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

tessie_bear

exciting news here on the foraging front...we picked 2lb of blackberries from around the pool by mums today...we are in warwickshire and there seemed to be lots ripening....might be a good year this year...also saw loads of ripening hazel nuts and sloes and damsons...not ready yet but we are getting ready to pounce on those
all the best tess

ginnyknit

Ican't wait to hear how your potato experiment goes culpepper!

Miserable here, wet and windy. Went to pick Dd up from work at Mr M and did a bit of shopping, there are some big containers on offer there but there wasn't a price on them yet, with a snap on lid, thought they would be good for flour.

Got annoyed as the guy doing the whoopsies was s...l...o..w..l...y marking stuff down and secreting it all in a box , basically to annoy everyone. Had a look a couple of times but no joy, however if I had beena young pretty blonde I could have filled my trolley - as I found when I stood behind her in the checkouts - thats what annoyed me - i know I have no right to expect a bargain but favouritism is nasty :mad:

Going to buy some bloomin sewing machine needles as I still cannot find them no doubt I will as soon as I get home! And hope fully off for afternoon tea with a friend - yay freedom:)

scottishminnie

mardatha wrote: »

Horrible here too, I feel sorry for the tourists.

My US and Canadian chums constanly reassure me they don't come to Scotland for the weather. They tell me we worry about it far more than they do when they holiday here - thank goodness or we would never get any visitors:)

I have a garden fence to paint which is being done in stages - very little progress over the last day or so however at least I made some progress.

I've been on a little bit of a mission recently to weed out clothes which I'm not wearing. I came across quite a few things which were perfectly good but just not quite right so they have all gone in to be altered. So far it's cost me more than £50 but I now have a very nice green pencil skirt (from a frumpy long green skirt), a pair of relined trousers which I can wear again and a beautiful Boden sundress which seemed to gape at the armholes but actually just needed lifted at the shoulders. Money well spent I think.

Some experiments on the baking front this weekend - the caramel cup cakes were good, if a little heavy, some lime and coconut loaf which was delicious and I have been on the hunt for a recipe for the pineapple slushee thing which we buy at the Dole stand in Disneyworld. I thought I had found the recipe however I realised when I was adding whipped cream it wasn't what I was expecting. It did make a very nice creamy ice dessert though- enough for about 8 people so it's a keeper. Would be good for barbeques (if we ever get good enough weather!

Off to read through the weekend's posts now and pick up some tips.

the_cake

7_week_wonder wrote: »

Oh yes please!

Here it is:
250ml liquid: I use about 2/3 water and 1/3 milk
30ml extra virgin olive oil
175g well drained tinned chick peas
500g strong white bread flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 sachet easy blend dried yeast

My BM is the Kenwood Rapid-Bake (£5 in a charity shop last year, and now my absolute favourite kitchen helper ..) I used programme 2, which is the basic large white loaf. The loaf came out very light, moist and with a slightly nutty flavour, and little dark specks.
Hope you enjoy it - let me know how it goes!

7_week_wonder

the_cake wrote: »

The loaf came out very light, moist and with a slightly nutty flavour, and little dark specks.
Hope you enjoy it - let me know how it goes!

Thank you so much - I'll try it later in the week and report back!

oldtractor

DH lit the woodburner and he rebelled and put the heating on yesterday. weather awful.

v8monkeyboy

Well, the last day of freedom has been spent mainly sitting on the sofa wathcing TV - I managed to persuade the OH to watch Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang

Sorted the house and cleaned the floors everywhere and tackled the bedroom - something I HATE doing. At least the OH helped which is something that hasn't happened in the last 4 years due to him always being away etc.

Dinner tonight was veggie as I feel we've eaten too much meat recently, and I must say it was delicious Oven-baked crispy new potatoes with a mexican veggie sauce over with beer in, yum

We were meant to have gone fruit picking today but I've not seen rain like we've had today for a long time. Even the dogs didn't fancy going out for more than 15 minutes :cool:

So, for the next hour or so I'll be relaxing and getting ready for my new job tomorrow. Money will be coming in again regularly (:j) and I'll have my own cash again, but I really feel that I could be a housewife and only become slightly odd... :rotfl: I'm not the only one though, as I spoke to my friend this evening who has only just started working as a MH nurse this last week, and she's struggling. She feels like she's too old (she's 56) and that she'll never remember everything she needs to. It's just a learning curve, but we all feel like we're treading water at the moment.

Hope everyone is ok.

T x

redlady_1

Evening peeps...I have spied my first tomato in the greenhouse tonight! I think it may be one of CC's too so can't wait for that to ripen so it can be devoured in seconds!

Yesterday we went to the RIAT at RAF Fairford and boy, did it rain!!!! Unfortunately I am a bit of a spotter (after harbouring a life long ambition to join but thwarted by a metal spine) So even with the downpours I managed to get my kick from the Vulcan and F16 together with the Eurofighter. We had some VIP tickets and parking passes so manged to get right down on the runway again for diddly squat :T

However, today I am suffering a little as I must have walked about 7 miles or so and my spine has now locked up. Back to the gym tomorrow for me to try and ease it off.

ChocClare

mardatha wrote: »

Heavy rain here, not gardening in that
Chicken's food keeps getting ruined and the RV wont or cant make a shelter for it. He has no interest in them, doesn't like them. I will need to rig up something myself.

I've been away and my memory's not what it was so I'm answering this as I read it - apologies if you've had 8 million answers over the next few pages.

If you're talking about the food in the actual feeder, you may well have a thing with a central cylinder and a tray at the bottom. Turns all layers mash/pellets to stinky concrete whenever it gets rained on.

HOWEVER, I saw a thing on a website on Friday which we're going to do here: you take a bucket (or bucket-shaped tub) and cut four small semi-circles out of the plastic at north south east and west of the top of the bucket. You now have a bucket with a castellated top.

Fill this bucket with layers mash/pellets and then invert onto one of those plastic saucers you put under plant pots. The mash/grain will trickle out of the semi-circular holes into the tray so the hens can peck at it but the main body of the food is kept dry. Genius!

mardatha

Brilliant ! ty !