Back Into The Swing Of Things

It is wonderful to be home and since we got back we have wasted no time in getting back into our preferred routine.

We have had two bookings in the Airbnb room, one in now with more due and hopefully extra bookings, too. I didn't mention that before we went on our holiday Airbnb awarded us 

Super Host Status!

We were awarded this due to responding very quickly to bookings, our location and the facilities we provide. All this is shown our reviews  We were chuffed to bits!

Anyhow, onto other things. There are various jobs that need doing around our little Homestead, as always, and one thing is the conservatory. We are going to refurbish this into being another room and not a glass house. We cannot use if much in the summer time as it is so blinking hot. Therefore we are planning on putting a proper roof on it and removing some of the windows and cladding a lot of the outside.

Materials for this sort of job do not come cheap but if you bide your time something always turns up. We love to recycle so we have managed to acquire windows from Jon's cousin who was having some of hers replaced - we don't mind second hand - and Jon found on a Facebook selling page some FREE Marley roof tiles.

This is almost 200 which he fetched from just down the road last night and we all helped to pile up from the trailer. He is going back for another 100 tonight and that will be enough for the job. This has saved us about £600 which is flippin' amazing!

Another money saver was the small chest freezer we had in the cellar store room. Well, we haven't used it for ages, we were going to have to move it to make room for a large chest freezer by Christmas but weren't going to get much for it if we tried to sell it. Therefore I had a bit of a brain wave; we were on our way to town to buy some clip top bins for the chicken feed when I said why didn't we reuse the freezer.

We got home and Jon put a dividing wall inside it so now houses the pellets and corn. Mint!

In the Poly House I managed to tidy up one of the benches, a little, as I had no space for sowing which I got round to yesterday. 

These are some of my peppers, looking like all of my peppers! 

Not sure if they have bolted?! There are lots of little flowers on them but they have not turned into anything of note yet - really hope they do.

The boys and I went to the library in Aber yesterday and to do a couple of jobs in town. I picked up this preserves book as I love Dick Strawbridge and have his book of self sufficiency - Jon bought it for me some time before we moved her knowing what our life was going to be like, with any luck! 

The other book is by Elizabeth Luard and I have her European Peasant Cookery book. Only after reading the introduction did I realise she lived very close to us on a large estate in a gorgeous pink house which went up for sale around the time we moved to Bronllan. In the introduction she talks about the river Ystwyth,Tregaron and lots of other places nearby which is lovely. I am on a mission to find a copy of it to buy a little cheaper than the retail price of £25 as there are some lovely recipes in it. (The gloves were on sale at 50p from the £1 shop; I need a stronger pair of gloves for when I am pruning the roses at the front door and searching behind the bamboo for eggs the chickens have decided to lay outside!)

Since getting back I've got some preserving done and pickled some gherkins and beetroot; I have more to do today. (I accidentally deleted some photos which included the gherkin pickling process...)

These are the things taken from the garden yesterday. I hope to use the salad blue spuds to make veg crisps. The peas have been added to the bag in the freezer and we have some of those every other day or so which is lovely. 

On Sunday we had roast pork with our carrots, the salad blues mashed, roasted Maris Pipers which Harry declared to be just like big round chips and both the boys thought they were delish along with some of the peas added to bought sweetcorn. Wonderfully satisfying!

The toms are coming on very well including some of the beef ones - even though I have had to ditch a couple which managed to grow very gnarly and wrap themselves around the stems!

Right must dash. The bread is on first prove, chooks are fed but need to go water stuff and maybe catch the guests before they leave for the day incase they need anything. Taking the boys to the Rec to play tennis after lunch if the weather holds.

Catch you later.

Lou.xx

Beating Myself Up Unnecessarily, But I'll Get Over It!

Just found this post by Dawn on Doing It For Ourselves In Wales about smallholding and self-sufficiency. Truly inspirational as you normally are, Dawn. 

Jon and I feel so very, very lucky that, in effect, Bronllan came with the field which we now own - we didn't actually pay any extra for it. It definitely needs work before we can use it to any degree as we cannot get any vehicles onto the land before we literally make an in road down the lovely tree-lined, grassy walk-way leading to it. But we are determined to make use of it because so many people dream of having a smallholding or land of their own but for lots of reasons are not able to follow that dream. 

I keep reminding myself and Jon that we have only been here just over six months and in that time have achieved lots of things and haven't failed just because we are not raising chickens, our grow your own plans are to nothing and are without my yearned-for-pantry full of preserved produce! Primarily the house has pretty much had a complete renovation, we have settled the boys and ourselves into school and the community, had our first Christmas, Jon has found himself a job which is close to home and aids our new life as we have access to additional free wood for heating the house and we now have our day to day life.

However, we do want to do other things and living here now is giving us options to, eventually, make the right decisions for us as a family. We are lucky to have established outbuildings on the land of the house and to many people these would make a wonderful business opportunity as I talked about here. 

However a short while ago Jon and I were sitting by the fire talking, as we do much more these days, and we both came to the conclusion. We spent so much time looking for and finding our dream home where we have no part of our land that includes shared access, no near neighbours to take into account and all that we have is ours. And to be honest we have come to the conclusion that we are not prepared to give that up all that to have people traipsing through our precious paradise.

People reading this will probably think, "crikey, make your minds up will you?" and maybe I should learn to keep my mouth shut so I don't look like I'm full of big ideas but putting nothing into practice, but you have to be happy with decisions you make. Before we came here the plan was for Jon to have his own business making things from wood, re-purposing, re-using and recycling items etc and we are now going back to this but he will not be giving up his job straight away.

As Dawn said, until you get to do what it is you want to do you can prepare, read and organise so you are good to go. Therefore in the meantime we are going to be using part of the garden for US for a greenhouse or poly tunnel and maybe chickens - I hope so and see what we can do for ourselves before Christmas whilst I continue to refer to all the lovely people online for help, wisdom and advice who are doing their own thing and whom we hope to emulate in the future. 

Lou.xx

A Little Catch Up.

Hi!

I have a couple of photos to share with you to hopefully brighten up the wet and windy day we are having today. 

In said weather I had to go to Aber today, bbrrrr, in order to get Mothers' Day cards and gifts, do a couple of jobs at the bank now we don't do online banking anymore, pick up a new school sweater I had ordered for Alfie (he is shooting up!) and to attend the dentist, yuck! The dentist was running late so I had to leg it home and pick Jon up for a doctor's appointment and they were running late, too! Dropped him at work at about 12.40 o'clock then got home 10 minutes later in time to fill the log and stick boxes before the Oil4Wales man arrived - you guessed it he was late, should have been here yesterday!

The fire is now lit in the living room, I have had my lunch, caught up with a few blogs and downloaded the photos I wanted so here they are.

I mentioned I was intending to make a cushion cover for one of the new chairs and it came out ok, if a little wonky as I'm rubbish at cutting out fabric when it comes to sewing, but I love it.

On our usual pop into Craft last Saturday for some reusing and recycling shopping I came across this. Contraband was a card game we used to play as a family when I was young. It is about bluffing your way through customs with items you haven't paid duty on. The boys loved it, trying to keep a straight face, maybe tell a white lie and not laugh! Check out the cool, vintage images!

 

We also came across another fab thing for the sideboard. This laminated wood ice bucket which I think is from the 1950's but I'm not bothered. 

Well, I had better get on. The boys are at a friend's house after school today but need to collect Jon from work at 4.20pm then them at 6pm and still have Lasagne to make for our tea.

Very excited about the Stationery Shop being hosted by Tracy at Mad About Bags.

Lou.x

Inspiriation For Life.

(Green for the New Year I think, plus appropriate for this post.)

I have just read an inspirational post by Shoestring Cottage - Frugal Living.

It made me think about a few things I would like to change / do this year. I haven't made any resolutions but rather I think it is great to have aims. So... 

Grow some vegetables when we have cleared the right space. We have bigger plans for the future but this will have to suffice for now.

Use my washing machine on the cheaper night time tariff. I've already started doing this and when I read and posted my monthly meter readings just this morning it showed I had taken about £9 off the bill I currently owe them - I do pay by Direct Debit but they put that on my account as soon as the reading had registered which I thought was fab and maybe it is already working.

Turn off lights that I sometimes leave on for ease. I turned back and switched the light off in the cellar this morning when I came back in from taking the Christmas decorations to store away. I leave it on as I go out the back of the house a lot, take the recylcing out of the way up there etc. but think I should really only turn lights on when I need them. (Tell that to my boys who insist on having the landing light on at night - STILL!)

Re-use bread bags for sandwiches or things I put in the freezer. I did manage to make most of the family bread requirements during November and will return to that next week. I use the Rayburn warming oven and the top to prove the bread then ramp it up to bake it. If I bake it at the right time Jon can have a red hot, soothing bath when he comes home from work. (We had oil delivered on Christmas Eve and for 500 litres we paid £160 which was £8 cheaper than the same amount we bought when we first moved into the house.)

Have things made by reusing and recylcing. Jon recently made Jake a new Dawg House and a frame for an old Belfast sink so we can wash him outside after he took down a big wooden store in the middle of the garden. Plus we have a mountain of kindling, the trailer in the picture is 8 feet long, from the same source and are planning on giving some of it away as we have sooo much.

I like the idea of using cerial boxes for notes and lists; I love a list you know!

Buy more clothes from charity shops. I bought a cardigan for £3.69 last week and we have bought furniture and household items from Craft in Aber and will continue to browse there. Love it!

Well, I had better get on with something now, turkey burgers to make for tea. x