The Veggie Patch

Overall view - with our Landlords office in the background (we have no access to this).

While Lovely Hubby was busy over the weekend tarting up, I mean 'putting the finishing touches to' his Man Shed I was just ten paces away playing on 'my patch'.  I've decided to call this the Veggie Patch, at our last place it was always called the Kitchen Garden, as it was immediately outside the kitchen and here we grew everything we ate.

Now it is over away from the house and as we have laid a giant sheet of membrane it looks just like a patch on the grass. So the Veggie Patch it will be known as from today!! 

 It is about 8m by 12m, so I guess the size of an average back garden and I'm hoping that it will feed us right through the year.  I will be planting successionally and harvesting and freezing the produce all through the growing season to feed us over Winter.  LH is doing me a posh plan of it, I had done a scribbly one on paper but he said the computer will do me a 'proper posh one', so I'll let you have a peek when it's ready.

Fruit trees and bushes are planted in the majority of the tyres. They all survived the move well.

The reason for the membrane and not for simply digging up the ground and putting the raised beds in place, well before our landlord lived here the lady who had this bit of land grew Fuschias, not just as a little hobby but on a massive scale (we've been told she held some of the national collection of rarer plants) and she had rows and rows of greenhouse here, so the ground was very stony with a very thin layer of grass covering all the old greenhouse bases.

The Strawberry Bed, they also survived the move well and are thriving.

So we took an easy option, put down the membrane and built the raised beds on top.  Not many of the things I grow have deep root systems so this will work well. LH built me two strong wooden beds with wood he had over from our last place and the rest are all the beds I used to have in my polytunnel there.  We decided not to spend a lot on this place as we will probably only be here for three years.  Then we will be able to invest in good beds for our forever home.

Compost Bins and Worm Beds in the background

 It looks a bit messy now but once the wood chippings are all down it will look how I already see it in my head.  Neat, tidy and productive.  I've been busy planting some of the beds already and LH has put all our fruit trees and bushes in the tyres, that also came with us.  I have a couple of empty tyres to grow some carrots and parsnips in so I can get nice long veggies.

I have two large, strong, new wooden beds the rest are the plastic ones from the polytunnel.

At the back of the patch is my long line of compost bins and then behind them the worm beds.  The idea is that trimmings and kitchen compostables go in the first bin along with weeds, grass cuttings and the cleanings up from the chicken houses (see how politely I put that!!) until it is full, then I start on filling the next one.  When I am on to the third bin the contents of the first one will be tipped into the worm beds, it will then have broken down sufficiently for them to be able to digest it and finish off the wonderful job of turning it into usable and nourishing compost.  So a good cycle of waste to usable compost all right next to the very place where it will be needed most.

All the compost in all of the beds has been brought with us from Jointers Farm, all made by LH with a bit of help from his friendly team of worms.  And we have lots of good well rotted/composted horse manure, so all my plants/trees/bushes are getting off to a brilliant start, thanks to hard work last year. 

Under the net cloches are radishes, lettuces, mixed leaves, cabbages and MangeTout peas and some beans all starting off.  Because of the netting these plants have all survived the last couple of nights low, low temperatures.

Must go and shift a couple more barrowfulls of chippings, I have to make the photos match the image in my head as soon as I can!!

Sue xx

Over the Weekend....

Over the weekend Lovely Hubby put the finishing touches to his shed.  Guttering was put in place around the Man Shed, and water butts fitted at the front and back to catch that valuable commodity here in the South - rainwater.

He started building the ramp that will lead to the front doors, nescessary as due to the sloping ground the step is rather high (although a good thigh exercise for folks with no stairs like us!!).

He also designed little triangular things to hold the doors open so they don't bang on the guttering supports.  Of course I had just the thing to sit on one of them.

All the time he was designing and sawing he had company in the form of little Suky under the table.....

...of course first chance of a cuddle during one of his refreshment breaks.....

...and she was there like a shot.

Looking pretty cute as usual.

Give us a kiss Dad.......

......kissy, kissy, kissy!!

The sun is back and I'm off out to grab my wheelbarrow, and move just a few loads of chippings over to the Kitchen Patch.

Enjoy the sun if you have it, it may just vanish again.

Sue xx

Wood Chip by the Truck Load.

As it was before.

Last Friday saw us in the sunshine (making the most of it while it was there) loading barrow loads of wood chippings from where our very nice Mr Tree Surgeon had emptied his little pick up truck at the front of the house.  Our landlord had given us a phone number of a contact of his who had loads of wood chippings to sell on a 'when I have it you can buy it basis'.

After an hours weeding 8 buckets full of pesky weeds were carried to the compost bins and we set about covering the membrane.

This huge pile was the first load, as it had been tipped in exactly the place the guys needed to get to the next day to work on the posh garage again, we had to shift as much as we could in one go.

We started with smiles on our faces and ended up with cricks in our backs.  LH's metal barrow and my orange plastic one, backwards and forwards passing each other over and over, digging, filling, tipping, the pattern was repeated until we were in a daze.

As it is now.

But we have tro admit it was worth it, the plants in the large flower bed (mostly my lavenders) look so much better set off against the natural wood chippings with the little bits of conifer and leaf sprinkled in.

A sea of wood chippings.

A lovely old roller we found in the undergrowth, propped up against the swing.

The dogs did a lot of walking following us back and forth, amazed at what we were doing.

Some thought they were hidden......but we can see you Rosy!!

We soaked in lovely deep, hot bubble baths afterwards, we needed to, we looked lilke a pair of hunchbacks, and then a couple of cans of cider made the world seem a much more relaxing place.

Job done!!

The bl**dy nice man's been back and delivered two more mountains of the stuff since then, we have to transport them to the Kitchen Garden to hide all the membrane.  It's a big area approximately 12m by 8m according to Lovely Hubby's giant stride method of measuring.  This time I'm hoping to do a couple of barrow loads here and there and take it steady, I like my back best when it's straight and pain free!!

Sue xx

Chickens and Finances

Meet Amber, she's the leader of the pack of little Amber Stars that we have just bought, she wasn't supposed to come home with us but where we went for our birds had four Amber Stars, we had originally gone for 3 of each kind of two birds but we couldn't leave her as the last of her breed in the mixed flock so home she came with us, along with her sisters, Annie, Amelia and Annabel.  She's the bravest of the bunch already coming up to sit alongside me on the log after I go in to feed them with their corn each afternoon, and watching me from the perch while I clean out the hen house each day.

An Amber Star is a Rhode Island Hybrid that lays brown eggs with a plum blush, I look forward to seeing them in the next couple of weeks, they are all Point of Lay.

This is Belle, she's one of the trio of Bluebells that we got at the same time.  They are a Maran Hybrid.  The others are called Beauty and Brandy.  They have the most dramatic looking faces, a little fierce looking because of their colouring and their piercing eyes but they are gorgeous birds.  They have grey legs and feet which is something new to me, all my other birds have light coloured legs and feet.  They are still a bit skittish at the moment and run away from you rather than to you but they have all fitted in nicely, and after a few minor skirmishes have reached a relatively stable pecking order with the established flock fairly quickly. They tried briefly to bully the little Lavender Pekin Bantams but got short shift there when they quickly discovered that Alice is the leader of the whole flock.  Small does not always mean timid!

I never rush to get hold of my new girls, I let them get used to me over the space of a couple of weeks and then start to pick them up, find out who likes a cuddle and who doesn't, but I always get them all used to being handled, tipped up in all manner of undignified positions, wings stretched out, feet played with etc just in case they need any medical help in the future.

The new girls watch avidly as the older girls come to me to sit by me and be stroked so they will soon learn that I am a safe, friendly giant that invades their patch each day.

The Hylines are doing well, I have only 4 now.  One decided her time was up last night.  I had been in with them lots over the weekend and everyone was fine, healthy, in full feather and running around eating and being their usual cheeky, wellie boot pecking selves, but then when Lovely Hubby went to close the henhouse at dusk last night he said, "it's strange, but one of the Hylines is in a nesting box" (they usually all roost on the perches).  He asked me to keep an extra eye on her today, but when he went to open up the house at first light this morning she had died in her sleep.  She must have sensed it coming and didn't want to fall off her perch.  A dignified end for a lovely dignified little hen. Her four sisters watched intently as LH moved her body and then trooped out into the damp morning, much quieter and more somber than usual.

Some of the new girls under the hen house.

One of our Hylines - note the clipped beak, I hate that my poor girls have clipped beaks but they are rescued free-rangers and this is what happens to most of them.  It's done so they don't fight, or if they do, so they can't inflict as much harm on each other.  Luckily mine cope very well with feeding but sometimes beaks are over clipped and the birds have trouble.

Annie - she will get used to me taking photos soon!

Finances

After last weeks successful Live Below the Line Challenge and being temporarily food obssessed I am now getting back into studying our finances again and setting myself the little Challenge, (nothing too strenuous)  of seeing how much housekeeping I can save each week.  As usual all my cupboards and freezers are full, so I'm going to work my way towards emptying them (yet again).  The challenge is just to see how little I have to buy each week, and therefore spend, hopefully it should only be a bit of salad stuff until ours grows a bit bigger.  We have our milkman who brings us 3 four pint bottles of milk each week (and a little treat of a pint of Tropical fruit juice on a Saturday),  so really there's not much need for me to go to the shops. The more you go the more you are tempted to spend I find.  How long can I last, I wonder? 

All the money I have left over each week goes straight into my £2012 in 2012 Challenge Fund.  At the end of the year this money will be added to our savings ready to buy a place of our own.  You can check out facts and figures and follow my progress as I add them each week in the stand alone page listed under the Blog title.

I've decided to start using my 'How Low Can You Go Blog again to chart my progress emptying the cupboards and reducing the spending, see it HERE or click on the 'cucumber question mark' picture at the top of the right hand side bar.

It's nice to be getting back to normal, whatever normal really is !

Sue xx

A Message from Archie

Mum and Dad have gone off to do another Car Boot Sale, they said I had to guard this dead tree, look pretty and tell anyone that came along where they were.

Okay I've done that......

... I'm going back to sleep,  you can go now.....bye bye.

I know you're still there!!

Archie xx

Day Five - Food and Round Up

Well, this is it, the final day.  The food above is what I have left after living through Day Five.  You could actually survive on this for a couple of days.

Pasta with a Peanut Butter Sauce

Pasta and Gravy

Rice flavoured with a couple of Veggie Stock Cubes

Rice with a Peanut Butter Sauce

Rice with Gravy

Hot Lemon and Water to drink

Slighlty boring but it would keep you alive!

Breakfast - 1 slice of toast and my last two little eggs.

Lunch - sorry forgot to photograph them, but I'm sure you can imagine what 2 Peanut Butter Sandwiches look like, washed down with a cup of hot water with lemon.

Lovely Hubby was home and had a Bowl of Soup and we both had an apple.

Tea - Veggie Curry with boiled rice (turned out better this time, thanks for the tips) and 2 Falafels each.

Followed by Cake and Custard.

The reason LH had soup for lunch he came home early today and caught me in the act of making these soups.  Four tubs of Veggie soup and one of Tomato and Pumpkin Soup, he just couldn't resist the Tomato and Pumpkin one, so this meal was included in his daily 33p allowance. 

All this soup (there are two good portions in each tub) cost just 25.3p to make, using the last of all the veggies, a couple of stock cubes and the last jar of homemade Tomato and Garlic Sauce.  They are now tucked up in the freezer for future use, so are outside of today's budget, I just wanted to make the best use of the foods I had.

Facts and figures

Me - Allowance £1

Coffee - 9p

1 Slice of Toast with 2 Fried Eggs - 7.1p

2 Hot Lemon Drinks - 1p

Peanut Butter Sandwiches 13.6p

Apple - 3.1p

Curry and Rice with Falafels - 25p

Cake and Custard - 9.7p

Coffee - 9p

Total - 77.5p

LH - Allowance 33p

Soup - 1.5p

Curry and Rice with Falafels 25p

Apple - 3.1

Total - 29.6p

A brilliant daily amount considering the sheer amount of food we ate!

So there you are....... it's been a good week, a real eye opener, and the best thing is that I can go back to normal, if you are one of the 1.4 billion folk who live below the line for real you do not have that option.  This is it your life, eeking out the foods you have, thinking about and planning all the time where your next meal is coming from.

I know I've been there, it's not easy.

This week for me has been a reminder of how far I've come, how much I've learned over the years, how much is still tucked away in my memory of the years when I did this 24/7 for real, day in day out, week in week out,and  raising two children while I did it.

It's reminded me not to be wasteful, to scrape every last bit out of the bowl, to drink every last drop of a drink, to think ahead.

It will be nice to get back to 'normal', but it's been a good Challenge to do.

Thank you SO much all of you who donated money by sponsoring me, or by joining up as a new Follower and making LH donate on your behalf, (he's done it all with a grin on his face, he thinks you're a wonderful lot), he's making a final payment tonight so you have a little more time if you want to press that 'Join this Site' button today.  Thank you for your comments, compliments and encouragement....I think you're a wonderful lot too.

A sneaky little taster!

This will be my last foodie Blog for a little while as I have lots of lovely photos to show you of what's been going on here at our place over the last week, and I have some new girls to introduce you to, you didn't really think it had just been about the food all week did you?

Have a brilliant weekend.

Sue xx

Still Day Four - Final Day

Here is the food I had left at the start of the today, my last day Living Below the Line.

I sort of set myself a Challenge to see how much of it I could use, not necessarily to eat today, but to see how many meals I could make and freeze for future use.

I've done well with the homegrown stuff and this is the other fresh stuff I have left.

This was the Pumpkin just before I popped it into the oven.  I was going to make a Pumpkin Curry for tea tonight but it cooked much quicker than I anticipated (okay...so I was busy touring Blogland and forgot about it.....) so now it has been added to a big pan of soup I have on the go.

I actually have two pans of soup on the go, one contains the Roasted Pumpkin, the last jar of Tomato and Garlic Sauce and a handful each of the frozen veggies, the other contains the last half of the soup mix and a couple of the stock cubes along with the saved vegetable water from yesterdays Veggie Burger making.  We will most likely eat a bit of one of these as a starter for tea tonight, the others will be portioned and frozen, just so I know, out of interest, how many meals I would have had left.

I think I've planned very well this year I don't have that many left overs, the only thing not touched is this.....

....sorry Aunt Bessie I had nothing to pour you on!

Back tomorrow with the final round up of what I'm eating today, the day's costings and how much money I've managed to live on over the last five days.

If you tempted to try this for yourself read this, an email I got from Stephen at Live Below the Line...

                                               

Dear Sue, We’re nearly done! The end is so close I can almost taste my Saturday morning bacon sandwich! Over the last week, we’ve been able to get a glimpse of what it means to Live Below the Line. But, we can’t forget that it’s not a 5 day choice for 1.4 billion people on our planet – it’s life. Thank you all for your resilience, creativity and humility. We’ve loved all the blogs, videos and comments that you’ve been leaving on Facebook and Twitter in the past week. And above all, we’ve been energised by the most common question we’ve had this week – can I still do the challenge? Our answer: a resounding YES. We’ve had such a great response up and down the country and right across the world that we’re giving people the opportunity to Live Below the Line for any 5 days during May and raise even more money to support Restless Development’s vital work in fighting poverty. Now you’ve almost done the challenge yourself, you’re brilliantly placed to ask others to Live Below the Line. Why not go back to friends and family who you’ve spoken to about your experience, and ask them directly if they’ll take up the challenge. Fundraising can take place until 30th June 2012. I hope that this is just the start of your commitment to ending extreme poverty. In my lifetime, extreme poverty has almost halved – it’s a problem we have the power to sort out. Why not get more involved in the charity you supported? Visit their website here to find out more www.restlessdevelopment.org. Good luck in the final hours, Stephen & the Live Below the Line team ......so I'm asking you, do you fancy giving it a go.  I'll help you in any way I can.  Go on.....think about it!! Sue xx