Cold outside, warm inside

Hello All
Firstly a warm Derbyshire welcome to new followers Heidi and Deborah and Gill and ? (please tell me who you are) on Bloglovin
The welcome is warm ,but Derbyshire is freezing and it has just started snowing!
Thought I wouldn't be able to get to the blog, but it hasn't been a problem and I'm taking a break from the kitchen for an hour, while bread rises and pastry cools.
This morning a I made a couple of pounds of pastry as I am having a pie making session later. Once the oven in on I like to use every ounce (therm?) of heat and fill it up. I am making cheese, onion and potato pie, Chicken (cockerel) pie and a of couple of leek, potato and brie pasties. I havealso put a portion of pastry aside for a meat and potato pie at the weekend (haven't bought the beef yet). In the slow cooker is a small joint of lamb with onions, a tin of tomatoes, some preserved lemon slices with seasonings. I am hoping this will be a sort of taginy thingy.
Here is a picture of the fire in "Percy's (the parrot) room. it is next to the kitchen and where I hang out much of the time as it is kept warm for Percy , and by default me! The OLD gas fire is still tested and safe and chugs away all the time in the winter. It is the perfect place for the wine while it is plopping away. I do the first bread rise here and dry shoes, hats etc. Could do with a good dust !

I mentioned the sewing projects that were building up. Here is a picture of three of them -
 To the right is the start of a quilt. The backing is an old but strong sheet I bought from a CS for 50p and the rest is offcuts from the stash.
 To the rear are the slippers I have started. I am knitting both at the same time because I am using bits and pieces and I would like them to be similar at least!. I have used 2 strands of wool for the feet to add a bit of strength and extra warmth.
Left front is the materials with which I hope to assemble n Egyptian costume for Youngest Granddaughter. The gold braidy stuff I was given last year by someone giving up sewing (!), the bead contraption was on a teashirt bought from the CS for £1 last year. I had an idea I might use the beads, but this is a much better use. Th goldy material is left over from when I made several outfits for a concert that my goddaughter was in, about 15years ago. I knew it would come in someday  - what a hoarder I am !

In my last post I mentioned blog I had been following, and the facebook chit-chat group I had joined. I have tried to upload the link her, but as you know I am rubbish at that sort of thing and managed to lose half of this post while pratting about with it. So I have re-typed that which I lost and shall just type the details, rather than give you a link.

The blog I follow is Mysimplecountryliving.blogspot.co.uk, her name is Heidi and she has a core of bloggers who guest, support with the site etc. If you go onto her site there is a facebook link there too.

 I am a glass half full type of person and I don't have SAD or any other such stuff, but even I am getting really p****d-off with the weather. To cheer me up I have been looking at photos taken last summer.. I shall share this one with you and probably more as the days go on if it doesn't improve. 

This is of the path leading down to the big chicken house and the orchard. Either side is a vegetable patch     ( and you know we don't do tidy!)

Keep warm and well dear blogging friends and thank you so much for reading my ramblings

Gillx  

Update chat

Hello Fellow Frugellers!

Don't you wish this weather would pick up! The down side for us is the Mud and then more mud! It is also impossible to get onto the gardens without ruining the soil, so we must be patient. At least here in the midlands we are not flooded like those down south,, who have been underwater since Christmas. Apart from the poor home owners the farmers must be in despair, as they will surely loose crops that are already planted and be unable to sow anything for many weeks.

The family tea for D's birthday went well. We had a leg of lamb (who is this then grandma?) with lots of vegetables and yorkshire puddings (ooh yes and mint sauce of course) I made a lemon cake and a marmalade cake and YD bought some treacle sponges. As you can imagine there are plenty of leftovers ! Goody.. less to do next week.

 YGD bought D a haggis which had been given to her by a customer. D was delighted and I served it up last night with mashed potatoes, cabbage,  carrot and swede mashed together and a good rich gravy.

The hens are really fed up with the rain and mud, but the longer days are irresistible so the the egg totals are  going up. Hurrah, they may start paying their way again soon. Keeping the eggs clean is a challenge as their feet are so muddy, so I have been putting extra hay in the boxes.

After telling myself that I would not start too many projects, I find that I have at least four on the go - two quilts, some knitted slippers and some kitchen towels that I am making from some old bath towels. Oh yes ! on Sunday YGD (age 8) tells me that she needs to be an Egyptian next week at school. So we rustled through the stash and she should look okay when I have finished the outfit.  I'll post a picture when I finish it. That is now top of the list to do along with several items from the mending pile.

I have been following a "Farmgirl" blog for the last few months. This blog joins other like-minded blogs and is very "smallholdery" (new word!) I noticed that they had put a link to their facebook chit chat page, so I joined yesterday and Wow! what a friendly lot they are ! I will put the details in the next post, when I work out how to do it.
Meanwhile I must get this post out as I am  away from the lap top for a while and don't know when I will be back!
Keep well and warm out there in Blogland
Gillx

 

And the Heavens opened.

HIYA!
A Warm welcome to new follower Alexandra and also to Janice on Blog Lovin. Nice to see you here.

So what have you done to the weather?!
Today our little Civic Society  hosted the regional Get Together. We met at our remaining ( don't get me started!) pub. Had a meeting, then lunch and then a walk around our places of historic interest. Half way round the sky went black, there was an almighty clap of thunder and for the next few minutes the thunder and lightening was spectacularly close while several tons of  hail battered us to the ground. We beat a hasty retreat back to the pub where, fortunately, the member who was leading the tour was able to present his "Virtual Tour" onto a screen.
SimpleSuffolkSmallholder says in her post today that it is St Paul's Day and that tells us that whatever the weather is today fortells what the farming year will be. Similar to St Swithins only for the whole year not just a few weeks. Crikey ! I'm glad I don't believe in such nonsense or I would be throwing myself off the nearest bridge.
 The campaign to get D. to part with his stove and reinstate it in the kitchen, has gathered some momentum with support from my daughters. D. says he feels "got at" really?! tee hee. If you feel in the least bit sorry for him, Don't, as he can well hold his own.
We have found a few possibles for the lounge stove though, so that is hopeful. One that we like has a plate especially to cook on... Oh yes! that's the one for me!

 Looking at the paper there is absolutely nothing on the television tonight, so I will watch a programme we recorded a week or two ago. It is the history of Still Life painting, starting with Caravaggio, and looks to be rather good apart from the silly title, "Apples, Pears and Paint" which would be enough to put anyone off.

Tomorrow the girls and their offspring will be here for tea. it is D's birthday on Monday, so I will have to rustle a cake together or our youngest granddaughter will be upset on her grandad's behalf ( He wouldn't mind) Between ourselves he is 69 this time. Poor old thing!

 Had a rather unusual tea tonight. I did jacket potatoes with... brie, egg, onions a la greque with bacon and beetroot. Yes I know it is a weird combination, but all part of us using everything up and very tasty it was too.
It is still raining a bit here. Hope those of you in the UK that are flooded will get relief soon and those of you in the USA who are freezing can keep warm. So far we in the UK Midlands have been pretty lucky with our weather.
All for now
Keep Warm
Gillx
PS I wrote that just after tea. It is now 18.15hrs and the thunder and lightening are back with torrential rain! As I said at the beginning of this post... What have you done to the weather?!

The Army Field Kitchen

Hello
Quite a few people seem interested in our Stove Hunt.
Lizzie wondered what D's Army Field Kitchen looked like. I have taken a photo of this and of the hole in our kitchen, where, I think D's stove would fit perfectly!
Here is the old army stove. I think you will agree that while it is not pretty it IS beautiful!

Nothing a spot of blacking won't put right. Any of you remember that job?!

Now to the kitchen fireplace...

The fire that you see in the kitchen is a gas fire that we put in years ago when we did Bed and Breakfast.  Guest always chose to eat in the kitchen and I needed a quick way to get the room  warm in the mornings. You can see from the space around it that at one time a range would have been fitted here. When we bought the house an old gas fire was here, mounted on a hideous stone fireplace. After a few years we took this out and another couple of structures and the lovely hole is what we found.
I really would like an "off-grid" alternative to our conventional cooker, which I don't ever intent to get rid of. Having a two oven, seven ring range is useful with the life we lead!
I will post a picture of the fire in the living room that we hope to replace with a multi-fuel burner too and then you will have the full picture of my stove aspirations!
(Just looking at that last pic - all the minimalist de-clutter bloggers probably have to lie down in a darkened room after they read my posts)

The sun was shining when I was feeding the hens their midday snack, so I took this photo of them with their backs in the sun..Oh happy hens! Within minutes it started to rain and they, and I, ran for cover "It's spitting !! we cried a.la Peter Kay.

So now I am back inside and really must attack the ironing mountain.
Thanks for reading
Gillx

Looking for a stove

Hello All
We have been thinking about keeping warm and keeping the bills down this week. Getting the two to go hand in hand is a challenge and we think the time has come to invest in the future.
We have more than one source of heat and cooking. Half the house is centrally heated by gas. Three of the rooms have independent gas fires. The large lounge has an open fire with a back boiler for hot water. We cook on a range cooker with gas jets and electric oven and of course we use a microwave and two slow cookers. Three bedrooms have no heating and here we use oil-filled radiators if needed. We only have heat on in the rooms being used and not necessarily then as we use knee blankets and hot water bottles in bed. Outside in the workshop we have an old army field kitchen, where D. and the guys keep warm, make hot drinks and I fill with baking if it is lit for any length of time. (Shed bread!)
 I asked D. if he could make a trivet for the open fire so that we could make hot drinks or cook a casserole while the fire was lit (while heating a tank of water)
D tells me that he has been thinking that we need to be more efficient and safer and that the open fire is only 32 percent efficient, whereas a multi fuel stove is 70 percent efficient. It can also be left, rather than watched all the time and uses considerably less fuel. He installed a back boiler and double tank when he installed the fire over 30 years ago, which was extremely forward thinking at the time - the tank was specially made to his specifications. So we are now looking for a multi-fuel stove with back boiler. I should be able to use the top for keeping food warm too. Our eldest daughter who is a fire officer is delighted that we will have a fire that will be better regulated and safer to use. The unit will cost between £500 and £1,500 - ouch! Watch this space.
I have also started a campaign to have his field kitchen put in my kitchen, which has a hole of exactly the right size, but he is loathe to lose it from his workshop. I'm not at confident that I will get my way on this one!
 Before anybody suggests that the way to save money would to be downsize - we aren't ready to do this yet. We will know when the time is right for that, probably when we can't manage the smallholding.

 I was intending to start my tomatoes off this week. I have plenty of seed for my outdoor and "speciality" tomatoes, but needed "Shirley" seed for my main greenhouse. So I popped into town and couldn't get any ! I am at the hospital tomorrow, which is close to a garden centre, so I will pop in there to see if they have any. If not D. wants to go the B&Q tomorrow (wrinkly day) maybe they will have some.

We have quite a lot of Civic Society and Canal restoration stuff going on this week, so are quite busy outside of the holding, so we will be on catch-up next week I guess. At least I'm never bored!!

All for now. Bit of a boring (for you)  post - sorry!
Gillx

Strictly Blogging

Hello Everyone!
 Just a quickie this morning.
But not so quick that I haven't time to welcome new followers Annie, Mrs G, Carol in Cairns and Sweffling. Also AKM Evans on Blog Lovin.  Lovely to see you here.

 Just got in from feeding the animals and about to take a shower, because I am going out for the day.
At 10.30 ED is picking me up to take me, her daughter and mother in law to the NEC in Birmingham for the "Strictly Come Dancing" tour thingy. Now I'm not a great fan of the razamataz and truly believe that Bruce should retire (TV show) but I am fond of ballroom dancing. Not that I do any nowadays, you understand. As a child my best friend, J. and I would go once a week to the Millicent Simmons School of Dancing in Derby ( we were about 10 at the time) and in my mid teens D. and I went every Saturday night to Victor Sylvestor's studio over the Gaumont in Derby. Ooooh heady days and best shoes! Then I started Art college and everything like that seemed facile. ( I think D. was secretly pleased,as he was nowhere near as good a dancer as I!)
When I get back it will be a swift run around the laundry and probably clear up after D. and Adam and then we are off to friends for the evening.
I hope that I will manage a more coherent post tomorrow.
Thanks for the comments yesterday they are much appreciated.
Back Soon and in the words of Brucie
Keeeeep Blogging!!!
Gillx

Lamb and help with the Quilt

Greetings Frugellers
Welcome Scarlet to my follower bar and to Linda and Victoria of the Glorious Angelsey Allsorts, on Blog Lovin.

We picked up the lamb yesterday. I asked my friend C. if she would help me with them and she looked a little nervous, not sure she could do it. However, once they were home she was able to see them as joints of meat, not named woolly creatures! We had struggled to finish the lambs as they should have gone before the grass stopped going and for some reason neither of them would eat hay. They had been small lambs in the first place so it was with some trepidation that I collected them. "Bet they are a bit poor" I said to the butcher "Look alright to me " he said.. and indeed they were, both weighing in at 32 kgs without the pluck.
Here is C in her new career as butcher's assistant !

I hope that you are not upset at the thought of us growing our own meat. Be assured that the meat we eat had a good life with plenty of care and their end was the best we could organise - at a small butchers in a room that looks exactly like our barn and within a very short time of their arrival after only a 10 minute journey.

 While I am really busy outside at the moment I just had to have a fix with my sewing today. I set up the large spare bedroom to accommodate the quilt I am making for EGD.  I cleared the floor, laid out the patchwork and then measured the padding. I had to add an extra strip of padding to make it the correct size. I folded the fabrics and placed them on the bed prior to sewing the padding and ran downstairs to answer the phone.
When I returned guess who had arrived to "help" ?

Adam will be here this weekend. He hasn't been too well lately so we will need to find something for him to do that is not too taxing. He might like to help me do a little sowing in pots and he always enjoys cooking. If all else fails we could always play dominoes.
For those of you new to my rambling blog. Adam, Bob and Colin ( not their real names) are three guys who come to us for either day or respite care. This is organised by Social Services through the "Shared Lives" scheme.  Adam has been coming here for respite for over 20 years now and Bob and Colin for nearly five. They are all part of our life and members of our extended family. As we live on a smallholding there is always much to do with many "proper" jobs that help us and support a real feeling of worth in the guys.
 Just about to settle down to Michael Portillo's Great Train Journeys (Bradshaw) I really didn't like him as a politician, but he's an extremely good commentator.
 Good night dear Frugal Friends and thank you for reading
Gillx