Diversion?

After all the palava of making sure people, dishes and clothes where washed, buckets at the ready etc etc, we woke up to water? Odd? Continued getting water???? Took daughter No 1 to work, still had water, Daughter No 2 to driving lesson, still had water!! So phone the water company to find out what was going on

and the answer was.............

they did it overnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hrmph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whilst number 2 was on her driving lesson I went and bought various bits and pieces for chutney making, all will be revealed on my blog later! I then perused the charity shops for books and bought one that caught my eye
'Ration Book Cookery'! I know, I know, I don't really like cookery but with all this hoo haa about the water it got me thinking, how did they do it. Makes for fascinating reading, just for your interest:-

Chronology of Rationing

29 Sept 1939 National Register set up. Identity cards issued.
8 Jan 1940 Food Rationing begins. Bacon, Ham, Sugar and Butter 'on the ration'!
March 1940 Meat Rationed
July 1940 Tea, Margerine, Cooking Fats and cheese rationed.
March 1941 Jam, Marmalade, treacle, and syrup rationed.
June 1941 Distribution of Eggs controlled
November 1941 Distribution of milk controlled.
December 1941 National dried Milk introduced.
June 1942 American dried egg powder on sale.
July 1942 Sweets rationed
December 1944 Extra tea allowance for 70 yr olds and over.
Jan 1945 Whalemeat and snoek (fish like barracuda) available
July 1946 Bread Rationed!!!!

It took all the way to June 1954 until there was no more rationing!

When you look at the above they are your average everyday foods. People grew alot of there own veg and some where even able to keep a pig and 'A limiting factor for many would-be poultry farmers was the fact that grain for chicken food was as scarce as for bread manufacture' so maybe I would not have been able to keep my chickens!!!

OOoooo! don't forget Spam! Who used to get Spam sandwiches in there lunch box for school!!! lol!!

I'm sorry for my diversion but I sometimes think, although I would never wish a war on us, that if we all fell on harder times and foods became scarce that we would appreciate everything more including are neighbours!

Just to prove you are still on the right blog..............

I bought some plants today!!!
This is Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy'



and this very cute one is........
Eucomis vandermerwei 'Octopus'

Interruption To Water Supply!

We have lived here for exactly 20yrs 234days and in all that time we have never had a 'major' interruption to our water supply. Because we live in a village we have the occasional day about once a year where they 'flush the pipes' to flush out the 'bits' probably because we actually don't have enough houses to keep a good flow going! That takes about 4 hours usually sometime between 10.00 and 15.00.

Last week we got a letter, so we have had about 6 days notice, which stated 'Wessex Water will be carrying out essential improvement work on the water distribution network in your area and this will involve interrupting the supply to your property from:
23.30hrs on Wednesday 30th July until 15.30 hrs on Thursday 31st July 2008
I thought, well that's not so bad, but then I thought that includes early morning and the usual early rush for the loo! Some men seem to have an alarm clock set to there bowels and when they need to go theres no waiting they have to go, well I married one of those (although I didn't realise it at the time), his morning ablutions are ridged, this I think is because he has A.D.D. Routine is paramount. I suggested he left for work earlier, No wouldn't consider, so I suggested he visited the loo once then left for work, No, he didn't like this either, so we could use buckets, this was acceptable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I bought two new buckets, one for use upstairs, one for downstairs. In the upstairs bathroom I will fill the bath with water the night before and everyone can
Scoop
Bucket
Chuck it!
Easy!!!
Downstairs is just a loo and wash hand basin! MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm!! Outside the back door is a very large water butt, so the bucket will have to be filled from there! Lets just hope its not raining like it has been the past few days!!!
Now water, just how much water does one use during this time scale? I though about filling pans and kettles etc. etc. then I plumped for the easy option, some very large bottles of water, 15 litres should be enough!
So I think we are ready, tonight everyone can shower, all animal waters will be filled all plants watered, dishes washed, uniforms washed (K has to wash a uniform each night she comes in from work).

See how easy we take water for granted, because its on 'tap' so to speak. If we always used the 'bucket & chuck it' method would we use the loo as much as we do now? What would we do differently? How did they cope before toilets?

Chicken Sitting!

We are chicken sitting at the mo! We often do! But I don't mind as I can pretend for a week that I own a huge garden!!
Meet Dot & Doris



They live in an Eglu too. I can never remember which is which, anyway one is wanting to come out and the other is doing the business of laying an egg!


They live here


and soon Dot & Doris will have 3 sister chickens living in their garden as well in a brand new Purple Eglu!!!


These ladies are the reason I got mine!They arrived at my good friends house I think Nov 2005, 6 months later May 2006 we got ours!

Yesterday (Thursday) was a glorious day especially when the sun was out, we where in our T-shirts, when it went behind a cloud we had to put jumpers on. But with lots and lots of K's help, we managed to do alot of tidying up! Although I forgot the photos!
I don't know if you remember me fitting the super dooper huge new waterbutt close to the house? Well we have been having problems with it and it needed re-adjusting and as rain was due (again) this weekend we decided to empty it, sort it out and set it up again. Which ment charging up and down the garden with buckets as the stupid hose wouldn't fit to the tap! So we did that, then had breakfast! Very civilised here you know!
K then started on sorting the patio tidying, brushing and bagging up the accumulated winter rubbish! She continued down the path weeding as she went.
My chickens where busy having fun in the garden sunning and dust bathing


Big Bird wanted to join them but as she is blind in one eye couldn't work out how to get through!


Once we where down the garden this far, we realised that the pond pump was miss behaving again. It has been latterly but we haven't really had the weather to sort it out. Anyway in the autumn hubby bought a filter box with UV light and it has been sitting waiting to be fitted, so thats what we did. What a palarva! Anyway after much huffing and puffing and nearly falling in it is now fitted. As soon as the rain stops (yes its back)I shall take some pics!

Should Have Done It Years Ago!

I'm really glad we fitted the water butt closest to the house at the weekend! This is the 8th one in the garden now! We bought a really big one this time, not your usual 210 litre type! The recovering Caster Oil Plant which was dug up to make way for the butt, will do a great job of hiding it



All this lot run into it, down the down pipe on the left which runs to a soak away.



If it was feasibly possible I would dig up the whole of my patio and sink a massive, massive tank underneath and then relay the patio again, I could then use the water for the loos or just lots of watering.

So how many of you Brits had the monsoon type weather for about 30 minutes this morning at about 6am? It woke me up! I checked the butt and by golly.........



full to the brim!!!!!! Excellent!!!