My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

AnimalTribe

Generator switched on today

Lunch the usual sandwiches and salad. Dinner chicken and bacon pasta for DH from the freezer (I made a lot). Veggie mince and Yorkshires from the freezer for me with fresh veg. I usually try to match meals so that if one of us has something cooked in the oven then the other also has something cooked in the oven. Often, we have the same meal, but DH sometimes just adds meat to his portion.

Today I’ve emptied a couple of book cases dusted the shelves and the books and put them back. They were very large bookcases, double stacked with books, so there are  a lot, and it takes a long time. I didn’t realise that dusting could be so tiring.

I’ve boiled some more beetroot. It was a really successful growing year for the beetroot, courgette, lettuce, greens, carrots, cucumbers, chillis and soft fruit. Terrible for apples, peas, beans and kale. Not great, but not too bad for tomatoes.

I’ve put some Halloween earrings up for sale on eBay. I was going to put them on Etsy, but I think they might sell better on eBay. I’ll only make a couple of pounds from each pair, but they were made from stuff I’ve had in my jewellery making box for a while.

teapot2

Hope your sales go well 🎃

AnimalTribe

Teapot2 thanks. It's free listing on eBay so if they don't sell I haven't lost any money.

Lots of sun and wind so lots of power generated and lots of washing done and dried on the line.

Lunch the usual. Dinner chicken pie from the freezer for DH with salad, beans on toast for me.

DH sold something on eBay. I’ve been clearing down the greenhouse, but I’ve still a way to go. I hope I can grow some salad leaves in there to extend the season.

DH and I eat a lot of salads, usually something leafy with various additions. The only thing I don’t eat is salad with fruit (except apple) and potato salad (which I make frequently for DH, but I can’t stand).

AnimalTribe

Dinner - pizza from the freezer with salad from the garden.

The generator has just switched on so DH is charging the portable power packs.

It's been a nothing sort of day, doing bits and pieces, but nothing outstanding. I have checked the garden though, and the coriander is ready to pick and put in a bag to collect the seeds - but only after a spell of sunny weather, as the plants are still damp. The elderberries are also ready to pick.

I've spent part of this evening watching youtube videos of seal rescues by Ocean Conservation Namibia - very heartwarming.

AnimalTribe

Lunch the usual. Dinner the other halves of pizza (from the freezer) and salad from the garden.

It’s been a dull day with little wind so the generator switched on tonight.

DH fitted a new kitchen extractor fan that will be more wind resistant than the last one.

After I'd done my usual round of phone calls I picked and cooked some elderberries from the garden. They are now in a jelly bag to drain overnight and I’ll make jelly tomorrow, and I packed up some seeds that I’ve saved from various plants.

AnimalTribe

Lunch the usual. Dinner veggie burger for me, meat burger for DH both from the freezer and salad from the garden.

It’s been raining most of today and very windy. Fortunately, the wind is coming from the right direction so the batteries have been topped up by the wind turbine and the portable power packs are all charged.

The new kitchen fan is working well in the high winds.

The elderberry jelly is made and I’ve made some elderberry and onion chutney as well. It was good timing as DH has just opened the last bag of last year’s blackberry chutney from the freezer. Making the chutney used up the last of the onions from the garden – it has been a really poor year for onions.

northAthenian

hi, just delurking to say i have taken to making elderberry & blackberry jam using the berries off a tree between our garden & my neighbour's, plus the blackberries i pass on woodland walks (a few years back i even added 'leftover' Chambord into it !!) it felt great to use things that were nearby & natural.

glad you are getting the benefit of the blustery weather - it's perfect for reading ( my current read is a Gerald Seymour)

 nA 

AnimalTribe

NorthAthenian I think it's one of the greatest delights to use nature's bounty. When I was a child my parents used to take me berry picking as my Dad used to make wine from the hedgerows - I remember elder, blackberry, sloe, rowan, rosehip and hawthorn. My Mum knew most of the names of plants we saw. Some years I make a lot of jam and some wine. It just depends what I'm running low on. DH's parents used to take him mushrooming so we both benefit from nature walks. One of the best things I ever made was dandelion jam. I wish I could find the exact recipe I used. I've managed to find other recipes but they don't seem to be quite as good.

The blackberry and elderberry jam you made sounds lovely. I've never combined those berries, but it sounds like I should. I bet the Chambord jam was something special. I've never read any of Gerald Seymour's books. What kind are they? I like a wide range of things detective, sci-fi, fantasy to name but a few.

Lunch the usual. Dinner pizza from the freezer again with salad. I think that is the last of the veggie pizzas from the freezer for me, but there might be a few meat ones for DH further down. Having such a large freezer is great for storing things, but terrible for finding things, especially as I just chuck everything in without any kind of organisation. Still it’s getting cleared out (extremely slowly though).

The generator switched on this morning so 2 loads of laundry have been done and hung on the line to dry. Thankfully, the rain held off.

I’ve harvested all the coriander plants as the seeds were mostly brown. I'll try pulling the seeds off with a fork, and spreading them on trays to dry. The plants came from a 70p supermarket pot, and there were loads of seedlings in the pot, so I have masses of seeds to dry. Some I will sow next year, but the majority will be eaten. 

AnimalTribe

Lunch the usual. Dinner pitta bread (from the freezer) filled with veg (and meat for DH). Followed by cake (from freezer).

It's windy so the turbine is doing it's job keeping the batteries topped up.

It was much easier than expected taking the seeds off the coriander plants. I just rubbed the seed head through my fingers. Normally, when I collect seeds, I put the plant seed head down in a paper bag, tie around the stem and bag with string and hang them up so the seeds drop into the bag. However, there were just so many coriander plants it would have meant bags all over the house.

The next dry weather spell I get I will see what is happening with the fennel seed heads.

I've not done anything extra today - just the same old, same old. DH has sold 2 items on eBay - I think people have started their Xmas shopping. Sorry to mention the X word so early.

northAthenian

evening @AnimalTribe , i loved hearing about the winemaking. When i was a kid we immigrated to Ireland from Australia. my father had previously had beermaking kits, but then my mother began making wine - purely for herself as rural Ireland didn't have much in the way of wine in the shops in the early 80s!!. She at first tried using kits then someone gave her a book & she began making all sorts from foraged & grown local produce. (i had little interest at that age, but to this day she still rated the turnip wine she made one of the best, and an elderflower also seemed a fave). i have a funny feeling i have that recipe book somewhere... but winemaking is not yet something i have tried.
 on the topic of books - i'll try and rein this in, but i'm an avid reader & it's a favourite topic!!......i very much read for escape & entertainment. I do like a series with a recurring character.
 Seymour wrote Harry's Game (maybe you saw the film...late 80s?) i suppose his books are referred to as thriller/spy type novels. Of the older ones I like his eye for detail & ability to have main characters with foibles - though it's clear reading the older ones the time/place/world situation that was prevalent at the time can date them. Somehow his supporting cast always have soul & become real 3d humans. One storyline involved the Camorra ('The Collaborator').His most recent ones of the last 2/3 years, the Jonas Marrick series, span differing areas of organised crime. All tied together by a great central investigative character; I started the first book feeling he was a straitlaced grump. By book 4 I feel bereft without him!! If I'm not reading paper books then I'll use Bookbub for my kindle books, quite often they have some free ones.
 I also love Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series, and Rankin's Rebus too was a past fave
(re the latter, OH's relative worked in a related field at the time they first came out & always told us that it was known which character was drawn from which real life person)
So i have a penchant for spy novels ( Deighton/Forsyth/Ludlem- not a Le Carre fan though -  and also some sci fi/fantasy hits the spot. Sir TP would be highest on that list, but past faves -   Stephen Donaldson/Terry Brooks/ Frank Herbert etc. I do plan to try Brandon Sanderson as i have been told the world building is great... if i can just tear myself away from the current G S !  My biggest bugbear is i cant read & knit (or sew) at the same time - i do make use of audiobooks, but i cant seem to concentrate for fiction while knitting - will happily listen to biographies, or historical books or podcasts though - somehow those are okay. 

 collecting coriander seeds never occurred to me . i had recently got a colossal amount of poppy seeds from the seedheads in the garden, so i look forward to having more of those pretty flowers next year.
( quietly whispering i *may* have started shopping for December event last week...)
anyhow, that was a long winded reply, apologies for the spiel...
nA