A Very Dry Bank Holiday, with No Thanks to the NFU

We woke up on Friday morning to a steady current of water flowing from underneath the house.

It had obviously been flowing for sometime as outside it was draining away in all directions.

Luckily the heaviest flow was making for the drains we had installed and the soakaway system we have under the driveway.

This picture just does not show the force at which it was bubbling away from under the house.

Luckily the only damage inside the house was the flooded under stairs cupboard where the stop-cock is and the water inlet to the house.  The cupboard was quickly emptied and the sodden, dripping carpet slung over the washing line to drip the day away.

We called Welsh Water who had a couple of guys with us within the hour, all they could do was to give us the number of a local contact and turn our water off at the mains.  They left us with four bottles of drinking water and drove off.  We tried ringing the contact but all we got was an answerphone over and over ... obviously with it being the Bank Holiday weekend he just didn't want any more work to do.  So we called our insurance company for advice. 

Now we've been with the NFU for the last eight years, we insure our house with them, it's contents, the cars with them, the trailers and the tractor and we have never had to call them for help before.  Thinking of the adverts on a television when a nice chap comes rushing to your assistance we naively thought they would have the answers to our predicament.  Now although the folk on the other end of the line were very polite the only thing they could arrange was a plumber/water specialist to come out on Wednesday of next week.  WHAT!!  They expect us to last SIX days without a water supply or toilet facilities.  After discussing things between ourselves and trying the water boards contact number again, with no success, we rang them back and said this just wasn't good enough. So they kindly decided this wasn't a routine call out but an emergency one and upgraded the repair date to TUESDAY!!

So two people, two dogs, one cat, twenty chickens and four sheep ..... and no working water supply!!

So this weekend we have rigged up a system where we turn the water on at the mains, meaning a trip into the main road for both of us, with Alan getting on his hands and knees to turn the supply on and me standing behind to warn him of oncoming traffic, then we quickly do as much as we can before the water starts filling up the foundations of the house again.  Fill the trough and every available vessel in the polytunnel, fill the sheep's three buckets, fill the chicken drinkers, fill the kettle, water bottles, jugs and large pans in the kitchen, do one load of washing in the machine and run a bath.  Then we repeat our journey onto the now even busier main road and turn off the supply.  With lots of dashing around we've got this down to an exhausting 35 minute routine.

Coming in we each have a relaxing dunk in the bath and then leave the water in for toilet flushing during the course of the day.  One thing's for sure we'll not take our water supply for granted again, and I will be pushing for Alan to connect the pump to our underground tank for future outdoor watering use.  But in typical male fashion it seems shelves in the workshop are still of higher priority than me being able to water vegetables with free Welsh rainwater.

There was however, one light in this dark and waterless tunnel ... we had to empty the under stairs cupboard in a rush. I was astonished at the amount of clutter in there.  Things just get added and added to a little seen space don't they, without a realisation of how much stuff you put there.

So I decided to continue with yesterdays mini Challenge and pick out things to add to the car boot box.  We had one bag and two big boxes of Christmas decorations for a start, so I decided that one box was more enough for us and whittled away at things.  Counting them into groups of ten again as it somehow focuses the mind.

It didn't take long to rationalise things.

Thirty things gone in the blink of an eye.

Hoover attachments that I have never even used, excess wrapping paper that never will get used, a total of 37 items found in 10 minutes.

And instead of waiting to put what was left back under the stairs when everything has dried out, I put all the Christmas stuff into the lower cupboard in the living room ... because there was lots of room in there after last weeks sorting marathon.

So now there is a lot less stuff stashed behind the sofa waiting to go back into the cupboard, and it's not bugging me quite so much and at least something good came out of this watery mess.

I hope your Bank Holiday weekend is going well ..... at least the weather is dry here and we had a very successful car boot sale yesterday, coming home with no less than nine empty boxes and £108 for the car boot kitty.

There is one more car boot sale in our favourite venue this year, so I will be having one last push to fill up some of those empty boxes with things we no longer need or use, just to see what I can make our total car boot sale takings up to for this year.

Sue xx

A Weekend Away

As you might have guessed from the rather large gap between posts we have been away for a long weekend.  Anyone from this country will immediately recognise where we headed to first thing on Saturday morning after a long day spent in the car on Friday.

It is of course The Eden Project, in Cornwall.

We went there when we first thought about this lifestyle change of ours way back in 2008, to try to pick up tips and ideas and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time on that visit too.  This time we were simply wanting a repeat visit whilst Lovely Hubby still has is digs down south, just so that I could drive to to pick him up and then he could take over the driving for the final five hours of the journey.

We didn't really pick up on any more tips or new ideas during this visit but we did have a lovely relaxing day.  Wandering around in the heat of the Rainforest and Mediterranean biomes whilst a heavy shower went on outside.  By the time we stepped outside again the sky had cleared and we could wander the grounds in comfort.

I had to get a snap of LH conversing with a chubby Blackbird (sat on the sign).

Afterwards before going back to the hotel we called to St Austell for a walk along the bay.

As you can see from the photos it was a beautiful evening.

High up the hill we stopped for a breather on a bench, once the view would have been amazing from there but Mother Nature was claiming back her ground leaving only gaps to peer through.

After a lovely meal out and a good sleep we spent most of Sunday travelling along to Romsey near Southampton to break our journey home on Monday.

Then to round off our weekend away we called in at two National Trust properties on our way home on Monday.  First we went to Mottisfont and had a good mooch about the house and garden, and then onto The Vynes, which is close to where LH lives during the week.  I love the walled vegetable garden here, in fact I love to visit any National Trust property that has a good vegetable plot .... even in preference to a manicured garden.

Although you can't see much in this photo there was lots of bee activity around the hives.

Dropping LH off at his digs I made my way through the horrendous Monday night weather to get home just in time for bed.

These sort of weekends recharge our batteries, fill us with new inspiration and occasionally reassure us that we are on the right track in doing what we are doing.  Seeing how food used to be produced, how lives used to be lived make us even surer in our minds that we need to be as far away from modern consumerism as we possibly can be and firmly on the road to self sufficiency in as many areas as possible.

It's good to be home.

Sue xx

The Black Country Living Museum

On the Saturday of our weekend away we went to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, and as requested I have downloaded some of the photos for you to see.

We started out in the car and vehicle workshops where they maintain and restore the vehicles that they use on site.  A quick ride on the old bus took us along to the other end of the museum to the canal where we looked into the narrow boats and barges.  The top photo of LH was taken there.

Then we had a wander around the old houses, there are various styles including a couple of back to backs, one up one down houses, which were fascinating.  To think that whole families of seven or nine had lived this way is astonishing especially when you think how families expect every child to have a room of its own these days!!

The house in these photos was a little bit later and was a 'two up, two down'.

I love seeing all the pots, pans and utensils that I still use today in their original settings.

The living room of the same house ... we are a lot more modern than this at home  ;-)

Then we decided to rest our legs for a while and sample the local ales in the sawdust floored pub.

Before moving along to the shops.

Lots to see ....

... some of the shops sold bits and bobs of everything ...

...while others just sold food. 

The fruit and vegetables were available to buy.  I was in awe of the huge onions, much bigger than I have ever managed to grow!!

A big block of butter ready to be sold in portion sized pieces.

LH had a good look at the tool in the hardware shop :-)

Then we bought fish, chips and huge pickled onions for our lunch and sat on the bench opposite the shops to eat them, watching the workers and volunteers from the museum in costume also queueing up to buy their lunch from the chippy.

Later two little piggy's got stuck into their dinner of pignuts, completely oblivious to us watching them.

It was a really good day out, at the moment they are converting day tickets to year long access tickets, so if you live within regular visiting distance it is well worth getting yourself a ticket to go.  Visit the website here for more pictures and lots of information.

The Black Country Living Museum

Sue xx

Spring Cottage in the Cotswolds

For the last two years while living here in Wales we have chosen to holiday in Wales, albeit many miles further down the coastline, but this year as LH needed a break from the constant driving home at weekends we decided  to meet somewhere in the middle.

So last week, early on Friday morning I set off from home, and then a couple of hours later LH set off from his weekday digs ... and we met up in the Cotswolds, at this delightful little National Trust cottage.

Spring Cottage was a lovely holiday home for the weekend. 

Cosy and open plan downstairs, with access to a small two tiered garden from the door in the kitchen.  Where we made full use of the table and chairs outside and sat listening to the birdsong, both first thing in the morning and in the peaceful hours leading to dusk.  We were joined one morning by a Robin who came down to cheekily pinch our toast crumbs on the table while we were still there.

Little corners of loveliness everywhere. 

Everything we could possibly need was supplied in the kitchen, although being so narrow it was a case of one person at a time, especially to get to the fridge at the far end.

The large king sized bed filled the upstairs and made for a cosy nights sleep.

The view from the bedroom window ... which was at floor height.

So we had a lovely relaxing weekend.  On Friday afternoon just after arriving  we crossed the road from the cottage to visit Snowshill Manor, and had a day at the Black Country Living Museum on the Saturday, which was one of the reasons for choosing to stay at this particular cottage, it being just over an hours drive away.  (I'll do another post with photos of that if anyone is interested.)

Now it's back home for both of us, and right back to normal ... but full of ideas and feeling just that little bit more relaxed and inspired to carry on with our country living.

Sue xx

Our Home for the Weekend

We're back!!

This was our home for the weekend ... from Friday until Monday morning we could pretend we lived in this lovely little Welsh cottage.  As lots of you wanted to see inside this cottage after you followed the links on my last post and learned all about it I took quite a few photos, some of which appear here and the rest will be included on a separate stand alone page at the top of the Blog.

For much more information about Treleddyd Fawr Cottage see THIS blog post done a couple of weeks ago.

We were welcomed into the cottage by this lovely photo of Mr Griffiths, the gentleman that left the cottage to the National Trust, and his cat Nadolig. 

Round the wooden partition was the little sitting area with the original settle that Mr Griffiths owned.  In total three pieces of his furniture were restored and returned to the cottage, I thought this was a lovely touch.

To the left of the settle and inglenook fireplace was the dining area being shown to us here by a certain little Pug, who loved her stay in the cottage as much as we did.

In the living room simplicity but comfort with a two seater sofa ...

... and a cosy armchair which Lovely Hubby swiftly claimed as his own.

If you are wondering what he is doing here in the photo, he's sharpening his colouring pencils!!   

We forgot to take a pencil sharpener with us and Lovely Hubby embarked on a colouring-in marathon, so we bought one while we were out.  That it happened to be bought off a Guide Dogs for the Blind stall and was in the shape of a little dog ... and to sharpen your pencils you had to insert them in the dogs mouth and turn his tail to work it ... only added to the holiday fun .... and Suky's fascination.

On the wall above the armchair was a sample of some of the many layers of wallpaper found in the cottage when the renovations began.

Up the little blue staircase ....

 ....and you come to this lovely big room, which showcased the cottages lovely old floorboards.  The gaps in them meant that the heat from downstairs rose up beautifully keeping the cottage cosy and warm.

Turning round completely you can see into the bedroom of the cottage.

Where Suky found a little window sill that gave her a wonderful view of the cottage garden.

Back downstairs and into the kitchen, being very careful not to bang your head, Lovely Hubby nearly knocked himself out twice .... then he learned to duck.  I was a bit luckier and remembered every time :-)

The back door opened out onto the little side passage that led to the outbuildings opposite and the back garden to the left.

The bathroom, which along with the kitchen are in the lean-to section that was the original dairy of the cottage.

Which you can see with the black roof in this photo taken from the back garden.

The cottage with its outbuildings.  The one attached to the cottage on the left of the photo is the log store, the two red doors on the other side were locked to us, but further along to the right was the shed containing the rubbish bins and further along to the left was the converted utility room with all the mod cons you just wouldn't want to see in the cottage itself.

Our car had to be parked in the little walled area opposite the cottage as the cottage is frequently photographed by the walkers on the footpath that runs across the front of it.  We got used to people standing opposite the windows and marvelling at the cottage, them doing this and taking photos was no problem but the few that came right up to the windows and peered in gave us a bit of a start, Lovely Hubby took to waving at them which made them jump and move sheepishly away ;-)

We had a brilliant time and it was a sad moment when we had to lock the door for the final time and drive away.  

But, and this is a big BUT it was lovely to get home to our Welsh cottage, rested refreshed and full of ideas of getting back to the simplicity that we enjoyed while we were away for the weekend.  We could never live our day to day lives doing all the things we do with so little 'stuff' but we can continue on our journey to whittle away at what we have until we reach the point where we have everything we need and our wants our minimal.

I hope you enjoyed this little roundup of our cottage-y holiday snaps, I will put these and the rest of the photos I took on a new page that is now at the top of the blog.

Sue xx