is going to my son as, as a family and their oldest is 6 they have never had a holiday and we used to go camping and have all the gear. Son actually checked it all out this summer as they were hoping to go away for a few days but money was to tight and even though we offered to pay they got us to buy things ( as he like my husband is a delivery driver, different firms and both on basic pay, although son is full-time while hubby is only now on P/T contract due to firm trying to stay afloat) they needed instead ( we had a small inheritance in July which we used to clear debts and replace things badly needed in house and its all gone, the constant garden and hedges being one of the last things bought with the money)

I enjoy growing from seed and always end up in past with far to many with not having room in pots but in future should have enough room in side garden. The problem will be having space to grow the seedlings. I have one large walk in greenhouse - a tip for anyone with one to stop it blowing away, mine has been up for 6 years, although cover has had to be replaced, it went into holes. I have placed mine on pallets and then put large stones on the wood underneath and gravel and tied the frame to the pallets and even in the strongest winds so far it has not blown down, although have ended up with covers from neighbours in my garden after a bad gale. Its placed at top of back garden as its only place there is nearly flat ground. If I am lucky and all the plants I am sent grow then I feel it will have been worth the money.

In the house I am hoping in future to be more OS - I enjoy making my own food and cakes from scratch but health problems I admit have made me lazy past few years and ended up buying the odd ready meal for hubby to make himself ( he is not a cook) on my bad days, now am back to making meals and freezing them again.

I had forgotten about using sour milk in scones, and sometimes I have some milk on the turn, its I have now a teasmade in my bedroom so I can have a cuppa before I am able to get downstairs in morning, usually that is about 2 -3 hours after I am up and I have milk in a small flask which I take up daily, but sometimes milk not all used and it goes off after 24hrs or so in flask and I have been throwing it away, no more I have some today so later I will make up a batch of scones and I know hubby will have some but rest I will freeze - anything else that I can use sour milk in?

Son delivers all items for baking to shops, snack bars etc that make their own and I have asked him to ask his boss if they would consider selling me some sacks of flour, he was telling me cost of a sack to his firm is £6 for 25kg so tomorrow he will remind boss as he has not come back to him with a figure for me to buy it from them for, so hoping it will work out a good price as at moment paying £1.24 for 1.5Kg strong bread flour be it white or wholemeal and a friend and her daughter are willing to share a sack of self raising with me if price good. Must check on price of yeast and find out if they sell sugar by the sack as well. Hubby delivers newspapers so we are entitled to one free newspaper a day, well saves buying and means I always have a stack of newspapers in to put on floor.


Oh yes forgot to mention, we did actually get an old camper-van - the VW type, and we went on nice little holidays in her, we called her Betty for a few years, we bought a portapotty and a screen tent thing to put it in, but then she needed some work so ended up parked up in side garden awaiting us having the money to have her fixed, so we cancelled her insurance and got a SORN for her, then near bonfire night that year some nice people blew her up with extra powerful fireworks - they were going round the city and surrounding area blowing up vans, letter boxes and cars if they could. We had police, fireman and bomb squad all over her, we were very lucky the gas bottles didn't go up as they could have damaged the house. So of course that was the end of her and our dreams with no insurance.

mardatha

Hi Gothicfairy. I love Robert Service but think your life sounds too hard for me

prepareathome

ginnyknit wrote: »

Although we are inner city dwellers there is a long ex- railway line at the end of my street turned into a walkway :

Ginnyknit you have reminded me, we have the exact same old railway line turned into a nature area. I used to go for bike rides down it with son, but we stopped going as it became an area for drug dealers and muggers but that was about 10 years ago, hopefully it will be ok now so might get in my little scooter take my youngest doggy, she loves sitting on my lap when I use it and start going for little runs down it. There are all sorts of trees and plants growing along it and there were lots of old fields no longer farmed that still had things growing wild in it. Isn't it funny how you forget such a thing is there not 5 mins from my home and we over go under the bridge of it so often in the car, a way in is just there, mind you would not get scooter up that, but there is another way in a bit further along that used to be just a smooth pathway up to it. Not gone far in scooter as yet as I am surrounded by busy roads and very high pavements, and dips down don't match on both sides of road and so been very nervous about going out on my own, but will try to build up courage and go, it used to make me feel as if I was away in the countryside .

born_blonde

Well, well, well, I went to my local but very expensive farmshop yesterday, mainly to show some friends how the other half live!
Then I noticed Gammon Hock £2.25, several all the same price so I chose the one with most meat. I also notice soup packs i.e. chickens that had their breasts and legs removed !
I will be returning.

ginnyknit

Sounds like the farm shop is catching on with the trend for good wholesome food now Born Blonde. Lets hope they all get with the programme soon.

I got 2 dozen eggs for 40p today so am busy turning them into cakes. Might try some yorkshire puds too, then I have raost spuds, parsnips, meat and yorkys already in the freezer and a roast dinner will take 10 minutes -:j

ginnyknit

With the threatened bad weather on the horizon - sooner than later for some of us- how ready are you if you get snowed in or if its difficult to go shopping? I need to stock up on long life milk, then i reckon we could last for a fortnight and with a bit more meat in the freezer maybe a month.

Gothic fairy how do you manage in the snow? No foraging then but I imagine you are well stocked with beans and other dried stuff.

Prepare at home, you seem to have made the same decision I did when I had to retire to look after OH. My dreams of a cottage in the country went off in a puff of smoke and I now do my best with what I have. My garden is quite big and productive, foraging getting more interesting every year. we found a little playground near a friends house this year and took DGS there for a play, suddenly I noticed plums and apples! A lady passed me and pointed out more of them, she siad no one really bothers with them:eek: and thats in a country village??? So next year I will be there with my basket ready.

mardatha

A lot of the ladies in the Rural here didn't make jam this year, I'm not in it but the neighbour is and she was saying people didnt have the fruit this year at all. We have snow forecast for tomorrow on high ground, which is us. So it wont be long now.

prepareathome

I am hoping my garden will join yours next year in being productive, it also is rather large, just annoying its on the side/front not the back, but hopefully those hedges will grow.

I actually did a freezer inventary on Tuesday night and found I have enough main parts of meals - fish/meat/chicken/sausages to feed us every night for 60 nights yes 60 :eek: There is also vegetables, potato products, rice that has been cooked and pasta and was good froze it rather than throw it, ice cream, 2 bought loaves ( and been making my own for a few months) 5pts milk, cream, custard and some ice lollies. Not enough of the veg/potatoes/rice/pasta to go with every meal. Also fruit enough for two weeks meals if eeked out. I knew I had a lot of Veg in but though that was what was filling up the freezer I was rather surprised to find out what I had. Among this lot is 5 lamb roasts - two small enough for just one meal but others would do 2 or three. A lot has been bought as whoopsies but no room for any nice yummies for Christmas so have joined the eating out of freezer challenge just to clear it a bit, but not to much as to scared bad weather hits and then I would kick myself for not refilling it or filling to full of deserts and cream cakes and not mains for meal.

My cupboards are rather full as well with tinned potatoes, instant mash, rice, pasta, about 2 weeks of mains for meal like stewing steak, chicken, corned beef, tuna. sardines, salmon etc. Have tinned veg and tinned fruit but really need to do an inventary to see exactly what I have in the way of dried goods and tins. I have to actually force myself to use a tin when it gets near its date just to keep everything as good as it can be as don't really like cooking from tins, prefer starting from scratch. Obviously fish in tins is different as are beans,spaggitti and soups ( yes should make my own and I do but hubby loves tomato soup and I have yet to find a way to make it cheap ( maybe once garden is up and running I will have lots of tomatoes ( everything crossed). If he has been on a later morning run so has time to have his breakfast before he goes to work he usually fancies a bowl of soup for lunch but with HM bread. So most tins are for emergency only.

Flour well am not to bad, as son has got me 16kg sacks of white bread flour; wholemeal flour; self raising flour and at nice prices £5/£6/£6.50 - his firm delivers them to caterers. cafes, anywhere that makes their own food and sells it and his work is now allowing him to buy things from them. So asked him how much they would let me have sugar for - they do not do granulated but do caster so as it comes in 25kg sacks won't be as cheap as the flour but hoping will still be cheaper than buying and we can use it if so as we do granulated. Normally I make my own caster and icing sugar in the grinder.

Got to admit its not just possible bad weather that is making me very grateful I have this stock. Hubby had a meeting at work, all the drivers attended and were told firm is looking to lose 8 drivers, hopefully through voluntary redundancy if not they will choose and hubby was one of the last ones in - 6 years ago ( he was there before but medically dismissed and re-employed when ok again, slipped disc and sciatica kept him flat on his back for 8 months). So if worst happens stock might just give us a boost till we become used living on jsa. We should know one way or other by New Year.

Am I glad I am already working out ways to live not just OS but more frugally as well like following WWII diet. Ok not exactly going to follow it but portions and cheaper ways I will. Doing this I might make the 60 meals last way more and them I have been frugal with in counting ( like 250gs beef for two of us, 150gs mince etc). I haven't got much in way of barley, lentils, split peas, etc so want to stock up more on them as way I see it money is better spent on food now than sitting in bank to be spent on food later, not the way prices are rising all the time, I will get more for my money now. It maybe that me paying for the constant garden for next year might not be such and expense after all as at moment I do not have enough space to grow enough seedlings to plant out and feed us when grown.

I am way over budget on Nov GC and now I know why, I had just been buying and finding space but not really looking at the amount I had in, knew what I had just not how much if you can see what I mean.

So I have just got to hope we don't have any powercuts this winter :eek::eek: maybe I should get a few more tins in, what do you think.

Oh yes can anyone tell me if you can freeze yeast? - dried, as son can get me 1kg bags from work ( not sure how much) but they told him once bag was open it has to be used within two months and not sure if I will get through that much.

Its first time in my life I have ever known anyone that can get me anything cheaper, so I want to make the most of it as his firm is struggling and if it goes so does my cheaper flour etc and so would my stocks as they have two young children so my food would keep them going.