My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

AnimalTribe

DH and I have been hosting family for the last couple of days. It was a last-minute thing for the Bank holiday. It was great to see them. They just wanted to go on walks and eat in, as one of them is a picky eater (I can’t fault them on that as I probably am too). We did visit the local village Italian on Tuesday though.

Ellenvan The heather stretches for miles. Sadly, the purple only lasts for a couple of weeks.

China37 I hope I manage to save some money too. DH was a bit embarrassed when he told me he’d had a bit of a splurge, so I think he will do better going forward. I’ve probably said it before, but walkers who pass by think we are very lucky or incredibly mad to live so far out.

Dakota_Rose it was really windy when I took the pictures but I’m glad that you think they came out well.

KajiKita It’s great when it’s sunny, but it is deliciously earthy when it’s wet. We won’t get the stumps ground down. According to the tree surgeon the stumps won’t regrow and it would have taken the work over to the next day which didn’t justify the cost.

BrimfulofSascha thank you. When I go walking my thoughts do wander and always to good things. On some days when the weather is cool and still, it’s like walking through another world or an earlier time.

I don’t know if I mentioned my great news. The solar panel\wind turbine\generator engineer has been in touch and told DH what settings to use on the control panel, and it worked. The generator now turns on automatically and off automatically. It’s only been needed twice so far, as the battery bank has been getting sufficient power from the sun and wind. It means DH doesn’t have to go out to manually turn the generator on and off when the battery bank is low. No more going out in the rain, and most importantly if it snows, he can stay indoors cosy and warm (apart from having to take out the dogs).

I’ve also cashed in another £5 in Microsoft Rewards for Tesco vouchers. I think they are valid for 5 years, so that’s £35 waiting to spend next time I’m in the city (which is rarely).