How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

Pitlanepiglet

Oh dear, reality is dawning as to the reality of my current life! OH has been home for a couple of years providing care for Dad and building our extension. I've always worked long days away from home so have left all the heavy work to him as he's big and strong and very practical.

Now he has a job the reality has struck that if I want to get our garden sorted outside the back of the extension then I'm going to have to do it myself. We've got a big chunk of bank that needs to be dug out and it's really stony. I'm going to start with two bucketloads at a time...

I'm now waiting to the car boot seasons so that I can buy a pick axe that I can wield! How different to my 10 hour long office days!

mrswive

All this talk of homebrew is making me consider trying to make some cider this year - it's the only thing OH and I really drink alcoholwise. Tips and recipes would be greatly appreciated!
Piglet - I'd choose wielding a pickaxe over sitting in an office any day and s*d the backache!!

rachbc

I lvoe doing something physcially after a fairly static office job - there is a real sense of achievement in it that is different from my 'day job'. I love chopping wood, hauling coal about, digging, knocking things down! it will be so worth it when its done!

suzid

Thank you for your lovely welcome and interesting chat.
I worked in a bank in the 1970's and it was in the early days of computers. We couldn't give customers their balances as the printouts didn't arrive. We worked in our coats and had to work like the clappers when the power came on to process the days work on a punch tape machine. This was then 'transmitted' via another machine over the phone to the computer centre. At home we were lucky to have a gas fire so could cook toast with a toasting fork in front of it, and make flasks of hot drinks in the evening to have in the morning. Unfortunately we had an electric cooker but don't remember ever feeling hard done to.
We didn't have central heating and I used to put my coat on when I left the lounge as the rest of the house was like a fridge. In windy weather the carpet would rise and fall with every gust of wind. :rotfl: The ice pattens on the windows were really beautiful too. I was lucky that after my mother died I was brought up by my grandparents and they were reasonably well off but when I stayed with my aunt in South Wales there was no hot water and I used to have a bath in a tin bath in front of the fire with a clothes horse to provide privacy. I thought it was wonderful but at 7yrs didn't appreciate what hard work it must have been. A weekly bath in our house too.
We currently have a gas wall heater in the kitchen which is never used but the memories of all the power cuts put me off having it taken out even though it can be a nuisance when we have all the family home at Christmas and the big sheet of MDF is put on the already 6x3 foot table to make it even bigger. I hasten to add that it's not ancient but was installed before the central heating was replaced 8 yrs ago, and a much bigger radiator was installed.
Just a thought, has anyone tried cooking strawberries with just a little bit of sugar, liquidizing them and then freezing it. It's just a change from making jam with the surplus and is gorgeous poured over fruit salad with yogurt, or a hot sponge and custard. DD loved it when she was expecting. A real taste of summer in the darker months.

Margaret54

Hi Gailey:) Haven't been on here love for a few days. I thought I had sent the wee pm to you, will try again. It's nothing bad I promise xx Margaret

Charis

charlies-aunt wrote: »

Just thinking back to my childhood - grew up in a house with no central heating, rooms had a carpet in the middle and polished boards all round the edges, a bath once a week, bread and jam for at least one meal a day, hand-me-down clothes and shoes, walking two miles to school and back, parents both working two jobs to make ends meet and being left 'home alone' for hours on end . . . it sounds really deprived nowadays but it was pretty much the norm in our neck of the woods. Vividly remember the beautiful heavy swirls of ice on the inside of the bedroom windows during winter - couldn't see out for weeks on end at times :eek:

Remembering those days helps me keep perspective - times are tough but compared with then, I have a life of comparative luxury :rotfl:

You have another sister here. I remember all the above and I was a young wife during the era of the three day week.

The thing I remember vividly is that the sugar shortage and various other 'shortages' were started off by rumours of world shortages. Someone whispered that the Siberian salt mines (??!) had run out of salt and within days that had also disappeared. From those days to now I have always had extra salt, sugar, bread flour and toilet rolls, not because I fear a world shortage but because panic buying can clear the shelves in hours. And that was in the days when the stores had stuff out the back and not many of us had a car to lug the shopping home.

Pitlanepiglet

rachbc wrote: »

I lvoe doing something physcially after a fairly static office job - there is a real sense of achievement in it that is different from my 'day job'. I love chopping wood, hauling coal about, digging, knocking things down! it will be so worth it when its done!

It will be worth it and I'm getting to grips with doing something active. At the moment I'm trying to chip it out with a spade which isn't ideal - trouble is I can't even lift OH's pick axe let alone swing it!

jumblejack

Hi all. I just wanted to share a lovely compliment my yogurt mad son just paid me. He asked if he could flavour our 'hm thermos yogurt'. Of course I allowed him to. He added a swirl of sainsburys basics honey (61p a pot!) and some preserve cherries that need to be used up and then crushed some cereal (b&m 59p a box, organic cherry & coconut harvest) over the top. He said it is the best yogurt he has EVER tasted. It is way nicer than even fruit corners apparently!!!

I am so made up with that as it only costs 39p a litre as I am now using UHT skimmed milk. Not bad for mega fresh bio yogurt, eh!!!

8-)

GreyQueen

suzid wrote: »

Just a thought, has anyone tried cooking strawberries with just a little bit of sugar, liquidizing them and then freezing it. It's just a change from making jam with the surplus and is gorgeous poured over fruit salad with yogurt, or a hot sponge and custard. DD loved it when she was expecting. A real taste of summer in the darker months.

Hi suzid, I did something similar but without the cooking bit as I had a glut of strawbs on the lottie and wasn't set up for jamming. What I did was a steal from my Readers Digest book on gardening and preserving (title not quite right). I forced uncooked strawbs thru a sieve to make a puree and simply froze it in plastic tubs. Tasted wickedly lovely. One time I scraped the frozen puree into sundae dishes and garnished with blueberries and it was lush and very healthy. You could made it baaaaaddd with cream or icecream, too.;)

SD-253

mummysaver wrote: »

We have LPG, it's stored in a tank under our front lawn, and woebetide anyone who tries to steal it, after all the kerfuffle sorting out my heating I shall be storing their body in the freezer until bbq weather arrives! In reality any potential thieves would be caught in conversation by my neighbour, and would most likely run away! Lovely though he is, he can talk for England!

I really do not think it is actually possible to steal LPG as it turns into a gas the moment you open the tank. The only way to steal is to use an actual LPG lorry which can remove as well as add LPG. At least there is one definite advantage with LPG as stealing oil epically from churches is very popular at the moment.
By the way I made 34 Gallons of Cider last/this year using apples within 2.5 miles of my house paying for none at all. The only real problem I have is my press as I could do with a bigger one. I bought a garden shredder for cutting the apples nothing better for that job. I also did 2 gallons of Sloe Gin and use the Sloes after the gin has been removed for making Sloe Cider..............very very good......no superb. Next year I am going to hammer the Sloe Gin Although I drink very little of it (as Sloe Gin) I can give it as payment in kind for favors done. Next I will go big time on elderberry wine. Mate gave me a bottle which promptly exploded in the car what was left was excellent. Will try a little bit of elderflower wine/champagne. I may do as much cider but more likely to work at getting certain mixes right as to inconsistent at the moment. And of course wild mushrooms rabbits and Pheasant. Ohhhhhhh and of course firewood keep a look out for the odd fallen tree. All of the latter would be made allot easier with a power assisted bicycle (especially the wood) but to tight for the moment so will have to stick with ordinary bikes and trailers......until my legs fall off!!