I can not believe it my son managed to get through Friday the thirteenth with out the usual jim-jams, fan-tods and screaming hebe-gebes, he is very superstitious about the ill stared date, and it must be said with some cause. I have always found it to be a lucky day for me and have reassured my son that nothing bad can happen to him if it is my lucky day but he is not convinced. Last night was just a little unfortunate though, just before he left for work I congratulated him on over coming his phobia only to discover that he had not realised that it was the thirteenth and a Friday, I felt very silly and left his presence followed by a couple of well placed curses........such is life. He was much better though, usually we hear about nothing else for days before THE DAY! Next time I shall keep my big mouth shut!
After a breakfast of boiled eggs Pa went off to hospital an I made twelve bottles of apple and elderberry jelly, it is a wonderful colour and tastes gorgeous. After that I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, after all the jam making of late everything is a little sticky and it is much easier to do cleaning jobs when there are no men about. It looks spotless now and the wasps who come from miles around when they smell sweet jam have left, I hope for good.
How it did rain this after noon, it is just what the garden needed though so no complaints from me. Pa is still in the throws of tidying his desk and bookshelves and I am keeping well out of the process it does not do to interfere in these bouts of soul searching as to what to throw away, it all looks like tat to me so I shall say nothing unless I am asked and even then I shall be circumspect in my answer. My neighbour is coming round tomorrow to help me get the apples down, the big ones are too high for me and so shall share what ever we can reach between us.
I freeze apples for winter use by peeling and coring then then blanching for a minute in boiling water then cooling and freezing on trays. Once frozen they can be bagged an they will keep well for a year if you are lucky to have enough. Tonight had fish and chips as I have been too busy to cook today, that's just an excuse we all like fish and chips very much. I want to try to get into the garden tomorrow as the weeds are flourishing at the expense of plants, the garden always gets neglected at preserving time. The harvest so far has been reasonable and unless it stays cold and wet we should get even more squashes and tomatoes. The leeks turnips, cabbages and kale will last us all through the winter and that is the most important thing. It is a boost to the family economy and we value it highly. We try to be as self sufficient as possible.
Before my son was born and we became responsible adults we practised self-sufficiency with such success that we existed on with practically no money at all we grew our own food, kept chickens, felled trees free of charge for the timber which we burned on our stove, the surplice we sold to buy gas bottles and candles and of course to buy a few beers. Quite often the beers were free as I did odd jobs for the landlord so it all worked out fine. The reason we lived this way is a long story but it was great fun, the best fun in the world, when our son was born we felt that our way of life was not good for a child, children need security and so we decided it was time to grow up. We never really abandoned our principles though, hence all the bread making and gardening, cutting out the middle man makes sound economic sense, especially in times like these. It becomes a habit you can not break and the fringe benefits are good food, plenty of exercise and enough to share with friends, or to use as a bartering commodity, it is also a good way to make friends and no one can have too many of those.
No comments:
Post a Comment