Simple living in the country - back to basics

Karmacat

Hello Bonnie!  You're having a nice snooze, aren't you 🐔  I think your human is quite enjoying the sit-down too  

Cheery_Daff

I confess I wasn't very comfortable 😂 but she's always been really jumpy and wary of us, so we take any opportunity to encourage her to feel safe with us. It's funny, she's the only one we have left who isn't a rescue - the rescues have pretty much always been happy to be close, sit on your knee etc. They don't like being picked up, but will tolerate it, whereas even attempt it with Bonny and she flaps and squarks and causes all kinds of mayhem.

She'd started getting a little more settled recently (we've only had her for 2 years... 🙄) but then we had to catch her and clean her mucky bum the other day, so I thought it would be ages til she'd trust us again. She was still jumping when I threw oats too close to her this morning 🙄😂 so it was nice she came nd sat down, even just for a little bit 😊

Cheery_Daff

On a slightly different note, I've been pondering today, about simple living. It's in the name of my diary, after all! 😂 But am I doing it, or working towards it? Recently I've been feeling that I'm not, and that some of the things I want to do have been put off for so long...

Anyway, I've been reading again - my go to is often the Down to Earth blog which I know some of you read. This is a nice post

https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2019/03/starting-more-simple-life.html?m=1

And you know what's nice? It's reminded me how many things I DO do. Always a work in progress of course... but just as a bit of a reflection...

THINGS I DO
* grow some of our own food - could do MUCH better but this year we have on the go two different types of squash, courgettes, three different types of beans, beetroots, and a year's supply of turnips 😂 Also gooseberries, blackcurrants, apples, rhubarb, damsons. I haven't used any tap water in the garden for 2 years now, it's all harvested

* compost everything. I have a 3 bay system and compost food, coffee grounds, chicken bedding. It's a lovely mix that tops up the veg beds nicely (I do still buy potting compost - maybe I'll aim to make some next year)

* keep chickens - clearly we could spend far less... but their house and run are both homemade using mostly recycled materials. The last two winters while they've been shut in under avian flu orders, I've bought in a giant mound of woodchip for a deep littering system - this works brilliantly. They LOVE scratching round in it, and it gradually decomposes with their droppings, and I dig it out and stick it on the veg beds. Extra wood chip goes on the veg bed paths.

* make our own hay - not much gets stored as hay, mostly gets used as mulch.

* have a decent handle on our finances. Could do better with not spending on certain things... but we're not in debt, and will get back to overpying the mortgage once we've built a bit of a surplus back up

* make household stuff. Not everything, but I've made clothes, underwear, cushions, hot water bottle covers, bunting, sanitary towels (!) curtains, blinds, dish cloths, all manner of things, as well as presents sometimes

* experimented with making household cleaners - I've made soap a few times but want to try again - i was waiting for a new kitchen but have lost that excuse now! Mostly I clean with diluted stardrops or washing up liquid. Clothes get washed with washing soda. 

I'm sure there's more, going to post before I lose this...

Cheery_Daff

What else?

* we have a decent storecupboard, and I batch cook fairly regularly, although on a pretty small scale

* been decluttering - although there is still a long way to go!!

THINGS I FEEL ARE A BIT OUT OF WHACK
* we drive quite a lot. Partly inevitable given where we live - it's a 50 mile round trip to work, 200 mile round trip to Mr Cheery's dad which he does every week or so now. Town is a 16 mile trip - and sometimes we do that two, or occasionally even 3 times in a day! Various reasons, not all easy to overcome, but even so, it's a lot of driving

* electricity. I think we could use less, although Mr Cheery's not convinced. I investigated a smart meter earlier, but the circuit board is right next to the meter, and it recommends a foot of space either side is needed to fit it, which ours doesn't have, so that might be out (unless the circuit board is easy to move - I'm certainly not trying!!)

Oh I don't know. I'm going round in circles too much for nearly midnight - in my head I always feel I'm not doing 'enough' but I can't quite put my finger on what 'enough' is... There are too many weeds, I don't fix my dry stone walls fast enough - is this the middle-of-nowhere equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses?? 😂

I suppose the blog post says to start with what's urgent. In our case - DIY, building up savings after paying for the kitchen, and getting the veg out of the greenhouse. I've a friend coming to help with the latter tomorrow, the middle is ongoing (happy wheel at £183 for June now), and I'm off on Monday and have a plan for the kitchen.

What I'd love to do soon is get back to both soap making and cheese making experiments. I had a bash at ricotta and mozzarella in our old house, but I'd love to try pressing a hard cheese... that'll require making a cheese press first, and I always come to the conclusion that there are more pressing (ha!) things to do! 😂

Anyway, we've put midnight and I am going to ponder some more in the morning. As usual, apologies for waffling on...

South_coast

I can't help with the rest of it, but my smart meter is right next to the consumer unit and it works fine. Might be worth asking your supplier, or just booking a fitting appointment? What they say in theory a fitter might be able to overcome in practice

themadvix

Really interesting pondering there Cheery. I’m definitely not feeling life is simple at the moment with multiple jobs on the go, cat sitting, trying to keep on top of the allotment and garden, and trying to fit lots of fun stuff in. So you’re not alone, and perhaps I should try a bit of pondering.

On the smart meter front, probably worth asking the question of your supplier - they’ll have a team who you should be able to send a photo to and they’ll be able to advise.

Bluegreen143

I would just try booking it. Husband is a smart meter fitter. They’ll either be able to do it or not, and if you book it for a day Mr Cheery or yourself are around anyway it’s not a huge inconvenience for you. 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks all, yes I'll get in touch today - I was just going on what their booking form said about space as they were shut. Didn't want to just book as I'm sure they said they might charge if they come out and can't do it! 

Friend is coming to stay today. I need to be in another town by 9.30 to collect her so best get a wriggle on! We're going to an exhibition by a local artist, and probably out for lunch, and then some garden pottering if it doesn't rain. It had best not - the weather has been glorious all week while I've been in work, don't want it raining when we get a visitor!

Bluegreen143

@Cheery_Daff they don’t charge if they can’t do it normally, or at least Red’s company don’t (he fits EDF meters) and my energy company (Shell) don’t as I recently had mine done.

He’s been back to the same place three times before as they keep rebooking to see if they can do it 😂 in fairness he has also been able to do jobs which have been knocked back by other engineers before - he’s very tall so can do high jobs which others can’t reach! And he is quite skilled so can sometimes manage more difficult installs which another engineer hasn’t been able to do. So they do often encourage you to rebook for a second engineer to come out anyway.

Cheery_Daff

That's interesting, thank you!