Tom's Handy Work & Dave's Crazy Paving

Tom decided yesterday that he was going to take down a tree at the bottom of our side grass area, which although not over big was overhanging the road and was generally getting in the way.

Here is the result of work so far, he will strip the branches and saw them into logs for the log pile for winter.


Dave has been laying some crazy paving using some broken slabs he has been allowed to take from the farmers land next to where he  works.
Here is what he has done so far.

Apologies

I feel I should apologise for my lack of posting, but life has just gotten in the way.

We have been getting the garden sorted, trying to fill as many gaps with produce  so that we can reduce our grocery bill. The idea being that we grow enough veg so that the veg box delivery will incorporate fruit as well so that is taken off the supermarket list.

I am still making 99% of our bread, buns, cakes etc it is only really when I'm short on time that I purchase items.

As myself and the boys have been off school this week and there has been a day out with friends dinners have not been from the menu plan, but have still used bits up from the freezer.

Another thing we need to look at is that we have to pay for the college bus for Tom now instead of it being a free pass, so that is another £300 per year to find, plus books and along with an increase in car insurance of £130 per year and then general increases as normal, so we need approx an extra £500 for normal living expenses. So this is where I'm hoping the garden will help.

I'm hoping to have a stall at a local car boot sale in a couple of weeks time which will hopefully get rid of some clutter and also be an outlet for some of my jams that i have been making.

Wet & Windy

Well  the weather has changed to wet and windy, the rain is very welcome as it means the whole ground will gat a good drink not just the areas we choose to water.

All the veggie seedlings are doing well despite the lack of water.

Dave had a work trip to holland last week but is now home safe and sound; and Tom starts his GCSEs today properly.

Both boys decided to measure their heights at the weekend, Tom is now 171cm so 1cm short of 6ft and David is 163cm so 5ft 5 inches.
They are both still eating for England and I can never seem to keep them full.

Dinners this week will be taken from summer menu 4 with possibly a couple of changes due to the boys activities.

I hate to say it and wish the time away but I can't wait for things to be ready in the garden, there is so much enjoyment from picking and eating something you have nurtured from a seed which then provides food for the table.

Hopefully things will continue to grow as they have and we will see the benfits soon.

Planting out & Jam Making

I've over the weekend planted out the green beans, courgettes, cucumbers and chilli plants; the cucumbers and chillis are in the greenhouse but the others are outside.
Just need the tomatoes to get a bit bigger then they will go in the greenhouse as well.
The parsnips are coming on lovely and will be planted out within the next week hopefully.

Dinners this week are from summer menu 2, although we did have a bbq on Sunday and used up the leftovers on Monday.

I'm just waiting on the strawberry plants coming so I can get them planted out and hopefully we will get some fruits this year.

I have been in jam making mode over the weekend, I found some fruits in the freezer and some reduced to silly prices in the shop, so I have made 10 gooseberry, 4 strawberry, 2 seedless blackberry(pulp is back in the freezer to mix with apple for a crumble) I also made 5 apricot jam using dried apricots, and I reboiled the pink grapefruit marmalade, which never set properly when I made it earlier on.

I still have some more blackberries in the freezer, so will make some more of that when I get the chance.

Back to "normal"

Well today saw the boys both back to school this morning after 2 long weeks of holidays. I am also back at work today; could have quite gotten used to not having to go in.

Although this week we are on a 3 day week owing to a bank holiday monday and the Royal Wedding on friday.

The seedlings are coming on in leaps and bounds in the greenhouse and just need to be bit bigger then they will be put to harden off outside for planting on towards the end of May.

We are also creating a wild flower area in one corner of the back garden which will hopefully attract some beneficial insects especially bees.

I need to get some jam made to use up the remainder of the blackberries and gooseberries from the freezer from last year, although I may just save a couple of bags of blakberries just in case i don't get any this year.
Dave wants me to put a stall outside selling it, good idea in essence but we are on a no through road so no passing cars, but maybe if I make some and if it doesn't go could have a stall at the next carboot sale in the village.

Meals this week are from Summer Menu 1, but if the idea for a bbq takes us then obviously things will be jigged around.

Catch Up Time

I have had a little break from here due to Dave being off work, and us enjoying some natural wake-ups rather than an alarm at stupid o'clock.

We have cleared the back garden and the beds have been dug over ready for when the seedlings need planting out; all the seeds have been sown and are in the greenhouse covered with bubblewrap overnight to help with some extra insulation.

Tom has now turned 16 (where does the time go) and we had a bbq/campout party for him and approx 12 friends on Friday night.

Dave has now gone back to work this morning, and myself and the boys will continue this week to just potter about, although I would think they will have some more lie-ins.

I still haven't got around to tweaking the menu plans but yesterday we had salad and today will be mince and tatties as I have some veggies that need using.
This will be a job for me to do this week, I'll be making do for meals using odd bits up before having a meat stock up again at the end of the week.

Into the Last Week before a Break

We have started the last week of school/work before we all have some time off.

Myself and the boys get 2 weeks as school holidays and Dave has a week off taken as annual leave.

This will be good in that apart from one day where I arranged an appointment for first thing we can get up without the alarm, which will be so much better for our bodies.

Dinners this week are from menu 2. I will probably during the time off have a revamp of these to incorporate some lighter type meals.

I have been looking at our household budget to see if we can make any savings on the day to day expenses, not just the normal monthly bills which I already try to keep as low as possible. I know that one area will be better once we start getting some produce from the garden, as obviously this will reduce the grocery bill again.
Another area which I have been monitoring closely is petrol, I try to incorporate as many things into each outing as possible, thereby keeping the consumption down.

I have been baking more snacks etc for the boys and Dave to eat either as part of their packups or when they need something but its too far from dinner. I have made sausage rolls, corned beef & onion pasties, weetabix chocolate brownies and fairy cakes as well as the daily loaf of bread and extra garlic bread when we need it for a meal. The boys will often have a sandwich as a snack which is a good way of filling them up enough to keep going , but not too much that they don't want thei dinner. There is also always fruit and yogurt available.