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

de1amo

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

If that's what the animals in Turkey are used to, then fine, they don't know any different, no harm done. Take them out of Turkey and put them in *insert country currently at war/brink of starvation here* and they will be unhappy.

Likewise, you shouldn't domesticate an animal (and give it love, warm home, nice food etc) for 6 months then chuck it back on the streets when you've had enough, that's just cruel and unneccessary.

the turkish street cats are clever moggies because they have feeding points and even homes but go foraging in the bins for extra protein. İ was watching a pack of them today near my school(which is in the premier neighbourhood) they were scavaging the bins but at a certain time they departed en mass to lay in wait in the neighbouring property's garden because the woman there feeds many cats-i have seen here in the butchers buying prime meat for the cats -i have even seen them inside her home!--we are talking a home worth 500k when most people live in 50k homes! the cats have it sussed out!

its good to be back--as usual i was a little drunk last night!! i havent had a drink in many moons but last night i needed to wind down--as usual i am stressing about money and property( i equate both to security in life which obviously has some deep analytical defect!!) the trouble is that there is never enough money regardless of how much i acheive!

candygirl

Fab news sammy k :D:Dthe veg garden sounds fab:D:D

suzid

Hi everyone, have just caught up on the reading. I am 100% in agreement with you all as to what I think about people who just abandon animals. Our little female GSD had been found wandering by a dog warden before we had her. She died a couple of years ago having given us 10 fantastic years of love and devotion. As soon as I saw her I thought she was beautiful and when the kennel hand brought her out she walked straight up to 'ancient one' licked his nose and jumped in the back of the car as if to say, 'I've decided, I'm coming with you'. I still miss her, our beloved little furry thing.
charlies-aunt I hope your ginger tummy on legs is none the worse for his munching. Our pupkin did similar when he was young and devoured heaven knows how many vitamin tablets which DS3 has left under his bed (having been warned repeatedly not to), even taking the lid off which impressed the vet. The vet had to make him sick and phoned the poisons unit in London. They'd never heard of the tablets, but a couple of weeks later they phoned me to ask about any side effects. Pupkin fine, but had an exploding botty the next day :eek:.
Sammy - I'm so happy for you and keeping my finger firmly crossed that all goes without a hitch as it sounds ideal for your family. :T
Sorry to read about your chicken smiley but it sounded like you did all you could for her. The insurance on 'ancient one' runs out in October and then we'll have over £150 a month to find for his meds. As long as he's still enjoying life we'll go without anything to find the money.
All the paperwork came through for DS4's grants for Uni yesterday. We worked out that after paying for accommodation etc, he'll have approx £40 a week for food and bits and pieces. Because of his Ceoliac disease I'll prepare loads of frozen meals for him and get a collection of dried goods to take with us when he starts so that should help him. The uni will provide him with a freezer in his room which is such a relief. Then he'll also get monthly prescriptions for his special gluten free staple foods. He's such a good kid and has been asking the price of things he'll need. I've ordered 3 pairs of trainers for him to try, on the internet, to be delivered to their nearest store 10 miles away. When I asked which he liked he asked which were the cheapest, bless him, but I insisted he said which he actually liked. It's so bloomin' hard getting him footwear with size 14 feet and I didn't want to travel only to find they didn't have his size. All three pairs came to £80, which some kids want for one pair. My last baby leaving home, it will be so odd, just as well DGS is making himself at home .

Kitchenbunny

Haven't posted in a while, but I'm still lurking... Just popped on to say congratulations to Sammy - glad things are looking up. The garden sounds a dream come true. Fingers are crossed for you.

Things have been ticking along and I've been busy in the garden trying to see if I can't grow me a few things in pots this year. Got my Cayenne pepper plant coming along nicely, a normal pepper plant, carrots, shallots (although they're not doing well at all), garlic and I've just started off some broccoli seeds but I don't know if it's too late for them really. I'm going to invest in a bucket for the back garden as we don't have the room for a water butt. That'll at least help with watering. The lawn is now fairly free of moss, and that was hard work. It'll need another treatment later in the year but I don't want to do anything too drastic until we've had a good rain.

On the kitchen front things are going OK. I'm now utterly focussed on using every scrap of the oven to it's maximum potential. So, in there tonight are two dishes of moussaka, a few sausage rolls and stuffing balls, a tray with some snipped up pork fat saved from the pork steaks we ate last week (trimmed off before cooking) and a little later there'll be a garlic bread added for tonight's tea. Spoke to DH about it this morning and he is in full agreement that if the oven has to go on, it has to be full in order to get the most from it. It won't take as long to reheat in the microwave and hopefully save money in the future. So the moussaka doesn't take as long to cook, I've parboiled the potatoes in a little water before slicing to go on the top. I actually saved the water from the potatoes too, mixed that with milk powder, and made my sauce that way. Frugality rocks! And now it's time for the oven to go on.

KB xx

jackieglasgow

Congratulations on the new house Sammy, I am thoroughly delighted for you all, and hope you will have many happy years together there.

ceridwen

On the subject of foodgrowing - at no surprise to anyone - I've got various different gardening books.

I DO get frustrated by a lot of "older" books - with their assumptions that peeps all have normal size gardens (errr...nope....many of us only have "pocket handkerchief" gardens or, worse still, "matchbox" size gardens) on the one hand. The other assumption being that we are prepared to only get food to eat for the major part of the year from it - errr...nope....some of us have been reading books about polytunnels and all the new types of vegetable seeds/plants becoming common in recent years and dont see why we shouldnt have homegrown food on the table 12 months a year too....

So - I've found what I think my "best yet" gardening book and shall be reading my way right through that and 'tis likely to become my Gardening Bible chez ceridwen methinks:

"Grow something to eat every day - how to produce home-grown fruit and vegetables all year round" by Jo Whittingham.

Looks well laid-out and very clear to me and no false assumptions about my "level of knowledge":o.

So - May, for instance:
- ready to eat section
- what to sow
- descriptions of different varieties of the type of plant
- what to plant
- what to do
- organic pest control
- what to harvest


The photos of pests and diseases of plants at the back are clear enough for even me to be quite sure what I am dealing with if I spot a problem.

Theres common nutrient deficiencies section - with photos.

A few selected recipes.

I'd say a pretty good all-rounder.

jamanda

Just had a look at that book Ceridwen. Am now wandering round arguing whether I "want" it or "need" it. I'm very tempted but trying not to spend.

laineyc_2

Thanks for the book information, Ceridwen. I have just ordered it.

de1amo

i was reading sammys account earlier and marvelled at the fact she had a garden and good neighbours--i have only ever owned flats in the uk but i was brought up in a house and loved the comradie of the neighbours. flats are isolated and detached from the ground but i must in my life time somehow return to house dwelling in my own country!( i have a holiday home in turkey away from my main dwelling but i cant speak turkish so i cant go'over the fence')

CRANKY40

charlies-aunt wrote: »

Just trying to play catch up but just wanted to pop on to give you my doggy [STRIKE]tail[/STRIKE] tale.
My DD2 is working in a dog rescue in her gap year and six weeks ago, we acquired a 16 week old puppy - 1st cross between fox red lab/retriever - noooo! I ought to rephrase that....we adopted a ginger stomach on four legs.

Last Sunday he pinched and scoffed a 1lb bag of M&S fudge off the coffee table - said bag was only £1 from the 'Appproved Foods'-type shop but nevertheless we were looking forwards to it orselves

On Sunday, he nicked the roast chicken out of the hostess trolley :mad: ...and no, I'm not posh - it was a wedding pressie 27 years ago.so Sunday dinner was meatless

On Monday, I got up from the breakfast table to answer the phone and like a red streak of lightning, he whipped my breakfast butty off my plate :mad:

There have been numberous minor thefts of cat food, carrots out the ponys bucket and food wrappings out of the bin - but today he has excelled his little self . . .
Sat at breakfast table...DH starts looking for his heart tablets - not on the sideboard or side table or the dresser . . .nowhere to be found - eventually found the packet under the table well chewed and half empty :eek: :eek: Puppy must have jumped the stairgate in the night to forage for traces of roast chicken and on finding none, decided that the crunchy foil pack would be an acceptable substitute :mad:

Got on our knees & scoured the carpet for bits but only found two - calculated at least 7 missing :eek: Quick call to the vet but as over a hour since tablets were ingested , it was too late to do anything except just wait and see. 15 hours later - the puppy is bright as a button but we are nervous wrecks!

:rotfl: Can see the funny side now :rotfl:

My aunty's blue merle collie once unzipped my gran's suitcase and ate a box of liqueur chocolates and all her sleeping pills. On the vets instructions my aunty sat up all night watching the dog...he was fine. The things we also learned were not to leave butter on the side in the kitchen, that dogs can drill through paper sacks of dog food and also through cardboard boxes containing Christmas hampers and also that all presents left under the christmas tree will be unwrapped to see if the contents are in any way edible. He also unzipped my work bag once and carefully took out my knitting before stealing the bag of boiled sweets further down the bag.

We also had a labrador once and the only food we found that he didn't like was lettuce because it stuck to the roof of his mouth. At least you won't waste any leftovers :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: