It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

redlady_1

I am back! I havent had chance to read all the pages yet but Charlies Aunt I am sending you mahoosive hugs!! xxxx

pennib

I wonder if anyone knows if you can put carrots in brine the same as runner beans? We have loads of carrots and don't want soooo many in the freezer so if there was another simple way to preserve it would be handy. (don't like pickles/chutneys so wont be going down that way) Going to make carrot wine as well.

Pink.

Hi pennib,

It is possible. A couple of websites here and here that may help.

Pink

GreyQueen

Softstuff wrote: »

I'm ahead of you in non-food poker stakes, and always will be How's that for a bluff!

I'm currently using a stash of deodorant purchased in 2010, and expect see the end of it in late 2012. I have hubbys Beconase sorted until early 2012, I'm just coming to the end of a batch of washing powder purchased in 2009 and have sufficient toilet paper until early 2012. Toothbrushes and toothpaste will see me through to June 2012, whilst soap and shampoo should see me through to the end of 2012.

I am however out of tomatoes.

:mad::D:mad: Ooooooohhhhhh, I am so cross I could explode. Trumped at Non-Food Poker, grrrr, what can I raise.....(casts mind around Shoebox Towers and comes to conclusion Softstuff has her beat.. .except possibly on the soap bar supplies, currently running into triple digits..........:rotfl:)

I may have a very dirty laugh (people comment on it), but I shall be immaculately clean with my plentiful soap supplies.

I believe some people think of their bodies as Temples but I have always preferred to think of mine as a Run-Down Warehouse on the Wrong Side of Town. Probably with grafitti and scheduled for demolition any day now. There would be rats, naturally.

Speaking of rats, Shoebox Towers is pretty close to the river (the flood reference was a joke with substance btw) and we are never too far from the furry fiends so I have always been a bit annoyed that one of the people in the upper flats sees fit to hurl bread out of their window for the birdies and the ratties. It lands outside my home, which is pleasant.

Well, said bread has always been the cotton-wool sliced white variety until this week when we had half-a-loaf of unsliced sun-dried tomato bread. Right outside my window, too (don't think I didn't think about it either). Sun-dried tomato; does that mean my block is going middle-class?! I was astonished. So were the pigeons as they have hollowed it out. Don't think they have ever encountered a proper crust before and probably haven't realised it's edible, too.

imataloss pleased that the thread is providing a chuckle during the workday. I work in a busy office and talk to several hundred customers a month so am not short of human contact myself. Sometimes it's pure bliss to get indoors and kick back, me and Mr Pumpkin and a shedload of library books and the teapot...lovely.

Have a good rest of the day, one and all, GQ x

redlady_1

I cant catch up but hugs to Kidcat too for your kittie. Keep us posted.

Well, we survived the mother of all storms at the weekend when camping. Luckily it was really clear and warm when we went to the Minack theatre for the last night of the proms. Nothing like a spot of 1812 to get the heart rate going whilst looking out to the ocean. And then there was my surf lesson. Oh Lordie Loo!!!!! Oh to be 10 years younger. He was flipping gorgeous - and single!!! Even the placid OH was a tiny bit green and I am not surprised. However, that is going to have to be ongoing as I was quite pants. Arms and legs all over the shop and not in a good way! :eek: But looking at this weather I wish we had stayed for the whole week.

Unfortunately it wasnt possible as one of the regulars down the pub lost his little girl last week and its her funeral on Thus so I need to work. Kind of puts a few things into perspective.

On a good note since I have started back down the gym I have lost 6 lb so that is good. Zumba again tonight (great fun)

FK is coming home tonight so will have a right strop on. OH has already picked her up and took her back to his where she promptly legged it into the conservatory to sweat it out!

See, I get my log delivery and now its bloody summer again.

Hobsons_Choice

NualaBuala wrote: »

Hi :wave: same here - I've been chuckling at the adventures of Mr Pumpkin, all the guinea pig stories and Non-food poker!

And I've been nodding and smiling in agreement with everyone sharing how nature inspires them - it really lifts my spirits and reassures me.

Thanks for the heads up on toilet paper increases. I get the Floralys recycled - usually it's €2.99 but I wait till it's on offer on Super Saturdays for €1.99 for 10. I'll have to check if it's gone up here too - I had a reasonable stash but it's running down now so will have sort that! For anyone unable to stomach the price increases you could look into what Americans call Family Cloths (using rags/cloths and laundering them as you would cloth nappies). Very green and economical too!

That'll be the bog standard stuff then eh? :rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

GreyQueen wrote: »

Speaking of rats, Shoebox Towers is pretty close to the river (the flood reference was a joke with substance btw) and we are never too far from the furry fiends so I have always been a bit annoyed that one of the people in the upper flats sees fit to hurl bread out of their window for the birdies and the ratties. It lands outside my home, which is pleasant.

Think yourself very fortunate indeed. When my dear old Ma was housed on the top floor of a 13 storey block some of her delightful neighbours jettisoned most of their kitchen waste out of the windows despite there being a perfectly adequate rubbish chute within feet of their front doors. Including soiled babies nappies. Which was nice.

SDG31000

Fact for the day- A car door shutting on your fingers hurts like ^&*())*&^$£$%^&*()^%()*

I was getting out of my friend's car and had my middle and ring finger of my left hand in the wrong place when the door closed itself due to the car being parked on a slope. I don't think I've caused any major damage, just some fetching black bruising under and at the base of my nails. I'm still feeling slightly sick and they are hurting, so I think dinner will either be down to DH or the local take away.

ceridwen

...and there was me thinking I was doing well on having enough bars of cheapie soap in (and soda crystals) to make laundry gloop for the next coupla years.

Well - GreyQueen has beaten me hands down on that particular "non food poker" then - as mine are only in double figures (not triple ones)...:rotfl:

GRANDMA247
I've been known to do the odd bit of washing and rinsing outdoors as well and personally reckon garden trugs take a lot of beating....:D

In fact my garden trugs get used for loadsa things - dependant on size required - besides their designated purpose.

To date:
- mini skips
- shopping "baskets"
- laundry purposes
- carrying things round the house purposes
- collecting extra rainwater besides my water butt
- temporary storage
- instead of buckets for the purposes of holding water for washing floors with

Endlessly versatile are trugs:D

cat_smith

GreyQueen wrote: »

Well, said bread has always been the cotton-wool sliced white variety until this week when we had half-a-loaf of unsliced sun-dried tomato bread. Right outside my window, too (don't think I didn't think about it either). Sun-dried tomato; does that mean my block is going middle-class?! I was astonished. So were the pigeons as they have hollowed it out. Don't think they have ever encountered a proper crust before and probably haven't realised it's edible, too.

GQ. Can you please start putting a warning on your posts. I have just covered the hound in Coke. And he's now doing the hokey cokey trying to lick it off.