A Simpler Life 2018

Evening all.

DawnW - I think my problem with getting good yields is I am so impatient I can't wait to get sowing and planting, then wonder why not much comes up or is stunted. I need to work on that this year and hold off until end mid-March really, as it will all catch up. Came across this idea for recycling milk containers and really loved it.

I bought some soft fruit plants a couple of days ago and have earmarked a patch to plant them in. That's on my nice list of garden jobs to do this weekend, as the temperature should be quite nice if the wind holds off.

Managed to gift quite a bit of cat food to a neighbour this week and made a friend. It's built up as our cats went through a fussy period, so I'm pleased that's found a new home. We've been here 18 months and only chatted to each other in the street so when she came to collect it, we had a lovely tea and natter and then arranged to have a meal in March together. I've never had much relationship with neighbours over the years at our old house. I think our lifestyles were just too different - we were considered oddballs with our tatty old cars, veg beds, and chickens. Here no-one cares. Because we're in the country, we all have veg beds, chickens and tatty old cars. :rotfl:

RicardaRacoon - what a fab tip. I'd love it if Dh was tipped in citrus fruits! Last Christmas the potato guy gave DH a tray of seasonal veg all neatly packaged up for a supermarket, the day after I bought all my xmas veg. There were 12 different kinds of veg. One householder also gave him 440 teabags, which was a bit random, but still appreciated.

I joined the library this week finally and took out some books on How to use Windows 10. I got the free upgrade from Windows 7 with my laptop last year but hated how confusing it was so ended up using my work one for personal stuff in the evenings. I need to stop doing that so I took the bull by the horns. It took nearly 9 hours for my laptop to do all of its upgrades when I switched it on for the first time in months (such a slow internet connection in the country).

Also bought some very strong magazine files from WHSmith on a BOGOF so got them for £4. I've collected a lot of magazines over the years from car boot sales and charity shops etc, as well as through gift subscriptions, and they are stacked everywhere in piles. Next week I will be sorting them out, getting rid of all but my most favourite and sending them to the charity shops. That should clear some space on the shelves.

Phew. Another essay! Sorry about that...

Cottage_Economy wrote: »

I was sorting through my computer files and came across this link on growing food using permaculture.

I found the most interesting story was the one on urban permaculture, which starts at 32:08. This couple average 200kg of produce from a tiny suburban garden. I found this very inspiring.

Here is a pdf about what they did.

That’s fascinating, thank you. We haven’t started sowing any seeds yet, we’re in Kent so relatively mild. We have two allotment and a history of many courgettes ........

Hydrogen peroxide might do it - it shifts curry stains from the front of DH's shirts (I should get him a bib!)

I've only just come across this thread. Always late to the party :rotfl:

Hope it's okay for me to join? I've recently started thinking a lot about making my life much simpler! I've been reading through some of the posts here and getting some inspiration

I've been thinking about getting a bread maker, probably second-hand to save the ££, and wondered if it's a good investment? It would need to be good at making GF bread as I'm intolerant

jackieblack wrote: »

I have plans for half-term week to clear out the 15 years of accumulated sawdust, cobwebs and abandoned bits of wood, and reclaim the space for my own use (mainly storage). I have bought a couple of metal shelving units and should be able to store a good number of boxes currently cluttering up my smallest bedroom and my daughter's old bedroom (which needs to be cleared so I can redecorate it in the summer) in this space which is drier and more secure than the garage.
None of this can happen while ex-h's stuff is still in the workshop

So, loathed as I am to waste a precious day of my weekend because he can't keep to an agreement, I've spent the morning sorting and boxing up his stuff

So (despite a bit of moaning) ex-h collected the stuff I'd sorted and boxed and also took a few additional bits of his from the shed and garage

On the first dry day last week I emptied everything left in the workshop out onto the lawn, swept out all the sawdust and cobwebs (filled a black bag) and moved the workbench to underneath the worktop that ex-h had left. (He'd taken the unit from underneath and left the top, attached to the wall and unable to be removed but propped up by only a couple of bits of wood).
Next day I managed to assemble the two shelving units ('easy to assemble in just minutes' - yeah, right :cool:) and have now relaid the (swept and vacuumed) carpet, filled 2/3 of the shelves with boxes (these still need to be sorted through but I'll do that when it's a bit warmer!) and gathered together all the empty cardboard boxes I've been collecting (so I can sort the 'stuff' into new stronger boxes).

So, I definitely feel things are more organised now and, hopefully, by the end of the weekend will have one of the spare bedrooms cleared
When the weather gets warmer I'll start sorting through the boxes in the 'workshop' (need to find a new name for that now!) and hopefully make some space to start clearing the boxes from the other spare bedroom.

My daughter is visiting me today so I'm going to get her to help me move some of the boxes from her old bedroom out into the workshop (and I'm hoping she'll take a few bits home with her), but I think mainly we'll be doing 'wedding stuff'