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

GreyQueen

Morning all, back at my homestead since 4.30pm yesterday and just catching up with the thread.

Ants lay down pheromone trails which other ants follow so if you can disrupt the trail, chances are they won't come back. I grew up in a home with regular ant-infestations from the garden so am well familiar with the little darlings (which are absolutely fascinating but you don't want to give them houseroom IMO). They dislike crossing chalked lines, powder like bicarb or even talc and I guess anything pungent like a scented oil would do the trick, although it seems a waste of something fragrant and relatively costly.

I cured an ant invasion into Mum's lving room by a bit of observation; the column of ants was to-ing and fro-ing from a tiny hole (about the size of a glass-headed pin) on the hearth. I mixed up a small amount of polyfilla, blocked the hole and that was that.

The ultimate cure for the ants was the building of the one-room single story extension on the back of my parents' home. For complicated reasons, I was living in and "supervising" the job. It was 5 weeks but seemed like 52 and I swear I aged a dozen years during the process. One particular morning was memorable as the jobbing carpenter who was working with the independant builders had made a frame to be fitted inside the extension too large to go thru the door from the garden and we were waiting for him to arrive to finesse it. Trouble was, the delay was caused by him being up before the court on an offence for which jail was a real possibility! Fortunately, he got a community order and the day was saved.

Builders; buy the best you can afford, it will be wretched beyond belief if it all goes wrong.

Touched base with my friend and neighbour SuperGran once I came back and was sooooo glad I wasn't in the neighbourhood in the early hours of Sunday morning. A numptie on the other side of the block ought to be having major anxiety attacks about now, as the council and the Police get together to discuss what went on.

I'm wracking my brains for more things to stockpile within the limitations of my facilities; tiny freezer can't hold much so I have to favour tinned and packaged items. I've got oils in with best before dates in summer 2012 so am good to go on them. I think I will buy some sugar suitable for jam-making, someone said on an earlier incarnation of this thread that cane-sugar is to be recommended for this purpose? I don't use much sugar as a rule and still have a lot of the 1 kg bag I bought in 1997. However, if I'm getting into jamming and preserving, I should think ahead. I am also planningto swing by Mr M and see if they still have those 5 litre containers of malt vinegar. Has anyone bought one recently?

To those who have DDs and others who won't listen to their Mums, there's not a lot you can do, is there? I'm old enough to remember the fun and games (insert heavy irony) of the early 1970s, although from a child's perspective. I think a lot of the younger ones simply can't imagine going to the shops and finding stuff either unavailable or escalating in price so madly that things are going up week on week. I'd be happier if I thought that they'd be able to continue in blissful ignorance but fear it's going to get tougher and tougher.

We had a bit of rain yesterday evening which will have freshened things up although it's back to sunny and warm today. I didn't get up to the lottie last night; came over all exhausted and went to bed at 8.30 pm.

Re herbalism and homeopathy, I think knowing as much as possible about how to treat yourself is excellent. I'm astonished about how many people have to rush to the chemist and drop the best part of a tenner on anti-cold stuff whenever they get an attack of the sniffles. I just follow my old Gran's advice; Feed a cold, starve a fever, have an early night and drink plenty of water. Don't get me wrong, I have asprin and paracetamol in the home and the handbag if I need them, not a complete Spartan, but an early night can cure a lot of woes.

Hope everyone has a great day and gets on well with whatever you're up to.

Softstuff

Well, I set off towards you guys first thing in the morning. So this evening is goodbye from me to you guys for a month! :wave:

My friend is in the hospice now, and though unresponsive, still alive. Which is apparently shocking the heck out of the nursing staff there. I get the feeling she's making sure I definitely make it in time to help arrange the funeral.

I'm about to have a very non-mse takeaway dinner because I'm pooped and a bit tense. Don't like leaving hubby for this long, but always try and prepare well for him before I go.

So take care all. I hope I bring you rain GQ, which should take some of it away from Mardatha!

littlecal

Softstuff wrote: »

Well, I set off towards you guys first thing in the morning. So this evening is goodbye from me to you guys for a month! :wave:

My friend is in the hospice now, and though unresponsive, still alive. Which is apparently shocking the heck out of the nursing staff there. I get the feeling she's making sure I definitely make it in time to help arrange the funeral.

I'm about to have a very non-mse takeaway dinner because I'm pooped and a bit tense. Don't like leaving hubby for this long, but always try and prepare well for him before I go.

So take care all. I hope I bring you rain GQ, which should take some of it away from Mardatha!

Have a good journey softstuff Hope things go as well as they can.

will be thinking of you:)xx

GreyQueen

Softstuff wrote: »

Well, I set off towards you guys first thing in the morning. So this evening is goodbye from me to you guys for a month! :wave:

My friend is in the hospice now, and though unresponsive, still alive. Which is apparently shocking the heck out of the nursing staff there. I get the feeling she's making sure I definitely make it in time to help arrange the funeral.

I'm about to have a very non-mse takeaway dinner because I'm pooped and a bit tense. Don't like leaving hubby for this long, but always try and prepare well for him before I go.

So take care all. I hope I bring you rain GQ, which should take some of it away from Mardatha!

:wave: Happy trails, Softstuff. I've flown to UK to NZ twice with no stopovers so know what discomfort your Oz to UK longhaul will entail. Have a good visit and come back in a month and update us all.

Your weather magic needs to entail dragging sunny drought from the east and south into the west and north and torrential rain vice versa, with an extra helping of sunshine for all those drenched and chilly ones in Scotland.

hex2

Have a great trip Softstuff
GreyQueen - sugar is often cheap in the £1 shops - a larger bag rather than the standard size. I just use normal white suagr, you do need a lot for jam making though.

Kimitatsu

song_of_calliope wrote: »

I'd be very interested in complementary therapy for peanut allergies as I can't have peanut butter in the house anymore due to my OH's allergy. Once I ate a snickers bar after lunch at work, in the evening came home and gave him a kiss and he ended up in the emergency room! So like for like isn't something I could do on my own as I'm sure I'd overdose him. Any advice? Thanks.

This was the report:

http://www.news.com.au/world/new-skin-patch-could-cure-peanut-allergies-report-says/story-e6frfkyi-1226065400914

However I do agree with RachB that it isnt something that you should try to on your own! I would suggest that you contact a homeopath - you can find one here:

http://www.homeopathy-soh.org/ these are all acredited by their governing body and have had to come up to stringent standards and be fully insured. I realise that its money out so possibly not particularly money saving in the first instance but a condition such as that needs to be treated properly

GreyQueen thats my mum all over - there is a tablet for everything! She thinks I am definitely a bit odd but is happy enough to be a guinea pig for case studies and the like so there is always a chink in the door lol!

Ceridwen - have you looked at the river cottage website. I think there is a free online course which goes through which plants are edible and how to cook them. Ah found it here:
http://courses.rivercottage.net/ at the bottom is edible seashore and edible hedgerow. I too am a country girl, and so do tend to grow a fair few plants of my own for home use. For clients though it has to be bought in as otherwise it doesnt comply with health and safety, and enviromental health!!

Softstuff - my thoughts are with you, but yes I think you are right, she is waiting for you. I volunteer in a hospice and I see it quite often, my grandmother did the same thing too. The nurse had to ring my mum and tell her that however long it took her, my grandmother would wait, we went down the next day, mum saw grandma, who wanted to make sure she would be buried next to my grandfather, and once she had that she passed on within 12 hours. She obviously thinks a lot of you

We had rain here yesterday, although not really enough and it is STILL cold here today. "Flaming June" starts tomorrow, although I dont hold out a great deal of hope!

catznine

Just popping in to let you know I'm now a grandma to a gorgeous little girl called Matilda Rose! She weighed in at 7lb12oz on Sunday (8 days overdue) :j:j:j Now I really must start on that blanket!!!

We are in the last 3 weeks before dd's wedding so things were quite chaotic here anyway but it's all good and happy times and not too stressful! Busy making bunting, place names (on little handpainted blackboard hearts) etc., I found a great florist wholesaler and got lots of ribbon for about 1/4 of the normal price!

I could cry at the constant outlay of cash atm even with us being careful but thank goodness for the stock cupboard as we can live off that for a while and save some pennies.

Congratulations to Jediteacher on the birth of your little boy and to Sammie K on your house - so excited for you both!

Safe journey Softstuff but please no rain on the 23rd June! (dd's wedding day):)

Need to catchup on the thread now!

Catz x

littlecal

:j congratulations catznine:j what a lovely name!!!xx

Charis

cbrown372 wrote: »

Believe you me, if you have smoke in your house the last thing you think about it grabbing anything apart from your family and getting out of the house

But if you are flooded and/or if the mains water is turned off for two weeks, as happened to hundreds of homes in Tewkesbury and Gloucester in 2007, you'd be very grateful for anything you'd got handy and above the water line.

RAS

Kimitatsu wrote: »

Ceridwen - I whole heartedly concur with that sentiment! I am already seen as a bit strange as I try to treat homeopathically as a first call, and am a qualified complimentary therapist in several disciplines. Its really interesting that even doctors now (and midwives especially) are realising that stress plays such a major part in peoples health that they are (finally) suggesting complimentary therapies alongside conventional treatment. With prescription charges climbing every year, the more people can do at home to treat minor ailments the better. I read with a wry smile that the french have come up with a peanut patch to cure peanut allergies yesterday which is strange because homeopathy treats like with like, so is it not the same thing? Or is it jsut because there is a major drug company behind it that its different??! Unfortunately due to the new laws that have come in from the EU, many herbal remedies will disappear from the shelves as they do not meet the criteria of the codex

In WW11, someone set up a Committee for Herbal Medicines or some such title which identified located collected and processed vast amounts of herbal material for home and force use. They were the originators of war-time rosehip syrup production.

What we also forget is that some foods are also useful; onion for sorethroats and colds, garlic, raspberry vinegar, honey, many spices. I would never be without elderberry syrup for coughs now.