4th November

On 4th November 1987 our youngest arrived in the world. 6 years younger than her brother and 7½ years younger than her big sister. The oldest two were at school, I was older and somehow caring for a baby seemed much easier than it was before. I had more time to enjoy having a little one in the house and consequently she was a very easy baby and toddler to look after.
 She hardly remembers living anywhere before we came here - she was 4½- unlike the older two children who had lived in 3 or 4  different homes before this. Although she's made up for it since - renting 4 different places in Leiston since she moved out 9 years ago. She says it will be odd knowing someone else is living here.
 Happy Birthday A. Our "baby" is 28. Blimey we're old!

We have pouring rain here this morning but the weather was a bit brighter yesterday and no fog. Col went down to our farmer friends to get our grass topper but it was wedged in behind other machinery and he couldn't get it out of the shed. So he did some weeding instead and picked off all the green tomatoes to bring them in to ripen.

 Our tomatoes plants have virtually finished and we'll be clearing them all out of the poly-tunnel soon.
 I had a frustrating time trying to do the main monthly shop at Tescos in Saxmundham. NO milk powder - empty space,NO value range soft cheese, NO Kenco de-caf coffee refill packs and NO own brand de-caf - they've stopped selling all those here in Saxmundham. No value range  mackerel fillets ( Have to go to Sainsburys). I just end up cross and with a quarter of the shopping list not bought.

Tip number 4 re-hashed from 2013 is Re-read the instructions for your washing machine and see if you can use a shorter cycle.
 Because we dry stuff outside, I've turned down the spin speed, hope that saves a bit of energy. I do all washing on 40℃, our machine is quite old and there is no lower wash temperature and unlike machines in the States no way of doing a cold water wash as the machine is hot and cold intake.

November No/ Low Spend Challenge - spent yesterday - Milk £2 , Veg £2.68,  Food that goes in Fridge and freezer £20.13, Store Cupboard food £8.26, Meat 80p, Laundry(Washing Soda) £1, Kitchen roll ( for tissues and other odd jobs) £1. Cats £24 (enough for one and a half months).
Pharmacy 50p.
Then very annoyingly had to pay 74p to post 2 small bung bits for the water storage things that Col hadn't included when he delivered the tanks in September BUT that was cheaper than driving 25 miles!
£1.40 off at Tesco with vouchers and price match.
Total spend so far this month Food £32.47 Everything else £27.24

I avoided spending on some yellow ticket RTC chocolate eclairs and a Christmas magazine!

I'm not sure about this posting everyday - seems to take up more time than I remember from the spring, may have to slow down again.
Back Tomorrow - probably
Sue

The week so far

Big Thank you to everyone for the comments and commiserations after my last post. I'm almost back to normal now -Whatever that is - Thank goodness. I have contacted the council to inform them of how late and loud the music was but with any luck we will have moved by this time next year - Surely it can't take another whole year to sell?

So what's been happening here on the Suffolk Smallholding? Although it hardly feels like a smallholding now - so much has gone or been tidied.

After the car boot sale on Sunday there were several crates and boxes to sort. I filled 5 carrier bags full of books and 1 bag full of odds and ends which we delivered to the charity shop.
Col laid all his useful bits of tools and tractor bits out on a workbench and took photos and then spent an age putting them on eBay. He gave away a few bits to a local builder and made a heap of things that can go to the rubbish tip. Goodness knows if the stuff on eBay will sell.

The weather early in the week was grey and chilly over Suffolk and we have been lighting the wood burner each evening and the Rayburn in the mornings for hot water. On Tuesday I decided to dry some tomatoes while the Rayburn was alight. I don't usually bother to freeze tomatoes as they always seem very watery when defrosted and we  mostly sell all we produce, but this year, probably because we've no eggs to sell anymore and very little other produce, the tomatoes are not flying off the stall. I followed some instructions for oven drying found on-line but made them a bit too salty, better luck next time.

The building society in Leiston were having a secondhand book sale for charity, I had to go in to have a look.....obviously! picked up this - just in case we get our hovel in the hills of Wales.

 The cartoons are hilarious but in a bad way! Much as I'd like to learn Welsh from the book or anywhere else it's very unlikely. I did 5 years of French and failed my O level, me and other languages just don't mix.
 I love this sentence from the book........
 In case of difficulty when trying out your Welsh say: Siaradwch yn arafach. Rydw i'n dysgu Cymreag.
Translated this means - Speak slower. I'm learning Welsh.
 I think if you can pronounce the sentence then you must be doing well enough anyway.
 I can do "bore da",  and "diolch" . ( Good morning and Thank you).  I also need to  get my tongue around  "os gwelwchyn dda"  for Please, then I'll be sorted.

Wednesday was warmer and sunnier. Several peppers were put in the freezer, I just slice and open freeze then tip them into a bag. We are still eating some from last year and I had a freezer sort out to see what we had. We need to get to Ipswich so I can go to Sainsburys for some of their cheap bacon and nice beef mince. I don't like the look of any meat in Tescos. Col took our elderly friend to Norwich hospital again, it's looking more and more unlikely that his wife will  get home, she's been in various hospitals for almost a year and so many things have gone wrong while shes been in - it's very sad.
 Someone had left a 2014 National Trust handbook in the campsite recreation room and I spent a pleasant hour looking through to see which historic houses  have second-hand bookshops.

Today is lovely and warm, loads of odd jobs have been tackled and this afternoon we are actually getting round to trying the awning on the caravan. I've not really been able to settle to anything all week, still feeling fidgety. Given half a chance I would be off on holiday tomorrow!

Back soon
Sue

Our first frost

We had the first touch of frost of the Autumn overnight so that when I let the chickens out it was 4℃ compared to 13℃ yesterday morning. The sun was shining too which we certainly needed after all the rain.
Much too wet for working in the garden today except for getting in the rest of  tomatoes from the poly-tunnels. The red ones into the fridge and the green ones on a tray.

They will be put in the unheated dining room and will ripen gradually over the next few weeks, leaving a couple of riper ones in the tray helps the rest to turn red.
One other job done that didn't involve walking over any wet bits was to take the dead stuff off the rhubarb bed and barrow some compost all over.

C had to go to the doctors to make sure all his tablets were still doing their job so I popped into town and found a couple more gifts for Christmas. One of the things we do here is Christmas tree presents. I don't know how and where they started, but both Cs mum and my mum did them so I've carried on. It's just a little extra present to have after tea when Christmas day is almost finished. I try and find things during the year at car boot sales if possible but not much luck this year. So a trip to the hardware shop has sorted a couple of little gifts for some of the men of the family.

Thank you for comments about stats yesterday.
Back Tomorrow
Sue

Taking a risk in the poly-tunnel

We are so lucky here. The sun has shone again, the temperature went up to 16 degrees C while Em at Dartmoor ramblings had snow on her photos and Ilona at Life After Money had rain this morning.

The early tomato seeds were sown at the same time as last year, but of course March was bitterly cold here last year, whereas this year the plants in the conservatory have shot up in the warmth. It was a case of either plant them out in the poly-tunnel with some fleece handy to cover them or pot them into even bigger pots. So 18 have gone out today and now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get any really hard frosts during April.

Today C has been fixing toilets and basins into the gents toilet shed, things are progressing nicely and another booking for just before Easter too - Good.

I had planned to take a photo of the tomato plants and also the leaves opening on our Horse Chestnut  tree but the battery was flat on the camera so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

 Seeing the sticky buds unfurling just takes me straight back 50 years to primary school. I went to a small two roomed school with 60 pupils and back then it was the norm to have a nature table, where we took in interesting things to display. At this time each year there would be vases full of Horse Chestnut sticky buds, primroses, violets, cowslips and something we called Five Fingers which I think were Oxslips or a wild primula/polyantha cross. To get to the wood where they grew we had  to walk  up a lane beside our house and then along the field edges probably a mile or so. We usually went with our next door neighbour and her daughter- I can't remember mum coming and certainly not Dad who would have been at work.
Here I am, aged about 4 or 5, round at our neighbours, just returned from a walk "up the woods" clutching the Five Fingers.

 We might have been  the cause of them dieing out in the wild!

( The car in the background was round the back of the garage/petrol station next door to our neighbour, it must have stood there for years as it certainly predates 1959/60 when this was taken)

Thanks to Jennifer, Dartford Warbler, Angela, Cro, Dc, Bridget, Fat Dormouse and Helen for comments yesterday about cheques, banking and other stuff.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

More seed sowing

A few weeks ago I sowed peppers, tomatoes in the windowsill electric propagator and also parsley. Both the parsley and peppers germinated well but the toms were almost a disaster. No idea why.
So today I pricked out the peppers and the few tomato seedlings and have re-sown some more. It was freezing out in the shed using cold compost. The seedlings are back on the kitchen windowsill with some foil behind them to reflect the light. Perhaps the tomatoes will do better second time around. I also had an extra bread baking session this morning as we ate nearly a whole loaf when our friends were here on Sunday!

Him Outside has been busy all day- between the showers - yes, MORE rain again today. First he moved the small chicken shed. We really need to move the middle sized shed but there is just too much mud to get the tractor close enough without doing even more damage, but he did get it cleaned out by using the ride on mower and the trailer.
He also roughly fitted the four pieces of the framework of the new toilet shed together, only to discover it is 2 inches longer than the concrete base - Whoops! A small bit of alteration needed there!

We've had our first campsite booking for Easter. Thank goodness Easter is late this year, more time for it to dry out. This spurred me on to sort out all of last years campsite accounts ready to fill in my tax form when it arrives at the start of the new Tax Year. With the Personal Tax Allowance now up to over £9000 for 2013-2014, I won't be paying any tax this year. Good!

Thank you to Karen, Bridget, Cro and Lynda for yesterdays comments and commiserations regarding the weather. Also Pam in Norway commented that they have 2 metres of snow and haven't seen the sun for weeks so I guess we are lucky just having a bit of mud to contend with.

Sorry, no interesting photos, no interesting frugal tips, no other news.

Back Tomorrow

Wassailing the apple trees + whats in the freezer

I said yesterday that today, January 17th, was  a special day in the apple orchard. 17th January was Twelfth Night before the calenders were  changed. In many parts of the West Country Old Twelfth Night is the night for getting into the Orchard for a party and a bit of Wassailing.
So we shall go wassailing in the orchard in the hope of a crop as good as last years. If you want to join in  just soak some slices of bread in apple juice or cider and hang them on the tree.

Then Recite this poem
Old apple tree, we wassail thee, and hope that you will bear,
Hat-fulls,cap-fulls,three-bushel bagfulls
And a little heap under the stairs
Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Hit the trees with a stick as you say it!

Drink the rest of the cider.

Who knows if it will work, certainly does no harm.
( in some of my books of traditions Old Twelfth Night was the 16th, but tonight will do)

Him Outside was away early again working for the County Council, dodging the showers. Plenty of those last night and this morning. Water is standing all over our flat meadow even more than before.
I was doing more housework and odd jobs and getting the Tomato seeds into the propagator
I've sown a few of each of 4 varieties
Favorita- A cherry tom.
Shirley. F1 the best for poly tunnel growing 
San Marzano - a  plum tomato, these didn't do too well last year but as I had seeds left I want to use them
Agro - Not tried these before. Again a Plum tom but perhaps better for poly tunnels than San Marzano

A lovely parcel in the post today was my surprise giveaway gift from Morgan at Growing in the Fens. I've been lucky lately with two gifts, if I was a person who gambled by buying  lottery tickets I would be thinking I was on a winning streak and  buy lots, but I'm not so I won't!

A beautiful soft scarf, 3 little notebooks and a bar of chocolate - YUM.
Thank you Morgan.

Unlike many bloggers, I don't do menu plans. As I've said before we economize in many ways so that we don't have to economize so much on food. For  many years here we produced all our own meat which means there was always something in the freezer, and of course almost all our vegetables are growing in the garden.  I've also not worked full time for a long time so have been at home to rustle something up everyday. I don't shop weekly for meat or fish preferring to stock up when we are shopping in various places. So we might only go to Sainsbury once every 3 months and then I'll stock up on value bacon, 3 for £10 packs of mince and stewing steak. Every now and again we go to a butchers about 20 miles away for cheap chicken thighs and chicken wings. From the Co-op I get anything with a Yellow sticker ( not very often) and locally produced sausages and occasionally a pack of their ham off cuts. From the local butcher I will buy whole chickens. I have a rough idea each week of what we will have for dinner but I'm quite flexible. I usually just get something out of the freezer the night before we eat it.

Our cheapest meals are probably omelet ( free eggs), vegetable curry  or a veggie quiche.
When my mind goes completely blank - about once a month-  we'll have Fish ( Tesco Frozen in breadcrumbs) or fish fingers and chips. I also keep Tesco small value pizzas in the freezer and then top them with home made topping - batch made and stored in boxes - and some cheese.

Today I had a sort out of the chest freezer and this is what we have to make a meal from - enough for ages!
2 Packs of Sainsburys value salmon trim
2 Packs  of 12 Fish Fingers
1 and a half Tesco  small value pizzas
1 Pack of stewing steak
1 Pack of minced beef, divided before freezing into 3 small amounts.
1 Box of  Home made meatballs in spicy tomato sauce
6 Homemade Pasties
2 Home made Beef and beer pies
3 Packs of 2 Bacon chops ( Sainsburys value cooking bacon separated before freezing)
2  Half pound packs of bacon bits  "   "    "    "   "   "   "   "     "        "        "          "        )
1 Pack of sausage meat
1 Pork tenderloin ( for pork medallions in cream sauce -  this is our special occasion meal!)
2 Small chickens ( Butcher often has these packs of 2 on special offer.)
1 Pack of 4 Chicken wings
1 pack of 2 yellow sticker pork chops
1 Pack of  yellow sticker Pork belly slices
2 Home made pastry quiche bases

Wow what a list! We won't go hungry will we?

30 Ways to save £1 ---Day 6 + More food squirrelling

Very grey and drizzly here today - nasty.

More food preservation today . Thanks to everyone for all the comments about storage of squash, they have been brought in from the hay shed and are now in trays in the spare room. The few green and under ripe tomatoes that were left in the polytunnels are now in the dining room. Last year, due to the weather, we had a lot of green ones indoors at the end of the season. They ripened slowly and lasted almost until Christmas.

The apples from the second to last late tree have been wrapped and stored in a box, we really think we have enough eating apples as these are the ones we are slowly eating our way through at the moment, before we even get to the wrapped ones

and there are still some hanging on the last tree.

I decided to put 3 more squash out for sale and 3 red cabbage and they sold very quickly. I just need to decide how many cabbage to keep for us out of the remainder. One is a monster!

It really has been the most fantastic and wonderful year for home grown food.
Today from the garden and poly tunnel we had lettuce/salad leaves, radishes, beetroot ,tomatoes, onions, red pepper, eggs, apples, white cabbage, potatoes plus pears from the freezer.
Not forgetting the homemade cake, bread and jam!

This afternoon Him Outside went off to collect the tractor from the agricultural engineers -AGAIN. This is the second time this year it has been brought home from there and the third time its been repaired. So another big bill is undoubtedly on the way before Christmas. 

And Finally another one from the April list of 30 Ways to save £1

DAY 6 - Have a look around local industrial estates and see who chucks what.
This is where we find pallets for burning and for lifting hay off the floor in the hay shed. Water butts for storage and the big IBC containers to store huge amounts of rainfall and to sell.
I would love to fish in the rubbish skip at one company because that's where all the Tala kitchen ware is imported - might be some treasures there. But they have security so I wouldn't dare!

Back tomorrow