make do and mend for tougher times

fuddle

We stumbled upon rspb saltholme about two weeks ago, and I'm ashamed to say we also stumbled upon the fact that there were actually seals at seal sands. For those reading that they think it's obvious... You just wouldnt expect any of it in an area surrounded by middlesborough's chemical village! I did find elderflower when we were there, picked some and DH suggested that maybe it wasnt a good idea from arou d the chemical works Doh!

Sister is taking me to hobbycraft today. An over Priced place IMO but when your a crafter with a million and one crafts on the go and stored in your head It's very exciting!

prepareathome

Have a great time at Hobbycraft and don't come home bankcrupt as be warned they are not cheap, but oh they do have fantastic things - my last visit I came home with frames ( for button pictures), beads - oh could have bought them all and did buy so many pearl ones perfect for knitting with, yarn, new glue gun ( old one had stopped working) oh cannot remember what else but I know I was around £100 lighter in the wallet ( I had saved and planned so didn't spend anything I shouldn't). Hubby just stayed in car reading and let me loose in there, a bad move lol

Just enjoy, its just a pleasure looking at things......

paidinchickens

Guess what......... we have more rain

GQ Thought of you yesterday when we stumbled across a load of slugs in the garden and in a flash the chickens raced over and gobbled them up. This made me a little squiffy but if you want to lend my chooks your more than welcome

Today is 25 weeks without a faaaaaaaag so feeling a little pleased with the £250 minimum saving even though this is now allocated to feeding three dogs instead :whistle:

DH are both 40 this year so we got the pooches instead of going to Egypt as planned (good for me I like dogs but hate flying)

Going to pootle of into town and as DH wants to go to T00lstation I will retaliate by taking him to the pOund shop :rotfl:

Hope your all well

PIC x

kezlou

I would have just picked them fuddle , just would have gave them a good wash when i got home. I must admit most of the stuff i forage is surrounded by roads and industry and we've been fine so far.

The seals are amazing, the population is slowly getting bigger, round about now you can see the pups?! (baby seals) starting to move around and stuff. We regularly go there with a picnic and watch them.

Well OH is back, he arrived home about 1:30am, shattered and starved. So he finished off the last of the bread before collapsing. Poor thing though had to get up today to do a job at 9am, after that he's Hartlepool bound for a job in the afternoon.
At least he can relax when he gets back home this evening.

PIC i think its going to rain here to, managed to get a load dry, so just shoved another one out. It was gorgeous this morning now its back to being grey.

Well better get back to work blurgh, luckily i don't have to leave the house so its all good. Hate paperwork.

Possession

Raining here too, sports day postponed, but since the field must be totally waterlogged I can't see it happening at all.

[Deleted User]

It rained from last night after a cold windy day yesterday. Dh came back from his bike ride yesterday saying that they had to go through no end of flooded roads, no spare soak-up capacity in the fields at all

Got more blackberries picked and frozen and the two bushes are growing very strongly, tending now to overshadow a gooseberry and a young apple tree. It is amazing how much the rain has helped some plants along

I am dehydrating more stuff and if you have, or are getting, a dehydrator then there is a special thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/139707

edit: just a note to say that ftse is looking bullish to a target 5800, so things ARE looking up, I would just like to see it translate to the general population

[Deleted User]

The one thing I have never done is to preserve meat, other than by freezing, so I am about to delve into new realms and am going to make beef jerky. I have the equipment and preserving meat, by drying,that is safe for months does absolutely appeal to me. Jerky here I come

Byatt

paidinchickens wrote: »

Guess what......... we have more rain

GQ Thought of you yesterday when we stumbled across a load of slugs in the garden and in a flash the chickens raced over and gobbled them up. This made me a little squiffy but if you want to lend my chooks your more than welcome

Today is 25 weeks without a faaaaaaaag so feeling a little pleased with the £250 minimum saving even though this is now allocated to feeding three dogs instead :whistle:

DH are both 40 this year so we got the pooches instead of going to Egypt as planned (good for me I like dogs but hate flying)

Going to pootle of into town and as DH wants to go to T00lstation I will retaliate by taking him to the pOund shop :rotfl:

Hope your all well

PIC x

A much better, long term choice having the 3 dogs. How is Womble? Any more pics?

Well done on the stopping smoking, I think you and PAH have done really, really well. :T
I have chicken envy. :rotfl:

I love seals, when I went to St Ives I went on a boat trip to see them and one came right up to the boat and scared the life out of a couple of kids!

Kittie, I've just bought a gooseberry bush (A £1 from Home£ase), are there any tips you can give me? It will be in a pot. It had 3 berries, but one disappeared so only 2 now.

Fuddle, I've got a knitting book for beginners, which arrived today, and very excited, so got some wool and needles from the CS and will start knitting soon. There is a lovely pattern for a hot water bottle cover, amongst other things. The crocheting has been a non starter for me really, just too fiddly, but I hope I get back into knitting. I did knit an Arran sweater back in the 70's but was given great on hand advice from my brothers' then partner.

grandma247

Kittie I have dehydrated mince beef in the past and it reconstitutes well. I think I would store it in the freezer long term though. One jar of dried mince is a lot of mince so space saving. I have been thinking of doing it again and some chicken too. The Americans call it hamburger rocks.

[Deleted User]

Stumbled upon your thread while following a link on grocery challenge for bread and felt i had to comment on an earlier post by SDG31000 thank you for sharing your experience, its so brave of you, i suffered greatly with PND 18yrs ago and still carry the guilt of the feelings i had, it really is a subject that gets swept under the carpet and it should be out in the open so people realise that its common and treatable and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe someone could start a new thread up on this.

Thanks to the person who left the link for dehydrating, i have just subscribed and am going to have to dust off the dehydrator. Have a nice day all