My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

AnimalTribe

Last night there was a large spider in the bedroom - I don't like them at all. I tried to trap it but it scuttled away, so I spent a sleepless night worrying about whether it would crawl on me in the night - a very remote possibility - but fears aren't rational. Despite being below par I made gnocchi for this evening, baked 2 carrot cakes & helped DH pull some cables through the loft. The loft is very dusty so I've stopped for a coffee and a ginger biscuit. I've done some stuff online and a bit more cross-stitch. So not as much as I'd like, but not bad either

foxgloves

Another arachnophobic here, @AnimalTribe. I thought it might lessen as I got older, but it hasn't. It's ridiculous as I have no problem with insects or mice & rats. Thankfully Mr F is very good at spotting them & putting them outside without any drama. As soon as I see a big one, I get that instant adrenelin response & raised heart rate. And I'm the same if I see one in a picture, on TV, etc. I think it's a phobia I'll have for ever now.
F

AnimalTribe

Foxgloves DH usually deals with them for me too, but he wasn't available so I had to try myself. I can manage to trap them if they aren't above me on a wall or the ceiling, but if they are in danger of falling on my head I panic. Not the reaction of someone who lives in an old stone cottage surrounded by heather moor. I'm OK with insects and vermin too - just spiders. I've had a lovely morning looking up seed planting instructions. I have a lot of seeds that I've either collected or been given over the last 2 or 3 years, but they haven't come with instructions and they aren't things I've grown before. I must plant them this year as they are getting old. I'm sure not all of them will germinate, but it will be fun trying. 
DH had to call out an internet engineer (cost £100). It's the first time since we've lived here that we've had a problem that DH couldn't fix himself, but needs must and we can afford it. DH and I both use the internet a lot, especially living so remotely. This afternoon I'll figure out how much I've spent on groceries and update the Grocery Challenge thread - at least I've saved some money there.

foxgloves

@AnimalTribe - While some seed does better sown fresh, it's surprising how often old out of date seeds do germinate. Yes, the % viability rate is lower, but in the past, I have ended up with plenty of young plants from out of date packets. My Mum was a very keen gardener & but didn't have as much time for it in the last few years of her life, as she was looking after Dad who had a terminal lung illness, then she sadly died barely a year later. When we were clearing out our old family home following her death, I found an old ice-cream tub of seed packets in the cupboard under the stairs which was a bit of a 'glory hole' to be honest. She must have put them in there intending to sow them, then forgotten about them. I brought them all back with me. Mum died in 2018 & the seeds were all dated with expiry dates of between 2011 & 2016. I gave some to my friend & between us, we managed to grow heaps of plants from that old seed, My friend tries a pinch of old seed on a wet paper towel on a saucer. If a reasonable proportion of it germinates, then she sows the rest of the packet. I don't bother with that. I just sow it & hope. After all, I haven't lost anything if it doesn't come up if I haven't spent actual money on it.
Shall soon be arranging my seeds into months of sowing. I love seeds - so much promise!
F

AnimalTribe

I've declared my total spend on the January Grocery Challenge of £43.80 for the month. This was very low because I had lots of Xmas stuff left and a bulging freezer as I usually stock up pre-winter in case DH and I get snowed in. People include different things in the challenge but I include, food, dog food & treats, and cleaning products. I don't include food eaten when DH & I go out for the day - this is included in my holiday budget. I've found the Grocery Challenge motivating so I will join again in February.
The lid of the septic tank has disappeared (it was a metal cone). DH has placed layers of wood on top as a temporary measure, but we will have to sort out a permanent fix eventually. The tank is in a field owned by a local farmer and has sheep in it, so the tank can't be left exposed. How to fix it will require some thought though.

lucielle

Can you put a small stock proof fence round it?
L

AnimalTribe

Lucielle thanks I'll ask DH what he thinks about that. The tank isn't on our land, but just beyong our boundary, on land belonging to a farmer - we have access rights. If it's only temporary it would probably be OK, if we make it permanent, we'd have to get prior permission. Definitely, worth considering though.

It's been one of those weeks from the minor to the major: trouble accessing an online account and spent ages trying to sort it out; a wrong item delivered and awaiting a reply from the supplier; trouble with the generator (probably a major expense) and lost dog tags (a minor inconvenience). Everything will be sorted out in the end. 

It's lovely and sunny here today, though still cold. My thoughts are turning to gardening. I have a lot of plants over-wintering on the window sills. My next job is to try and condense what's there to make room to be able germinate veg seedlings. I know it's early but if I start some now and they fail, I might have time to try again. I'm starting off with tomatoes, chillies and sweet peppers. 

AnimalTribe

The septic tank is now covered in wooden boards and a metal hurdle so that should solve the problem for a while. DH is considering getting a blacksmith to make a new cover so I will see how that goes.

DH found a spare dog tag and the supplier of the wrong item has agreed to send out a replacement (and I don't need to return the wrong item).

As regards the generator, the recommendation is that the battery bank is replaced every 7 years. My battery bank is 10 years old and is now beginning to fail. Some of the batteries don't hold the charge for as long as they should. So DH has ordered a new set of batteries for £3,000. It seems a lot but spread over 7 years isn't so bad, and I've had the money set aside to replace them. It is however, a difficult job to replace them - they are very heavy and because of where they are housed there is lots of twisting and bending. DH and I have done this before, so we will manage, it's just not a pleasant job.

I've sown lots of seeds, and I'll do more today so hopefully that will give me a good start to the growing season. Rather than a propagator I grow my seeds on pet heat mats with a covered seed tray on top. The only reason I work this way is that I had the heat mats anyway so I saw no reason to spend money on something when I already had stuff that would do the job.

My other job for today is to make some rocky road (I use vegetarian marshmallows).

AnimalTribe

DH and I went out to a local village yesterday. We checked out the charity shop while we were there and got a few DVDs. The DVDs are really cheap, 25p each and a boxed set is charged per DVD. We also went to the local cafe for paninis and cake. I'm still trying to eat from stores as the freezer and larder are still full of stuff, but I needed bread, milk and fruit so we went to the village shop. DH also wanted crisps so £13.28 spent, but that should keep us going for a while.

I've planted lots of veg seeds, and also some flower seeds - some of the seeds are old, but I'm hopeful that some will come up. 

Today I'm getting all my Easter crafts together for DH to photograph so that I can put them up on Etsy (I'm a rubbish photographer). I've also got another small cross stitch that I'd like to finish.

There's some more seed sowing to do - a few that need to be refrigerated either before sowing or part way through germination so I have to find some small pots that will fit in the salad compartment. I found some cress and mustard seeds so I'll be sowing them onto wet paper towels so I should have some fresh greens in about 3 weeks.

It's a beautiful sunny day here and the snowdrops are out in my garden. There is a lovely spot not too far from me full of snowdrops - it is so dense it looks like a white carpet. Sadly, it's still bitterly cold here so there's no outside gardening at the moment - it won't be long though spring is just around the corner.

AnimalTribe

It's lovely and sunny today and the temperature isn't too bad either so I've been out for a lovely walk. That's the benefit of living in the middle of nowhere I can just step out of the front door and be in beautiful countryside. It's extremely, peaceful and quiet.

Lots of small annonyances today though. The handle fell off my smallest pan - it's not fixable, but I have another pan that is just a little bit bigger so I don't need to buy a replacement (and on the positive side it means more space in the cupboard and the pan was empty at the time). Something I bought has been lost in transit so I need to get in touch with the supplier for a replacement. This is the second loss in the last few weeks, but I'm sure it will get sorted. Lastly, a payment that I made to a supplier has gone astray so I'll have to phone their accounts department. In the last couple of weeks lots of minor things have been going wrong. It's weird because I haven't had issues like this for years and then they come all at once. As I say though these are minor things easily sorted.

I didn't get to finish my cross-stitch yesterday, but hopefully I'll finish it today.

Dinner tonight will be home made pizza. The base will be from a packet of sour dough base mix that was part of my emergency winter stash and it will go nicely with the last bit of a jar of pasta sauce (also from my emergency winter stash).

When I was on my walk I saw a very forlorn looking sheep. It was standing at my garden fence looking at all the grass and leaves it couldn't get too because of the temporary fence fixes. It just looked like the cliche of a kid with its nose pressed against the window of a sweet shop - so cute.