really old style living?

mardatha

Is anybody else in here 60-ish ( or ill )? - Do you think maybe its too old to be starting a new type of living ? My OH is not at all supportive, and on bad days when I'm knackered he blames it all on me and my "silly ideas"...(that means gardening !!) and thinks I should spend all my days on the couch watching telly or polishing bloody ornaments:eek: Please gimme some shining examples of folk who do wonders to use as ammunition!

honeybun16

Mardatha I think you are the shining example to us all, he only needs to look on here to see the amazing help and support you have given to everyone to know that you and your 'silly ideas' are not silly in any way

cbsexec

although I dont post often I do read many threads and especially enjoy the ones you post on Mardatha

You inspire me to try harder and learn more

Dont take any notice of your other half!

Gigervamp

Mardatha, my FIL is in his 70's and recently had cancer (he's clear now thank goodness) and he has a large veg patch in his garden which he plants up every year.

I think he finds doing the gardening therapeutic.

parsonswife8

Mardatha, I am just a few years younger then you and I am also not well. I am lucky in that my OH is very supportive of everything I try to do and he does a lot of the housework. I find it difficult to do a lot of things, like getting pots out of the back of the cupboard and hanging washing.
I do most of the cooking in fits and starts and use the slow cooker quite a bit. It is easier to just bung everything in and leave it to it's own devices instead of trying to stand in front of a cooker.
Sometimes, I do overdo things and then I feel it afterwards and have to take things slower.
We grow a lot of our own veg and herbs in a small back garden and even outside the front of our house. Lucky, he has green fingers.:D
He buys me old style books that I want and between us, we do our best to save on food etc by using coupons and discount codes and we use Tesco vouchers to eat out now and again.
He ferries me around to various hospitals and doctors surgery, when I have appointments and I don't go out anywhere without him, as I am very unsteady on my pins.:o
I am really truly blessed with having him as my husband, and we have only just been married for 4 years. He is my "third time lucky".:rotfl::rotfl:
As for you, your posts are always very inspirational to many on this forum. Just continue being you, that's the person we all know and like.:T

Winged_one

I would have thought that even having a plan and doing certain things on good days would be helpful! Like if you have a good day and plan a stew for dinner, or spag bol or whatever, don't go mad making a whole day of batch cooking but just do a double or treble batch and freeze the leftovers for the bad days.

And knowing what jobs would be worth doing means that when you do have energetic days, that energy is put straight into the most useful tasks and not wasted.

I am not in the same boat, but I work too hard (so run out of both energy and enthusiasm) and also don't spend enough time at home, so I spend my insomniac hours (when I am stressing about economic issues) on planning out the things that need doing (to distract me from the economics) and then I can devote the "spare 10 minutes" to little jobs that really make a difference, or a half day that I am at home to big jobs that need doing but have planned out each item to do, best order, exactly what needs doing and can achieve so much more in that half day by not having to figure it out as I go.

And I also know that, while I just cannot find time to "fill the freezer for a month", I do have a range of tasty options just by making Monday's dinner every Sunday afternoon (while I am making the Sunday roast in the kitchen anyway) and always ALWAYS making that a double batch and freezing half for another mid-week emergency night.

And knowing my limits, means that when I DO tackle big jobs, I only take on little bits of them at a time rather than pull everything apart and then be unable to finish them off.

littleowl

mardatha wrote: »

Is anybody else in here 60-ish ( or ill )? - Do you think maybe its too old to be starting a new type of living ? My OH is not at all supportive, and on bad days when I'm knackered he blames it all on me and my "silly ideas"...(that means gardening !!) and thinks I should spend all my days on the couch watching telly or polishing bloody ornaments:eek: Please gimme some shining examples of folk who do wonders to use as ammunition!

Weeell - I moved to France when I was 60 and lived there for four years - alone. That was certainly a 'new type of living'. Moved back a few years ago. Watching television and polishing ornaments will make you old before your time - as well as rotting the brain . Feeling tired with the satisfaction of having achieved something is a good feeling (feeling over tired is not). You are never too old to try something new!!!!!!!!

mardatha

Oh thanks everybody but (lol, my fav word BUT!! ) its easy for me to sit here and witter on - anybody can do that . I just wish I could DO it. All my life I worked and he worked and things were fine , probably because at weekends we were too knackered to do anything at all. But now we're both off and spend all day together, what he wants to do and what I want to do are not the same And I cant do what I want to do without his help... He was brought up to think anything home-made was an insult. His parents never bothered with the garden or grew veg. My dad was a miner and so were all the neighbours and EVERYBODY had veg gardens.
I will sit and knit my fingers off making socks, and he will say "forgoddsake just buy PROPER ones"
So I suppose that if I was fit then things would be fine, I could do my thing and he could do his . But the problem is that I need him. He does do his share of housework, and makes the breakfast - he doesnt just sit and let me do it all. But I need muscles and labour in the garden and he wont be it !
LOL!

mardatha

Oh Owl, you are so right . The house will be here when we're not eh ! ty

annie123

Tell the RV if he doesn't support you you're turning cannibal and he's on the menu!



Ideas:

• What about the DS near you, could he not help? with careful planning you could get your garden set up in 1 weekend so that it would be easy for you to maintain after that.
• Or is there a college 'near' you that does gardening courses? our local one used to use OAP's or disabled folks gardens as practice for their portfolio (you would just make it into the OAP bit)
• Ad in your 'local' village, garden help wanted in exchange for some of the produce and a pair of knitted socks;)
• I convince my DH that we need a working holiday near you and I set it up for you......highly unlikely but you never know;)

Once you get a no dig garden up and running it really does need very little maintenance, and will make it much easier to plan for really old style living.

And with hold knitted socks from the RV from now on, let him wear holey ones or go out and buy his own.

Remind the RV that we all love you for who you are and wouldn't want you to change, and would he mind doing the same please