Autumn School Days and Homestead Harvesting

Good morning everybody.

Well here we are in September with the nights certainly getting chillier and darker quite a lot earlier; I love the colours of the seasons changing, too.

Autumn and Winter are my very favourite seasons and I can't WAIT to get the Rayburn and wood burner lit. The first I think we'll light in the middle of this month. Sooo helps to cut down on winter outgoings as we do as much cooking on and in it as we can, it heats the water and keeps some of upstairs warm, or we put on an extra sweater! The boys love coming home to hot chocolate and cake in the warmth of the living room, curtains shut and I love sitting in there with Jon at night time chatting or listening to music. Even though the TV is only up two steps in a room off the living room it's a lovely quiet space if the boys want to do something else.

I have to admit to loving the winding down of the year and this year is one that surely needs to come to an end so we can look forward to a better, though I suspect still very different, 2021.

My usual question at the start of proceedings is how are you all getting on? I know a lot of people are describing our situation as lockdown having been lifted, but here on our little homestead we are pretty much behaving the same way, still living the dream in our own way here on my little patch of paradise.

(Apologies for the cement mixer but work in progress!)

We're only going to the shops for things we need, no browsing for fun; August Bank Holiday has just passed and we drove into Aber on the Sunday and it was extremely busy so we got what was needed and, as we say, got the hell out of dodge!

Just now shopping involves getting school supplies for our boys. With one who is 14 the week they go back and currently 5ft 4 it's proving a little tricky getting regulation school clothes as we're on the brink of the age range seeing as he's already in 15 - 16 yrs shirts, and don't get me started on trousers! Things will be very different for them, I think I mentioned I'll be driving them to school but I'm still waiting to hear that we can transfer Alfie to join Harry at his school in Aber.🤞 They will be in school next week for two or three days but we have no dates for attendance confirmed beyond that as yet. We expect there'll be some blended learning ie. home as well as in school but again this information has not come to us yet.

Here on the homestead Jon is continuing work on the new Airbnb listing. It's coming on very well indeed and we are just planning the colours, layout and style and as we plan on having some much missed family to stay with us over Christmas, no not apologising for saying it, we're looking forward to it being very welcoming and cosy for them.

Harvests have really not been too bad this year. Still have lots of carrots to come along with the Maris Piper maincrop spuds which seem to be really good already. I was a little concerned about the spuds due to the little tomato things growing on them again this year but was confident it wasn't blight although they also seemed to be dying back a bit early - my diary said they shouldn't be ready before Sept 19 about. Aaaaanyhow, I decided to cut them down to soil level and when I harvested two plants yesterday I came in with 4lbs of quality produce which I thought was a good amount. 

(The bags in the background are the 2nd cropping ones.)

Of course, I have the second cropping ones planted which will be going into the poly tunnel at some point; the growing bags will probably take the place of the butternut squash that took over the corner for so long.

I've been out foraging for blackberries, too, haven't really had to go very far for them,10 minutes from home at the most, and there have been sooo many that we now have a good couple of lbs in the freezer. Great for breakfast with yoghurt - hope to go out again this week and see if they are still in such abundance before the season ends.

I FINALLY have quite a few tomatoes ripening, from different varieties, too; they seem to have taken an absolute age so hope to pick those in the next couple of days; not enough to process into anything but never mind another year maybe.

I took up my beetroot last week; not loads this year but hope to have a late entry of some I have planted outside. I used the fresh along with some from the freezer which I grew last year. I had enough to make a couple of jars of relish, plus some for tasting, from a recipe by Thane Prince, and it was yummy; this will be perfect to go with cold meats at Christmas, oops there it is again! Not much preserving going on but some.

The outside beds and areas are beginning to look a little bit naked. The empty tyres where I grew my early spuds will be for onions and garlic I think, should be enough space. 

One of my great successes this year is definitely the kale. Constantly picking, rinsing and popping it into a bag for the fridge.

Maryline and I from Rural and Rustic were just saying that an eye needs to be kept on poly tunnel temperatures just now to ensure the more delicate things are still happy. I'll be popping out shortly to  feed the toms and few other things when I do the rounds; we're having some rain here today so the outdoor plants should be ok.

Right, today is the last no-screen day for the boys and Wednesday is also Monopoly Day; we normally have lunch then start and play until about 3 or 3.30pm.

Enjoy your day and I hope you enjoyed more of my ramblings.

#stayhomeandstaysafe where you can.

Bye for now

Lou,xx

Moving Forward At Our Best Pace And Keeping Track Of Progress!

That's a title, but it sort of draws a finishing line under some things and for us to start others. Personally I've made the decision to keep this as a diary/record of us and our stuff; I think some people are just too busy to visit other blogs and see what people are getting up to; I know I like to read a couple that really interest me and that's about it so checking if people have commented on my ramblings I think is something that will not now be my main aim, but thanks if you do. It also gives me the opportunity to REALLY ramble on without worrying that people can't be bothered to read it!😃

I've kept my Twitter account for the Airbnb rooms, and I do follow people other than those directly aimed at that, but I'm careful what comes into my feed. From next week I am having a couple of days off social media; I'll take it off my phone meaning I'll have to get the laptop out to use it; not exactly the instant way Twitter is meant to be used but that suits me!

And so...Jon and I had a conversation this morning, at length, about what we are trying to do and where we are just now.

This was triggered by the fact that we've come to the conclusion, after some monitoring our electricity meter is not working as it should. I give 2 meter readings each month, one for the cheaper night rate and one for the more expensive day time right. However we have discovered the meter is switching to the low rate at the wrong time of the day - we believe it should correspond with the times given to us by our energy company or how can we expect to make the most of the cheaper rate period? I'll be talking to them tomorrow to get something sorted but we've also arranged to have a smart meter installed at the end of the month. I was against these as the older generations of them meant they were not compatible when you switched energy company but this has now been changed so that is good.

On the back of this we know that it costs approximately £350 per year to use an emmersion heater; as we have this turned on in the Summer only and run, at the most, 2 baths a day and I wash up a couple of times it seems a huge amount of money. Soooo we are going to start keeping the Rayburn lit through the Summer months as well as the Winter. This may sound to some people like duh! we should have made this decision from the get go, but you live and learn. I think for most people energy is the biggest outlay each month.

The energy issue has lead us to think that we have taken our eye off the ball a little recently when it comes to the reason why we moved to Wales and what our aims were. It was never about living what is often described as a frugal life. It was about being self-sufficient and self-reliant in the main, getting back to basics on our little homestead; saving money by not wasting money is our goal along with generating an income so that Jon does not have to work outside of the home.

We are not an extravagant family but our boys will never go without. However they are taught where money comes from and that we can't always have what we want when we want it. However, generally in our house everything comes to he/she who waits and that always works for us!

I talked in my last post about extending our growing area for next Spring and that is very exciting. I'm now working on the layout for all the growing areas because, heavens to Betsy, if I can't supply the four of us with a really good amount of food with the space we are going to have then I don't know what!

So, we're keeping our focus on the job in hand, to reach our goals as we make them, to be are here doing what we signed up for and knowing that we really are, for us, living the dream.

Onwards and upwards!

Living That Dream

Jon came up to me with other morning, gave me a hug and asked me if I was happy with our life. I said I WAS! 

Simple things can make you realise you are in the right place doing the right thing. For us this week, as I previously told you, it has been looking after an orphan lamb.

It's really important to be able to help neighbours in tricky times, but when you get the added bonus of learning something at the same time it's great! Both the boys have taken it in turns to go out early with Jon and help with the lambing to see nature up close, and not always the best part of it at times. This is something we SO wanted for them when we moved here. We may have some sheep of our own in the future but in the meantime we are very happy to help out when we can and know that Jon, and the boys, will know what to do for ourselves, should the time arise.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx