My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

AnimalTribe

Teapot2 Unfortunately, I expect recovery to take at least another week, but then it will be time to sort out the garden.

Today's been a lazy day with the usual catch up phone calls and pottering about. DH painted some wood preserver on some fence posts so at least someone did some work.

The weather has been perfect the last few days so I have been wandering around the garden making a mental note of what tasks to do first.

AnimalTribe

DH and I have been out with friends for most of the day and we had a great time. We did a small grocery shop, posted a birthday card and an Ebay sale.

Tonight's very windy so there is lots of electricity being generated.

AnimalTribe

It’s been snowing here today. Not enough to be a bother, but very cold.

DH has been in the city for most of today sorting out some things for work.

My wrist is improving and I’ve been able to do some crafting and I’ve done a bit of general tidying. By next week I’m hoping things are back to normal.

AnimalTribe

It has been the most frustrating of days, trouble does indeed come in threes, if not more.

Firstly (it’s a long explanation), one of the dogs didn’t eat her food yesterday or this morning. It was looking like a trip to the vets. However, she was still bright and bouncy and begging for treats so it was a bit odd. Because she’s an old dog she gets a mix of food in her bowl – a moist dog kibble, a dry kibble, a tinned gravy dog food – all small amounts, a joint tablet and salmon oil. It’s a perfect mix for her and even though she is 13 people think she is a young dog, and the vet can’t believe how fit she looks. It occurred to me if she was actively asking for food then she must be hungry and that meant something was up with the food in her bowl. I decided to try them separately. She wouldn’t touch the moist kibble, but hoovered up the gravy food, the same with the dry kibble, the salmon oil and the joint tablet. So, the moist kibble that she’s eaten for years was the problem. I thought the supplier might have changed the recipe, so I found another pack of moist kibble and she ate it. I came to the conclusion that although the moist kibble was well in date it must have gone off. This is the first time this has ever happened with any dog food. Still the dog doesn’t have to go to the vets and DH and I have gotten over our doggie health worries.

Then DH tells me that the cylinder hinge on the vacuum has snapped, but that he thinks he can fix it.

And then, our second dog decides that she’s not going to come in from the garden and it took an age to coax her inside.

Finally, I decided to buy two books for Amazon Kindle, a rare event, as I prefer paper books. However, the purchase went wrong so I had to contact customer service chat. Oh dear! Once past the bot, the people were helpful but the conversation just kept going around in circles. The account somehow got suspended and I finally had to give up as I’d been on the chat so long. I’ve reset my account, but it’s still not clear if my purchase went through or not. I’ll look tomorrow and see if my credit card is showing the charge or not and if the books are in my Kindle Library. What an ordeal!

daisy_1571

On behalf of older dog thank you for working through the various things to work out what the issue was 😘 🐕️

peb

Not sure what the kindle issue is but it's possible to return unread books for a refund in a short period of time (possibly two weeks - not sure if stems from distance selling regulations?). May be of use. Just select purchased in error.

Amazon chatbots are a nightmare.

AnimalTribe

Daisy_1571 thank you. She is my baby - if she had needed the vets I would have had no hesitation in going, but with her still beging for treats it was just odd that she wouldn't eat her food, and she was still full of energy, and her evacuation was normal. There has been no problem with her food today.

Peb - thanks. It's all sorted now but it was very frustrating at the time.

DH has been doing some of the heavy gardening and I've been replacing some broken catches on necklaces with new ones. I'd say my wrist is now 95% fixed and I'm able to do most things.

AnimalTribe

Today has been really windy so the wind turbine has topped up all the batteries. Even though it was windy I managed to get into the garden to plant some garlic that had sprouted in the vegetable rack. With a damaged wrist I haven’t really been keeping up with household things. So, I hadn’t checked the vegetable rack in a while. As well as the sprouting garlic, some of the potatoes have sprouted and I will plant them as soon as I’m able. I also had to throw out two apples.

DH managed to trip over a fence he was climbing and hurt one of his thumbs. DH and I aren’t doing well on the keeping safe front at the moment.

I think tomorrow I will bake a couple of things – it’s nice to be getting back into a normal rhythm.

AnimalTribe

It's been very windy today, unpleasant to walk in at about 25 mph, but at least it was blowing in the right direction for the wind turbine.

DH bought a new t-shirt that had a slightly too large neck, so he found some of my elastic stash and threaded the elastic through the t-shirt neck. I thought that was quite enterprising of him.

I made some coconut cookies and some shortbread so that should keep us going for a few days. I had intended to make some peanut butter brownies, but DH and I are trying to cut down on sugar, so I decided to bake those another time. I don’t think either of us could cut out sweet treats entirely though.

AnimalTribe

DH ordered 5L rust remover to renovate a fancy metal gate. It was lost in transit. The company sent out a replacement that was also lost in transit. DH ordered something from Amazon and it’s been lost in transit. DH is not a happy bunny. Neither am I, as the fruit trees I ordered have been delivered to somewhere that isn’t here. The driver took a photo of the delivery – it’s not my house and it’s not the neighbours one mile away. The tree nursery and Amazon are investigating what has happened but it’s not a great beginning to the week.

DH has been doing some heavy gardening and I’ve managed to do some small bits and pieces outside, so the day hasn’t been a total loss but we’ve both spent the day being annoyed.