Where growing, making & good living come together

Ten things

Posted by on Monday 6 June 2011 in chickens, cooking, DIY, frugal, growing, soap | 2 comments

  1. Buff the chicken has been in isolation since last Wednesday since the others started really *viciously* bullying her (as I said on Twitter, it’s disturbing how vicious chickens can be). I think there have been pecking order issues over the last few weeks and it’s stopped her being able to eat properly. She feels very bony (even for a pure breed) and is weak as a result – looking back at old photos of her, the difference is stark. I’m hoping some time by herself and some special food will turn her around but I wouldn’t be surprised to go down one morning to find she’d died overnight. Sigh.
  2. We painted the bathroom on Sunday – not the woodwork yet but the second coat of the walls, ahead of the cupboards being fitted tomorrow. One June mini goal down (nearly)!
  3. In other housey news, last year we found a hidden coal hole at the front of our house and over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been having it damp-proofed and turned into a utility room. It’s not been cheap but now has a proper full height doorway and is a proper extra room for the house – it’ll free up room in the kitchen too. It should be finished this week, hurrah!
  4. While that’s going on at great expense inside, John’s DIY-mad dad is fitting a fence for us outside — to help contain the dog and the chickens a bit more. The fence is going to be rather frugal for a new fence as the lumberyard John’s dad goes to was throwing away about 20 horizontal fencing beams and some posts, because they’d got slightly bleached in the sun so couldn’t be sold “as new” any more. Madness! But useful timing for us!
  5. And speaking of freebies, someone was taking a seemingly brand new electric staple gun in its case at the tip last time John’s dad was visiting – they told him it was “broken” but he took it home and found they’d just inserted the staplers in the wrong place. We now have a brand new working electric staple gun for free ;)
  6. I never used to use bar soap to wash anywhere other than my hands – it left a film and dried my skin, causing my face in particular to get greasier in compensation. But my olive oil soap leaves my skin clean and soft – and it stays feeling that way for 12+ hours unlike just about every other cleaning method I’ve tried. I very much like it.
  7. I made the ugliest soda bread I’ve ever made today – I don’t know what went wrong but it grew really unevenly. Still tasted lovely with soup for lunch though :)
  8. Some of my rapini has gone to seed – the heads weren’t big enough to warrant harvesting. Damn the hot spring!
  9. Do you make your own quiches? I’m looking for (frugal) store-cupboard recipe quiche ingredient ideas for when we’ve not got much else in — Viksterbean on Twitter suggested antipasti such as olives and artichokes, and that made me think about adding a swirl of pesto too. Any other ideas?
  10. Boron would like it to be known that I did not write this post alone. Apologies for the poor quality of my webcam – I only ever use it for these type of pics ;)

    11. Other posts you might like:

    Fruit bushes/trees to make a living fence? Playing catch up Feeding the birds through the winter – how do you do it? Adventures in Preserving: insert your own hilarious jam pun here

2 Comments

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  1. Hazel
    7 June, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    We had quiche for tea last night- couple of slices of bacon, a fried onion,finely sliced beetroot leaves and herbs. Only DD1 and I would have happily eaten the beet leaves on the side, but everyone enjoyed them in the quiche!

    As to storecupboard ingredients- I’ve put reconstituted (home) dried mushrooms in before, and sweetcorn (tinned, frozen and soaked-dried). What about tinned tuna? I think my children would like that with the sweetcorn actually.
    If I can get bacon or pancetta or even Parma scraps cheaply I keep them in the freezer for these sorts of meals.

    I like the pesto/olive idea- sounds yummy!

    Reply
  2. Karen M
    9 June, 2011 at 4:37 am

    I do a lot of frittatas these days instead of quiches to use up rather dry bread. Potato and artichoke is good. Any leftover white meat or fish with asparagus is also a favourite of mine.
    I’ve also used up bits of leftover pasta and sauce or mac and cheese.

    Waiting to hear a Buff update…

    Reply

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