Self-sufficiency, Self-reliance And Me Rambling, As Usual!

I'm a bit behind as I started this post on Monday!😂 That was the day Jon went back to work after his annual 2 week summer break.! I have a busy life normally but there is always a bit more going on when he is at home all day.

I'm a planner and he is a doer so we fit together very well; I have to take care when asking for something to be done so I can allow for associated mess and clean up time -  when I ask he has the habit of starting it fairly sharpish!

As I wrote most of this whilst sitting in the garden on the tree seat, it was a balmy evening and the sky was pale blue mottled with clouds after a day of thunderstorms and rain. There was not a breath of wind, Jon was planing a seat made out of tree trunks for our elderly sheep-farming neighbour and our new sheep dog pup was running around as unsure of the noise.

On evenings as such it is so very hard to remember that Covid-19 and the pandemic are still having an adverse effect on our lives. I say adverse as we are generally still managing to live our lives the way we were before. 

I started to think about the following definitions, I think I have them correct, as whilst we have been, and still are, in lockdown we are as ever doing as much for ourselves as we can. I began thinking the other day about these terms and as the UK begins to relax the rules of lockdown. 

SELF-SUFFICIENT 

This is where you produce, obtain or already possess what you need - where you have enough.

SELF-RELIANT

This is about your skills and abilities with aspirations of non-dependency, not about having enough of something. 

We are no where near totally self-sufficient regarding our food but in lots of ways we are self-reliant. I know some people may think the two are the same but they are a little different. We are almost self-sufficient in the food we like to eat in the Summer months. We are self-sufficient in the wood we need to heat our wonderful Rayburn over Winter as we can acquire timber from the sawmill where Jon works. In turn we are self-reliant in not relying on paid-for energy to heat our home or water and, if we so desire, we can cook all our food and meals with the Rayburn or on the top of the living room wood burner; obviously we have other appliances that add to our energy bill.

What we are truly self-reliant in is various skills around the house and our little homestead so we very rarely need to call a tradesman. Thanks to Jon's talents we never need a plasterer, painter/decorator, locksmith, plumber, carpenter, fencer, builder, tiler, roofer, glazier but sometimes need an electrician. Jon has been know to sweep the chimneys but both the Rayburn and wood burner have had the professional treatment once since we came to Bronllan.

I can't imagine how much money we have saved over the 17 years we have been together!

If I'm being honest I was never happier than in the early days; when the PM made the historic announcement 4 months ago  "you must stay at home" I adhered to the rules very strictly. 

We live 13 miles from the seaside town of Aberystwyth and are now seeing more people out and about, including tourists. We're going back to not feeling very keen at all on going into the town so I now wear a mask in the shops; there are opinions about the use and efficacy but it does make me feel a bit more comfortable in places where people are not social distancing. 

So, as far as food is concerned we're trying harder with the self-sufficient thing especially now we have the poly tunnel; that has been a real learning curve as we had it just at lockdown and I'm already looking forward to producing food over Winter and into next year! Planning, always planning.

I hope to preserve some of the things I grow; I've a dehydrator on my birthday list. I've always thought it important to have food in stock in case a situation arises, as recently. There'll always be dried goods in the house and will persevere in our aims to keep us all provided for, be it through sufficiency or reliance.

Anyway, talking of sowing and growing, here are a few photos from the garden this morning.

I've borrowed some bean poles from friends so I can support the runner beans I'm trying to grow in the poly tunnel, not sure how they will do but whatever! I have little rubber hats on top of the poles to protect the tunnel roof.

I've planted out nine more dwarf bean plants as these seem to be doing better outside than in, again, see how that goes. .

Some lettuce seedlings grown in the poly tunnel will hopefully give us more salad for a while yet and these are planted outside, too; I've had another good year with salad leaves!

I've fed the tomatoes with my homemade nettle feed for the first time today. I had to dilute it 1:10 before using it and it will last a while as I made 24 pints of it!

My tomatoes are just beginning to ripen; here are some of the variety Black Russian.

In the back right corner you can just see something coming up and they are Snowball turnips.

The corn outside the poly house is coming along really nicely, as are the beans sharing the bed - can't say the same about the squash in the middle! 

The blueberries are great, sooo pleased with them and picking every other day or so.

This year is definitely one of firsts; tried to grow borage a couple of times but this year actually managed it!

So, today is Saturday just after 8am. Jon is outside painting the listing with the youngest, I've fed the chooks and looking forward to a day of indoor jobs today. It's cooler outside and I've been and taken a quick look at everything. I'll probably go out later and bring in a few goodies like some fresh spuds, kale, blueberries to add to the others in the freezer and salad for lunch; some is going to seed and this will give up some space for other planting to provide us with eatables over the Winter.

As ever, stay safe, enjoy your weekend and hope the weather is not too hot, cold or wet for you in the coming days.

Bye for now,

Love Lou.xx