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good chunk of cheddar of course that is about all i have made for christmas i usually make a lot of presents but i am ashamed to say that without amazon christmas would be just about cancelled mind you the loofahs always make a good pressie here they are hanging out to dry i am currently building a new compost heap i have piles of grass cutting cardboard brash etc that need to be layered it is pretty heavy work but absolutely worth it the gardens are producing nothing now there is just a line of celeriac the winter stores however look pretty good with potatoes apples squash onions and garlic in the rabbit hutches in the barn two chest freezers full of veg and fruit a bucket of waterglassed eggs and more jams and pickles that i could ever use i always keep lots of dry goods in under the stairs all year round so my prepping for winter is complete with candles and wind up radios torches phone chargers at the ready i now have three great granddaughters thay are 4 2 and two months i am privilaged to be trusted to look after these amazing little creatures from time to time alice the two year old joins me a couple of days a week while her mother works in the office upstairs she plays with her cousin s toys wears boots that were her aunties and digs holes with children s tools that have been in our sheds for nearly 40 years rosa the 4 year old is now at school fulltime so i see less of her but it s lovely when i do seeing these little souls running free getting dirty picking fruit tomatoes and peas straight from the plant and embracing life on our smallholding is heartwarming a reason to stay here i suppose this leads me to my reverie about whether i stay or downsize so far i m doing okay i suppose i had been running the place virtually on my own for some time now as david had been so unwell but i am aware that the place isn t as tidy ready as i would like it i have had a couple of occaisions when i have shouted at him because i don t know how to do something he always did or understand some process he invented or set up when taking out our old fireplace the plumber asks where the pump is for the back boiler turns out there was no pump it was gravity fed he also mentions that some of the system is ingenious i admit to a wobble afew weeks ago when i was asked who was my next of kin gracious it has been david for 58years anyway enough for now i hope to get back to you soon to show you the plans now in motion for an event i shall be hosting in early february love gillx posted by frugal in derbyshire at 15 22 6 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday 21 september 2024 hello me again time has flown and i see it is a long time since i posted there don t seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment i guess it is that time of year the gardens seem to be all consuming either weeding tying up pruning or laterly gathering in and proccessing my daughter and her husband have moved in here while the roof is taken off half of their bungalow and services disconnected as part of the extention renovation work to make it comfortable and accessable for her husband fortunately i have just finished cleaning and decorating my large lounge we had problems with the fire and chimney and there was some smoke damage so i have had a multi fuel burner installed david and i had already discussed this just before he died and i was able to use his ideas knowledge to make choices so we have ramped up to the door of this lounge and son in law access to the outside loo too he is able to shower at the gym and swimming pool which he visits almost daily for rehab so all good there he also now has an adapted car so can take himself to appointments and has returned to work for three days a week he really is remarkable today i am on my own for the whole day a rather unusual occurance so i am ticking off some silly little jobs that are less easy to do with others in the kitchen so i am sitting here typing instead of finishing the mending alterations marmalade making leek proccessing apple wrapping for storage and bean and herb drying it looks like i shall not be able to dry the loofahs mnaturally this year mind you i have only managed to do that once in the last five years so no surpirise i am told that monty don s loofahs havent done so well this is no surprise to me as when he was sowing their seed back in april time i was shouting at the tv that he was far too late and that i start mine of in early february and still the season isnt really long enough they are just starting to go a little paler i wil pick them next week and process them by peeling and soaking in water as i have done in previous years aren t these soft toys lovely my younger daughter made them for the great grandchildren and our youngest grandchild they are made from david s shirts i believe some people call them memory bears well as you can see i am keeping on keeping on somedays i feel overwhelmed and some days are a piece of cake back soon dear bloggy friends gillx posted by frugal in derbyshire at 13 08 6 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday 17 july 2024 ticking jobs off hello again well here i am keeping on keeping on we the family have been tidying up david s sheds he was quite a hoarder and it has not been possible to get into never mind do any work in his sheds for some time now so my eldest daughter a and her husband p have started on the big workshop the inspiration to start on this particulart shed has come from the need to make some space for the contents of their garage if you remember from my last post her husband was in a serious motor cycle accident late last year and his life could only be saved by the amputation of his leg and hip they have now moved into a bungalow in a derby suburb the bungalow has much to be done to it which includes the demolition of the garage hence the need to store the contents elsewhere here i had forgotten how large the workhop was and remember how i used to be able to work on the beehives in there when we have finished clearing it and their stuff goes to their bungalow i shall offer it as a temporary work space to those who have nowhere to work on individual projects there are workbenches electric points and even a field kitchen to make tea a and i have made several trips to the local scrap merchants with all the defunct dangerous and broken metal scrap the money we made i invested in the hire of a huge shredder a small work party got together a couple of weeks ago and we proccessed for fireword and mulchings the fallen branches and diseased trees from around the property there remains a couple of dangerous really large trees to be attended to but i have asked a tree surgeon to attend to those p was our maintenance man servicing the chain saws and keeping the mower and strimmer going a with charlie the dog who was no help at all i feel the garden is getting away from me somewhat but others are struggling too with the weed growth from all this rain i am however starting to reap a veggie harvest which make all the work worthwhile after the visit from the fox and with two new virgin sisters from a local chicken farm arriving to keep her company the lonely little black hen has gone broody as the new hens know not a man and our cockerel hugh serviced blackie some time ago she was rather wasting her time sitting on their eggs so after a plea on facebook she is now sitting on 14 fertile eggs this will mean a new flock with fresh blood which is not a bad idea really i have had several offers of cockerels but have refused as i don t know how they will be with new chicks some are great and others can be quite nasty this gal ain t budging i guess that s all for now back soon thanks for dropping by gillx posted by frugal in derbyshire at 16 51 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday 1 june 2024 friends for the hen and u tube is my friend hello all well i m bumbling on here in the smallholding nearly all the veggie planting is done so far its been a mixed bag of successes and failures for the first time ever i am having problems with pigeons they have stripped my peas so i will have to net them from now on the slugs are pretty bad this year too and the mice have taken all my sunflowers and beans from the greenhouse still time to start again methinks on the other hand the onions and potatoes are looking good as are the squashes cucumbers and tomatoes quite a lot of things have broken down or given up the ghost too so in the absence of he who was super good at mending things and keeping them going forever i have found that u tube is my new best friend i have mended the dishwasher re strung the strimmer unblocked the drains and sort of cobbled the toilet cistern so far usually my go to person after david to mend things is my eldest daughter s husband p he is an immensely practical engineer who is useful to have on the team however late last year he was involved in an horrific motor cycle accident that left him in a coma for some time he also lost his right leg up to and past the hip and his right arm badly compromised he is now recovering but has a way to go yet though goodness knows he is working so hard and already has a new leg he is wearing for longer and longer sessions he and my daughter have bought a new house bungalow as theirs is virtually unaccessable for him and they are moving much closer to me which i am delighted about they moved in this week and will be virtually camping for a few weeks while builders make it an even better living space concurrently my grandson his partner and their daughter are moving house too as often happens their buyers want them to vacate last week while those they are buying from can t move for another few weeks so they are living here for now with their furniture piled up in the goathouse and our largest lounge so all change and never a dull moment and it s lovely having an 18th month old cutie around no mow may is going to change into no mow june soon if i don t get the paddock cut but difficulties with the mower and scarcity of folk it is what it is hopefully it will be done next week after being wiped out by the fox last month i was left with one traumatised and lonely black hen last week i bought two hems to keep her company we put them together in their new hut after dark hoping they would settle together and they have been fine i have cordoned off a small section of land next to the orchard that my hens used to live an and with the help of a friend have made it fox proof i shan t get any more for the time being while i settle into my new role as crazy old single smallholder is anybody else here members of vegetable growing allotment etc facebook groups these groups are so useful for sharing ideas and for new veggie growers to ask for advice so far so good but i have to say i am amazed at how little some folks know about the most basic things that are to do with nature etc what do they teach in science biology nowadays shall i cut the flowers off my apple tree so that it can concentrate on growing the apples is the sort of thing i mean i find myself shouting at the screen i asked my three and a half year old granddaughter what would happen to the lovely blossom and she said it would turn into apples anyway this is more mundane than usual i am having trouble loading photographs atm i shall ask my youngest daughter this weekend what i am doing wrong a picture tells so much more doesn t it she is back from jersey for a few days it will be nice to see her back soon thanks for reading gillx posted by frugal in derbyshire at 20 22 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday 17 may 2024 the best laid plans hello all just back from a few days in jersey visiting my daughter who lives and works there david and i bought our tickets in the new year timing them so that we would be in jersey for liberation day shortly after he said that he thought he wouldn t be able to manage the journey and after the last few times when he was using a wheelchair and we had to have assistance and with his deteriorating health i was inclined to silently agree we ll see how you feel nearer the time i said clearly when he died in early march it was never going to happen everyone asked if i would go on my own but i must confess that this feisty old bird is an absolute scardey cat when it comes to flying travelling and so i wasn t going to go on my own up steps eldest granddaughter who bought a ticket for her three year old too and ensured i wasn t going to chicken out so off we set to have a 4 generation get away in jersey one of the issues i have about travelling is leaving this place the chickens need to be fed watered and let in and out same for the cat the bees need keeping an eye on for swarming and the gardens and greenhouses need constant attention up steps the daughter of two of our dearest friends sadly no longer with us who also had a small holding this incredible woman is also an experienced gardener and a close friend of my daughters so i have absolutely no worries when all is in her capable hands i made up some waterglass to preserve my excess eggs i don t have many but they can be put in the mixture as and when i have them here is a picture of a corner of my kitchen dedicated to my frugality and self sufficiency so here i am all prepped to get ready for the egg shortage next winter yesterday i went out to the hens just after lunch to check on the egg laying as the jackdaws have been sneaking into the chicken house and stealing eggs all good i collected a couple and returned after tea to lock them up for the night carnage the blasted fox had been and the orchard which is enclosed a and suppose to be fox proof was strewn with feathers and a couple of headless birds goodness knows where the rest are i couldn t see how he had got in nor carried the hens out one traumatised little black hen was high up in an apple tree i went out later when it was dark and rescued the hen and placed her in a small run because he will be back i couldn t really face anymore so i came back in the house and poured myself a large scotch this morning only one body was left as the fox had been and cleared up after him the little black hen is still safe won t be any eggs going in the waterglass will there all for now back to planting gillx posted by frugal in derbyshire at 18 02 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday 27 april 2024 first milestone hello firstly many thanks for your kind comments to my last post well first milestone of will i manage this place or wont i as the sun came out late yesterday morning i looked down the garden and spotted a lot of activity on the front of a hive so i m wondering if the relatively rare 2024 sun had excited them or were they thinking of swarming it s quite early for a swarm but not unknown half...