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

mardatha

Well look at it this way... he is no longer old and blind, but a young sleek fit cat happily hunting and playing in the long grass on the other side, and he knows you will all join him one day. xxx

JIL

I was unable to sleep last night and put the TV on and there was the programme mother knows best by the hairy bikers. On this episode there was a man who made an Argentinian casserole thing with partridge but apparently you can use duck or chicken. What I was really surprised by, was once cooked it was decanted into a preserving jar and kept for four weeks before being eaten? This was with the meat in it?
I would be really hesitant to try something like that and wondered what others thought? It did use lots of vinegar and olive oil so maybe that was the secret? Heres the recipe but it does not mention preserving it http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/partridge_escabeche_52290

Softstuff

So sorry to hear your news Redlady *HUGS*, from what you've said OBB really had a good innings.


My friend seems to be hanging in there, not really sure how long you can live when your liver and kidneys have failed and you're not receiving any food (they can't even feed her intravenously now). Am thinking she might be holding on long enough that I make it to her funeral after all, she always was pretty darned stubborn.

bluebag

So sorry redlady. RIP OBB.

grandma247

JIL I would not eat it after a couple of days or so unless it was frozen. I don't like game meats anyway but Looking at the ingredients there is not enough vinegar and the preserving part would have evaporated anyway with the cooking, the oil would cause a problem for me too.
These things may be safe to keep like that if you have always eaten them because your body gets used to the germs around you but if you eat something you are not familiar with you could become very ill indeed (think holiday abroad tummy).
I could not find reference to keeping it for four weeks but maybe I missed it.

jamanda

ChocClare wrote: »

redlady, sorry to hear about OBB - I can still vividly remember driving home sobbing after my cat had to be put to sleep and, although we've always had animals, I am probably the least animal-mad of us all. Yes, pets do get to you - they are part of the family, after all.

jackel - glad you've posted and welcome out of lurkdom! :T

jamanda and grandma247 and seakay, thanks for the tomato preservation posts - the tomato puree one was really interesting. I "can" my tomatoes - for longer than 10 minutes, I hasten to add - but I make them into sauce first. I also did a ?Jamie Oliver? thing last year where I roasted the tomatoes and then made them into sauce - that was especially yummy, but only worth doing if you've got the oven on anyway. Jamanda, I have a nice little bottling guide complete with four different methods and timings, so if you'd be interested in a copy, then do pm me.

On the subject of dehydrators, there was an article about them in this month's Home Farmer, and they were selling them at Ascott for £29.99 - it's on this page. I think this is actually the machine they used in the article, so for that price, it might be worth thinking about.

Chocclare, thanks very much. I have Pm'd you (I think - not so hot on pms, might have mucked it up). I'd be very grateful.

GreyQueen

Well, after several cloudy days but no actual rain, we seem to have had some drizzle overnight. The tarmac outside is damp and the brown grass looks a bit wet, too. Can't have been every much or I'd've heard it fall, a good rainstorm is really "hissy" as it's landing on hard surfaces. Fingers crossed for more.

Didn't get up to the lottie last night as didn't feel I had the juice for a 2.5 mile round trip on the pushbike but will definately be up there after work today with the recycled bathwater, the shreddings and the rotables. Been having plagues of fruitflies (blasted critters) for weeks now, having to resort to keeping all the fruit and the compostables container ,which is currently an ice-cream tub, in the fridge, which is making life a bit crowded in there. OS simple-living can be a bit complicated, can't it? I feel like a job in logistics would be a cinch after having to organise myself for years without a car, or even money for busfares.

I even contemplated going for an exchange with one of the flats on the estate near the lottie but decided against it; go to work 5 days a week and work is 6 mins form home, so being near work is more important than being near the lottie. Plus there's proximity to Central Library, my home away from home, to be considered.....;)

Re the disappearance of the Basics lines and even the cheaper lines in the supermarkes, I've been noticing this too! I have a little Mr T near me and several of the Basics range (they never had the full selection) have just GONE. I mean, there are empty shelves and "sorry, this item is out of stock" notices and it's been like that for about a week. Their Basics peanuts jumped from 32p to 38p overnight then vanished, you can't find the cheap jellies anywhere and several other things aren't there anymore.

These are worrying times.

Still haven't had the individualised letter from the employer about the re-grading although we're having a meeting about it at 10 am today. I'm at the top of my pay grade so won't go up and just hope to stand level. Unison have been involved with this process for a couple of years and its as kosher as it can be but, ultimately, it's like it or lump it. About 150-200 people apply for evey post in my team so it's not like I do anything which is irreplacable.

redlady I really feel for your having lost OBB. My life is measured out in the family cats, they were all a part of our lives for 10+ years and I still well up when I think of them. From what you've said, he was firing on all cylinders right to the end and surely had a lovely life with you and that's what it's all about. ((Hugs))

:mad: Dammit, the sun's come out. Where are my clouds? You lot on t'other side of the country have hogged them, haven't you?!

ceridwen

GreyQueen wrote: »

I even contemplated going for an exchange with one of the flats on the estate near the lottie but decided against it; go to work 5 days a week and work is 6 mins form home, so being near work is more important than being near the lottie. Plus there's proximity to Central Library, my home away from home, to be considered.....;)

Well - i dont know the exact logistics of travelling round between the various aspects of your life. But - in some other flat you wouldnt have Idiot Boy for a neighbour (reprise for new readers - ie the incredibly noisy/selfish upstairs neighbour that frequently disturbs GQ's sleep).

Also - I feel astonished personally at you carrying water up the allotment from your home (...guess 'cos most of us wouldnt do that - and I know I wouldnt personally....) - but, since you do do that, then I would "factor that into things" in your position - as in not having so far to take this recycled water.

Allotments are a more "certain" factor than jobs are these days - so I know personally I'd be more concerned about my allotment than my job (all the more so with the job being just part-time anyways...).

Anyways - 'tis swings and roundabouts - but know my own personal feeling would be to get away from Idiot Boy and get in my "reading quota" more angled towards reading on the Internet (rather than reading in the Library). There are a lot of free books online to read - I stashed away somewheres a note of the websites that have them if you're interested - so a combination of that and swopping from Dial-Up to Broadband so that that was a feasible thing to do would make it manageable.

Anyways - each to their own obviously - but 'twas just a thought...

Softstuff

GreyQueen wrote: »

Re the disappearance of the Basics lines and even the cheaper lines in the supermarkes, I've been noticing this too! I have a little Mr T near me and several of the Basics range (they never had the full selection) have just GONE. I mean, there are empty shelves and "sorry, this item is out of stock" notices and it's been like that for about a week. Their Basics peanuts jumped from 32p to 38p overnight then vanished, you can't find the cheap jellies anywhere and several other things aren't there anymore.

They've done a rather sneaky trick with this in Australia. They ditched the value/basics lines on a lot of things, then they reduced the price of their standard own brand a bit and claimed they'd rolled back the prices (which are obviously still more than the value brand used to be). More and more own brands are vanishing.

GreyQueen

Gasp!

Well, being bonkers I decided to make a splash-n-dash to the allotmentino to drop of 14 pints of ex-bathwater. Was up there about 2 mins, literally dropped them off in the shed and picked up the empties and was jumping up and down outside a L!dl at opening time.

I was after some stuff for my Mum which I'd mentioned seeing yesterday to her and got the cans of salmon just fine but when I went to the laundry detergent the beggars had disappeared the 100 wash ones for £8.99 and the 60 wash ones which were £5.79 yesterday are now back up to £6.49. I'm talking Formil washing powder for those who don't happen to live inside my head btw...:rotfl:So I left them. They'll be back sooner or later.

:mad: Honestly, you need to be a kamikazi shopper to get the bargains these days, it's a madhouse with prices swooping up and, very rarely, down.

Anyway, I am feeling nicely-invigorated after a pell-mell hurtle thru the park on a sunny morn which will surely turn to a scorcher but is nice and fresh right now. That 10 am meeting will surely ruin my present bouncy mood but I went to bed at 9 pm last night and didn't get woken up at all and so I'm a happy bunny.

Ceridwen, your kindness in taking time to think about my life is appeciated. I've given it a lot of thought and most of my mates live within 5 mins of my current home, and that's a factor, plus everything I use is within 5-10 mins of home and with ME, I have to factor energy expenditure into my calculations. Plus there are the winter months when I only visit the lottie to drop of compostables into the Dalek and check no one has burgled the shed.

There are several blocks of council flats within 5-10 mins walk of the lottie but none are any better than Shoebox Towers and some of them are hell-on-wheels. We're talking "armed response" sort of issues; the local paper is an educational read. :eek: Plus, I take ASB calls as part of my job and I know just what goes on up there re nuisance neighbours, so it isn't a promised land.

Nope, I shall stay where I am and I am sure that things will eventually resolve themselves for the better, fingers and toes crossed and all that jazz.

L!dl has 5 kg bags of basmati rice for £5.49 today if anyone needs some, I guess that's a good price? I only buy basic rice so can't be sure if it's a bargain but I think it is.


Right, chilling out after my wash-and-brush-up with a cuppa, make some sarnies then off to w*rk.

Hope everyone has a great day.