make do and mend for tougher times

Pips_Mum

Morning all

Ive been poorly for a few days so not managed to keep up with you, think Ive got quite a few pages to catch up on!

We have bindweed in our garden too and I hate it, only way we manage it is just to keep pulling it up. Have to go out there pretty much everyday or it goes beserk, really annoying thing is it comes from both sides of our terrace as one side is empty and overgrown and other has foreign students in who don't bother tidying it up. We are fighting a bit of a losing battle but have recruited Pip to pull it up now I cant bend so easily, its amazing what a toddler will do for a chocolate!!

Off to catch up, have a good day everyone x x

[Deleted User]

Morning everyone, drizzly day down here but not cold. DD1 and DH have gone to Reading for the day and I am going to do the house from top to bottom.

MEME - what a lovely post from you, I do feel the cameraderie from all of us, it's so nice to keep up with all the joys, and perhaps help with the morale boosting if we need it. The best thing for me is the feeling that whatever happens one or two of you will come up with ideas for working through it, whatever it is!!! That and the humour that is here is better than a tonic every day!!

This is a place where we can all recieve support and comfort, kindness, wisdom and non judgemental advice - we are from all corners of the globe and all have our own place here. We all count as equals and that makes us a democracy as well as the 'Band of Brothers' that MEME so eloquently describes us as. It's a great thing to be part of it - Thank You Everyone!!!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.

Popperwell

Shropshire Lass,
Perhaps smaller portions would work, I eat less and yet I can easily still hit the reccomended 2.000 calories. I was watching that documentary this morning.

Fuddle you have done more than I have...so well done. As Mrs Chip says they do mention doing toast.

Good luck with the meal tonight...

Short Bird yes that was the documentary, no one starved and still ate well on the whole...lt seemed quite convincing. The presenter benefitted.

In a way I have been doing it already sometimes with the hours that pass by.

Mrs_Chip

The halogen does not cook 'hard' dense things well - so potatoes from raw will take ages (this is not much different to a normal oven), but if they have been par-boiled cooking time is much reduced. I find the oven does things like frozen chips really well and quickly, as these are much less dense than a home cut chip.

I also found the heating patchy, so it does pay to move things around a bit. Even with the fan mine does not distribute the heat evenly.

annie123

fuddle wrote: »

It's growing where my rhubarb is so weedkiller is a no no. I'm just going to keep cutting it down as soon as it starts to grow. From what I remember in biology a plant needs sunlight to grow, if it's starved of light then maybe it won't grow? Stakes in the ground is a great idea. At least I can see where it's growing from with the leaves growing up and not along the soil.

Starved of light won't help, the roots will go for miles till it finds some.

Get some glyphosate, wall paper paste and a washing up sponge.
Make up some wall paper paste to gloopy consistency and add the gyphosate to that. If you have an empty washing up liquid bottle or something along those lines (without cap) that makes it easy to carry and easier to apply to the sponge.
You apply it with the sponge to the leaves so no other plants are damaged.
It helps to let the bindweed grow up a cane so you can then unwind it and place it in a plastic bag and apply in the bag with the sponge.

Your rhubarb will be untouched.

It can take a few years to totally get rid of it but you will in the end. I did

valk_scot

prepareathome wrote: »

I have wondered if I could get the singer fitted with a motor, its circa 1920 something, the instruction booklet is date 1922 or 1923 just cannot remember at the moment. Just cannot get the treadle to move evenly now, not treadles fault mine.

Electric machine I picked up last year in Argos for £42 on sale, not a known make. It was cheaper than their own value one and has the light and more stitches so felt it was enough for what I would want as felt if I found I was ok with that then could invest in a better one. Its just the tension - underneath stitches either don't appear or I get one then long piece of thread then another one right along, top stitches are fine. I have tried every setting but am not sure if its me maybe not moving the material along smoothly. So far all I have made is a draught excluder as I could get away with going back and forth. Just checked they still sell it but not on sale just now This one It came with carry case and a good sewing kit with decent thread and bobbles that match (32 it says in the info) and spare needles, plus some buttons and other bits and bobs.

I had not done any sewing with the treadle for about 10 years or more but nothing will get me to get rid of it, its the type that has the table which it goes down under and I last had it serviced about then but is still in great condition.

Sorry, was away yesterday so dudn't answer this. I can practically guarantee your machine can be easily converted to electric, there's a boss on the side under the balance wheel, the motor support arm bolts on there, a short drive belt attaches to the drive wheel and bingo, done. You can DIY, it's a self contained motor and no electrical fiddling required. Look on Ebay for appropriate motor packs or your local sewing machine shop will advise. Just watch out that you don't get a motor that sticks out too much and prevents the head folding down into the cabinet.

As for your other machine it sounds like you've got fluff or thread jammed under the feed dogs somewhere. Take the bobbin out and have a good look under the needle plate, run a long toothpick or somesuch under the throat plate or ubscrew it and take it off, clean out underneath and oil. Even modern machines need oiled remember, every ten hours of use or so and if it's been sitting for a while. And put a new needle in, it never hurts. The other important thing is to use the same type of thread on both top and bottom.

SDG31000

Morning all

katieowl Your grand-doggy is gorgeous, such expressive eyes Fingers crossed everything is sorted for your DD and her BF very soon.

The only benefit we are entitled to is child benefit and I'm sorry to say that is my money that gets spent on top up shops and the 1000 and 1 things that always seem to need buying. I feel so sorry for people facing the cr*p that this government is throwing at everyone. I for one will never vote Lib Dem again as I feel they have sold their souls to the devil by going along with the Tories.

I don't have a bindweed problem thank goodness as the stuff would take over given the amount of actual gardening we do. I do have some weed that has pink flowers and a very woody stem that seems to be everywhere. I must invest in some weedkiller.

DS2's room has the painting done and the new carpet in. We are just waiting for the new bed and I will attempt to make him some new curtains. I figure they will be a good practice for making some for the living room and a curtain to go over the front door.

My big steak cooking marathon resulted in 2 portions of chilli eaten and 4 in the freezer, 3 portions of beef in red wine eaten and 3 in the freezer, 4 pasties eaten and 4 in the freezer, and 4 potato/cheese/salami bake things eaten and 4 in the freezer. I'm hoping for a couple of weeks of Lidl not having deals we want so I'm not faced with what to do with it all.

Today I will be cooking lots of pulled pork and doing my best to get the laundry pile down to hill rather than mountain level. I keep looking at the sky and can't work out if it's worth pegging out washing or not.

I think I'll go and risk it and hope for the best. I bet I'll get soaked within the next hour trying to get it in.

Take care xxxxx

fuddle

annie123 wrote: »

Starved of light won't help, the roots will go for miles till it finds some.

Get some glyphosate, wall paper paste and a washing up sponge.
Make up some wall paper paste to gloopy consistency and add the gyphosate to that. If you have an empty washing up liquid bottle or something along those lines (without cap) that makes it easy to carry and easier to apply to the sponge.
You apply it with the sponge to the leaves so no other plants are damaged.
It helps to let the bindweed grow up a cane so you can then unwind it and place it in a plastic bag and apply in the bag with the sponge.

Your rhubarb will be untouched.

It can take a few years to totally get rid of it but you will in the end. I did

Thank you. I'm going to need to research just what glyphosate is. My worry is, although the rhubarb won't be touched, any chemicals I apply to the area would be absorbed by the soil... and subsequently in my families bodies when we eat the produce.

Maybe I am being too cautious?

valk_scot

fuddle wrote: »

It's growing where my rhubarb is so weedkiller is a no no. I'm just going to keep cutting it down as soon as it starts to grow. From what I remember in biology a plant needs sunlight to grow, if it's starved of light then maybe it won't grow? Stakes in the ground is a great idea. At least I can see where it's growing from with the leaves growing up and not along the soil.

It's got green stems by the way.

Pulling it up works better than cutting as it brings up a bit of root too. The trick though is to do it at least three times a week if not more and do it really well, even the tiniest bit. Rhubarb is tough stuff and will outgrow most weeds but bindweed is evil, you can't let even a crumb of it escape. I've had an allotment for fifteen years now, 99% chemical free and if you're going to grow organically you need to substitute dilligence for the chemicals, yup.

fuddle

Diligence it will have to be. I don't want to be introducing chemicals where I am growing food produce. Thank you.