Tomatoes LOTS of Tomatoes .... Potentially

Today is seeing me a drippy, sweaty mess in the polytunnel, working at 30 degree temperatures to pot on my tomato seedlings and put the larger ones into their final resting place in the Gro-Pots.

I've just started on the 'Gardener's Delight' Tomato seedlings.

And I really wanted to show those of you who are a bit dismayed at the lack of growth on your tomatoes compared to the plants you are seeing in the shops that all is not lost.  I have lots of tiny little seedlings that are only just going into their first sized pots after being started off in toilet roll inners.

The variable weather and chilly nights in the polytunnel has kept the growth checked but they will soon pick up now that we have had a few days of sunshine, even though they do look so ridiculously teeny, tiny now they are potted on individually.

These are just some of my 'Golden Sunrise' tomatoes.  I grew these last year and the flavour is amazing ... and they won me a couple of prizes at the two flower shows I entered with them.

This year instead of staking them I am going back to my 'greenhouse' method of allowing them to grow up strings that I have tied to the polytunnel cross frame bar.  They will need tying in a little bit as they wind their way around the string but it means that there is no mass of bamboo canes cluttering up the polytunnel.  We'll see if it works as well en-masse as it did in a single row in the greenhouse.

I have to admit to sowing far too many tomato seeds once again, and there are lots more plants waiting to be planted.  Some of them will be going in the net tunnel when I have hardened them off slightly,  and some if they put on good growth in the next month will be taken to the car boot sale with us to make some extra cash.

Oh well this has been a nice little computer break ... but now it's back to work.

Hope the sun is shining for you today too.

Sue xx

Still Clearing the Clutter

Once again I am dipping my toes in the world of selling on Ebay.  Yesterday I offered for sale THIS lovely Cath Kidston sewing box.  I've had it a few years, but it is in brilliant condition because it was always sat in a cupboard, so no fading.

Why am I parting with this lovely, well I am still of the mind that we have too much stuff, and I don't want to live with excess, so once again I am looking at things with fresh eyes and working out what should stay and what should go.

This sewing box is the first thing to go as I have just bought myself a dual purpose sewing /jewelery box of just the sort I have been looking to find for the last couple of years.  So with the arrival of the new mini chest of drawers I can part with this and a couple of boxes and pots that my jewelery was stored in.

This year for Christmas the immediate family decided that instead of buying each other presents, that would perhaps be not what we either wanted or needed, we would all buy ourselves something we really wanted and do a 'show and tell' instead.  So my new sewing box is my gift to myself and this little lovely can be somebody else's ... where hopefully it will be loved all over again.

(Edited to add - If you want to follow it's progress on Ebay and see what it eventually sells for, just click on the link in the first paragraph, or HERE.)

Sue xx

Selling the Clutter and the Veggies

Last Saturday saw us busy at the Rowen Car Boot sale, held once a month throughout the Spring and Summer it is a lovely venue on the village green.  The hall is open for teas, coffees, hot dogs and cakes, and I think it is a brilliant way to raise money for local amenities.

The sun was shining and folk were happy and chatty and we did a roaring trade .....

... so much so that one of us needed a lie down and fell asleep in the sunshine.

As well as sorted out clutter and excess from the house, yes there is still some of that, I decided to sell some of the plants from the polytunnel.  There was no way I would need 18 Courgette plants for just the two of us, so 12 of them were taken to the boot sale along with 8 Pumpkin plants.  I sold them for just 50p each as I wanted to come back with empty trays not make the most possible money and this price more than covered the cost of plant pots and compost, with some profit on top for us.  It worked and we returned with just two of the Pumpkins.  So there's now a starter of £9 in our vegetable fund.

I was the only person selling anything other than tomato plants, so it got me thinking what else could I sell that was just a little bit different and that would be snapped up by buyers to the car boot sale.

As I have LOTS of Rosemary plants about the place I decided to take some cuttings from them.

So now my little jugs are dotted about the house making the place smell gorgeous and hopefully they will all root in time for the next car boot sale and raise us a little bit more money in our bid for gradual self sufficiency.

Taking baby steps this year and then hopefully building on them will help us to see what is popular, what sells well and how much I could potentially make as a little sideline for when Lovely Hubby gives up the day job.

Sue xx

New Babies on the Farm

 

No it's not this talented little fellow, but we do have a new Black Pekin Bantam mum with her six little Silkie 10 day old chicks. 

 

She's living in a cat carrying basket overnight in the utility room, all cosy and secure while we get the broody cage out of storage and then she will take up residence in Chicken World tomorrow when we move it along the paddock and onto fresh grass.  We didn't want her to be even more stressed after her scary day at the Smallholders Sale with her babies hiding under her wings with too many moves.

 

 

She looks a lot like this ....

 

... and her babies are like this, all different colours and so tiny.

 

(These two pictures from Google Images.)

 

We have also bought six more Hyline hens as we needed some more egg layers to keep up with demand from our regular customers. 

 

 The sad thing is we have now sold our Chinese Grey Geese, so Harry, Larry and Mo have left the farm.  At first we were really worried about what sort of home they would go to, but they were bought by a couple who also bought six Chinese Grey goslings so they are now part of a larger goose family.  This will suit our girls down to the ground they were desperate for babies of their own, now they are adoptive mummies of some lovely young geese.

 

We have also sold one of our lovely henhouses, and it went for a brilliant price so we were extremely pleased with the outcome of that, more money in the bank to buy a different style of henhouse for the new place.

 

All in all a very successful day at the Smallholders Sale.

 

Sue xx

 

Farm Gate Sales

 

Selling from the farm gate is something we've only started doing recently.  The main reason was my allergy to Goose eggs, the geese were laying prolifically and at work, where Lovely Hubby usually sells our free range hens eggs, there was only a limited demand for the goose eggs and he couldn't manage to eat them all by himself.

 

So we bit the bullet and hotched potched together a way of selling at the gate.  The old tyres were already there from last year, a very necessary marker for folks looking out for the end of our drive in amongst all the hedges and undergrowth, and something we could tell visitors to look out for as most Sat Navs tell folk to turn in one turn too early.  Believe it or not they were painted white, but after only a day or so of being sat out there they had changed to this dull grey colour, but hey ho they were still there.

 

My lovely old tin bowl has been in use for years as my weeding bowl, pull up the weeds and then carry them over to the chickens,  and then more recently it was in use as the geese's paddling pool, but now they have progressed to the old 'dust bath' paddling pool that we used last year for the chickens, it never really worked as the sifted soil would turn to mud at the first rainfall, and you know how much rain we had last year!!  Are you keeping up with all this chopping and changing, we do like to move things round and get multi purpose use from everything we own :-)

 

Well anyway, we knew this bowl would sit nicely in the tyres as this was how we had it for the geese so they wouldn't upset the water each time they climbed in and out.  So I put together a few posters, one for Bantam Eggs as you can see above, one for Goose Eggs and one for the free range eggs.  With a brief desciption of who was laying the eggs that were for sale.

 

Now most days it is sat out there catching folk's eyes as they drive by. 

 

 

 

With a sign on each side of our American Postbox folk know if there are any available each day.

 

Up to now everyone has been extremely honest and has left the right money for their eggs in the little 'Honesty Box'.  One lovely lady even left me a cheque for £2 with a note on the back saying she only had 30p in her purse, she left me her phone number so I sent off a quick text thanking her for the cheque so she would know I had safely got it and she replied with the most lovely message,

 

in her words.......

 

'Thank you for putting out these lovely Goose Eggs and for making such a great contribution to my little ones understanding of fresh food. They were so excited to bring them home (and so was I).  So sorry we didn't have more than 30p cash on us to pay for them.  We'll certainly keep an eye out for more.'  Mrs T**** 

 

It's little things like this that make my day.

 

Oh, and one day there was a little note with a smiley face along with money for eggs from our old milkman, now that shows our eggs are good value .... he sells free range eggs on his wagon!!

 

Off to do some more weeding now, this weather is proving perfect for the blighters, little pockets of sunshine followed by lots of warm heavy showers.  I could do with the exact opposite, lots of sunshine followed by brief showers (preferably at night), but up to now it's drier than this time last year so it's not all bad.

 

Hope everyone's having a good weekend.

Karan this post should help you :-), see you on Tuesday!!

 

Sue xx

The Bag Lady

 

 

Who on earth is the bag lady you may ask yourself, well to be honest it used to be me.  I used to love my bags, I had one for every occasion, one to match each and every pair of shoes and boots I owned(not that many shoes and boots really, I was a BAG lady not a shoe-a-holic), but you get the picture.

 

When I lived on my own after parting from my first husband I rented a lovely little house in Barrow in Furness town centre and of course I had a bedroom all to myself for the first time in 24 years, so on one wall I hammered in lots of nails and ALL my bags were displayed directly opposite my bed.  I think I took comfort in seeing them all there, all my books were packed away in boxes as I had no shelves and I had yet to discover No-Nails so I couldn't put any up (and my ex had custody of all the power tools ...... and all the furniture and everything else actually!) and I think my bags took their place for a while.

 

 

 

Laura Ashley Leather Bag.

 

 

I don't know when the change came, it snuck up on me overnight and suddenly I began to see them all for what they were....an accumulation of stuff...... and this was way before I started living simply.  Over the next couple of years I gradually reduced the collection, I worked as a Manager of a charity shop during this time and some of them crept back there where I had bought them from.  Some went on Ebay and eventually when I had an almighty clear out I car booted the remainder.

 

Now I am reformed I have one bag on the go and it goes everywhere with me until it either wears out or I find a better version.  I have a couple in my wardrobe, one gorgeous leather slouchy bag that I bought when we went to Rome with Lovely Hubby and Jason a couple of years ago and that is a keeper, and I have my day to day tan coloured leather Laura Ashly bag, my 'perfect' bag, with pockets in all the right places and a colour I love, that I go back to time and time again and at the momentI have my little across the body bag currently in use that cost me just £12 in Sainsb**ys just before my holiday. 

 

 I thought that was it until last week when I went into the charity shop in Pangbourne, and there shining out at me was the bag in the picture at the top of this post. It is as new condition, and mixes my two favourite colours.  When I saw it on the shelf I couldn't resist picking it up, it feels so lovely it is made of the softest buttery leather ever.  I was about to put it back on the shelf, this charity shop charges through the nose for handbags usually and then I spied the price ticket, it was £2.99!!  WHAT!!  I double checked the price and the label inside the bag, it had a small sewn in label that merely says 'Genuine Leather, Made in Columbia SA'.

 

 

 

'Hotter' Leather Bag

 

So I made myself a promise that this beauty was coming home with me and this week I would put the only two bags that I own that do not have any precious memories or reason to stay, on Ebay and that's exactly what I did.  So this week until Sunday afternoon these two bags are listed, and luckily for me one of them is already above the price that I paid for my new acquisition.

 

But now rather suddenly I am starting to ask myself do I even need this new one and maybe this one will end up on Ebay too, we'll see.  I'm not rushing my Ebay selling, just putting 10 items a week to sell either on there or on Amazon.  I'm not doing too badly, I'll never get rich selling things like this but I am making money instead of spending it and that is really good in my opinion.  And step by step the house is getting more simple too.

 

What has been your experience of either Ebay* or Amazon*?   Do you buy, do you sell, do you think it's worth the effort with the postage etc?

 

Sue xx

(reformed bag lady)

 

*If you want to see my items for sale on either Amazon or Ebay, simply click on the appropriate pictures at the top of my sidebar, and you will go straight to my pages.

Greenhouses and Cider

 

I don't know if I like greenhouses.

 

I know I don't like the one I have at the moment, it has holes that slugs and snails crawl through, it's glass had all shifted both on the roof and the sides so when it rained it actually rained inside, but not on the plants .... on everything that I didn't want to get wet.

 

It was cold and draughty and although the first flush of seedlings grew well every subsequent sowing I had to watch like a hawk as things ate them, I'm sure a message was passed around pest world that this ancient old greenhouse was back in action.  I even resorted to some slug pellets in the end, not something I enjoy using.

 

Well I've cleaned the inside of it now ready for it's Winter rest, I pushed all the loose panes of glass back into place, I had found some greenhouse glass clips amongst Dad's stash of goodies in his garage so I've been using them to do as many of the repairs as I could.  Now we just have to use some duct tape or something similar to have a marathon sticking session where the two halves of the greenhouse have shifted and the glass simply won't stay in it's groove.  Once that's all done and all the holes are also filled with tape to keep out the whistling gales I will wash down the outside and remove all the white sun shade stuff and then that's it for this year.

 

I don't like greenhouses ....... I'm a polytunnel girl.

 

But I'll give it another go next year.

 

 

#

 

While I was clearing out the greenhouse and doing the running repairs,  Lovely Hubby had a rather nice little job for once.  It was too damp and miserable outdoors to continue painting the Man Shed so he came indoors and bottled some more of his Cider.

 

 

 

He has a nifty little gadget to put the tops on, I wondered how they would go on.  I had a go and it gave me the urge to bottle all sorts of things ..... I don't think bottled Berkshire air would sell well though do you?  Maybe I could say there was a Genie inside (Mum's joke is still in my head...lol).

 

 

I don't know how long we have to wait to drink it, but it's looking very promising.

 

Now I'm off to list some more things on eBay, 10 more possessions less and more space in the house.  It's good this decluttering lark.  I can sell as much as I want as long as it's .......

 

 



 

 

... capable of fitting into one of these.  I found a whole box of padded envelopes and I'm determined to use as many as I can.  It's amazing what you can fit into them if you try!!

 

Sue xx

Getting back in the Swing and The Plan

 

Waitrose - Total Spend £15.97

 

 

Now the holiday is over and it's time to get back in the swing.  I spent all my saved spends last week and a little bit more besides, but I had a great time and it was worth it.  Now I am back to my Frugal October but there was some things that I just had to buy. 

 

Lovely Hubby forgot to water my herbs while I was away so an emergency restock was in order.  Once you get used to cooking with lots of herbs you just can't go back to not using them, although all the outdoor ones are fine my selection on kitchen window sill herbs had died a very sad death.  They have all been trimmed right back to soil level and there are already signs of regrowth so all is not lost and I can make do with just some Basil and Parsley until they are usable again.

 

 

 

In town - Total Spend - £7.57

 

Housekeeping left - £ 26.46

 

 

Although I nipped to Waitrose for the shopping I did call to town for a new washing line, the days may be cooler and shorter but I still like to make full use of outdoor drying whenever I can and although I already have a line between the trees near the house, now the sun has shifted in the sky it does not get the sun for very long, so LH has said I can stretch a line from his Man Shed to the climbing frame where the sun shines for much more of the day.  It will be great for drying those big items, sheets etc, that can be stretched out to get the full benefit of the suns weaker rays and even the slightest breeze.

 

While I was there habit lured me into the charity shop and I'm glad I called, I got this brilliant recipe book for just 99p and a lovely pudding bowl for £1.99.  I see lots of frugal winter puds coming up.  I love reading about the way rationing made people really work magic in the kitchen.  I did it myself for real for years and it stands you in good stead for feeding your family in the future on a limited income whenever you need to.

 

And I need to because of The Plan - I'm on a mission to save every penny possible over the next two years, now there's a challenge and a half!! 

 

 We have made the big decision that we will move back 'up North' rather than buying in this area. We will get so much more for our money there, at the moment we live in one of the most expensive areas of the country.  Currently we rent a 1930's two bed bungalow that is believe it or not (with it's 4 acres of land) valued on the open market at almost £800,000, there's no way on this planet that we could ever afford to buy anything even remotely similar if we stay in this area.  Even better we will be closer to our roots and much nearer to all our family.  It does mean that we have to get as much money together while we can, while we live here.  LH's job is really based here and it's here that we can milk the 'cash-cow' for all it's worth and hopefully save enough to almost buy a place for cash.  Any shortfall will have to be made up by LH continuing to work down here and commuting back to our new place for weekends, so my challenge to save every penny matters........really matters, we don't want to be apart for too long.

 

 

 

So I've already started earning pennies and pounds where I can, and yesterday I listed my first 10 items for sale, books on Amazon and other things on Ebay, and good news, one book has already sold, so I'm just off to package it up and get it ready for posting.  Although I will hang on until I have to go into town for something else, saving petrol matters too.

 

 

I'll try and get a link in the sidebar to my Amazon and Ebay pages so you can see what I sell.  After that I'll be looking out ten more things ready for listing next week.  I'm doing the listing every Tuesday so that the 5 day auction ends on a Sunday evening, I've been told by a very good authority (thanks Froogs) that this is the way to maximise earnings.

 

 

Sue xx