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

redlady_1

bless FTM. They look like butter wouldnt melt in their mouths.

flowertotmum

redlady_1 wrote: »

bless FTM. They look like butter wouldnt melt in their mouths.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:..yes they do look like that don't they..but at times they test my patience:D...
ftm

ChocClare

Sorry to the people who asked me questions - they've already been answered so that saves me a job! This thread moves so quickly, I read something and think, oh, I'll reply to that, and it's three pages later before I can!

On the subject of houses, DH and I have always lived in old houses and have always known when a house is "right". Incidentally, in all but our present house, we have had our hearts set on one only to have it fall through - and then a far better house come along, so don't despair, ceridwen!

Our last house was definitely haunted, though not in a bad way. Our DD, then aged three, used to see a "lady", and guests, none of whom we mentioned this to, also mentioned "feeling" or "thinking they saw" someone in the room where DD felt the presence. Having said that, it was a very happy house, so nothing to worry about!

I think I have said before on here, that we have always felt our current house was "meant". DH lost both his parents, had a year of depression/not working at all and reassessed his whole life, deciding to give up his "yuppy" lifestyle and get a trade, retraining as an electrician. He also said that he would like to realise his long desire to keep bees. I found a beekeeping course at the library; he found an electrician's course some 10 miles away. He went to both, but the electrician's course was down a traffic blackspot, boring A road, so he decided to get up a bit earlier and travel down the "magic" road to get there - a long country lane, with lovely scenery and old thatched cottages - as it put him in a far better frame of mind.

Anyway, 3 things happened: DD had a friend round for the day and I asked her mum if she would now get a day off; no, she had to look after her younger child as her DH was off beekeeping. Oh, I said, DH has just done a beekeeping course. Result: her DH phoned mine and they were on the phone for over an hour. Her DH was an electrician looking for someone to help him out, plus he needed someone to help him with his beekeeping. Then DH went for his exam, came home, said, you know I told you about that lovely house I pass on the way to the course: it's for sale. Shall we go and have a look? The kids were both at home and feeling nosy, so we all jumped in the car and arranged to meet the estate agent there. He was late; the house was empty; we spent 10 minutes looking round the garden and walking along the riverbank at the bottom, and by the time he arrived, we'd more-or-less made up our minds without even going in. Kids decided on their rooms in five minutes; the view out of "our" bedroom window sold us on it. We hadn't even thought about moving, but we made up our minds then and there.

Later, we had a minute of doubt and went to look at another house "just in case" but there really wasn't any choice

We've now been here three-and-a-half years; DH has bees along the river bank; we have chickens; DD has a horse; we grow fruit, veg and nuts, have solar power, run the car on WVO and I am going to check out the well in the garden, which I think we could get back into use again. Yuppies to hippies in a few short years!

Of course, we haven't got the money we once had, but we are not poor, and we are much happier. DH still works all the hours God sends for less money but there you are!

Incidentally, even though this house is 300 years old, there is no ghost in it anywhere!

Yakked on for ages - sorry! Must go and dye my hair - not so much of a hippy that I want my roots to show :eek:

Have a good day, everyone!

flowertotmum

Well morning all...i survived the wedding...actually i discovered something yesterday...not only do i miss my brothers but they miss me too...and its not them being funny with me its their wives...Mr FTM reckons they are jealous of how close we all are..it was like old times yesterday..chatting,laughing it was lovely and before i left we all promised to stay in touch more..and no we weren't drunk lol..as you can see the tots looked devastatingly gorgeous..my DS was handsome as was hubby..as for me well i got a few compliments so i was pleased..not bad for a £12 dress,cheap shoes and a borrowed handbag...weather stayed good too..we were all shattered but happy..

Anyway back to normal today..got hubby a watch for fathers day..and older girls have clubbed together with ds to buy him a cargo trailer for his bike..he is one happy chappy today i can tell you.
Will be back later ,off to catch up on all the posts..
love
ftm
p.s. thanks for all the good wishes from you all..it meant so much
thank you
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ChocClare

Oh btw (I'll shut up in a minute)

Butter in Kenwood:

Put cream in Kenwood
Turn on
It will go stiff, like whipped cream
Don't stop
It will start to curdle
Keep going
You will start to see yellow bits and you will suddenly get like milk as well
TURN SPEED DOWN OR THIS WILL GO ALL OVER YOUR KITCHEN

As soon as you see yellow bits, you can slow down or stop. Squeeze together and squeeze and squeeze.
Put yellow bits in a sieve. Run under cold tap, squeeze with your hands, rinse, squeeze, rinse, squeeze until no more "milk" comes out.

Use the whey for scones. Pat the butter with butterpats :cool: or two spatulas. Add salt and mix in if you like. Wrap in greaseproof paper.

That is all there is to it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

maryb

Grandma thanks so much for the tip about the PH sticks. I thought it was probably borderline to can in a water bath because it's very similar to a salsa recipe which a lot of the American sites suggest waterbath canning for.

The Kuhn Rikon site is very confusing. I saw the bit you highlighted saying they don't do a pressure canner but then if you click to another page it says

Can I use my Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker for canning and preserves?

Yes! Please see our Canning page for details.

Maybe they are being cautious in case people use it for canning meat - a smaller cooker would cool down more quickly and I could see that being problematic. I think as long as I am only bottling high tomato content stuff - and I can't see myself doing anything else - it should be OK as long as it is acid enough

GreyQueen

I have been randomly trawling the limited bit of central library which is open on a Sunday (and, boy, am I appreciative of the fact that I have it to trawl) and have found a wee treasure in a Penguin paperback; "The Campaign for Domestic Happiness" by Isabella Beeton originally published in 1861 as part of "The Book of Household Management".

It's fab, I've a had a quick look and can see that the formidable Mrs Beeton would have me to task on Page 2 for having failed at Early Rising today (8 am, what a hussy I am). I have also failed to take the recommended cold or tepid bath on rising:eek: although I shall be having a sinfully-hot one this evening and corrupt my Character (and possibly my immortal soul) as a result.

The start of Page 3 is on-trend:

"Frugality and economy are home virtues, without which no household can prosper......."

Some things possibly haven't travelled too well in the 150 years since publication, but, it's good to know that should I ever be in a position to Engage Domestics, she can advise on how to hire, and what to pay, my hypothetical future staff. Servants should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to stay up after the master and mistress have retired for the night, btw; presumably because they might swipe the tea (or the gin) and use wanton amounts of candle-stubs.

I reckon it would have been a punishment to by a domestic in Mrs Beeton's establishment; you wouldn't have got away with anything. And here I am, a common woman from the lower orders with a TENT drying in my parlour, taking the mickey out of my betters. I should hie me off to the scullery immediately!

We've got Mrs Beeton's Complete Cookery Book at my Mum's, handed down from Grandma. Grandma always used to say that you couldn't cook Mrs B all the time; too expensive. Still, I did used to cook the 2nd Christmas cake recipe every year for about 20 years from about the age of 10 onwards.

Was perplexed to see the Little Mr T has a branded ready made pastry (jus-rol) at 89p /500g whereas its own brand is £1.20/ 375g. Not the normal way around at all, is it? I also checked out the Value t.p which they repackaged as 4 larger rolls at £1.20 instead of 12 smaller rolls for the same price. I knew they wouldn't miss a chance to jack the price up and, ladies and gents, I can report that you are 800 sheets of t.p down on the deal (equating to minus 4 old size rolls or minus 2 double-size rolls) And, you're minus 8 t.p cores, which I use for planting peas and beans in.

It's nothing short of a scandal, that's what it is.

My fellow bargain bunnies were cruising the produce aisle and the chill cabinets in the Whoopsie Hunt and, like me, turning up their noses at the pathetic little reductions on offer. Saw lots of lookers but no takers. Gonna have to do better than that if they want to offload them before the b.b.d.

I'm sorted for pie-making, have some fabby new library books and am going to hide from the rain in my front parlour, unless Isabella motivates me to get off my asphidistra to go and wash some floors.

Have a good afternoon, all. x

oldtractor

Just finished lunch which included HG lettuce and HM bread. ! cake already baked,another one still in the oven. Hoping to go to PYO farm in a little while, if the rain holds off.

taurusgb

I've been tidying the kicthen cupboards and found a bag of millet I "think" I bought to add to bread dough....does anyone know if I have to soak it first or can I just throw it in with the other seeds (sunflower, sesame and onion)?

All the posts on houses (homes) are very interesting - ChocClare I am green with envy - ours is a 1960's semi with dormer windows that has a very happy feel about it. It is in a small cul-de-sac of 22 houses and in the 20 years we've lived here no one has moved out unless they died or left the area, so I'm guessing that the other houses also breed contentment.
DD2 and DS2 have just taken DH out for father's day :beer: so I'm going to harvest more raspberries and the last of the strawberries, then sow a few more salad leaves. I'm really pleased with how well fruit and veg have grown this year - best year I've ever had. I'm trying hard to empty the small chest freezer I use for bargains so that I can freeze some of my bounty to help through the winter.....am currently torn between making raspberry jam or freezing the fruit to use for puddings in the depths of winter.

Can anyone tell me if I can use the leaves from the brocoli I am growing to eat as cabbage without ruining the plant and ending up with no florets? don't know what variety it is as my oldest DD gave me the plants, and I've never grown it before, but there are lots of large leaves on the plants and would hate to see them go to waste while I wait for the florets to form.

westlothianlass

Afternoon all,
Well i've had a pretty productive day so far. We have a lovely plum tree that is laden with fruit, but it's poor branches are being pulled down so DH and I built a sort of arch so that they can rest on that:D
Also tidied up some of the veg beds as weeds just love rain, surprisingly so must oregano as it is single handedly trying to take over west lothian. Suppose i shouldn't complain as just delighted nothing has suffered too much with the torrential rain we have had, just a bit behind where it might be if we had the yellow ball more.

Was sitting cosy last night (socks, jumper etc the usual summer garb) with a glass of home made rhubarb wine and some twinks and thought life would be hard pushed to get much better:rotfl:.

I too use doves yeast, but thanks for recipe Redlady, i wondered if using milk would make it soft and floppy (in a nice way) so will try it today:)