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

Hippeechiq

GreyQueen wrote: »

It wasn't, but I did just look at Hardup Hester's blog and her lunar calendar thingie (which I adore, HH, if you're reading) says it's now new moon 0% of full, which set me wondering.......

As you can see by the time of this post, I'm having an insomniac moment, something which can happen to me at the new and full moon, so I guess that makes me a lunatic.:rotfl:Anyone else out there similarly afflicted?

Totally!
A friend of mine who knows me very well suggested to me a couple of years ago that I was a always a bit fretful and low in mood when there was a full and new moon. I laughed at the suggestion, but she said: "ok, well, you take note in future and then tell me I'm wrong".

I did, and I couldn't. I can get extremely low around full and new moon, and I can totally forget about getting a good nights kip. I monitor it all the time now, and whereas I don't dwell on it as such, I'm aware of when they're coming and try to avoid stressful situations or making important decisions at those times.

If you consider what percentage of our bodies are composed of water, and then consider the moons gravitational pulls on the oceans it''s not quite as ridiculous as it may at first seem

Redlady BIG Congratulations on your results being normal hun - Fabulous news! :T
Mrs VP So sorry to read about your friend - very sad indeed.

I see a few of you are buying the fruit bushes from £idls....as a complete novice, and having no earth at all in my garden, if I bought a couple, could I grow them in large pots?

silvermaid

Hello there,
Just written a long post and lost it!!!
Hippee I think you could try planting in large pots. The problem is winter time. The roots are more susceptible to frost damage in pots compared to being dug into the ground. Have you got somewhere frost free to move them to in the winter?
Good luck, Silver

SD-253

fedupfreda wrote: »

my word, you lot can talk :rotfl::rotfl:

Brande- sorry i couldn't get back to you earlier - iirc the proportion of cold tea to apple juice is 1/2 pint tea to 1 gallon juice.
is this weak/strong tea and made with bags??
that being said, we usually make turbo cider which is made from commercial apple juice. I find you need to put a bit of cooking apple juice in at the beginning - partly for 'bouquet', partly for the acid. It does depend on the original quality of the juice though.
I have no idea what turbo cider is. I have more than enough free apples within 3 mies so i can pick up on cycle (in trailer). Obviously the main apple is bramley and the main dessert is blenheim orange (although i have to wait till it changes to a dessert as at first it is a cooker) the other 2 dessert are uknown varietys one pecular to lincolnshire and the other a unknown variety which i have yet to get identified (every 2 years there is a apple weekend where experts identify, where able, the variety of apples that people bring).

we do have access to a supply of apples but crushing them is hard work and
crushing apples is easy you are just making it difficult for yourself. A garden shreeder gives you the perfect sizes of crushed/shreeded apples ready for pressing. Note i do mean perfect. buy or borrow.
i don't have access to a press atm - but i have seen some excellent resources on t'internet about making your own presses with car jacks and the like.

presses consider going on ebay do not buy the small, nearly always italian ones, as they break almost straight away. Instead think about buying some one elses home made one as it maybe cheaper than makeing one yourself. I would suggest putting a search into ebay make the search within the distance you are willing travel and then save the search. You may have to adjuct the search for things that come up that you don't want. Doing a local search will mean you will not have to pay the very high p&p costs. You can also maybe go and have alook at it first. Car jack should be quiker to press????????? I bought a walker desmond wine press small but strong and reasonable p&p (it is sometimes caled a boots press)

re the temperature thing - its more important for the temperature to be stable. Its major fluctuations that cause the problem. I keep mine in the coal shed. :d a garage should be more than adequate provided you don't have a source of heat in there.
yeah stuck with garage as i have no intentions of falling over cider bottles all year. A little worried about changes that will occur when the weater changes as have about 28 gallons left.

to get sparkle you need to have sufficient sugar left in the cider, and a little bit of warmth for a few days, so the yeast can do its work. Then put it somewhere cool to slow the yeast right down. Sometimes - if you are very lucky - you can get a secondary 'malic acid' fermentation in the spring as the weather warms up - but i've never kept cider that long....:o
my exact intentions. But i will put some in my small pantry so i can have some vintage cider for next year i will put in an awkward part so i don't try it untill it is at least a year old??????????? Note i experiment and all that i did not add sugar to still produced a sparkle. Even though the fermetations seems to have stopped???????

you might want to try adding apple juice (cheap stuff) at the drinking stage if your cider is to dry or just got an iffy flavour as it improves it dramaticlaly. Also it offers you a choice ie one person wants dry another wants sweet.

another one here who will not run electrical appliances during the night - i have also had the painful experience of a washing machine leak - so if i am going out, i try and make sure everything is turned off.
I don't care what everyone thinks about this I am saving the planet on my own by using wasted overnight electricity. Note i would not go out and leave it running. And my smoke alarm would tell me if it caught fire. It allready tells me if my toaster is thinking of burning the toast! Also tie the outflow pipe to the waste pipe as this is a prime cause of flooding.

freda x

note pennies make pounds and pounds buy beer.....get a bike

flowertotmum

Morning all..
Jumblejack that recipe sounds lovely ..i will try that and see if they like it..thanks
Well it is with great sadness i have to tell you that Mabel our favourite chicken sadly passed away in the night...girls are upset and so are we...she is to be buried with Minnie under the conker tree...so now we have 2 left..Daisy and Maisy..
Going to try and make some cushions today out of that lovely fabric i showed you..
Had a long night last night..went to bed and then we spent nearly all night talking and planning what we want to do with allotments and garden..it was really nice all snuggled up and laughing like we used to when we were younger..sounds daft but i enjoyed it...sometimes i think thats whats missing in life..the chance to talk...
Right i'm off..got a nice little and i mean little pork joint in oven and veggies all ready to go..enjoy your day ladies and gents..
love to you all
ftm

Hippeechiq

It's so annoying when that happens, isn't it Silvermaid?!

Unfortunately, I have nowhere to house the bushes over winter.

I have a shed, but it's extremely small, and already houses the tumble dryer, so no room for fruit bushes, and it has no window, so the bushes would die without light anyway, and I'm not fortunate enough to have a conservatory. Could I not protect the base of the pots somehow in winter by insulating the pots by wrapping something (although I'm not sure what) around the bases do you think?

jackieglasgow

I wrapped my Lilac which is in a pot, in bubble wrap in the winter, and put it behind the wheelie bins Hippeechiq, it has survived all that terrible snow and is starting to come back to life now. I wrapped the put and the tree. They are dormant in winter anyway, so lack of light isn't a big deal. HTH.

flowertotmum

jackieglasgow wrote: »

I wrapped my Lilac which is in a pot, in bubble wrap in the winter, and put it behind the wheelie bins Hippeechiq, it has survived all that terrible snow and is starting to come back to life now. I wrapped the put and the tree. They are dormant in winter anyway, so lack of light isn't a big deal. HTH.

Was going to say the same but you beat me to it...:D
ftm

kitschy

FTM - sorry to hear about Mabel :grouphug: I hope the other chickens don't miss her too much xxxx

jackieglasgow

flowertotmum wrote: »

Was going to say the same but you beat me to it...:D
ftm

if you're no' fast, you're last!

SD-253

jumblejack wrote: »

Hi all

I went to fill my watering can up today from our massive plastic water butt for the first time since the frosts and discovered that it is bone dry with a cracked bottom.

In a true mendnmakedo fashion, I would like to seal the cracks. Does anyone know if bathroom sealant would work??

Quick one as I am going out I used a cycle relpair kit to repair mine. Small hole. Large Patches are availble try Ebay. Or use an old innertube. use outside of innertube and clean it first. Must go and help the rural economy BEER