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

cat_smith

Wander in humming 'making good use of the things that we find.' Love the analogy Grey Queen. I am currently trying to work out how to use up fridge contents before we go home tomorrow. 3 need feeding until Monday and then 1 for the next week (and he won't be doing much 'cooking'. So I think we'll BBQ tonight and I'll make up a couple of salads he can eat on the hoof for a few days. I'm going to miss the French produce coming home. All the F&V is French. And delicious. Even in the huge InterMarche. Can't get that in Mr T.

Need to take hound for his de-ticking this afternoon. Thought we were going to have a nightmare - bank holiday weekend. Has to be done more than 24 but less than 48 hrs before travel and our ferry is 1630 on Monday. Thankfully the local vet has very sensible opening hours. 0800-1200 and 1400-1800 every day. I may just emigrate. Although the language could be a bit of a problem. Google translate is a godsend.

GreyQueen

charlies-aunt you are truly a sister-under-the skin. I have been known to raid the odd pile of discards in my 'hood. There's a particular spot in Shoebox Towers where people fly tip their unwanteds, inc perfectly good small stuff which could easily be carried to the charity shops, of which there are half a dozen less than 5 mins walk away, the lazy wasteful so-and-so's.

Some people fly-tip and some other people womble and no one knows who they are. I learned skipping (both kinds) as a nipper from my SAHM (at least when we were very small), who is a genuis when it comes to makeovers. She could be posting up here but she's too busy building me a cold frame from wood we jointly wombled in her street on Boxing Day and and old window from my Nan's place.

So, it's freemantling...I'm proud to share a thread with ya!

PS My allotment greenhouse is built entirely from wombled pine bedsteads; 5 feet square and 7 feet tall with a pent roof, and inside it are two 3 tier racks build from more wombled bedstead timber and painted with wombled white gloss. If you stand too still around here you'll be in grave danger of being re-purposed into something else.....:rotfl:Or failing that, recycled.

Softstuff

Hehe, freemantling and wombling. I just wish that people here would leave them at the side of the bin in a box, because it's pretty damned hard getting stuff out of commercial sized bins. I've never fallen in one, although I did accidentally get locked in one of the bin enclosures once (focusing more on bin fishing than on holding that door open), but they just added a catch on the inside, so I can't do it again! I never did explain how I got stuck in it when the caretaker answered my screams for help.

Still, hubby once again reminded me that I'd married my perfect soulmate, I held the bin lid as high as I could and he reached in with his long arms :rotfl: I swear if I ever see one of those long handed picker upper thingys in a charity shop I'll pick it up just to help me bin fish.

People here often throw out pizza boxes from a certain store, which have on them a token.... 10 tokens gets you a free pizza worth nearly $20. The boxes are easy to spot, and the token is on the flap and easy to remove.... so far I've collected 5 from the bin in a month. Worth $2 a piece it's like finding money.

I think the older I get, the less shame I have about these things. But I have the advantage here that people just think I'm a charming English eccentric :rotfl:

ginnyknit

I love the 'womble genetics! and freemantling terms. Goes perfectly with our lifestyles doesnt it. People round here throw away an awful lot of furniture and it makes me seethe:mad::mad: unfortunately they have put big metal gates on all the back alleys so it is difficult to rescue much and as the houses seem to be furnished there doesnt seem to be anyone living in them - Dss fiddle I presume am keeping an eye on that situation and going to have a word with the local councillor. I look in every skip I pass and am longing to find one full of plant pots

Mardatha, sorry you are feeling so fed up, I know the feeling of frustration well. I have lots to do but don't get much chance to do it. Now I cannot find my 2 glue guns and have searched the house 3 times so I have to buy one and wait for it to arrive. Got to clean the floors ready for Dgs's arrival for the night - thats no burden though. If I buckle down today I might get some things made that are planned in my head - its getting a bit crowded up there at the mo!

GreyQueen

Wow, Softstuff, those pizza tokens sound ace, betcha glad I'm on the opposite side of the planet to you or you'd have a serious competitor.:rotfl:

On the subject of skipping, or foraging wild plums from the trees in the park, I have a natural advantage being nearly 6 feet tall and long-limbed, so few things are beyond me if I'm really determined.

Love the image of you being locked into the bin area.;) I was once taking a cuppa round a mate's, and one of her mates came in, walking a bit gingerly. He'd been hanging over the edge of a really large skip to reach something inside and had slipped and cracked a rib. I wanted to know what he was after and it turned out that there was a whole lot of "quarter-round" and other edged mouldings in there and, being a carpenter, he knew that represented serious money. We both agreed that the mouldings were worth a bit of pain. He also coined the memorable (to me at least) phrase; "Dexion? Isn't it that stuff that grows in skips?" *

ginny-knit have you tried asking for plant pots on Freecycle? I kept getting offered so many of the little ones by mates that I had to turn them down in the end. I'm sure there's loads going begging.

* Dexion in the brand name for that stuff a bit like Meccano which you bolt together to form industrial shelving. There are cheaper imitations but Dexion is the real deal. I seriously covet it but others know it's worth and it's rarely found.I want to build some more storage in my shed with it.

BTW, don't you have to be rich to be eccentric? I thought if you weren't rich, you were just a bit peculiar..........he he

Softstuff

GreyQueen wrote: »

Wow, Softstuff, those pizza tokens sound ace, betcha glad I'm on the opposite side of the planet to you or you'd have a serious competitor.:rotfl:

Nah, I'd just have a partner in crime to act as lookout.... there's a bin in the street outside the pizza place and I daresay there's a haul to be had in there, but I'm afraid that's where my nerve runs out.

GreyQueen wrote: »

BTW, don't you have to be rich to be eccentric? I thought if you weren't rich, you were just a bit peculiar..........he he

I'm a bit peculiar that's for sure
But on some days I feel rich anyway. Some days I get a bit upset if the cupboards are pretty bare, or I think too long about things I want rather than need, or if my leg plays up. But other days I count my blessings, have a bit of good luck, have a glass of wine and realise that on balance I wouldn't change much.

Hubby has a thought he always tells me that's worth sharing. He says if you look at someone else and they have something that you want, that you envy, ask yourself if you'd really want everything else in their life instead of yours.

ginnyknit

Wish you lived in Manchester GQ there some dexion shelving in my garage going begging!

GreyQueen

ginnyknit wrote: »

Wish you lived in Manchester GQ there some dexion shelving in my garage going begging!

Aaarrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh Ginny, you love, but Manc is hours and hours away from Provincial City (sobs).:( Thank you for the kind thought, tho. Psss, I'd keep quiet about having Dexion or a buncha OS-type villanessess might head over to your place!

ginnyknit

aww shucks well the scrap man is going to be called as the garage is crammed with the kids rubbish. Very nice guys they come and move furniture for me as well as take the rubbish! Should I write 'skip' on the garage doors and see what happens, knowing my luck round here they will dump more stuff like Victor Meldrew :rotfl:

flowertotmum

Hi all...don't know where to start..having a bad day..my poor fern has got an infection in her leg,from when she fell over in the garden and the antibiotics she is on are awful..doctor made me feel 2" tall last night giving me a lecture on how to clean wounds properly:mad:i have got 6 children and this is the first time anything like this has happened,the receptionist felt sorry for me and got me a cuppa bless her what an angel...got home and cried my eyes out..poor fern was up nearly all night with it..so we are both really tired today..she has had a nap but don't think it helped her much..feel like a sh*te mum..
Then my other dd asked if she could come down and i said no,i'm tired and fern is too..now she is saying i'm mean..more like this doormat said NO..i see this dd 3x a week,i babysit,help her out with the babies,cook for her,feed her and the tots when they come down..my other dd's told me i'm a doormat..in a nice way and that i should say NO more often..so she text her dad asking if she could come down and he said NO your mum and fern are tired..now apparently we are both being mean ..thing is i'm tired of always being the one that does everything..does anyone understand?..over the last 6 months i have decluttered,slimmed down and simplified my life,decorated,worked on the lotties,worked in the garden,baked,cooked,planned,sewed etc..and i'm tired..i know its sounds like i'm whinging but i'm not..i have worked hard and basically chaged my life and i love it..but i begginning to think they are taking advantage of me..basically don't worry mum will do it,make it,mend it,bake it,cook it etc..she is a big girl now with 2 babies and i really don't mind helping out but i'm not on call any more..she can't just ring and leave babies with me while she goes shopping and has a break from them..erm what about me having a break..don't worry mum will be ok..well i'm not ok..i'm fuming and tired..and as much as i love them i really do think i should withdraw some of my help and make them do it themselves..hubby agrees.So today i'm having the day off..he is doing tea that means a salad:D..but i don't mind..i am sat with my feet up and got a cuppa..
On the subject of wombling..love it..i did womble a childs patio set last yr,on the side of the road with a free sign on it..table,2chairs and a parasol..looked a right bonny so and so walking home with it under my arms..tots loved it..have found picture frames and lampshades outside houses with free signs on them too..lovely bits so they came home too..might have to womble some of my bits and bobs free to a good home..i'm aware that doesn't sound right but you know what i mean.
Feel better know ..even if you don't read it i feel better getting it out my system...
Sammy k..good vibes to you.
Hello to all newbies..
love to you all.
ftm