At last the strawberry beds have been weeded, I've been wanting to get them done for the last two weeks. Every weed that came out of the new bed had an ants nest underneath, no wonder that we've lost several of the small plants. Ants may be small but they do a lot of damage.
I also got busy in the kitchen this morning doing things with the last of this months carrots. Each month I buy a bag of value carrots from Tesco for 89p ( except when we have our own in the summer, but they don't do well here so we don't grow many). I take them out of their plastic bag, check them over and put them on a clean tea towel in the salad drawer with another tea towel on top. This will keep them dry which is the secret of keeping them without going mouldy. Sometimes at the end of the month there are some left and today they became some vegetable soup and carrot cake.
Our son who has just moved from Buckinghamshire to Suffolk because his Partner has a new job in Bury St Edmunds is on an 8 month contract with an archaeology company based in north Essex. But by a strange coincidence he is supervising a archaeology survey on a plot of land which will be used for new housing down the road in Leiston. So we had one extra for dinner, luckily it was a vegetable curry so I was able to stretch it.
C's irrigation work has come to a temporary halt as the pump in the borehole ground to a standstill yet again. They are hoping to get a replacement although we may have rain tomorrow anyway. He was able to get a bit of work done at our neighbours instead.
Many thanks for comments yesterday
Back Tomorrow with my Review of the month
Sue
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
Must get some work done ......... Tomorrow
Do you know that tomorrow is the last day of April, how did the month fly by so quickly?
We were out this morning to Framlingham to collect feed and deliver some pallets to a Suffolk Girl on her new allotment. I thought about popping into the Charity shops for an Ed Sheeran Hoody but decided not to bother, probably wouldn't suit me really!
We went into the Country Market to beg a couple of cultivated blackberry runners off a friend before he moves and will collect when he has framed a small tapestry for me - it's been sitting there for about 15 years waiting for me to decide what to do with it, but with our picture framing friend going off to Yorkshire soon I thought it's now or never.
This afternoon I walked past the onion beds and thought " must weed the onions". I walked past the strawberry beds and thought " still haven't weeded those strawberries". I opened the fridge and thought" must use the last of this months sad carrots and that half tin of tomatoes to make some soup".
So I really must not spend long blog reading and writing tomorrow and get some work done instead.
Back Tomorrow - Briefly!
Sue
We were out this morning to Framlingham to collect feed and deliver some pallets to a Suffolk Girl on her new allotment. I thought about popping into the Charity shops for an Ed Sheeran Hoody but decided not to bother, probably wouldn't suit me really!
We went into the Country Market to beg a couple of cultivated blackberry runners off a friend before he moves and will collect when he has framed a small tapestry for me - it's been sitting there for about 15 years waiting for me to decide what to do with it, but with our picture framing friend going off to Yorkshire soon I thought it's now or never.
This afternoon I walked past the onion beds and thought " must weed the onions". I walked past the strawberry beds and thought " still haven't weeded those strawberries". I opened the fridge and thought" must use the last of this months sad carrots and that half tin of tomatoes to make some soup".
So I really must not spend long blog reading and writing tomorrow and get some work done instead.
Back Tomorrow - Briefly!
Sue
Monday, 28 April 2014
Catching up after a day out
Welcome to new followers on Google friends :- Morgan Spacky and Primroses Attic bringing the total there to 165 and Hannah and Mary who have clicked the Bloglovin' button.
Kev asked about the book Deep Country by Neil Ansell( pictured on Saturdays blog) I borrowed it from the library when it first came out and enjoyed it, but like Sue ( New Life in the Country) I wanted more information about the house and what he ate etc. I put it on my wish list to pick up secondhand when the paperback was available so I could read and enjoy again. I think I wanted it to be more like The Hovel books and of course it isn't.
Him Outsides' irrigation work is taking longer than it should. On Saturday night he went down the road at 6.30 and didn't get back until 9.30. The pressure on the system wouldn't hold up and he had to keep going back and forward on the quad bike between pump house and irrigator trying to find out what was wrong. As the pump is on one farm and the irrigator was a mile away it took a long time. In the end it was abandoned for the farmer to sort out yesterday, but he couldn't get it going either. So C was down there again after lunch today trying to track a possible leak in a pipe running underground for a mile. No sign of a leak so he started the system up again and off it went with no problem!
Yesterday we had a day out visiting friends. In the afternoon we went to see their allotment where they struggle with some VERY heavy clay soil. A lot of their soil is like concrete blocks and no one else in their village persevered with these new allotments so they have the place to themselves in a glorious location. They often take lunch and spend the day there. No traffic noise, just skylarks - beautiful.
Today between bread baking and hoovering, planting out the last two cucumber plants and potting up some squash plants, I've been swinging a pick axe, which is a daft thing for someone with a slightly dodgy back to do. I wanted to start getting rid of the concrete that was under our old patio slabs. We built this patio not long after we moved here, but it was never used for sitting out. Either too hot or too drafty, just not in the right place. So it will go and we already have our new sitting out area that we finished last year.
C brought the tractor round so I was able to tip all the lumps of concrete into the tractor bucket for him to take to the rubble heap. I've done enough to see where the new line of the path will go, but I guess it will be easier to do the whole lot now so will carry on tomorrow.
While standing up to catch my breath between shifting rubble I noticed the the Apricot trees are loaded with fruit - unfortunately most of it is way out of reach because we've never got round to pruning the trees and keeping them under control. IF we get a crop (possible frost and North winds predicted for the weekend) it will be only the second decent crop we've had in 7 years. I couldn't take a photo - flat battery.
Back tomorrow - if my back doesn't seize up overnight.
Sue
Kev asked about the book Deep Country by Neil Ansell( pictured on Saturdays blog) I borrowed it from the library when it first came out and enjoyed it, but like Sue ( New Life in the Country) I wanted more information about the house and what he ate etc. I put it on my wish list to pick up secondhand when the paperback was available so I could read and enjoy again. I think I wanted it to be more like The Hovel books and of course it isn't.
Him Outsides' irrigation work is taking longer than it should. On Saturday night he went down the road at 6.30 and didn't get back until 9.30. The pressure on the system wouldn't hold up and he had to keep going back and forward on the quad bike between pump house and irrigator trying to find out what was wrong. As the pump is on one farm and the irrigator was a mile away it took a long time. In the end it was abandoned for the farmer to sort out yesterday, but he couldn't get it going either. So C was down there again after lunch today trying to track a possible leak in a pipe running underground for a mile. No sign of a leak so he started the system up again and off it went with no problem!
Yesterday we had a day out visiting friends. In the afternoon we went to see their allotment where they struggle with some VERY heavy clay soil. A lot of their soil is like concrete blocks and no one else in their village persevered with these new allotments so they have the place to themselves in a glorious location. They often take lunch and spend the day there. No traffic noise, just skylarks - beautiful.
Today between bread baking and hoovering, planting out the last two cucumber plants and potting up some squash plants, I've been swinging a pick axe, which is a daft thing for someone with a slightly dodgy back to do. I wanted to start getting rid of the concrete that was under our old patio slabs. We built this patio not long after we moved here, but it was never used for sitting out. Either too hot or too drafty, just not in the right place. So it will go and we already have our new sitting out area that we finished last year.
C brought the tractor round so I was able to tip all the lumps of concrete into the tractor bucket for him to take to the rubble heap. I've done enough to see where the new line of the path will go, but I guess it will be easier to do the whole lot now so will carry on tomorrow.
While standing up to catch my breath between shifting rubble I noticed the the Apricot trees are loaded with fruit - unfortunately most of it is way out of reach because we've never got round to pruning the trees and keeping them under control. IF we get a crop (possible frost and North winds predicted for the weekend) it will be only the second decent crop we've had in 7 years. I couldn't take a photo - flat battery.
Back tomorrow - if my back doesn't seize up overnight.
Sue
Sunday, 27 April 2014
A Day Out
We had a lovely day out visiting friends today. I took my camera to take a picture of their allotment, then when we went to see it I left the camera at their house! Duh!
I'll be back tomorrow to reply to yesterdays comments.
Sue
I'll be back tomorrow to reply to yesterdays comments.
Sue
Saturday, 26 April 2014
NOT a Library Book Photo
Before I forget I must say a proper welcome to a new follower in the Google pictures - ShrimptonandPerfect and on bloglovin' Nikki, Sonia, Janey and Carolyn.
Also thanks comments yesterday about "The Flow".
How did we get round to Saturday again already?
Yesterday was a grey misty, drizzly sort of day. Not enough rain to fill any water butts or to penetrate far into the soil. Today started out much the same perhaps a wee bit wetter. Just as I told the couple who arrived on the campsite yesterday " we are usually the driest part of country". It rains. Typical!
As it was too wet to work outside I played in my craft room instead. But before I could get started I had to clear my desk of things that get dumped on it on their way elsewhere. Then I shifted a couple of cupboards to see if it gave me more room. So by the time I actually got down to card making it was nearly lunch time.
It was slightly dryer after lunch so I biked down to the village hall to have a look at a Spring Bazaar that someone was having to raise funds for one of those charity things - Climbing Kilimanjaro I think. I'm afraid my donation to their cause was poor - only a £1 for a pack of six Christmas Crackers.
C was out much of the morning, yes you guessed, he was moving the irrigation stuff again. Then he used the tractor bucket and trailer for clearing out two of the chicken sheds.
With no Library books this month because the van was due on Good Friday, I've been reading some of my own books from my shelves and some of the ones I had for my birthday.
A picture is needed I think
Back tomorrow
Sue
Friday, 25 April 2014
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.
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.
Thursday, 24 April 2014
5, 6, Pick up Sticks and Yet Another List.
The weather forecasters told us we would have showers overnight and wake to rain this morning, but they were wrong again. The sun was shining merrily when I let the chickens out at 7 am and we had no rain at all.
C was off early down the road to Friston to sort out the irrigation system on the fields there. He had to move some of the pipes too so it was a 2 hour job today. He also had to go back and find all the valves that get hidden in the field edges during the winter , ready to go back again, turn things off, move the big reel thingy and connect everything up again just before dark. It's a good thing he only has to drive a mile down the road to do all this. And of course he will get paid which will include our diesel costs.( My description of the big watering system is a bit vague - I really have no idea how it all works These are the pictures I took last year which don't do anything to explain it !)
After coffee this morning we got the front fence sorted, after 4 months with a broken fence all the boards are fixed back, so we are nice and tidy again.
We always have plenty of pallets that I can chop for kindling so I don't really need to pick up sticks and fir cones from the garden but it's nice to do it now and again as it makes me feel just a weeny bit as if we really are " living the simple life!"
I didn't really spend all day yesterday writing lists as I also got the big chest freezers sorted ( and all the usual house and egg jobs too of course). With so much of our stored fruit now eaten I wanted to squash everything back into one freezer. It does make it annoying when getting stuff in and out but running one freezer instead of two for the summer saves several pounds I think. We have also got the usual fridge/ freezer indoors for keeping things used regularly and small packs that get lost in a chest freezer. Our chest freezer shed is several steps up the garden and when it's raining it feels further away!
Frugal Queen was blogging about using frozen food as it is often cheaper and sometimes better quality than fresh. I do agree with her about peas and fish but not the green beans she had served up. They lose all their colour when frozen and if you've grown your own in summer and cooked them quickly so they are green and full of flavour then there is no way you could eat the sludge coloured frozen ones!
So as I don't have green beans in my freezer, what do we have?
Last time I did a freezer list (in January) it was just the meat but this is everything that is squashed in.
2 packs of Sainsburys value Salmon Trim
1 pack of 2 value salmon steaks
1 pack of 12 fish fingers
2 thirds of a pack of fish pie mix
2 loaves of Aldi Multigrain sliced bread
1 loaf of extremely cheap white sliced bread for making breadcrumbs
1 loaf of home made bread
1 loaf of yellow ticket gluten free bread ( for a friends visit)
1 pack of 4 " " Burger baps
2 packs of 700g minced beef ( divided before freezing into thirds)
2 packs of stewing steak
2 Home made beef and beer pies ( feed 4 and feed 2)
4 Home made meat pasties
8 Home made cheese,leek and potato pasties
2 Packs of 2 bacon chops ( Sainsburys value bacon scraps sorted before freezing)
4 x half pound packs of bacon (" " " " " " )
2 Packs of 4 sausages ( Co-op yellow ticket - divided before freezing)
1 Pack of 8 pork chipolatas ( " " " " " " )
Half a pack of sausage meat - Divided before freezing
3 Packs of 4 chicken wings
3 Packs of 3 chicken thighs
1 very small chicken ( all chickens look small now, because in the past, when we could get them easily for finishing, we always raised them to about 7lb or 8lb)
Lots of bags of home grown peeled and sliced cooking apples
Several various small bags of home grown fruit including 2 bags cherries, some redcurrants, raspberries and a bag of strawberries that I didn't know were there !
Rather too many small bags of gooseberries.
A few small bags of home grown broad beans
Ditto of sliced red peppers
4 boxes of home made cakes
3 Home made pastry cases
A tub of value vanilla ice cream.
In the indoor freezer are things like frozen peas, home made Naan bread, Ice cream that's in use, boxes of home made pizza topping and tomato sauce for pasta, the very last small bag of home grown sweetcorn, a bag with a few lemon slices ( left since Christmas?) and some Basil frozen in ice cubes that I keep forgetting to use.
It's good to have a sort out and write a list now and again because now I know I've got enough fruit to make a batch of Tutti Frutti Jam and I need to make Tomato and Herb bread rolls next week.
We also have enough of a variety of meat so that I don't need to buy anything unless I see it reduced .
As you can tell we have no intention of starving!
Back Tomorrow
Sue
PS Thanks to blogging friends for comments yesterday
C was off early down the road to Friston to sort out the irrigation system on the fields there. He had to move some of the pipes too so it was a 2 hour job today. He also had to go back and find all the valves that get hidden in the field edges during the winter , ready to go back again, turn things off, move the big reel thingy and connect everything up again just before dark. It's a good thing he only has to drive a mile down the road to do all this. And of course he will get paid which will include our diesel costs.( My description of the big watering system is a bit vague - I really have no idea how it all works These are the pictures I took last year which don't do anything to explain it !)
After coffee this morning we got the front fence sorted, after 4 months with a broken fence all the boards are fixed back, so we are nice and tidy again.
We always have plenty of pallets that I can chop for kindling so I don't really need to pick up sticks and fir cones from the garden but it's nice to do it now and again as it makes me feel just a weeny bit as if we really are " living the simple life!"
I didn't really spend all day yesterday writing lists as I also got the big chest freezers sorted ( and all the usual house and egg jobs too of course). With so much of our stored fruit now eaten I wanted to squash everything back into one freezer. It does make it annoying when getting stuff in and out but running one freezer instead of two for the summer saves several pounds I think. We have also got the usual fridge/ freezer indoors for keeping things used regularly and small packs that get lost in a chest freezer. Our chest freezer shed is several steps up the garden and when it's raining it feels further away!
Frugal Queen was blogging about using frozen food as it is often cheaper and sometimes better quality than fresh. I do agree with her about peas and fish but not the green beans she had served up. They lose all their colour when frozen and if you've grown your own in summer and cooked them quickly so they are green and full of flavour then there is no way you could eat the sludge coloured frozen ones!
So as I don't have green beans in my freezer, what do we have?
Last time I did a freezer list (in January) it was just the meat but this is everything that is squashed in.
2 packs of Sainsburys value Salmon Trim
1 pack of 2 value salmon steaks
1 pack of 12 fish fingers
2 thirds of a pack of fish pie mix
2 loaves of Aldi Multigrain sliced bread
1 loaf of extremely cheap white sliced bread for making breadcrumbs
1 loaf of home made bread
1 loaf of yellow ticket gluten free bread ( for a friends visit)
1 pack of 4 " " Burger baps
2 packs of 700g minced beef ( divided before freezing into thirds)
2 packs of stewing steak
2 Home made beef and beer pies ( feed 4 and feed 2)
4 Home made meat pasties
8 Home made cheese,leek and potato pasties
2 Packs of 2 bacon chops ( Sainsburys value bacon scraps sorted before freezing)
4 x half pound packs of bacon (" " " " " " )
2 Packs of 4 sausages ( Co-op yellow ticket - divided before freezing)
1 Pack of 8 pork chipolatas ( " " " " " " )
Half a pack of sausage meat - Divided before freezing
3 Packs of 4 chicken wings
3 Packs of 3 chicken thighs
1 very small chicken ( all chickens look small now, because in the past, when we could get them easily for finishing, we always raised them to about 7lb or 8lb)
Lots of bags of home grown peeled and sliced cooking apples
Several various small bags of home grown fruit including 2 bags cherries, some redcurrants, raspberries and a bag of strawberries that I didn't know were there !
Rather too many small bags of gooseberries.
A few small bags of home grown broad beans
Ditto of sliced red peppers
4 boxes of home made cakes
3 Home made pastry cases
A tub of value vanilla ice cream.
In the indoor freezer are things like frozen peas, home made Naan bread, Ice cream that's in use, boxes of home made pizza topping and tomato sauce for pasta, the very last small bag of home grown sweetcorn, a bag with a few lemon slices ( left since Christmas?) and some Basil frozen in ice cubes that I keep forgetting to use.
It's good to have a sort out and write a list now and again because now I know I've got enough fruit to make a batch of Tutti Frutti Jam and I need to make Tomato and Herb bread rolls next week.
We also have enough of a variety of meat so that I don't need to buy anything unless I see it reduced .
As you can tell we have no intention of starving!
Back Tomorrow
Sue
PS Thanks to blogging friends for comments yesterday
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