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

Kimitatsu

Morning all

Ceridwen - thank you for that, have ordered it today, Amazon loves me at the moment with orders for courses and gardening. I would go to our library but its a bit rubbish at the moment, I checked online to see if it could be ordered but suprisingly not!

freudianslip - have to say my Mum is the LEAST OS person in the world, so all I have learnt has been through books, websites and through this fab forum. She taught me to cook, for which I will be forever grateful but sewing, knitting, cleaning OS (well actually cleaning really) freezing and growing your own were never on her agenda. All we can do is pass on what we all learn to the next generation, and even then some of the things I dont do myself! I have a friend making a gorgeous patchwork quilt at the moment for my youngest, mainly because I could probably do it but it would take me months, and she will have done it in about a week. Sometimes we have to accept that we cant do everything ourselves so we "trade" skills!

Suzid - you are welcome My boy died at 16 in his sleep under my desk and for years before I was convinced he wouldnt make another winter. I used to take him to the vet every year for his check up and the vet would tell me to enjoy what time I had with him.........we did that for about 4 years

Butterflylady - come back! Everyone has something to add, even if its just to give words of comfort to someone (Mardartha is always a good one to tease - we will all be expecting passatta by the end of the year with her glut!)

ftm - you do need two pear trees for cross pollination. There are some cheap ones around at the moment but they will need lots of water to bed them in.

redlady - my garden is dry as a bone this year we have had the driest spring in 100 years with just 20% of average rainfall. I have resorted to putting everything in pots and watering daily (sometimes more than once) the wind has been the killer warm and dry, and it has been an uphill struggle. Talking to the feed merchant the other day the hay crop is rubbish and is currently going for £5 a bale :eek: and horse feed is going up every two weeks, so I dread to think what feed prices across the board will be like. Currently I am saving up to buy a greenhouse for the end of the season so hopefully can get stuff started off for early next year.

So despite my disbelief today is a proper June day, big yellow ball in the sky, few clouds and the wind has died down Its not supposed to last long but I intend to enjoy it whilst I can. Ducks have all gone broody so am off to find a cheap paddling pool so the ducklings dont drown themselves and the chickens should be hatching theirs soon too. We had kittens born on SUnday which are all thriving wonderfully, 3 ginger and white norwegian forest cats nicknamed ging gang and gooley by my DH. I said there is no way I am asking anyone if they have seen Gooley when he is grown up and he may well be arrested if he ask "have you seen my gooley?". :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Proper names will ensue........

Hope everyone has a wonderful day x

mardatha

Warm here but thick white cloud, no blue as yet. Son is here for the day so hopefully that will lift my mood. Freudianslip, its a great feeling isnt it? A whole new world out there to learn about

GreyQueen

Greetings from the dark side where it is still not raining, where I still have an extramural sofa and I'm still knackered.......business as usual, he he.

Went to tthe lottie after work and transplanted the second batch to peas sown in toilet roll tubes on 1st May. I group the rolls into plastic containers from the greengrocer, so they hold 6-8 then had these in one of those flimsy wood fruit trays from the market. All very OS and re-purposed stuff. They looked lush. I used the last of my plastic milk bottles to plant among them and am now down to the 3 4 pinters I'm using to ferry bathwater to and fro the lottie.

Dilemma; last week I spotted in a trade-waste bin behind a cafe in the city centre (I was going to a nearby on-street recycling bin as my regular on-street one was overflowing) that they had large poly bags containing used 4 pinter milk bottles, lids on, but with the dregs in.

I'll admit I was tempted, but........would swiping a bag be irredeemably icky and just a step too far? I'd probably be seen by someone who knows me, P.C. is a small place and you can get away with nowt around here.

Bumped into Mr and Mrs X at the lottie and they have let their flat unfurnished and Mr X was in it last week; their tenants just have a bed and choose to sit on the living room carpet so the Sofa isn't from there. Also, there fitted kitchen isn't a match for the bit which got dumped nearly 3 weeks ago and is all present and accounted-for, anyway. Glad they're not suffering any loss/ vandalism. Begs the question of exactly where the Sofa did come from......was hoping that someone would have wombled it whilst I was out at work yesterday but no such luck.:(

I agree with whomever it was who remarked that some of the older generation were only too happy to abandon OS-style living in a time of rising prosperity. I talk to my Nan (88 next week) and she remembers being the eldest of 6 and being sent into "service" in London as a 14 y.o. as her wages were needed to help raise her younger siblings. It wasn't an upstairs-downstairs situation but a middle-class home where she was the only servant and Mr travelled on buisness across Europe and Mrs was out all day with her friends. The family were known to our family but it was wretchedly lonely. When it was clear that war was going to be declared, great-gran found one of the few people in the village with a phone and summoned Nan home. She was 16 and as she changed buses on the last leg of her journey, the announcement came that war had been declared. It must have been petrifying.

Nan isn't sentimental about the old days; she says that people knew nothing but work, but that people seemed happier, too. I hear that last comment from a lot of the oldsters. I think we suffer a lot from comparing our lot to that of others in the media; everyone is prettier, richer, better accessorised, more accomplished with better relationships and super kids and a lovely home.......it's all so false.

If anyone is interested in how the consumer culture came to be, and the rise in supermarkets and advertising, may I recommend reading books by Vance Packard? He's an American author who wrote about these things as they happened. One thing I remember in particular is that observations of people in supermarkets revealed that, by frequency of eye-blink, we are in a state of near-trance. To encourage this dreamy state, the muzak must never be too stimulating and there is never a clock visible other than over Customer Services. Check it out in your local store; it's still true.

I went to a Mr M last night at the whoopsie hour and was frankly disappointed. I used to live near this particular store and have had such sweet bargains away from them that I weep in fond memory. Not any more. With less than an hour to closing time, they were still wanting more than £2 for baked pies/ bits of chickens etc and between £1 and £2 + for tired fruit and veg which had been discounted by a whole 20p or so. And a measly 30P max off fresh fish.

There were hardbitten bargain-hunters looking at these prices and walking off in disgust. I also didn't get the 5 litre container of malt vinegar which I was really after as they don't seem to stock it and their Basics dried fruit had gone up to 99p for sultanas already, the raisins were still 64p but sold out and there was dried mixed fruit which was still at 64p so I stocked up. It's for my Mum who bakes buns for the family at least once a week, plus other things on a whim. Bought cakes are getting silly and she figures she knows what goes into hers.

I cruised the aisles at Mr M and was very sour at the price hikes and shan't be bothering biking over there again. Sounds like Waitrose are probably undercutting them.

All right, gals (and any fellers present) it's time to gird out loins and rally to the fight. I propose we could march under a banner of crossed wooden spoons under a stylised slow-cooker, in black and white like a pirate flag, to make it clear we mean business. What suggestions do the rest of us have?:rotfl:

OMG; just noticed I've got another star on what looks like a medal-ribbon above my avatar! What caused that to happen, sure I didn't see that yesterday.

freudianslip

I know Mardatha, I have to get up and get ready and close this machine down. I search and read, search and read. I've too much to do! *addicted at all? lol

That's one thing about our library, they're super at the books they have. I can find about 90% of what I search for (the Jo Whittingham was there) it's just a shame that it looks like we'll lose our library in the near future. I'll have to then pay £6.50 return to get the bus into town to pick up my reservations. May as well just buy it then.

freudianslip

GreyQueen wrote: »

Nan isn't sentimental about the old days; she says that people knew nothing but work, but that people seemed happier, too. I hear that last comment from a lot of the oldsters. I think we suffer a lot from comparing our lot to that of others in the media; everyone is prettier, richer, better accessorised, more accomplished with better relationships and super kids and a lovely home.......it's all so false.

mmmhmmm. I felt guilty when I worked and now I stay at home with my children I feel quilty because I'm not a yummy mummy, guilty because I haven't access to the car to take them to clubs, guilty because we can't go to the forest after lunch or galivant here there and everywhere, guilty that I'm not completely composed all the time, guilty that I haven't got a fantastic farm house kitchen and guilty that they haven't go a 'park' in the garden, guilty that they don't have a play room, guilty that I'm not up to the ideal of a yummy mummy.

My husband once said to me something about all these really great mums that (an ideal I have in my head that is) they take their children to all these places because they can't bare to spend quality time with them, entertain them, play with them at home so go out to allow their children to be entertained from other sources.

I did make me think. I'm an alright mum.

hex2

freudianslip wrote: »

I did make me think. I'm an alright mum.

You are very much an alright mum. I admire anyone who manages to be a SAHM. I did it for a while, found the isolation difficult (new to the area) and then went back part time, now doing more hours in anticipation of the mortgage increasing.

Mine are lucky and have a play room. It is too easy to shove them in there and ignore them .

I work and we can run a second car, so we can mostly afford to go to places but mostly mine would prefer to stay home and play with lego. We go to the park after school regularly, but we live two minutes walk from a former quarry that is now a council owned nature reserve where they can rock climb and so on. We rarely go other than when the blackberries are out

It is all relative!

The weeds are taking over the veg plot. I must do something about this today or we will lose a lot of crops. Over the last few years I have learnt to spend very little on the garden - it'll be under £20 this year including the compost and then it is a worthwhile investment.

As part of my freezer tidy yesterday I found 3lb plums and some cooked apples (tart ones with very little sugar as I don't like them sweet). Can I combine these to make chutney as we are running out? I have a recipe but just not sure about using frozen fruit and pre-cooked apple.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Good morning all

Spent a very unplesant half hour last night clearing lilly beetle lava and their gunk off one of the lilly plants . Have never had lillys before but when my neighbour moved back to Germany last year she gave me hers. They are beautiful when in flower and a lovely reminder of her.

Plan on finishing cleaning upstairs today and then planting up the hanging baskets followed by thinning out the carrotts, parsnips and beetroot. The garlic never came to anything as I planted it to late so will pull that up today. Have a few things that need potting on as well.

Defrosted two packets of woopsie mince yesterday and did not cook them so will make bolognaise and cottage pie with it. Might also do some mince and onion as I enjoy that. It is difficult with OH's restricted diet at the moment. I am having to bend my rule of not cooking two different meals because there is so much that he can not have at the moment.

Off to visit nan with the girls later. My lovely MIL has managed to find matching buttons for a cardigan nan knitted years ago that is now missing a button. It is one of nans favourite cardigans so it was important to be able to repair it. Buying new for her is not an option as her dementia means she does not recognise new things as hers and will not wear them. Apparently this size button is not manufactured anymore so I was not very hopeful. MIL often visits other towns when shopping and came to the rescue. I had never thought of button sizes going out of fashion before. I have a button box although I rarely need the buttons as I can not knit or make things. I was teaching myself to knit at the beginning of the year and I have got halfway through a scalf - must finish it before winter :rotfl:. Will one day teach myself how to sew but just do not have the time at the moment.

It has given a glorious day to day. No signs of it yet as it is still clouded over but I don't think it will rain.

Right have decided that it's housework and nan this morning and gardening folllowed by cooking later.


Enjoy hte day

Mrs VP

Kimitatsu

freudianslip wrote: »

mmmhmmm. I felt guilty when I worked and now I stay at home with my children I feel quilty because I'm not a yummy mummy, guilty because I haven't access to the car to take them to clubs, guilty because we can't go to the forest after lunch or galivant here there and everywhere, guilty that I'm not completely composed all the time, guilty that I haven't got a fantastic farm house kitchen and guilty that they haven't go a 'park' in the garden, guilty that they don't have a play room, guilty that I'm not up to the ideal of a yummy mummy.

My husband once said to me something about all these really great mums that (an ideal I have in my head that is) they take their children to all these places because they can't bare to spend quality time with them, entertain them, play with them at home so go out to allow their children to be entertained from other sources.

I did make me think. I'm an alright mum.

Guilt comes in spade loads when you give birth I found! But you know I was watching the life of riley last night with DS1 and DS2 now 12 and 14 and the storyline was about the natural mother who did fabulous and exciting things out in New York, whilst "boring, plain stepmum " did all the stuff at home ensuring the kids were fed etc. Anyway at the end Super yummy mummy let them down again and step mum said you dont seem disappointed, and they said its more important to have someone there all the time you can depend on. DS1 who is 14 and alternates between Kevin the teenager and a normal human being just looked at me and gave me a smile, and I thought yes thats what its about. Its not about being a super mum, or spending all your time down the gym/in the nail parlour/on the sun bed, or shipping them from one activity to another, its about being there when they want a hug and to talk (and when they get to teenagers knowing they can storm up the staris shouting I hate you and you wont believe them!)

I hated working full time because I knew my kids hated it, I now work part time for myself because they come first and I can move things around them. We dont go on swish holidays and we dont drive new cars, and I have never been in a tanning parlour in my life :rotfl: but you know we are content and count our blessings daily. Far better than those who are always striving to keep up with someone else, and worrying that they are falling behind.

You are a super mum, dont ever forget that xx

bargainhunterss

saveabobortwo wrote: »

i wish my mother was alive now shecould grow anything she hada large greenhouse in her back garden the heaterwould be going in it all through the winter months and it would be full up with plants never seen nothing like it her garden looked like the chelsea flower show ,

my gran was like that, absolute gardening authority! I wish she was here now so she could tell me what to do with my garden! she was amazing!

saveabobortwo

:)its notjust me then i think we all must have supermum or grans it makes me feel little bit like i should be doing better than i am , but then suppose theydid have plenty of time to over the tough years to perfect the art of home baking growing mending , making do etc iv been bought up in the mcdonalds era where as they did nt have no choice then but to make something great out of nothing.but i m doing my best so thats it today i ordered next weeks online tesco shop and talk about get blood out of a stone it took me a long time to search for the absolute lowest prices and i have no less than 80 value items coming including delivery charge alot of the items iv ordered alot of but all around 30pence things to make cupboard full right up think me old mummsy might just give me a pat on the back for that one 80 iITEMS 20 SQUID showing off now so think i will go give garden a little tidy up sweep up and then put the kettle on wishing you all well:)ps i like these smiley faces on here there chirpy aswell.