As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

silvermaid

Well done on the weight loss GQ

Angiuk - I always bathed my babies in the kitchen sink, until they were too big to fit in it. Also washed their hair over the kitchen sink with them lying on their backs on thick towels on the draining board. I had forgotten about that, thanks for helping me remember:) I was just copying my mum bathing my baby brothers ma-a-a-any years ago.

Remembering the old days, we too just had a real fire in the sitting room, no other heating. I remember the beautiful frost patterns on the inside of the bedroom windows in the winter. It was freezing. You had to grit your teeth before getting into bed. The hot water bottle only warmed a small patch at a time.

We did not have a car at home, we got a taxi to the train station on the occasions of our annual summer holidays. My dad was a teacher in a big metropolis and we went to stay with my uncle in the country. My mum became the housekeeper and child-minded us and our cousins while my aunt and uncle worked and my dad got a job on a local building site.

mardatha

They say there was a lot less asthma and allergies around then, when we had coal fires and no central heating.
My parents never had a car, my dad didn't like them. I was brought up in a mining village and there was only one car in our street - that man was an air traffic controller and "posh" .. My mum never had a fridge either, all her life. And dad just got a phone in when he was in his 70s. He was a miner and she went to the tattiepicking in the summer
And yet they were both highly educated & intelligent, beautiful writing & spelling, and very uptodate on current affairs.

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

They say there was a lot less asthma and allergies around then, when we had coal fires and no central heating.
My parents never had a car, my dad didn't like them. I was brought up in a mining village and there was only one car in our street - that man was an air traffic controller and "posh" .. My mum never had a fridge either, all her life. And dad just got a phone in when he was in his 70s. He was a miner and she went to the tattiepicking in the summer
And yet they were both highly educated & intelligent, beautiful writing & spelling, and very uptodate on current affairs.

We never had a car until us kids were 11 and 9 and even then it was used for leisure as my parents lived only 10 mins walk from the factories where they worked. Mind you, even on our estate, we were one of the last families to get a car as my parents first had to fund the hurdle of getting over learning to drive.

I'm glad I spent my earliest years without a car because I think it laid down excellent foundations for life. We'd go cycling as a family and we'd bike the 14 miles over to my Nan's. That's 14 miles each way, btw. A lot of modern kids would mutiny if you suggested that they go out for a 30 mile round bike trip when they were less than 10 years old! Kids can bike and walk a lot further than most people think in this modern era, but will have to do it at kid-speed, of course.

Re asthma, I wonder about the chemicals in modern furnishings and cleaning products, houses stuffed up with belongings and sealed behind double-glazing and kids playing indoors instead of out. If it wasn't actively tipping it down (a slight shower wasn't a valid excuse) we were expected to play outside and were mostly out for the whole day. And we had a coal fire and those gorgeous frost ferns on the inside of the window glass, too.

Funnily enough, I cannot recall a single child at school or in my wider family who had asthma or hayfever; never even heard of these things. Now, it's inhalers all over the place and the poor little mites suffering and wheezing.

Ahh well, way current prices are going we'll soon have to have the heating off and bike everywhere; those that can't not run a car because of geography or medical issues are the ones I feel sorry for.

Must fix myself a piece and jam for my lunch and head of to the office to earn a few shillings to put in the meter. It's either that or down to the river to fight with the duckies for bread scraps....:rotfl:

bertiebots

I remember the days of bathing all my 3 kids in the sink..or washing up bowl! Never saw the point in buying a slightly bigger plastic "bowl" when I had a perfectly small person sized water holding device at home
I keep thinking about the whole car situation and for now can continue to just about afford it. My biggest problem at the moment is the fact that we live 3.5 miles from the kids high school (which may not sound far) but there is no bus service and the roads are totally unsuitable for cycling as its a major route between 2 large towns. I would dearly love to be able to move closer so that they can walk to school and I am free from the daily grind of the school run, and have more options work wise due to not being tied to said school run. The decision was made to send kids to the school because its the best school in the area but also before I was single...and so the next 5 years are going to be challenging in more ways than one! I may have to look at the option of taking them half way and dropping them at a safe location...but I dont fancy telling them that they will have to get out of bed a bit earlier

Charis

bertiebots wrote: »

I keep thinking about the whole car situation and for now can continue to just about afford it. My biggest problem at the moment is the fact that we live 3.5 miles from the kids high school (which may not sound far) but there is no bus service and the roads are totally unsuitable for cycling as its a major route between 2 large towns.

Bertiebots, have you enquired whether your children can go on the school bus? The children who live rurally in this county are bussed in if they live more than three miles from the school. If it's your nearest school it shouldn't cost you anything.

Bambywamby

ceridwen wrote: »

On the subject of foodgrowing - at no surprise to anyone - I've got various different gardening books.

I DO get frustrated by a lot of "older" books - with their assumptions that peeps all have normal size gardens (errr...nope....many of us only have "pocket handkerchief" gardens or, worse still, "matchbox" size gardens) on the one hand. The other assumption being that we are prepared to only get food to eat for the major part of the year from it - errr...nope....some of us have been reading books about polytunnels and all the new types of vegetable seeds/plants becoming common in recent years and dont see why we shouldnt have homegrown food on the table 12 months a year too....

So - I've found what I think my "best yet" gardening book and shall be reading my way right through that and 'tis likely to become my Gardening Bible chez ceridwen methinks:

"Grow something to eat every day - how to produce home-grown fruit and vegetables all year round" by Jo Whittingham.

Looks well laid-out and very clear to me and no false assumptions about my "level of knowledge":o.

So - May, for instance:
- ready to eat section
- what to sow
- descriptions of different varieties of the type of plant
- what to plant
- what to do
- organic pest control
- what to harvest


The photos of pests and diseases of plants at the back are clear enough for even me to be quite sure what I am dealing with if I spot a problem.

Theres common nutrient deficiencies section - with photos.

A few selected recipes.

I'd say a pretty good all-rounder.

After looking through this book on Amazon - I have to agree with you - it looks really good. So I have just purchased it as part of DP's birthday present. So thank you very much for the recommendation. :T I will get virtually free organic veg in winter if it kills me. x

Softstuff

GreyQueen wrote: »

I've decided when I get some poundage somewhat down I shall take up yoga and be a bendy person.......getting a bit creaky IYKWIM.

Good luck with that goal. It was a goal I shared until I tried it :rotfl:

I remember my first yoga class, I arrived to find a 70+ year old lady warming up. She then put her legs behind her head and I knew I was in trouble. Fast forward 6 months, and I hadn't improved a jot. I was equally as stiff, with perhaps a little more pain and just as little balance

I decided at that point that yoga is *not* for me. Zumba however is. After 30 years I finally found a form of exercise I enjoy (should have known really, since I also love to salsa). Sadly I haven't been in a long time due to cost, but am on the waiting list for the DVD from the library. Really marvelous for toning the tummy, sides and thighs, providing you throw yourself into it.

Charis

I have just read on the news pages that Mothercare is proposing the closure of over 25% of its stores. It will rely instead on out of town and online shopping. I wonder if they have realised how many of us are thinking of giving up the car, or have done so? Many of us will no longer be able to get to these distant 'cathedrals of commerce'. Buying online is OK if you know what you need but its not the same as feeling the weight of a pushchair or feeling the quality of fabric.

culpepper

OH tried to start his motorbike this morning only to find he had left the lights on all night.
A mad hunt for the battery charger (of course he couldn't find it) and then he remembered he has AA cover for it so finally rang them to come and start it up!

We are quite lucky that we only live a 25 minute walk into town and the shops so if our car does die, it isn't a desperate matter.
OH has always had a car in his life as his parents both drove but I didn't have one as a child and I know we could cope without.

We went for a run yesterday evening. We have been going twice a week with DS now he is back from uni for good.
OH has always run but I only started a couple of years ago and DS only in his holidays.
We did have gym membership about 15 years ago .To begin with we were there nearly every day (me for the pool) but after a couple of months, it became a hassle to get there when there were other things needing doing and eventually we cancelled our memberships. I think keep fit and running at home is probably more effective anyway.
Now I have my skipping rope, some little weights and a floor mat for indoors and a pair of running shoes for outside.
OH and DS have a heavier skipping rope,big weights and the pull up bar and their running shoes.
Its cheap and we can eat naughty things

flowertotmum

Morning all...have to say i agree about the car situation...we got rid of ours last year..it was a wrench but ultimately did us good...we got bikes and a trailer to put tots in..thats a sight to see me on a bike..have to say i have lost weight and toned up too...i walk everywhere and feel the benefit of not having a car..it does have its down side..getting wet,cold and only being able to carry so much..but it was a joint decision and we have stuck to it...my parents didn't get a car til i was 11 and no phone in the house til i was 13..novelty...i can remember mum washing my hair over the sink and then sitting in front of the coal fire to dry it..also having 2 hot water bottles to go to bed with..big thick pj's,blankets all to keep us warm in bed..lovely...used to help my mum bath the babies in the sink..she would wash i would dry and dad would dress..production line..she had my little brothers and sister 3 in a row..in 3 yrs..
Right i am sorting my kitchen to day..wish me luck...
Sammy..i love the sound of your house..its a blank canvas for you and your little family to start afresh...i am glad for you..the council inspector must have spent a week or more trying to talk me out of moving from my 3 bed to a 4 bed...my 3 bed was lovely..just how i wanted it but wasn't big enough..so i got an exchange for a 4 bed...only had a very quick look but it seemed ok...was i wrong..battleship grey gloss and emulsion everywhere..they even took the bloody kitchen and light fittings the day we swapped...and it had a funny smell...council man was fuming with them..he gave me double the amount of the grant to help us do it up...only wanted to swap with them for the extra bedroom o and the massive garden had a lot to do with it as well....council man told me i was insane..but i was determined to make it mine..the paint could be covered,the kitchen sorted,smell got rid of once we tracked it down..yuk you dont want to know what it was...
Right i'm off to declutter my kitchen ...
love
ftm