Our New Life in the Country

The First Post from the New Place

2012-02-09T14:33:00.000Z

Well we've not moved in yet, that will be in a couple of weeks, but we are here and busy decorating most days.

Let me show you what we've been up to this week.

This room is an added part of the bungalow round the back, we've decided to use it as our office and utility room (that's mainly because the washer/dryer is situated here). We've cleaned it up and painted everything white.

Ten windows to go round with masking tape and paint, no wonder we decided to get it out of the way first, my aching arm is testimony to the effort put in. But now it's gleaming and sparkling white.

After a quick clean of the floor, aided and abetted by a certain little doggy that just had to rush in and kiss daddy....

... pose for the camera guys.

I put up the curtains and Lovely Hubby was able to connect us to the internet so Blogging could recommence. We have our priorities here you know!!

One house that needs no decorating, thank goodness, this lovely little tree house just across from the office window.

Inside there are little kitchen units ...

... and a gorgeous little armchair and two patchwork pouffes on the upper floor to make the most of the lovely view.

Underneath there are a couple of hammock seats, and to the right a normal swing and a larger bench swing We could rent it out to family and friends, any one interested....you have to be under four foot to fully appreciate it!!

Back soon with more news and pictures, now I'm off to wield my paintbrush again before my arm seizes up completely.

Have a lovely weekend.

Sue xx

The Final Blog Post from Jointers Farm

2012-01-31T22:21:00.000Z

Well here we are, the final Blog post from Jointers Farm, next time you hear from me I will most likely be sat on the floor with my computer balanced precariously on a box in the freshly painted Office/Utility room at our new place. (You think I'd wait for the desk arrive to resume Blogging.......I'm a serious Blogger don't you know!!)

We've had some good chats you and me here in Blogworld from this farm, the story will continue to unfold as we put together our little self sufficient lifestyle at the new place, and we hope you will continue to follow us, you are very welcome.

What will I miss most from here.......... the open fields to walk the dogs, the solitude of living literally in the middle of nowhere with NO neighbours within sight, the pitch black nights with only the moon to illuminate the outside world......

.... the Cow-a-van.

Lovely Hubby says it's too rickety to tow to the new place.....sob, sob. It's been good, it was a food store for over a ton of pig food at a time (possibly explains the ricketyness then), it's been a shed for all those things that wouldn't fit in the shed! It's been a shelter for the chickens on wet days, they'd crowd underneath and keep dry, they hid from Nasty Mr Fox and his many chums there and it saved their lives over and over - clever girls.

But what will we take.......we will take our positive outlook on life, our new found skills learnt through the many trials and tribulations of starting out on this our new life in the country, in this tiny corner of Oxfordshire that we briefly called our own. We will take all our possessions, all our animals, all our chickens, all our energy and, most importantly, each other and all our love.

We will leave this house to settle itself ready for its new occupants and we will set forth to our new little patch of land in the county of Berkshire, join us there through the wonder of Blogland, as we set off on the next chapter of.... Our New Life in the Country.

Sue xx

End of the January No (Low) Spend Challenge

2012-01-31T07:30:00.002Z

Last month I decided to join in with Carla's January No (Low) Spend Challenge. I would have loved it to be a 'No Spend' but I need milk in my coffee and I only like fresh milk, so that's a guaranteed spend every week. I have £50 housekeeping a week to cover the costs of everything for two of us, while my How Low Can You Go challenge is on I'm trying not to spend too much of this, and obviously any money over can go into my other Challenge £2012 in 2012. Lots of Challenges to keep me very busy!!

So, how did I actually do in January?

1st week - 3 No Spend days - spent £68.91

(due to us eating out for LH's birthday, deficit carried forward)

2nd week - 5 No Spend days - spent £13.60

3rd week - 4 No Spend days - spent £32.53

4th week - 4 No Spend days - spent £39.79

So that's 16 days out of a possible 31, halfway there, not bad in my humble opinion for someone who's used to just grabbing her purse and dashing to the shops whenever she's ran out of something.

So, out of a housekeeping budget of £50 a week (that's for everything food, toiletries, meals out etc) I have managed to be sitting pretty at the end of the month with a grand total of £45.17 left. So that's an average weekly spend of £38.70.

Out of my Personal Allowance of £20 per week I have managed to save £22.12, not bad considering I had my hair cut and bought a couple of little pressies.

So all this leftover money will be added to my other challenge 'The £2012 in 2012 Challenge' with any taking from sales and Blog income this month. A total for that will follow when my Ebay sales are all paid for and I know I have the cash in my account.

My Challenge for February is again with Carla and I'm doing another Low Spend Challenge. This month she's doing a Double Challenge Month with a No (Low) Spend Challenge and a Decluttering Challenge, but as most of my belongings are now packed away ready for the move there's not much I can do there. What I am doing once we've settled in and unpacked, is ruthlessly streamlining all our possessions. Seeing how little we are getting by with using whilst our stuff is packed away is pretty liberating and I intend to go on enjoying this way of living.

I'm hoping to do one more Blog post tomorrow morning, but then our Internet connection at this farm is being terminated, ready for the switch on at our new place, exciting stuff ! I'll miss you all briefly but I intend getting back into action just as soon as possible. While we are apart I will be taking lots of photos of the new place, general ones and plenty of 'before' and 'afters' for you to have a look at. One of the best things about Blogging is the ability to chronicle your life in such great detail and be able to go back and read through your successes and failures.

Remember this post anyone?

Sue xx

Planning the Weekly Menu

2012-01-30T09:53:00.002Z

First job - check the freezer contents. I am using this small freezer as the holder of all things to be eaten each week . But to be able to do that we first have to eat all the contents of it. Rather then go from freezer to freezer I am trying to make all meals from what I have here, I started this last week when it was full to the top and this it's what's left for this week..

It somehow looks a lot more when laid out on the table, after taking these pictures I put the food back into the freezer and then I uploaded them all onto the computer and sat with a cup of coffee in comfort at the screen and came up with a menu for the week. Obviously I have to add somethings to the items here but I have vegetarian options in the other freezer and we still have potatoes and onions in the cupboard, enough for a couple of weeks I hope!

(Did you spot the missing item? I took the first photo last night before we ate the icecream!!)

So briefly the freezer looked like this, hopefully by this time next week it will be similar but I won't have things to pile back in. Next week I will use the upright freezer to similarly work out a menu plan and then put just the items needed for the week into here, but I think I will defrost it first, they work much more efficiently and on less electricity when not all iced up.

So left out of the freezer to thaw today is this.....

... and this. Some of these will be used to make a Steak and Onion Pasty for Lovely Hubby,

and I will have a Cheese and Onion one made with some of this, taken out of the big chest freezer this morning. I always grate up the full block and keep it in a large tub in the fridge, it keep for ages this way and is really handy to have ready grated as it goes at lot further than when simply sliced, something I learnt when my boys were young.

So now I'm just going to write up the menu plan and stick it in my diary, something I've started doing each week, it's handy to have there to refer to each morning, so I know what to take out of the freezer to defrost over the course of the day and to remind me what to actually make for tea.

So what is your freezer full of at the moment and dare you publish a photo of it on your Blog?

Sue xx

£2012 in 2012 - Can I do it?

2012-01-27T17:02:00.003Z

After reading this Blog post over at 'my beautiful life' written by the lovely fostermummy I was very thoughtful. Feeling inspired to have a go I thought about it overnight and then decided YES, I was going to try and make/save an additional £2012 in 2012. Obviously I'm starting a couple of weeks late so I thought I better get my finger out and get doing something.

One of the dvds that has already sold - very appropriate title!!

So.....what have I done up to now, well firstly I listed some books and dvds on Amazon, I've sold £16.23 worth already and the money is currently on it's way to my bank account (isn't it amazing how long it takes money to reach your account, if a company is taking it out, it's out in a flash !!).

One of my Ebay bags BNWT Cath Kidston Shoppers

I've just listed some bags I found tucked at the back of the wardrobe whilst sorting, and a shirt that just doesn't look right on me on Ebay. I'm not doing loads of listings yet, I'm just testing the waters at the moment, I wasn't sure if it was a good time of year to be selling, we'll see. There appears to be lots of interest anyway I've bids on most of my things and lots of Watchers. They are HERE if you want to pop over and have a look. The bidding ends at 1.17pm on Monday, fingers crossed for a half decent amount of money to add to my total.

Something else I've done is allow Adsense adverts on the Blog, if you click on them I get a few pence per click, so you can really help my total here and you don't even have to buy anything from them, simply click to open and then come back to the Blog and I'll get some lovely cash each month. I'll let you know how much I get at the end of each month so you can see just how much you're helping.

Once the weather improves and the house move is out of the way I'll do a couple of Car Boot sales to help swell the total and clear the clutter, we have NO room for clutter at our new place. Last year we made over £1,500 doing Car Boot sales all through the summer, but obviously we have nowhere near as much stuff now, but hopefully I'll be able to make at least half of that amount this year. Maybe a spot of buying and selling will called for towards the end of the summer.....we'll see.

As well as the selling I will add to the total any housekeeping money over at the end of each month, hopefully some clever budgeting will help the total to rise and rise. If you break it down it's £168 a month or £39 a week or £5.50 a day. There that sounds more manageable. Hopefully I'll catch up from my late start this month.

Do you have any more ideas that would help me raise this money?

Sue xx

Dance....

2012-01-27T09:10:00.000Z

And...

... sleep like no-one can see you (with your favourite cuddly person/bear).

Sue xx

Guest Blogger - Toby

2012-01-26T08:21:00.000Z

Hello my name is Toby I was born in June 1998, I'm a handsome chap, black all over and as suave and sophisticated as can be. I look mild and well mannered but if I decide I don't like you....well put it this way you have been warned!! I have lived in six different houses, including two where I had to commute up and down the length of England on a weekly basis for a full year with my roving Mum and Dad, I believe I am shortly to be relocated yet again....oh well humans it seems just cannot make up their minds where their lair is supposed to be, well at least my humans.

Today and for one day only I am hijacking the Blog to post about us animals. Mum's Blogging Buddy Jane (who very sensibly loves cats....she has 13 you know, a very sensible human) has been promised animal pictures and so far has been left waiting and waiting.

So with no further ado..... let me introduce.....in order of age....

Sophie the Border Collie, useful for rounding up and guarding chickens...born June 1999, she's a dog you know.

Archie, the fluffiest beast on the farm, born in October 2007 sent into this world to torment me, his elder and better looking brother. Okay.....so I'll admit he's a better hunter than me but bringing Mum three or four dead mice a day is not something I think she's terribly impressed by, so I just conserve my energy now and let him do all the work.

This I believe is a thing called a chicken, they seem to make Mum very happy with their strange egg laying habits, but she doesn't let them in the house so I don't think they're any competition to me. This one and lots of her sisters were born in early Spring 2009, it's the one Mum calls Matilda, she's been known to pinch cat food, something I try to discourage.

This is Caldwell, the leader of the chickens, not a bad guy but tends to be a bit noisy in the mornings when I'm trying to sleep after a night on the tiles, but he does keep those pesky birds in some kind of order and lets me know when there's danger on the horizon.

This crazy animal is called Rosy, she was born in May 2009 and came to live here in the Summer of that year. I think she came here with the sole intention of stealing my thunder, it didn't last long, she knows her place!! One good thing about her she is even better at catching mice and rats than Archie something he gets terribly huffy about!

This creature came to live here in December last year, she is called Suky and is a Pug, she was born in October 2011. I take pity on her because I think someone has slammed a door into her face and countersunk her nose, poor thing. Mum obvisouly felt very sorry for her, so I let her be....usually.

There that is a round up of the animals left on the farm, there used to be pigs, lots and lots of pigs, but they couldn't catch mice, or sit on the fence or do anything really useful so I think that's why they've all vanished. Well I better be off now, I've had enough of this Blogging lark.

Toby xx

S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g- the pennies.......

2012-01-25T09:01:00.003Z

The other day I posted about spending the pennies, well it's no good just spending the pennies willy nilly, you have to also stretch them as far as you possibly can. With this in mind most weeks on a Monday I make a huge pan of vegetable soup, using a cupful of basic dried soup mix (lentils, split peas, little bits of pasta etc) from my giant jar and usually whatever is lurking in the bottom of the fridge after the weekend.

Still available here at 99p for 4.

This week we had been given some lovely young leeks by our friend after Lovely Hubby delivered a trailer load of compost to her allotment, so I used half of these, thus saving me having to use one our last few homegrown onions. I had the last three of our carrots grown in the tyres outside the back door and I added a single stick of celery from my slowly diminishing bunch in the fridge (it's four weeks old now and still going strong!) there is also the stem of a bunch of Broccoli that I used up last week in a pasta dish so that got chopped up and thrown in too. I put plenty of water in to cover all the veggies, a couple of spoonfuls of veggie stock and lots of bits and pieces from the spice/herb rack, by not measuring things out too much the taste varies each time and we never get bored with it.

After bringing it to the boil on the top of the Aga it was popped into the slow oven to gently cook for a few hours. We had a large bowlful each for tea on Monday with a freshly reheated baguette to dunk in and the rest was left to cool and popped into the fridge. What's left gets used for lunches for LH to take to work or for me to have a bowlful at home. None of it is wasted and sometimes halfway through the week I will add to it with vegetable water or more leftover veggies making it last even longer.

We only warm up the bit we are eating so as not to keep reheating the entire pan full each time, much healthier and it saves on electricity (I reheat in the microwave, usually in the bowl I will be eating out of to save on washing up), LH heats his up in his lidded plastic bowl that he takes to work each day.

At a guess the whole pan full costs less than a pound to make and it serves us about eight or so meals, so very penny stretching.

The packing is going well with areas suddenly appearing very bare all over the house. All our pictures are remaining on the walls until we have decorated the new house and then we will literally take them down here and put them straight up there. We are hoping to have the whole house set up and ready to live in before we move, I'll let you know how that works out!

Sue xx

Ooops......temptation!!

2012-01-24T10:14:00.000Z

I'm managing brilliantly to keep away from supermarkets but it seems I can't keep away from temptation. As I was paying for my milk, (I've reduced it to two 2 pint bottles twice a week thus keeping our milk bill under a fiver) I was tempted by the card rack. They have some beautiful new cards on it and before I knew what I was doing I bought this little beauty.

I also got an Approved Food order delivered yesterday so that's another £32.33 out of this weeks housekeeping. Lots of lovely bargains that we actually did need, including a large bag of 440 teabags that should keep Lovely Hubby in tea for the rest of this year for just £2.99 and 8 packs of Naan breads for just £1 (less than 13p a pack) to go with our currys, they are now safely in the freezer ready to be pulled out each time we have a curry.......

.... and as I have a huge jar of curry paste I think we will be having lots in the near future (I have Tikka Masala but this is all they have left if you want to nip over and grab yourself one).

So my challenge for the rest of this week is not to spend anymore money except on the milk on Friday. But I must keep looking ahead when I go to get it and not at the card racks!!

One brilliant bonus with getting the order is that I now have more boxes for packing, four small ones, ideal for heavy things and one nice big box.......I feel another day of packing coming on. At the moment I am working through my wardrobe, having a good sort out and packing away anyclothes I won't need until after the move, so no fancy nights out for me ....... I've packed away the posh frock!!

I must just point out this is NOT a sponsored Blog post or an advert, but just a post about a company I use a lot and really like (and who save me a fortune)!!

Sue xx

Spending the pennies.......

2012-01-23T22:32:00.004Z

Spending the pennies is becoming a habit, instead of spending just notes and ending up with lots of change in my purse, just recently I thought I would see if paying for things with the right money instead of just handing over a card or a note would make me think more about exactly how much I was spending. It does...... and it has the advantage of keeping my purse lighter and making my money last longer.

So I've turned into one of those annoying people that dig deep in their purse saying 'I know I've got the right change in here, won't be a minute'. Mind you most small shops are pleased to get change, especially if you shop first thing in the morning.

My No Spend January has turned instead into a Low Spend January, I had 3 No Spend days in the first week, 5 in the second week and last week it was 4 No Spend days, so that's a total of 12 No Spend days out of 22, not that good. So out of my housekeeping of £50 per week for the first 3 weeks of the year I have £34.96 over which makes my average spend each week around £35, I'm sure I can do better than that. I must try harder!!

I've also been experimenting with cheaper toiletries and cosmetics, I recently switched from 'Protect and Perfect' which costs £20.50 a pot to 'Skinovation' from Asda which costs £4. It's just as good, smells just as nice and more importantly for me with my sensitive skin is just as kind to my skin. I have a couple of pots of this stashed in my wardrobe, then I will have to find something similar in the smaller shops as I am still determined to keep up my Challenge and stay away from the supermarkets. I may save the £9 that I have left on my Boots advantage card ready to buy a pot of something when these run out.

Other ways I've been saving money is by using up what I have.

As I'm right-handed I usually wear out the right hand of a pair of rubber gloves before the left one, so I save all the left ones, then when I wear out the last right hand one of my supply of new gloves, I start to use all the saved left ones, turning them into a right glove by simply turning them inside out. They don't last as long but it's better than simply throwing them all away. Once the left hand glove gives up the ghost as well, I use the wide part (from the base of the thumb to the wrist) to make some rubber bands or strips to tie plants to canes with, the rubber gives the plants a soft tie instead unyielding string which can dig into them as they grow. So nothing wasted.

What have you been doing to save money recently?

Sue xx

Rain on the windscreen.......

2012-01-22T17:58:00.002Z

Rain on the windscreen,

tears in my eyes

pain in my heart

from fears I despise.

Life is unfair

and harder each day,

the pain knocks you sideways

takes your breath right away.

But you take a deep breath

and plod gently on

looking for memories

where soon there will be none.

Hold close to your heart

those that you love,

wrap loved ones so cosy

in warm velvet gloves.

Murmur I love you

and hear the reply,

then wipe away gently

the tears from your eye.

Listen to tales

told from the heart

of times that were different

when you were apart.

Do what you can

and know what you know,

and turn away sadly

as tears start to flow.

Know what you have

is still yours for a while,

thank God for your fortune

and cry as you smile.

(Sue Hall 22/01/2012)

To my Mum and Dad - I Love You.

Sue xx

Frustration

2012-01-20T07:54:00.000Z

Blogger is being so frustrating at the moment. I can't leave a comment on anyones Blog if they use 'embedded below post' comments. Lots of others folk have commented on this and are also having trouble.

Today and yesterday my Blogging Buddy SFT had wonderful Blog posts and I tried and tried to leave a comment but frustratingly couldn't managed it. The little birds in the picture are a tribute to SFT who's post was about lovely birds, mine are frustratingly fighting over the same piece of bread.

So please all of you out there who usually find comments from me in your comment box, I have not given up on you, I am reading just as regularly, I am just not able to comment anymore.

I don't know what system Blogger has changed but folk had this same problem on my Blog until I changed to a 'pop up comments box', I chose full page,. but you can just pick the little box as well and things work perfectly again. I have also changed to moderated comments for a while as I was being inundated with adverts for Viagra, and I'm sure if you need Viagra you can source it yourselves, you don't need to visit my comment box to find a ready supply!!

Sue xx

Buying and Selling......

2012-01-19T10:48:00.000Z

Buying and selling....or should that be selling and buying?

On Tuesday while sorting through the cupboards and packing merrily away I found these, a big box of Mail Lite envelopes and I immediately thought of using them rather than moving house with them. So I started to think of all the obvious things that would fit in them.....

... after watching this dvd over the weekend (although good....not worth keeping to watch again) with a very apt title, I went rummaging through the car boot sale boxes that I am quickly building up during this mammoth sorting out session and pulled out all the dvds, this one included.

So this little stack was quickly listed on Amazon, I have sold two up to now, so more pennies in my purse and less clutter to move with already.

However, while I was in town I did get tempted by some too good to miss bargains. A couple of cook books, half price in the charity shop, you really can't grumble at 50p each, some hankies for Lovely Hubby, he prefers real ones, more environmentally friendly than tissues, and a lovely brand new pure linen top still with it's labels for me for just £5.50, it was £18 originally and it's lovely so I splurged using my personal spends for all these purchases.

After the charity shop it was just next door to the health food shop for some Oatbran and Flax seeds, then I had to nip into Superdrug for some shampoo we both use Head and Shoulders, well whichever copy of it is cheapest in whatever shop we are in at the time.

This always get decanted into our large dispenser bottle (we've had it since we got married, so it's over 4 years old), this gives us a measured 'dose' of shampoo so nothing gets wasted and it sits neatly on the edge of the shower for ease of use.

Then I called into Boots to see what was in their 'much advertised on the window 75% off sale'. I got the little make up bag with a body cream and a hand cream inside for £2 (should have been £6). My favourite ever in the world bubble bath was not on offer as such but if you spent over £8 (it's £8.50....which is why I get it for Christmas and birthday when I'm flush) on Spa products you got a bath soak worth £9.20 free. So I got one.......extravagant you might be thinking now... has she gone mad....is this the way for a newly converted Frugal Girl to behave!! NO of course it not ...... but I used points from my Boots card to pay for the lot.....so that's lovely treats for me for FREE.....I'm a very happy bunny.

One thing I am doing now is keeping all my receipts and when I get home from a shopping expedition writing ALL my spending down in my big office diary, obtained for free from where Lovely Hubby works, I think he accidentally said he needed two this year !!

So this week up to now out of four days I have had two No Spend Days (including today). Not too bad, so including buying a new loaf tin for all the homemade bread I'm making, I've still got £21.25 left in the housekeeping kitty to last until Sunday.

What are you tempted most by in charity shops?

Sue xx

One of the best frugal tools....

2012-01-18T10:16:00.002Z

One of the best frugal tools (in my humble opinion), is a Plan. Be it a lifestyle plan or a meal plan, and what better way to make good use of everything in your cupboards and freezers than to spend ten minutes going through them before you go shopping, and making up a menu plan for the week ahead, then you can go armed with a shopping list to buy only the things you need.

So when I saw this little beauty on this website, and saw that it gave permission to print it out and use it, I jumped at the chance (luckily it's also in my favourite colours!). Simply open the link and then click on 'Weekly Meal Planning' in the left hand sidebar, and then halfway down the page is this menu planner for the week.

This has come at a very good time for both me and my Mum as we are both needing to plan ahead at the moment. I am using up the cupboards and freezer stores ready for our move and Mum has had to change all their eating habits due to my Dad being very poorly at the moment.

This is my meal plan for this week, (which reminds me I must go out and pull up a couple of leeks for tonights soup). If you click on it it will get bigger so you can read it a bit easier. I think Lovely Hubby appreciates it too as he can plan what to buy or take for his lunch knowing what will be on the table at teatime. My mini challenge this week was to use up most of the foods in the smallest freezer, then I will defrost it and fill it each week until the move with the menu items chosen from the other two freezers until all the freezers are empty.

My two Blogs seems to be merging and overlapping with foodies things at the moment. Feel free to visit either (or both).

You may have noticed I've allowed some advertising on the Blog, hopefully with themes relating to the Blog, this is to try and justify the large amount of time I am spending at the computer each day Blogging and researching. You can earn me some lovely money (I get a few pence per click) by clicking on the adverts, you don't have to buy anything just a click and a quick visit and then come back here!! We'll see how it goes, I hope they don't annoy anyone too much!

Sue xx

Sunrise and Tractors

2012-01-17T10:52:00.002Z

Absolutely gorgeous sunrise this morning, the camera didn't do it justice (as usual) but it's almost there. With the farm being literally in the middle of nowhere we have a huge expanse of sky and to see it change colour so dramatically just takes my breath away. A wonderful start to the day.

As the sky diffused with light everything came into subtle relief, including Lovely Hubby's John Deere tractor, now in the final stages of its transformation.

The new hydraulic system , designed for this tractor and adapted by LH himself and with parts designed by him and manufactured by some of his friends in the business is almost complete. The front arms go up and down and all it's accessories can now be used to help us with heavy lifting during our move.

One downside, in my opinion, while he was working on the tractor in our landlords barn with his tractor specialist last weekend he spotted a set of forks (like off a fork lift truck) and made an offer to our landlord for them.......somehow fittings for them have now appeared on my kitchen table ready for painting!

I must remind him, we have friends coming for Supper on Friday, they will not be used to balancing the salt and pepper and their side plates on tractor parts!!

A new post over on The How Low Can You Go Food Diary.

Sue xx

The Story of a Tunnel

2012-01-16T10:42:00.002Z

It all started back in June 2009, we started to erect the polytunnel bought from HERE, well I should say Lovely Hubby erected it...... over the course of a weekend all by himself, with just a smidgen of help from Jason and me when it came to pulling the HUGE sheet of polythene across. Luckily we had chosen a wind free day and all went to plan.

A week later Mum and Dad were on hand to help me build the raised beds and fill them with a mix of soil and compost, no mean feat it took us a couple of days and many, many wheel barrows full. I snapped into action straight away, although it was relatively late in the season I still got all sorts of yummy food growing. All our salad stuff was grown in the tunnel and a varied selection of veggies that I was keen to try out in its rampant heat. There was lots of experimentation going on that year.

In it's second year 2010, I concentrated on tomatoes, courgettes and salad goodies, and started off all the seedlings for the outdoor raised beds, nothing failed. I stopped popping two seeds in every hole in the seed trays, I got a 99.5% success rates with all my seeds so it saved time to just use one seed per hole. I treated myself to a wind-up radio and spent so much time planting, weeding, watering and bopping away to music, the polytunnel was the place to go.

Last year 2011 I was in my element I had mastered most of what I needed to know, solved a few earlier problems, mostly to do with getting the ventilation just right, and got my early crops on the go right at the beginning of January with early cabbages and lots of seeds planted for crops to go into the beds, both inside the tunnel and outside in the Kitchen Garden. My cabbages grew enormous and loved the mild atmosphere in the tunnel, being so early in the year there were no moths laying on them and nothing to nibble at them, we ate the lot and that left room for all the seedling that were coming on.

The side of the polytunnel has been used for many things too, the tunnel shelters the area from the westerly winds and catches and bounces back the morning sun, warming the ground and creating an ideal spot for our large Corn crop back in 2010 and then later the same year, just after the corn had been harvested .......

... we put up a fence and the Kune Kune pigs moved into their new des res. They loved that Mum was just on the other side of the polythene and would watch my progress and would follow me along as I weeded the left hand side of the tunnel, peering expectantly round as I popped out the back door of it with all the weeds and trimmings for their supper.

Last years success story was the Grape Vine, planted at the very beginning while the tunnel was being erected. It needed its root system planted outside the tunnel to keep them cool and inside the the tunnel the branches grew and grew, for the first two years dying back to just a dead looking twig each Winter, then last year with a vengeance it produced grapes, bunches and bunches of the small juicy fruits, along every runner they dripped in perfect bunches, needing hardly any thinning or care, just being picked regularly, mostly by LH as he worked near the tunnel. Why come into the house for a snack when you can munch on a carrot, wrap a spring onion in a mix of lettuce leaves, pop a tomato in your mouth and then finish the impromptu meal with half a bunch of juicy grapes.

During 2011 I filled the tunnel with colour in the form of many types of Marigold, both decorative and edible. These attracted the bees to pollinate all my plants and made my heart sing when I stepped into that mass of colour each day. Dead heading them regularly meant they lasted right through the long growing season of the tunnel, only finally dying off with the drop in temperatures during November.

Due to circumstances way beyond our control the pigs all had to go during last year and the space by the side of the tunnel was left for nature to reclaim, now looking lush and green once again, this picture was taken in November.

We were eating from the tunnel right until the last moment, with radish, spring onion, celery and carrots all still growing away, surviving freezingly cold nights and giving us the taste of homegrown.......

....... until the high winds of a week ago. I was in Manchester at my Mum and Dads' house ,when I got a phone call from LH to say the winds had done their worst, somehow managing to rip through the polythene and sending half of it sky high, somehow he managed to rope it all down and I came home to find my tunnel in a state of bondage and devastation. The last few plants had fallen victim to the ensuing frosts, although some of the herbs have been saved and are living in the shed by the window....a poor alternative to their previous home. Luckily we had boxed up all the little bits, plant pots, seeds trays etc only the week before ready for the move, so they didn't all take off across the fields.

We spent this weekend dismantling the structure, well mostly LH again, using his skills of erecting it but in reverse. I used the damaged polythene to cover our raised beds to warm the soil for this years planting, although it won't be by me. We will be in our new home in the next few weeks, planting in the greenhouse that comes with it, missing dreadfully the space and atmosphere of my polytunnel.

When we reach our forever home in the next few years, the carefully packed away struts and staging will be brought out, new polythene will be ordered and I will be back in action. Once you've had that amount of indoor growing space you can't do without it for long.

As Arnie said - I WILL BE BACK !!

Sue xx

Chicken Frosty Mornings

2012-01-15T08:13:00.003Z

At the moment we having hard frosts each night, the girls in chicken world troop to bed at dusk and huddle together and bring the temperature in the one chicken house in use at the moment up nicely. They stay warm and cosy all night with just their body warmth and the thick layer of bedding and newspaper I put in there, I can always feel the heat radiating from it when I go to close their door at about 5ish.

In the morning I open the door and they peek out, a couple of cockerels (we now have four) run out and make their welcoming noises to the new day, breaking the stillness on the farm with their cockadoodle doos. The girls stay warm until the lure of the layers pellets and the need for water make a foray into the white icy world a real necessity. Once out they are happy to peck around trying the frozen grass and look for frozen worms on the top, seemingly a real delicacy, think Magnum White but worm flavoured!

Once the sun appears they follow it round the farm huddling in groups on the patio where it raises the temperature of the paving stones and then luxuriating in its heat in corners everywhere, behind the shed, under the bushes, round corners. Little clutches of hens enjoying these short, fresh winter days, not a bad life.

Over this weekend we are busy dismantling what's left of the polytunnel, the high winds the other week ripped it in half. We are using the polythene to cover the raised beds to keep the chickens off for now and packing away the metal struts and raised beds to take with us. The polytunnel won't be erected at our next place but will be saved for our forever home, saving us money in years to come. The raised beds (these are the plastic ones) will be used outside, a quick assembly, easy fix to get me up and planting as soon as possible.

But time for one more coffee and a bowl of porridge before we venture out into this frosty morning I think.

Sue xx

Clearing the decks......

2012-01-13T11:00:00.001Z

It's been a funny old week, lots of clearing the decks, sorting and cleaning out the cupboards, really sort of a mammoth clearing out and packing session all tied up with a huge spring clean of the kitchen. The idea behind this is that it should save time when we come to do the actual move if everything is already clean and tidy. Just a wipe down of the cupboards as we empty them.

All the food that was on the worktop is now comfortably in the cupboards, ready for us to use as much as we can before we move.

The things that were in the cupboards are now all sorted, excess items either put in the car boot sale box or packed away if we are keeping them, and we are getting rid of anything that we don't use, pretty ruthlessly.

The deep fat fryer is put away, this should be more useful when we move, much cheaper to use this than it is to warm the oven just for a few chips, we don't eat them that often so a few homemade chips is a real treat.

In it's place for now is my food mixer/processor/liquidiser, it's many component parts are now in the cupboard beneath the worktop much handier than it used to be.

All these cupboards now just hold our day to day pans, all things like pasta making machines, duplicate pans and griddles are packed away, we will put all these back to use after the move, in the meantime we will manage with the bare minimum.

You may notice the dog bed has changed, Suky started off with a neat little shoe box, she is now twice the size so it was getting to be a tight fit, she let me know this by eating it !! She now has Rosy's old, least favourite bed which she loves, although she loves to flip it over and lie underneath when she's in playful mode and I have to keep righting it when she wants a sleep.

Who me....eat a bed....as if !

I just have the cupboard under the sink to do now and as this is mostly full of cleaning things I will sort through them and get us a cleaning kit together to take with us on 3rd February, which is the day we get the keys and the place is officially ours. Exciting stuff.

Off to clear a few more decks......

Sue xx

Condensing the packing ....... in a totally yummy way!!

2012-01-12T09:11:00.004Z

Yesterday while clearing out the kitchen cupboards (yes.....I'm still doing it,. but notice on this photo the now cleared worktop) I came across one and a half bottles of Brandy, just the cheapo stuff nothing to get too excited about, then I found some empty bottles, remembering that I had two 2kg bags of our very own Damsons lurking somewhere in the depths of the big chest freezer, some sugar in the cupboard and empty jam jars rinsed out after making the cakes last week I suddenly had a brainwave.

Why pack all these things up individually when I can condense them all into just the bottles and jars, so this morning, once the Damsons have thawed out they will be left to steep in the brandy in my trusty big plastic containers and then bottled up as Damson Brandy the week we move, the Damsons left over from this will be turned into Damson Brandy Jam a slight variation on Lovely Hubby favourite ever jam Damson Gin Jam. Although I will have to make this in pretty small batches as I've packed away the jam pans!!

*** *** ***

Recipe

450g Damsons

170g Sugar

750ml Gin (or in this case Brandy)

If your Damsons are freshly picked, prick each one a couple of times with a pin, (if you freeze them for 2 weeks or longer you can omit this stage, just thaw them out overnight before you use them, this will weaken the skins nicely for you). Put all the ingredients into a large container, and shake or stir each day for about 2 weeks.

Leave steeping for about 4 - 6 weeks and then taste, add more sugar if you want it sweeter and leave for another week. Strain into sterilised bottles and store in a dark, cool place until you want to drink it.

The longer you leave this gorgeous mixture the stronger and better the flavour.

Do NOT throw away the strained Damsons.

Use them to make Damson Brandy Jam, place them in a pan with an equal amount in weight of sugar and a dash of lemon juice, boil until you reach setting point (skimming off the stones as they float to the surface) and then bottle in sterilised jars.

*** *** ***

We drank only one of our bottles of Damson Gin over Christmas, it was absolutely gorgeous. We are saving the other three for when our best friends come for supper next week, it should be a very nice final meal together here before we move.

So another busy day ahead.

Sue xx

Saving money without even thinking.......

2012-01-11T09:52:00.002Z

As I was putting the washing in the machine at 7am this morning just before I had my first cup of coffee and let the chickens out, I was suddenly struck by all the little money saving things I do without even thinking about it. Over the years I guess they become ingrained and just second nature - GOOD.

Those are just the kind of things you need as the backbone of a frugal life. I'm sure lots of you do even more but I thought I'd share a few of mine while they are fresh in my mind in case they are of any help.

All these tips are to do with clothes and washing them, I'll probably bombard you with tips on other things over the course of the next few weeks, my mind seems to have gone into money saving mode!

Firstly we wear mostly dark underwear and we have enough sets so that everything can be washed in one go once a week. I always buy multi packs of socks all the same design (usually plain black) that way when one sock gets worn at the heel or just too many darned holes in to make wearing it comfortable just that sock can be thrown away and the remaining one can be saved to pair up with another lone sock in the future.

I usually do about 4 or 5 washing loads a week. One load is Lovely Hubby's farm clothes one is towels, two are dark clothes (one being underwear and jeans) and one is light coloured/white clothes, halfway through each alternate week I do a single load of bedding. For each wash I use ONE washing tablet, I know the pack says two per load, ignore it extra powder just rots and fades your fabric, one IS sufficient. If we have an emergency and need to do a half load I use half a tablet. I use large size highly concentrated containers of fabric conditioner from the farm supply shop, but I only use about a spoonful for each full load. That's all you need, it is merely there to neutralise any detergent left in the fabrics. If I run out I simply put a dash of white vinegar in the dispenser drawer, it works just the same but with no scent. (Honestly your clothes won't smell like chips!!)

Immediately things come out of the washer I fold them neatly and then I dry outside on sunny, windy, breezy or dry days being careful to hang things straight and peg carefully. On damp or wet days I will simply put the washing on the airer at the top of the stairs where the heat from the kitchen rises up and warms the landing. If I need things quickly or simply want to get them put away I will drape them all over the Aga, it can dry a full load of washing over the course of the day. If you have hung things neatly you should not have to iron at all.

Since meeting Lovely Hubby with his complete non-iron tactics I have been converted. Only his nice shirts for work need to be ironed, eveything else is simply folded neatly and put away, once you have put your clothes on most creases disappear with your body heat. I even getaway with not ironing my jeans now as long as I have snatched them from the machine quickly and kept them straight!!

If you look after your clothes they will last you longer and save you money in the long run. I have also found that LOTS of my clothes that say 'Dry Clean Only' are perfectly happy in the washer. I buy lots of things from charity shops and decided early on that I would risk my purchases by washing them rather than forking out ridiculous amounts of money for dry cleaning, I have only ever lost one item through this (and we're talking years worth of purchases here). You do sometimes have to iron them carefully afterwards but that is so much cheaper than dry cleaning.

Something to remember is that you do not have to wash your clothes everytime you wear them. My rule of thumb is that if it has been against your skin it will probably need washing, so that's all underwear and usually little vest tops or t shirts, but the jumper or cardigan you had over your t shirt or your skirt or jeans will most likely be fine for a few more wears. Hang things up on hangers at the end of each day to air. We have plastic hooks that pop over the outside of the wardrobe doors and things stay on there over night. I use my nose the next day and if they smell fresh they get put back into the wardrobe ready for next time. The only exception to this is if you are packing clothes away after the winter for instance ready for next winter, then everything should be clean and fresh before packing to deter moths.

Lovely Hubby wears his outside 'farm clothes' all weekend, changing in the evening to clean clothes so that his really dirty things can just be washed the once each week.

Money saved here -

At least twice as many washes per box of detergent as advertised on the box

Less washes mean saved electricy (get out of the habit of washing every day unless you really have to)

Save money on sock purchasing

Save at least an hours electricty by not ironing

Save money on replacing clothes by looking after them carefully and washing some things less frequently.

We don't realise how lucky we are having machines that do all the work for us (well I do, I lived without a washing machine until my youngest was a year old, hand washing everything for four people including bedding and terry nappies), but we should still use them wisely and not just bung everything in without thinking.

****

Just a few little tips that I hope will help some of you, most of my Frugal Friends will most likely be doing all this (and more) already. If you have any more tips to share please leave a comment, I'm sure I do even more, but when it becomes second nature you simply don't realise all that you do.

Oh well back to packing up the kitchen, this job is going sooooo slowly, with lots of interruptions and...... well it is washing day!!

Sue xx

(pics from Google)

Sealed Pot Challenge

2012-01-10T09:40:00.001Z

Well here it is - my sealed pot for the great Sealed Pot Challenge started by Sft over at SFT'S TRAVEL, MORTGAGE FREEDOM, 101 AND LIFE GOALS Blog. I wanted a pot bought from a charity shop this year and when I walked in our local Hospice shop and saw this lovely bread bin for just £5 I thought what better receptacle (and the charity gets a £5 donation too), with 'bread' being one of the slang words for money in this country it's highly appropriate too.

Lovely Hubby drilled a couple of holes in the lid and then filed them together into a slot that it just the right size for £2 coins, which is what we are saving again. I used strong double sided sticky tape to fix the lid in position and then another strip around the outside edge to fix a ribbon in place, doubly stuck - truly a Sealed Pot. I emptied Spotty Jug (our temporary 'sealed pot') into this and guess what....we already have £92, I see next Christmas being a very good one!!

Unfortunately, I have had to play one of my Jokers already!! I'm gutted, I went out yesterday to try to find a good supplier for milk, no milkman would ever be able to negotiate our pot holed 2 mile farm track without setting off on his return journey with a van full of butter instead of milk. As we drink only Skimmed milk I knew I might face a slight challenge.

First I called to a rather posh village shop and found that instead of catering for the villagers with 'proper' food they seem to be aiming at some passing tourist trade with 'coffee to go', fancy jars of jam, wine and champagne and bags of pasta at ridiculously high prices. I enquired about their milk and found they only sold it by the single pint for 65p. I bought one in case that's all I could find, but they said they don't order in especially for customers. This attitude actually annoyed me, how do they expect to stay in business when they don't actually cater for the people that could keep them in business. So I moved on.

Next stop the village post office that I use in the next village, this was much better, as well as having the Post Office counter they have shelves of everything you could possibly need in an emergency, true a lot pricier than the supermarkets, but they are a newsagents as well AND they sell milk in two pint cartons for £1.20. As they only had one carton of Skimmed milk I bought that and had a word with the owner who was more than willing to regularly order me four of these, to be picked up by me every Monday and Friday - result. I pick up my first batch of four on Monday as he has already placed his order for this week.

So .... I needed more milk, rather than drive for miles to gether single cartons from here and there I bit the bullet and drove to Asda, merely 2 miles from this shop and got myself four large 4 pint cartons. Two are now safely in the freezer and two in the fridge. I do think we need to get our milk consumption down slightly, we seem to go through two pints a day on our breakfasts and hot drinks, slightly excessive. I have tried black coffee but to no avail, maybe drinking less coffee would be better for me anyway. The ideal would be to get us down to only needing a single pint a day.

So only 10th January and already a joker played...... not good! I am also proving useless at January being a No Spend month, out of ten days I have only managed four No Spend Days. I am staying firmly at home for the next few days to improve my average and get on with the packing. Due to my tour of the shops yesterday I only managed to get one set of drawers and two cupboards in the kitchen sorted and packed up, so guess what I'll be doing again today.

Oh, I will have to have a little break at 2.15pm to watch Escape to the Country, todays episode is supposed to be the one that we participated in. Maybe I should have kept quiet until I have had chance to see just how bad we come over!! Oh well....if you watch....no laughing (or if you do please don't let me know about it !!)

Added in - I watched it while I was having a break and the pigs were definitely the stars of our little bit of the show (although Lovely Hubby is very good too)! It took them FOUR hours of filming to get that little bit of television history!!

Sue xx

Packing up the kitchen.......

2012-01-09T08:41:00.003Z

Well this is it folks, my large farmhouse kitchen in all it's messy glory. Not tidied for the photos just there as it was first thing this morning when I came down. ....waiting for me to start the great packing up process. Sorting through all these cupboards and packing away what is not used on a regular basis is my job for today, and maybe even tomorrow as well we'll see how long it takes.

You may be able to guess from the photos that I have already started the process on the display shelves either side of the utility room door. I did them and put their more decorative contents to soak in the washing up water while I was making my first coffee of the day......see I'm geared up for action already!

You may spot quite a bit of food on the worktops, that's because I just got another Approved Foods order, they delivered a pre-Christmas order to the wrong address and couldn't retrieve it so they credited my account with its value, and as they had jars of Bonne Maman jam at 75p a jar last week I was tempted to put in an order to use up the credit. Sooooo easily tempted...lol.

In this kitchen I have (using doors as a counting tool) 10 base cupboards, 6 wall cupboards, and a total of 8 drawers (two of the drawers to the right of the Aga are actually a cupboard), 4 open display shelves and a plate rack.

In my new kitchen I will have 4 base cupboards (although 2 are corner ones so go into the corners giving quite a bit more space), 6 drawers, 5 normal sized wall cupboards and 2 smaller ones, one of which is over the cooker extractor hood. So although a slightly smaller kitchen this will not be too bad.

There is also a built in boiler cupboard in our new house with a bit of space to store teatowels or things that don't mind getting warm and a large built in cupboard that the current occupier is using as a larder, I may use this for all my homemade jars of food.

Here we have an undercounter fridge, an undercounter freezer and a large fridge freezer at the end of the run of units, as well as my beloved Aga, these will all be staying behind. In the new kitchen we will have an undercounter fridge, an electric freestanding cooker, a small dishwasher and a large upright fridge freezer. We have a washing machine in the utility room here and will also have one (it's already there) in the utility room at the new place. (We don't have a tumble dryer, prefering to let our laundry dry naturally.)

After a good look round and a measure up on Saturday we happily discovered that virtually all of our furniture will fit into our new home, the only casualty will be our large leather corner sofa, which we will advertise for sale soon. We think our large farmhouse pine table, with it's chairs and bench, will just about fit, so we will take it with us. If once there it seems too big or just takes up too much of the floor space we will replace it later, fingers crossed it looks okay.

Well I better get to work. I'll take the same photos when I've finished to see how well I've done. If I don't make it a challenge I'll never get to work...... well maybe one more cup of coffee and a bit of Blog reading first.......!!

Sue xx

My Birthday Boy

2012-01-08T08:23:00.001Z

Happy Birthday to my very special Birthday Boy, I love you.

53 years young today and looking good.

Sue xx

Armed but decidedly un-dangerous.......

2012-01-07T10:02:00.001Z

We are heading off to our new place, armed, but decidedly un-dangerous. We have our tape measures, our pad and pencil and our half awake brains, hopefully by the time we get there we will be awake enough to take down all those important vital statistics of our new home.

Which curtains will I be able to salvage, which of our two sofas will be sold on, will our extra large farmhouse table even fit through the door. Lots of questions, but all is about to be discovered.

And the great thing is we don't really mind what we need to get rid of completely or replace for smaller copies, we have no great love affair with our 'stuff', true we chose things together because we loved them at the time and needed them at the time, but as long as we have each other we would live in a large cardboard box, with lots of little cardboard boxes for furniture (although I would of course require a good cardboard bookcase wherever I lived !!).

Cardboard blogging desk anyone!!

Sue xx

Off to visit Gran and Grandad.......

2012-01-04T08:27:00.002Z

Today Me and Mum are off to visit Gran and Grandad, that means I get to cuddle down in my travelling bag with a treat and a toy and gently snooze for a few hours while Mum somehow magically gets us there.

Yesterday I had a much shorter journey cuddled on Mum's lap in the big truck, when we got to our destination it turned out it was the vets. They seem to have 'barcoded' me, when she passed a thing over my head I beeped....most disconcerting, I was however nicely bribed to sit still with a doggy treat.

It seems my life is one long round of cuddles and treats........not that I'm complaining of course.

If you find my tail will you post it back to me.......!!

Suky xx