Hurrying through August

On Monday we delivered the chicken shed to smallholder W in Mid Suffolk. If you can imagine driving through half of Suffolk towing a big trailer with this loaded on top you can see why we got a few odd looks.

Col had taken the nest boxes off the side but even so the shed over hung the trailer by a foot on the near-side so we had to slow down and move to the middle of the road when the road was narrow to avoid getting stuck in the hedge or running into a signpost. The shed is on metal skids so unloaded easily. We still have the other small shed to take to them another day. It's quite odd to know that we will never again keep chickens by the 100s.
We called in at two other places - as you do- one to a company that supply packaging materials to try and find some lids to fit some jam jars that seem to be an odd size and secondly to buy some cheap meat from a butchery place. 2 Huge fresh chickens for £5 each - bargain.

 Tuesday was an incredibly wet day, it's rare that we get continuous rain for so many hours. When I commiserated with one of the people on the campsite she said "it's OK we're from Oldham, we're used to it!"
There were things I could have done but after some clearing in the poly-tunnel I sort of went into a  dull grey mood and did nothing much for the rest of the day.

Then on Wednesday we had brilliant sunshine and blue skies. In the afternoon Col took our elderly friend up to Norwich Hospital again and I sat out and enjoyed the sun. Everyone on the campsite was out and for the first time in weeks no farm machinery chugging round the fields so it was quiet and  peaceful.

Thursday started wet again but I was bread baking so it didn't matter. Col has been delivering various things that people bought at the yard sale on Saturday. A man came back for a second look at the old cement mixer and bought it and a couple of tyres for £40 and another bloke who came to pick up some posts bought on Saturday also bought some other wood for another £15. I've worked out  that the yard sale and the 2 car boots and selling the chicken sheds will keep us for 2 months in winter.

Our electric went off early Thursday evening, we could see that the isolator levers on the electric pole over the road were all unconnected so we knew it wasn't just us. I rang the number for UK Power Networks in the Phone book and a very helpful man looked through all the info on his screen and told me we and 28 other homes around had been switched off for some urgent work somewhere over the fields behind us. He then rang back later to say we should be on by 8.30pm and rang back again at 9pm to check we were back on.   (It was). What good service and what a shame it's so unusual that it needs commenting on.

Col went out to work for his Leiston customer on Friday morning and took a load of junk to the dump. I was supposed to be cutting grass but because we had a heavy dew overnight everywhere was too wet. It turned really hot and humid as the morning went on and then it was too hot for pushing a mower....... tomorrow maybe. Col did the easy ride-on-mower bits in the afternoon and loaded the small chicken shed onto the trailer ready for delivering.
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A few weeks ago I sent an email to the man who does features on houses for sale in the East Anglian Daily Times Property section. The houses he writes about are usually huge/expensive/unusual or very special but going on the theory that there is no harm in asking, I invited him to see our self-sufficient Suffolk property with 5 acres for under £500,000 that we can't sell. Much to my surprise he phoned and is coming out in early September - all publicity is good publicity!

I watched the programme on i-player presented by Anne Robinson- Britain's Spending Secrets , Col didn't want to see it on the night it was on - not his thing - he would have muttered all the way through!
There certainly are some people with plenty of money but how is it that in some places people easily find in-date food  in skips round the back of shops? Round here the bins are all in locked  gated areas. 
I was interested to hear Anne R saying how people are so reluctant to talk about what they earn yet scathing about how others spend their money. Having just detailed our whole budget for all of Blogland to see I know see what she means - for as far as I know no one else has ever done the same - or if they have I've not read any. Talking about money and earnings has never bothered me. That's what we earn, that's what we spend -So What?
 Which reminds me that I never got round to replying to comments after that post . Thanks to everyone who reminded me that we are very lucky to have savings and that's what they were saved for- true. Also sympathy to all other people like me who have had their pension age pushed back and to everyone younger for whom it's even worse. I'm glad to hear other smallholders have plans for what they will do in the future.We thought we had too, until unexpected health problems. The suggestion for selling the land and/or campsite separately isn't feasible here because of the way things (water, electric,drainage and driveway) are laid out and because we are in the middle of arable giant-field country where our little bit is worth nothing much on its own. I'm not worried about what will happen in the future as we've always found that  something turns up as long as we've done what we think is right.
On the post before that Sol asked if I could list the books that I'm taking to a car boot but there are rather too many to list or photograph.

Hope everyone has a good weekend
Back soon
Sue

So how did it go?

They came and  they bought  and we are £700 better off!

We had advertised the barn/yard sale as starting at 9am but I went up to the shed at 10 to 8 to take a tray with the kettle and coffee stuff  and found a bloke poking about already and then from 8.30 on it was busy busy busy. Our elderly friend came to direct people to the car parking space and a couple of our regular campers volunteered to help too. I wanted to take pictures of the crowds

but never got a chance to go back indoors for my camera. Luckily Col had snapped a couple on Friday for his Facebook page.Above is the outside stuff all laid out for people to see. And below the barn with the

 smaller things, the books and household stuff all covered over.

I'm so glad we finished at 1pm as by then I was cream crackered! Col went up the road to take down all the signs, we cleared away the few things that were worth more than £2 into the workshop and then had lunch.  Time to clean the campsite toilets, do the eggs,  a swift bit of tidying indoors and we were ready for a potential purchaser viewing at 4pm. Phew!

We still have quite a lot of our daughters furniture here but we did sell a few bits of hers so she is also up £50. The list of useful smallholding things that are left have been emailed straight away to the newsletter editor for inclusion in the September Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter. Books have been brought back indoors and with other small workshop items will go to yet another car-boot sale in September. Col has got to deliver several things locally including the bricks which, as everyone predicted on comments on the last post, did sell easily.

All our campsite visitors came round for a look including Fran ( Bonnie Of Clyde Blog) who had been camping with husband and lovely dog all week.

Back later in the week
Sue

Having Faith in the Flow (again)

With all of Cols health issues changes have been forced on us ( if you are new to reading - he had never been in hospital in his life until 2013 when he had angina and stents put in, then a small heart event in Oct 2014 followed by more issues in the urology area! this year which resulted in a small operation and then more  problems.)
This is what's changed
Last year we made hay and sold the bales from 3 fields, this year we will just do our meadow here.
Last year Col was working for our farmer friend moving the big irrigation system, this year he's not been able to.
Last year we had 140 chickens and selling dozens of eggs every day this year we have just 40 old chickens and selling just a couple of dozen each day.
Last year Col was doing lots of hedge cutting for our neighbour, this year that job is one of the things he has to avoid.
Last year we grew loads of pumpkins and squash out on our field, this year we couldn't.

It's obvious our income is and will be less all through the next few months. What perfect timing it was to find I was going to get a bit of pension from 35 years ago, an unexpected bonus. Then there is the loads of scrap we've cleared and sold, with more to go later, the smallholding equipment we hope to sell via a barn and yard sale and we've already made £300 from car boot sales and the campsite has been busy through most of this month.
This isn't the first time we've found things turn up at just the right time. It's called The Flow and I've written about it before (told you I was going to re-hash more old posts!)

Here we go, this is part of my post from April 2014

 When Patrick and Shirley Rivers  moved to an almost derelict house on steep overgrown land in the Wye valley, they were already nearly 60 years old and found some of the work really hard. Often just as they were on the verge of despair something or someone would turn up to help. Later, when he researched the other book, he spoke to many people who had also found that if they had faith in themselves and the way they were living simply, things often happened at just the right time. He called it The Flow.

That's how it's been for us. We've never sat back and waited for something to happen but when we've worked hard and trusted in ourselves to manage, everything usually turns out OK. All the house moves we did to work our way towards a smallholding always went well, we never lost out but we had to work hard to improve the properties.

When C had the heart problems last Autumn (2013) he wasn't able to do the 3 day-a-month council job but then the unexpected extra council work when he was well again in December and January filled a gap which would have meant dipping into savings.
When Council cuts in this new tax year brought his work with them to an end our income  fell but   our neighbours'  gardener  has now retired so C will fill that gap to do her grass cutting  for her, which means a regular job with no traveling.
With Easter being late this year our April income from the campsite has been a bit more than usual, which will help us through until we start to sell our produce again.
Last year the irrigation work didn't start until June but we had the Sizewell Outage men on the campsite early in the year before our opening time, which was an unexpected bonus that saw us through.

Hopefully all will be well.

 A few days ago I said I might be too busy to do much writing on here but the road is still closed so no point digging spuds or picking gooseberries  to sell, no viewings yet either - no passing traffic to spot the sign. I could despair that there is no income from produce but I'll just cross my fingers that they get the road open again soon and the campsite bookings diary fills up for July.

Welcome to Tracey,a new follower in the Google pictures

Back sooner than I thought
Sue

The Middle of March

First, thank you one and all for the 33 comments after my last short post about the weather in the West and that obnoxious bloke on TV. The interesting thing about blogging less often is that I seem to get more readers for each post and more comments. Sorry I didn't reply to any of the 33 but there wasn't much to say really except..... Thank you!

We have had some nice bright weather here since that last post, but more very grey cold days too, the first few daffodils were brought indoors but other than that it is still quite quiet in the garden. In other parts of the country people have rhubarb several inches tall, we have just the first signs of it growing through the compost, I've told the asparagus to hurry up but it's ignoring me!

 At least we have got 4 nets of onion sets planted and covered with fleece and still good quantities of salad leaves from the poly-tunnel.
And at last the Purple Sprouting Broccoli has enough spears to make a meal -Yum.

   The pots of crocuses that I had flowering in the kitchen last month have  been transferred to the garden and 2 small tree seedlings that were popped into pots last year have gone out on the edge of the campsite.

More preparation has been done for opening the campsite, mainly Col grass cutting and turning the water and electric on to check everything is OK and I've ordered the leaflets about local places of interest for the information room/library. Our first visitor is due on the 1st of April and we have 4 caravans booked in for Easter Weekend...... fingers crossed they all turn up.

Mothering Sunday fell smack bang in the middle of the month and I had cards from our 3 children and a lovely cushion cover from our eldest daughter, while the youngest daughter treated us to a takeaway on Monday night.

Just need to find a fatter cushion pad to fill the cover

  We didn't  go out on Mothering Sunday, not even for a walk - the East wind was just too darn cold, instead we got the dining room back together again after it's coats of paint ( found matching emulsion in the cupboard that we didn't know we had so didn't need to buy any) and did an hour wood cutting in the shed. I'm pleased that we are getting the house looking smart in case we sell. Just a bit of filler to do in a couple of  cracks in the new plaster of kitchen and living room, and a touch up with paint. Plus the back door needs painting when it's warm enough to leave it open all day.

In 1994 Col bought an old Grey Ferguson potato planter for £50, we've used it for years and it got gradually more rusty but it's now been sold and delivered -sight unseen- to another smallholder for £150. Maybe that's the difference between old and vintage! It was one of the things that made the weekend of the 14th/15th a good weekend for income, because apart from the bit of  tatty machinery we also sold 18 bales of hay for £45, 13 boxes of eggs = £13 and Col earned £30 for working at a neighbours. That's how our income arrives, in small bits, but it didn't stay here long because the electric bill also arrived, followed closely by the bill for business insurance and the bill for the solar thermal service - an expensive time of the year!

Talking about expensive- did you know the price of postage stamps goes up on the 30th of this month? I've invested in £20 worth  to beat the increase, which should last me most of the year. Now I come to think about it, the Post Office are missing a trick here by having stamps marked with 1st and 2nd instead of the price. In the old days it was necessary to go and buy a whole lot of 1p stamps to add to old ones when the price increased.

I've not mentioned books that I've read for a while but two more have been added to the list on the separate page on this blog.
 One from my own book shelves - Dorian Amos - The Good Life up the Yukon - Panning for Gold.

 This is the second book about a young couple who moved from England to the freezing forests of North Canada to live in an off grid cabin often cut off from the nearest town by a river. It is fascinating to read about coping with the sort of cold that means getting up several times during the night to keep the fire alight and having to don 6 layers of clothing before stepping out of the door. Brrrrrrrrr!

And Finally for today......... welcome to Melanie, a new follower on Bloglovin' .

Back in a few days
Sue

To Remember For Next Christmas

Yes I really am looking that far ahead!

I usually make a few notes in the start of my new diary to remind me of what's what, this year I will share them with you.... you lucky people!

• Look out for wrapping paper at car boot sales
• No need to buy any Christmas cards  as I have got enough for next year
• But I want to make some special cards for the family ( Need to search for ideas - cross stitch?)
• 12 people fit round the dining table but a bit too many for the living room
• Having everyone here on one day was good, but left no time to chat much
• The chocolate meringue gateau is delicious but we've had it 2 years running so find something different for next year.
• I don't need to make Christmas puddings next year - two in the cupboard
• Might do hampers for sisters and Bros in L? Write down ideas
• Maybe find another cheap Christmas tree at a car boot as we have so many tree decorations that never get used.
• Remember to use Scout Post for Ipswich relatives, need to be in Ipswich during first 2 weeks of Dec.
• Look for small gifts at car boot sales for "tree presents" and maybe cracker fillers

And  I spent a while yesterday evening cutting out some 3D decoupage sheets for making  Christmas cards.
Yep, it's official..........I'm mad!

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One of the last things Col did before the Hardly-a-Heart Attack was to bring home 8 big IBC containers from the factory in Leiston.

He got them cheap as they had so many there with no one wanting them. They are all ones that can't be used again officially because either the frames are too rusty or the taps leak a bit. They've been advertised in the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter ever since but we've had no phone calls.  Odd really as this is the ideal time for arranging a water catching/storage system before the summer. So today on our way to get a load of chicken feed we dropped 2 off at the sale-yard where they will go in next Mondays Auction. We will see what happens.

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 Just seen a trailer for a new series of Call the midwife, I'm looking forward to that as I didn't think they were doing anymore. I missed the Christmas one, probably a good thing as I would have cried my way through the whole programme!

Welcome to Jan, following by Google friends. Hope you enjoy my ramblings from Suffolk.

Back Tomorrow
 Sue 

A Winter Week Without a Salary, Odds and Ends and Home Farmer Magazine Review

I've just realised I have new followers on Bloglovin'. The numbers went down 2 and then up 3 so welcome to Tannia, Helen Roasty and Loraine, thank you for reading my ramblings.

I went to Saxmundham this morning for milk and a few bits and the final voucher for a Christmas pressies. Came home and wrapped up the present and then realised I had 2 more things still to sort and wrap which took me to the very end of my Christmas wrapping paper. I shall need to look out for some in the January sales, I don't think I have bought any for several years. I quite fancy getting some brown paper and printing with potato prints or something similar but in reality I know I'll never get round to it and it would probably end up being more expensive anyway.
We had a very nice hand made card in the post the other day and I said to C that I really ought to make more cards other than the few I make for my Penny Pinching Pen Friends. He said the same thing - that it's probably more expensive to make them than to find some cheap in the sales or at car boot sales. ( The thing he doesn't know is that I probably have enough of a stash of card making bits and bobs to make several years of cards!).

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I'm in trouble again for correcting a mis-quote on another blog. The problem was because it was misquoted it changed the whole reason for the quote and it gives me the heeby jeebys to see something in print that I know is wrong. I think when I'm even older and crustier I shall be one of those grumpy old women who write to newspapers and Points Of View to correct mistakes - Oh what fun!

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Once again a copy of Home Farmer Magazine has arrived for me to review. As always it's filled with interesting articles. The food bit in this January edition features Norfolk recipes, marmalade, porridge and sausage making.
John Harrison writes about rhubarb and Sara Evans-Charrington has recipes for home made cleaners.

I was very tempted by an offer of a free book just for the price of postage until I remembered that I had them both! Sometimes I forget just what we have got - too many books perhaps? No, that's impossible!
Another good offer is for 5 packets of seed for greenhouse growing worth £10 for £2.95 and a bigger collection of £32.75 worth of various seeds for £15. ( I still haven't done our seed order yet so I need to check out this offer)

There is an interesting bit about Comfrey and comfrey "tea" for fertiliser. We just bung a mesh bag of it in a water butt however John Butterworth has built a special pipe contraption which could be better and avoid some of the smelliness.

My favourite features as usual were smallholder Dot Tyne's diary from her welsh smallholding and the pages of short news items of interest to smallholders and gardeners.

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And Finally - a couple of times in the summer when our income from self employment is good I've done posts about what we earn, how we earn it and how we save some for winter.

This is why we need to save  - here's  a weeks income from December

Thursday 4th Dec - Eggs £8
Friday 5th Dec - Eggs £7
Saturday 6th Dec - Eggs £8
Sunday 7th Dec - Eggs  £13. Cs pay for working at our neighbours £12.50
Monday 8th Dec - Eggs £9. Hay £5
Tuesday 9th Dec - Eggs £6
Wednesday 10th Dec - Eggs £15. Hay £5
That makes a weeks income of  £88.50. So it's a good job we paid off the mortgage all those years ago, don't have any debts and have put money away during the summer months.

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Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and a special thank you message to my penfriend D from the States - kitchen pressie arrived safe and sound - I shall be good and save it to Christmas.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Halfway through the month, a look at spending and my "to do" list

 Half way through the month, so I thought I would look back at my November Plans list.
This is what I wrote at the beginning of the month

1. Continue eating our own fresh apples and fruit from the freezer so that we spend no money on fruit apart from an orange and a lemon for the Christmas cakes.✔
2. Make a double batch of Naan bread✔
3. Make a batch of Tomato and Herb rolls✔
4. Do the main monthly shop✔
5.  Sort the seed/veg plant order and make sure it is less than the £100 that it was last year.
6. Get chicken feed on the way back from Ipswich when C has his 24 hour heart monitor fitted✔
7. Christmas cakes to make, 1 for us and 3 small ones for gifts
8.  I need to find out what Cs Dad and Brother would like for Christmas and get them sorted out
9. We need to clear the 2 runner bean beds and store the canes away and pick off some beans for drying.✔
10. More clearing in the 3 poly-tunnels
11. Chop a few more sacks of kindling wood✔
12. Clean out the empty chicken shed✔
13. Clear a few veg beds - at least 3
14. I want to fit in  some cycling or swimming or both for fitness
15. Go and see the sea✔
16. Visit charity shops in a different town✔
17. Confirm how many people will be here on Christmas day✔ 

11 out of 17 things ticked and I have asked Cs Dad (a blue shirt) and brother what they want for Christmas, but his brother hasn't a clue - no help. He is the only person left with a blank space beside his name in my Christmas book.
I've looked at what seeds we have but as we can't decide if/what we will be growing for sale (or not) in 2015  I've done nothing about ordering.
 So overall not too bad. Plus some things have been done that were not on the list like hiring a breaker to finish the old shed base, clearing the broken concrete away and moving some wood from the open fronted cart shed into the wood shed for cutting.

 As for the plan to keep spending well below November of last year, that's on track apart from the cat costing me a small fortune.
So far this month
Direct Debits for Council Tax, Water, Phone, Charity donation, Business and Campsite insurance =£227. Diesel £49, Birthday and Christmas Gifts £228,( from money saved all year for gift spending and some was clothes for C) Huge sack of Peanuts for birds ( will last all winter) £25. Smallholding £55, Chicken Feed £61, Printer paper £3, Bathroom stuff £6, Stamps £6, Laundry Liquid ( years supply online bulk buy) £32, Me ( secondhand books and yarn) £6, Food inc. some for Xmas £117. And the Very Expensive Cat £121 ( 2 months of food as on offer)
Total of £933.
In the second half of the month I will be sorting out some more Christmas gifts and buying milk and a few bits of fresh stuff.

I was looking back at last years posts and found the one I did about how little do we need to live on.

This suddenly seems very apt as we try and decide what to do here (or somewhere else). We've been talking ourselves around in circles for the last few weeks and seem to have these options.

• Stay here and scale down on the strenuous work, live as simply as possible but perhaps forcing us to use savings to live on.
• Move somewhere in Suffolk that's much cheaper, leaving enough to also buy something to rent out for income.
• Have a complete change of scenery and move to another part of the country to somewhere a little cheaper and use savings to buy holiday flat/caravan in the same location to rent out for income.

• Get proper jobs. ( C says not an option!)

So that's half of the month gone, perhaps we will have more idea of what we are doing by the end of the month - but I doubt it

Back Tomorrow
Sue ☺

Odds and ends

Another day, another dollar............C was off before 8am moving the irrigation stuff again.They are irrigating carrot fields at the mo. I just wish he wouldn't bring so much of the  sandy, slightly muddy soil back with him every time!
We have paid the bill for cutting and baling the fields = £178. Not too bad considering we will be getting back nearly £1000 when we get paid. Then there will be some money from his Leiston customer for the greenhouse and fixing it and money for all this irrigation work. It's good when we owe nothing and can look forward to cash coming in.

We had 2 vouchers in the post the other day for £5 off a £15 spend in September and October for our local (15 miles away is local for Suffolk!) Wyevale Garden centre. There was also a buy-one-get-one- free voucher for lunch in the restaurant. So I'm getting out my Christmas book to see what other presents I need and then we can have a morning out one day next week. It was our 35th wedding anniversary on the 8th and we did nothing to celebrate so this will be a belated treat.

C has worked his way through the rest of the raspberry pruning and done more mowing on the campsite and around the garden. We have 2 tents and 3 caravans here this weekend and another booking for a caravan for next week so not quite as quiet as we thought. Emptying the bins today he found a whole cooked chicken had been chucked out, still sealed in its wrapper, I think waste from the campsite is the worst thing about running it.

I've had yet another rest day, I've read yet another book.... The collected works of A. J. Fikery by Gabrielle Zevin. According to my Book of Books I've Read, which I started in 1971 when I began work in a library this is the first book I've read by an author beginning with Z. It was a really good read. Quirky but in a good way.

 Our eldest has arrived for a quick visit, time to hear all her wedding plans for next May.

That's our day gone again

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Another week of 'surviving without a salary'.

Not as much rain here as forecast, but very windy. I was up early so decided to do an extra bread loaf bake as well as the tomato and herb rolls that I had been planning.
 I then got one polytunnel weeded before the sun came out and it was too warm plus the bread had risen and needed baking. So it was all go here as I dashed between inside and outside, potting up some more squash plants, pricking out basil, tidying up the shed, watering the squash and pumpkin plants in the conservatory, hoovering.

 Phew -  I was glad to sit down this afternoon and write a letter to a penfriend.

Today has been an eggcelent ( sorry!) day for egg sales. Our 60 new hens are all laying and the oldest 35 are still here before being sold on Monday so we have more eggs than usual. Eggs are normally put out for sale the day after they've been laid but because of the Bank holiday and a wet day we had a half a days backlog, however today we sold all of yesterdays as well as those left from the day before....... an income of £33!

C has been working on the IBC containers, some needed fixing to new pallets as well as a good clean. One has been collected  already after a phone call this morning and he is delivering two more tomorrow.

This makes another very good week for a couple of people without a salary.
When I did a post in April about surviving without a salary it got hundreds of page views and lots of comments, with people saying it helps them to see how it's possible to give up full time work and still manage ( as long as outgoings are low enough i.e no mortgage ) So here  is another weeks 'survival'.

Saturday: Eggs= £22     Campsite = £60 + £24
Sunday:  Eggs = £19   C pay for grass cutting= £50. C cheque for April irrigation work= £290
Monday: Eggs= £13
Tuesday: Eggs= £22
Wednesday: Eggs= £19, Herbs= £2.50  Campsite= £228 ( a 19 day stay!!) + Campsite £10
Thursday: Eggs = £19 ,
Friday: Eggs £33,  Sale of IBC £35

This makes up for the weeks in winter when there will only be egg sales.

Back tomorrow
Sue

Having Faith in The Flow

In  my picture at the top of the blog are two books by Patrick Rivers.
When Patrick and Shirley Rivers  moved to an almost derelict house on steep overgrown land in the Wye valley, they were already nearly 60 years old and found some of the work really hard. Often just as they were on the verge of despair something or someone would turn up to help. Later, when he researched the other book, he spoke to many people who had also found that if they had faith in themselves and the way they were living simply, things often happened at just the right time. He called it The Flow.

That's how it's been for us. We've never sat back and waited for something to happen but when we've worked hard and trusted in ourselves to manage, everything usually turns out OK. All the house moves we did to work our way towards a smallholding always went well, we never lost out but we had to work hard to improve the properties.

When C had the heart problems last Autumn he wasn't able to do the 3 day-a-month council job but then the unexpected extra council work when he was well again in December and January filled a gap which would have meant dipping into savings.
When Council cuts in this new tax year brought his work with them to an end our income  fell but   our neighbours'  gardener  has now retired so C will fill that gap to do her grass cutting  for her, which means a regular job with no traveling.
With Easter being late this year our April income from the campsite has been a bit more than usual, which will help us through until we start to sell our produce again.
Last year the irrigation work didn't start until June but we had the Sizewell Outage men on the campsite early in the year before our opening time, which was an unexpected bonus that saw us through.

My part in this Flow thing is to manage the finances and make sure there is always enough for what we need. And also to do as many things as I can for ourselves to save us money.

I'm sure I've written about this before but I make no apologies for  repeating myself because if it works for us it might work for others too.

Ticked off the list

The temperature today felt about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday as the nasty East wind had gone. We were up and about early and got to the boot sale by 7.30, but even then it was very busy. Loads of car boots there and we went up and down and round and round. C found nothing but I got two things from my 'looking for' list. A nice big mirror in an oldish pine frame for only £2.

  The Hosta I wanted ( green leaves with white edges) was £1.75. A couple of fly swats for 10p each and two new navy blue pillowcases for £1 were the other things I bought. We were home by 9am and after a coffee and doing the jobs we hadn't done before we went - like washing up- it was straight on with gardening.

So much to do! I always start to panic at this time of year, I don't know why because we always end up with something to eat and to sell.
There were Purple sprouting broccoli, calabrese and white cabbage plants to go out.  Then I had  small trays of nasturtiums, sweet peas and snapdragons that needed planting and some parsley plants. French climbing beans were sown in pots and squash plants potted up from modules into pots.
I think the purple sprouting is a bit too early so I've sown some more plus red cabbage, cauliflower, winter cabbage and more calabrese. That leaves sweetcorn to do in a couple of weeks time.
A friend sent a packet of perennial verbena seeds in with my birthday card so those have also been sown.

 It is nice when people appreciate our eggs and the campsite. I found a note through the door yesterday from someone called Suzanne ( not sure who this is) to say she always bought our eggs when passing and they were better than any others. Then this morning I was cleaning the campsite loos when a caravan was just about to leave and the man said we had a really good site, one of the best small sites they've stayed at. It makes all the loo cleaning worthwhile!

C has been sorting out the big IBC  thousand litre water containers that we fill and take up the field for the chickens. One had got a faulty tap so has been swapped over. We have them on a couple of old trailer chassis, such an easy way of moving water round the holding.
We are really short of water this year already, despite catching several thousand litres during the rains earlier, the dry weather over the last few weeks has meant quite a lot of watering has been done. In fact C got a phone call from our farmer friend  W to say they are starting to irrigate the wheat and C will be needed to move the irrigation equipment during the day when W is at work elsewhere.

I have another two followers on Google friends and one is another Suffolk blogger with a brand new blog. So welcome to Musings From a Mid Suffolk Meadow. ( I can't find out who the other new follower is, but welcome whoever you are). Mentioning Mid Suffolk reminds me of a news item on BBC Look East yesterday. The reporter was in the village of Wyverstone which is next door to the village of Bacton where C lived and went to school, and where  we lived  for  several years and where I was Cub Scout Leader for many years. He was reporting on a police 'incident' involving assault and some firearms being found in a cottage, where a 49 year old man had been arrested. " Goodness me" we said "wonder if that would be anyone we knew".  Although as C is 57 it wouldn't have been anyone he was at school with. Then I got a shock when we heard it was someone who was a cub in the pack just at the time I started helping. It seems odd that I thought I was really grown up when I became a leader and yet the cubs were only 10 years younger than me.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

How we survived this week without a salary.

A regular monthly income, that's what most people have. Maybe every week or fortnight, 4 weekly or once a month, the majority of people have something that goes directly into a bank account. Even people on a pension or benefits - as long as nothing goes wrong with the system - have a regular income.
We lost our '24th of every month' income when C gave up working for the County Council in March 2012. Now our income arrives in bits.

This week has been a very good week
Sunday:  Eggs £18          C pay for grass cutting  and odd jobs £55
Monday: Eggs £14          Selling Sheep keeping books and equipment £30
Tuesday: Eggs £13          Interest on investment bond £80
Wednesday: Eggs £13    Rhubarb £3  Campsite £98
Thursday: Eggs £16        Herb £1    C pay for Rotovating a small paddock £20
Friday: Eggs £11              Herb £1     Selling hay £125. Campsite £36 + £20
Saturday: Eggs £12

A grand total of £566 ! Goodness me, if every week was like this we would be millionaires in no time!

There is a problem.............This weeks outgoings  =  60 New Point of lay hens £360. Chicken Feed £125. New Energizer for chickens electric fence £60. Shopping £20.  A total of  £565.
So that's OK - There's £1  to spare!

C went to the Bygones ( Rusty Junk) Auction but the pig troughs went for silly prices, so he brought our money home again. He has a special message to Cro - a fellow old tractor enthusiast. " The Howard gem rotovator that was on yesterdays photo sold for £220"

The little Gypsy caravan sold for £550! That's quite a lot to pay for a very small play house.

Back Tomorrow
Sue
PS Welcome to Kate a new follower on Google Friends

The ways I earned a bit extra while being a SAHM + other stuff

A beautiful day here today as long as you are the right side of the window.

C went off to work for one of his customers in Leiston and I settled down for some card making. I need some  birthday cards for men - always the most difficult to make cards for. I used some 3D decoupage sheets that came from Craft Creations when I had the £10 voucher for having a card in the Magazine Readers Gallery. I'm never very inventive or pleased with what I produce when it comes to card making but  suppose these look OK.

Another " getting the campsite ready" job got done. That was pressure washing the nonslip dirt-trapper mats. I've had two of them in use in the utility room all winter, it looks a bit bare in there now, but I'm not buying anymore. We can manage without them until October.

Recently one of Frugal Queens blogs was about finding ways to earn bits of extra money if you want to save or pay off a debt and I was thinking of all the things I've done while being a Stay at Home Mum.
From the beginning - Cleaning a house, Cleaning a Village Hall, Playgroup worker, Growing Herbs and selling them at a Pick Your Own fruit farm,Fruit picking, Saturday job in a Library, After School and Holiday Childminding, Small home based nursery for 1 morning a week, Lunchtime Playground Duty at a Middle school and then at a Primary school, Selling Herbs, Baking and Cards at the WI Market, Playgroup worker again, buying smallholding, livestock and country books and selling them at smallholders shows and  finally The Campsite here. Plus Polling Clerk on Election Day and Census Enumerator. It's only writing them down that I realised how many different ways there are of earning a few extra pence.

Thanks to everyone for comments again and I'll be Back Tomorrow
Sue

Library Book Photo

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday about the very shy  cats. They came out of hiding during the night to eat but have spent the day hidden in their box/bed. I've been in and out of the dining room to speak to them and to give them little bit of a stroke and tickling under the chin, which cats usually like.

We've had a beautiful early spring day here with almost non stop sunshine. Him Outside was working on the new campsite loos and then he delivered the two IBC tanks to people on allotments at Blaxhall ( a village not far away). So we have the money back for the 6 he bought, £15 profit and 4 more still to sell. We'll put an ad in the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter and they will probably go quite quickly once the gardening season starts.
I got outside to clear a bit of overgrown old herb garden that had several woody lavender plants and a half dead rosemary with ivy and brambles creeping through. This bit of garden and the small overgrown patio beside it are going to go back to grass as they are beside the old garden potting shed which will come down when the new one is built- sometime.

So, as promised, here is the picture of the library books collected from the mobile yesterday. A good selection with several crime by authors I've not read before, that have been recommended by people on other blogs.

There are three more WWII books that I've not seen before. Third from the right " The Library Book" is short pieces by authors about using libraries. The Trisha Ashley is a bit of light rubbish for a change, while the small book by Angela Thirkell, in the centre is short stories published in the 1930s/40s but never collected together before. Virago reprinted her book High Rising which I enjoyed a couple of months ago and now seem to be doing some more.
Due to the knitting, I still had some January books unread, so now have a massive pile of books under the table by my chair - 22 to be precise! More hours in the day needed please!

Back Tomorrow.

Old enough for thermal vests?

Once you get on the list for a Damart catalogue they seem to come quite often. Every autumn I look and think perhaps I ought to buy some thermal vests. Each year I decide I'm not old enough and I can make do with my summer vest tops when I need an extra layer. Then during last winter I had some days where my back and shoulders just didn't seem to get warm, so maybe I am old enough. In the  catalogue they are £17 each - far too much. I looked on the M & S website and they are £16 for 2 and the same at Debenhams. Him Outside said check ebay and of course they had some M & S, my size. new pack of 2 for auction. Which I got for £9. I shall now be toasty warm on the coldest days, but by golly I will feel ancient!

Him Outside got a nice cheque in the post this morning. It was his pay for the nearly 30 hours he did driving up and down fields with a big tractor and a roller. "The easiest £300 I've ever earned" he said.

It's been another lovely autumn day here, we've been treated to sunshine and blue skies. It was time for a wander around the garden with the camera.

Beautiful Bramley Apples.
 We started selling these on Sunday and for the first few days they were a bit slow going but today I've been picking and bagging and putting on the stand and they've been flying. We decided that as there are so many apples around this year that we would sell them for a £1 for a big bag full- just under 4lb. So good value for everyone to buy and enjoy. Our apples will be in many freezers in the Knodishall area this year.

What a sad sight.
 The last few tomatoes in one of the tunnels. No more to sell as we can eat them as they ripen slowly. Once we get a frost I will pick them, spread them out on newspaper, on trays and keep them in an unheated room.They will carry on ripening and we may still be eating them in December. One or two will go bad before they go red but it's one way of preserving the harvest just that little bit longer.

Food for the future
A red cabbage which could be eaten or sold or will sit in the garden for several weeks.

The view over the road.
This field had a very poor crop of field beans, after lots of cultivation, it's now been sown ready for next year. Probably wheat, we shall see what comes up.

The potato harvest
We originally didn't plan to grow any maincrop spuds  this year but got the chance for a  few cheap seed potatoes and planted them, we might as well not have bothered. Scabby, knobbly, small, no idea what variety they are but it was much too dry here for them this year. Last year it was too wet!
That's how it goes.
Back tomorrow.
PS Thanks to everyone for comments yesterday.If you have a go at the curry or the bhajis I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

A load of rubbish

We are NOT scrap dealers, we DO NOT collect scrap so how is it about once a year or so we have a trailer load of scrap to take to the scrap merchants?

It happens because Him Outsides motto is always accept anything offered as it might come in handy and if you don't accept you won't be offered anything again.
So
 Friend to Him Outside " I've got a couple of rolls of netting that might be OK for you". Him Outside " OK, bring them round and I'll have a look" Netting is rusting and no good so it is put in a heap tucked away behind the shed.
Another friend" I've got some metal pipes in the garage that came from a gazebo/awning/somewhere or other they might be useful to you for making a fence" Him Outside " OK bring them round and I'll have a look".  Pipes are too thin for fence posts so they are put on the heap.
Another friend " Do you want that old shed that's falling down at the bottom of the garden, it would be good for kindling wood, but you will have to clear it out first". Him Outside " OK , I'll bring the trailer down, clear the shed and the knock it down and bring it back here" Shed contains various old things - lawn mower, bits of old tools, and the roof is rusting tin. Everything is added to the heap.
Neighbour says " Do you want that old bike frame, you might be able to take something off it to use" Bike frame is useless so it gets added to the heap
A Camper arrives on site, unfolds his folding chair and finds it is broken, so leaves it beside the dustbins for us to clear up. The frame is metal and it gets added to the heap.
Daughter moves house " Dad, there's some stuff in our shed and we don't know what to do with it" Dad " Don't worry, chuck it in the back of the car and bring it round and I'll sort it out for you"
You get the idea?
Then there are all the cans from the bins - steel, and even better, aluminium, ( kept separate) old brake discs removed from the jeep, a 50 gallon drum once used for water - now rusty, old nails cleaned out from the Rayburn and woodburner ( once in pallets that we have burned) the list goes on.
So about once  every year or so we load it all up, fix it all down with a big net and trundle off to the scrapyard and come home later with a cheque that will be tucked into the ISA for winter. The price of scrap metal has fallen compared to what it was a few years ago but it is still a handy amount.

Thank you to Pam, Bridget and Gill for comments yesterday. If anyone didn't like my rant about foxes they kept very quiet about it. And yes Him Outside also pees on the compost heap, it's well known as a good  compost accelerator!

It's all just Common Sense

We needed to go and get some chicken feed, wheat, oyster shell and hen grit from the Feed Milling Company and some packaging for vegetables, so that was our morning out. Him Outside is not allowed to drive for this week but he came along for the ride. I don't mind driving a 50 mile round trip on country back roads but the same distance to Ipswich I shall need more practice at. We  needed some perforated plastic bags and and small punnets for this year but thought that as we were there we might as well  stock up on punnets for next years gooseberry crop too, so I now have 500 x 500g punnets and 350 x 250g  punnets - be prepared is my motto - after 20 years as a Cub Scout Leader their motto rubbed off on me! 

Two things in the news have interested me.( Well, three things really if you include news about food banks, food price increases and the rush for the rich and famous to jump on the frugal food bandwagon) Anyway what I want to say was I heard about a survey that said how many people were unable to point to the part of their bank statement that showed the balance and didn't know that was how much money they had available (or not available as the case may be). The second piece of news was about the number of people on zero hours contracts. Zero Hours contract is when you are             " employed" but only if they want you to work and you only get paid if you do work. You are not unemployed therefore no benefits. This seems to hark back to the thirties where the men would queue at the docks or outside a factory and wait to see how many men would be taken on that day. In a way it is similar to being self employed. If you don't find a way to earn money then you have no income and you don't get any benefits either, at least not in the short term.

How can you educate people about money, surely it must start in the home and at school. I'm old enough to remember savings stamps at school where you took along sixpence ( that's 2 and a half p to anyone born since 1971) and bought a little stamp. This was stuck into a book and at the end of the summer term a lady would come to school and give out the money that you had saved ready for the summer holidays. An easy way to learn that if you save a little bit regularly it adds up a lot. 

As children we spent ages rubbing coins with paper and crayon, then cutting them out and playing shops with toys or whatever. I think there are plans to bring personal finance into the school curriculum, hopefully that will help.

We've never been in debt, thanks to Him Outside always being in work, although well below the national average for much of our early years together. And I have to say also thanks to my skill at working out what was  important to pay for and want we could cut back on.

The mortgage was always top priority, then council tax (or the rates as it was called back then). Water rates, electric bill, TV licence were saved for bit by bit. At that time you could buy savings stamps at the Post Office to save towards many things- stuck on a card to save them just like school days.

 Living in the country a car was virtually a  necessity, so road tax,insurance,MOT were also saved for in tins in the kitchen cupboard. Just as now, the things that could be cut back on were food,clothes,furnishings and extras. The trouble is that now many people think the extras are theirs by right. Somehow a lot of folk are going to have to take a different outlook on what they spend their money on.

We are self employed, we only earn money if we work. We have no pensions yet or insurance. If Him Outside is unable to work for other people for the next few weeks then our only income will be from the campsite, what we sell at the gate plus the bit of interest from investments.  Someone visiting yesterday to see how he was seemed very surprised that we had kept the campsite open for me to manage on my own. Last week another person phoned to ask how things were going for him in hospital and was surprised to find I hadn't been to see him for a couple of days. But chickens need tending to, plants need watering and campers need looking after. That's why I stayed to look after things and because of our skill at managing we will get through whatever happens. Can you learn that at school? or is it something that seems to be sadly lacking in so many areas of life nowadays-good old Common Sense. 

This morning Him Outside asked if I had ever taken a picture of the stall at the gate when it was fully loaded with fruit and veg? Then he passed me my camera - so here it is - full of goodies for lucky people to buy. I say lucky because by midday the whole lot except for the marrows had been bought! 

Still preparing for winter.

We did some delivering this morning of hay to the lady who bought my goats from me 3 years ago - I still miss them and the everyday fresh milk.( but I know in reality that we will not keep goats again). Then we took 12lb of topped, tailed and frozen gooseberries to our friend P as a swap for sorting out those pictures. ( Monday 17th June blog, if you want to see them). The glass was not big enough for the frames and the backing paper was tatty, so he has replaced both but the frames were OK, so we kept those.
As we happened to be passing a car boot sale of course we stopped in for a look!
This is what I found for £1. Every year there is always at least 1 hot water bottle that perishes so I like to keep one new one in the cupboard as a spare.

Why does the photo sometimes turn around between taking it and uploading?This was not the way I took this photo!

We don't have central heating so I always put  at least 2 and sometimes even 3 hot water bottles in the bed before I get in. Hot water bottles are such comfy things!
I also found a new roll of Christmas wrapping paper for 50p - that's the first one I have seen this year at car boots and I was beginning to worry that I would have to buy some from a shop at Christmas time and I don't like doing that!
The campsite has been busy this weekend but after tonight we have NO bookings for several days, which is odd considering it's the start of the school holidays. I hope we will have some phone calls this week although rather than worrying about it I now look upon an empty site as a break from loo cleaning!
Him outside has done some odd jobs that needed doing before the day at hospital tomorrow and is now resting while listening to cricket. He doesn't admit it but I think he is also glad to get to the end of haymaking. Although most of the time he was riding on the tractor some of the hooking up of machinery etc is  quite hard work.

Haymaking and More Good Books

I spent yesterday afternoon trudging around a VERY hot field, surrounded by high hedges there were very few places with a breeze. We were getting the field baled- the one we rent - at Saxmundham. Because we have an ancient bale sledge that doesn't release the bales properly it means having to chuck the bales out when the sledge is full, so that they are at least roughly in a heap to make it slightly easier for loading them onto a trailer. The whole field was done apart from 2 rows which lay too close to a hedge to dry properly, so needed turning further into the field when the rest was removed. Loading hay bales high onto the trailer is one thing that Him Outside with the new angina problem has found difficult. The people who are buying the hay had to do their own loading this year. So hay making is ALMOST finished and I was too exhausted to do anything as energetic as blogging, and collapsed  on the settee to read by 8.30pm( after a refreshing shower using the oodles of free hot water we are getting from our solar thermal thingy on the roof).

The reason I only ever mention GOOD books is because if I find something not so good I don't bother to finish it. Life is too short and the world is full of good books.

I don't know why this picture is upside down it isn't like this in the file picture! The book is by Mark Sundeen and is the true story of a man known as Daniel Suelo who lives without money, in the USA of course. It is an odd story but well written.

This is an author I hadn't come across before, it is crime, set in the London Blitz of 1940. Seems it is the second in a series of four, so I shall be looking to order the rest from the library and also checking out what else this lady has written.

This book could be considered a bit of a rip off because much of the book has already been published by these people ( Patricia and Robert Malcolmson) in previous books, namely Nella Last's War, Dorset in Wartime: The Diary of Phyllis Walther and Warriors at home 1940-42 and another of their sources is to be turned into another diary book in the next year or so. Luckily I had only read two of the books they had already done and as it's a library book I hadn't paid the £20 it's priced at. I won't be putting it on my list of books to buy sometime as I'm finding it interesting but slightly heavy going. I will read it in bits between other books.

Hay making should be completely finished by tomorrow - God, Health and Machinary willing. Then we will await payment for all 800 or so bales, pay the rent on the two fields and squirrel away the rest for the winter.

Scratching a living!

As it says over on the right hand side, we live a fairly frugal simple sort of lifestyle so that we can manage on what we earn here and a few other bits of income and so that Him Outside doesn't need to do his old job for more than a few days a month.
So we don't get the £1,650 pay cheque at the end of the month like we used to before March 2012. Now our income comes in little bits and mostly in the summer. We have the campsite income which varies depending on the weather and on people actually wanting to stay here from April to September.  We have the income from a savings bond which we started with some money my dad left me when he died ( and you know what's happened to interest rates in the last 5 years - down and down). We have the "proper job" income which varies depending on how many days he is needed, anything from two days to four days a month (and that might end in October). We have the income from Him Outside grass cutting at the second home, a half or whole day once a week, again only in the summer.We have the income from the odd bits of work he does for 5 other people - not regular but perhaps adding up to a few days a month. We have the egg income from selling on the stall at the front gate. We have the income from selling hay that we make from 3 fields( and that depends on the weather and now the B...... mower has broken down again!) and last but not least we have the income from selling whatever we can on the stall at the gate. So Thank goodness for gooseberries! They may be scratchy and a pain to pick, but when we sell 30 punnets in one day like we did today at £1.50 a punnet it's a really useful bit of money!

3 photos on a beautiful sunny day

Alstromeria cut ready to bunch up and put out for sale

Honey suckle over one of our trellis arches

Beautiful clusters of flowers on the Black Elder.