Ponds, Ponies, Pumpkins and Fun at Frugaldom

October 2017

Frugaldom is a magical place for creating memories so that's what we plan to do forever more. We have started plotting and planning for the yard area as it's no longer muddy, it's now nicely sheltered and the hedge along the back of it has started to grow, encouraging the wildlife to venture closer.

Now that I have 4 grandchildren, there's usually no shortage of little people to have about the place. I have to admit that the 'terrible twos' don't seem to show half as much outdoors as they do indoors.  At Frugaldom, the biggest problem is when it's time to try and get the 2-year-old to go home! He doesn't seem in the least concerned at visiting on his own while the older ones are at school and the littlest is still too small to do much out here.

Yard work is fun

Right from the outset, I knew what would be put at the top of Santa's list for this particular toddler - he loves barrowing anything anywhere! You can never lose sight of a little kid with a big wheelbarrow, that's for sure. It's like having my own mini research team on site when the children come to visit because they show me all the things that are most important to them and what entertains them most. This gives great insight into potential future developments as we launch our frugal holidays, plan more themed breaks and prepare for various child-friendly events at Frugaldom during 2018.

"I love Pippin"

Pippin the pony is always a hot favourite. His name, as far as grandson is concerned is, 'My Pippin' or 'Wanton Pippin' and the pony seems to tolerate absolutely anything said child does... much to the detriment of my ragged, gran nerves!

"I love muddy wellies"

Our first themed short breaks were introduced and aptly named 'Muddy Wellies Weekends' for one good reason - all kids seem to love muddy wellies and so, too, do some adults! :)

"I love playing in water"

Exploring in nature is fabulous fun and the mini-pond gets checked regularly in the hope that the frogspawn and resulting tadpoles return. Of course, it's even better fun if you get to forage in the garden for your own dinner before going exploring. This is one little boy who loves his soup and knows where it grows... in the soup garden, of course!

"I love cleaning my wellies"

Biosecurity is of the utmost importance and should be taught as soon as possible. It's another of the fun things toddlers seem to love and is also something that didn't take long to sink in... washing one's wellies both on arrival and on departure is important so as not to take germs into the barn or near the plants, poultry or ponies.

Back on the frugal bandwagon of bargain hunters - I managed to find a bulk lot of these interconnecting grids that are used for shed bases and parking spaces. We aren't anywhere near ready to use them yet but the prospect of saving over £50 just couldn't be missed, especially when the seller was fairly local and offered to deliver them to us. There are enough here to do the base for a garden room.

This was another of the bargain buys of October - a lovely little futon (double bed size) that will be utilised in the on-going improvements while trying to create extra space for extra guests in the various accommodations we are attempting to provide.

The ecoarts project will soon be launched fulltime, as 2018 sees the start of the creation of the designated trail at Frugaldom. It's a really exciting time despite also being a time of reminiscing. It's still hard to believe that my dad isn't here to see that we really did manage to succeed in finding and affording a piece of land to try and do everything I always spoke about doing. I'm sure he'd have approved! (Mum planted this oak tree and 'Mr Ecoarts' made the wild wood bird for displaying the dedication plaque.)

October was a month of growing - everything continued to grow, with the willows, Rowans, Hawthorn, Buddleia and Blueberries doing exceptionally well but it was all closely followed by the later sprouting Holly. Many more of the same will be planted in the future, now that we know they like it here.

Lyn's bridge got a coat of paint and work began on clearing the path at the other side, which will eventually run almost to the river, flanked on either side by native woodland species, such as willow, hazel, alder and birch.

We can't forget about the picking and preserving. We weren't able to grow any beetroot at Frgaldom but we did receive some, traded for fresh eggs and apples, so it all got boiled and pickled.

The apples just kept on coming, so I think most of our friends and neighbours at the holiday park were eating either stewed apples, apple sauce, apple tart or apple crumble. I have enough frozen apples to last a while longer and the cold-stored ones still need to be stewed but are being used as required.

The chickens are doing well, even if number 3 grandchild is still finding it difficult to keep up with them or catch them. On this particular day, the children were using the lean-to / potting shed as an art studio and had been out looking for things to make into pictures. Feathers are fun but the chickens kept following the kids into the shed! 

This was grandson taking his fnished nature art picture to show his mum, He did have a little bit of help making things stick to the bit board (we recycled a cardboard box) but he collected all nthe bits and pieces by himself - yes, he even picked some of the Oxeye Daisies because he thought they were 'pretty flowers'.

This is the lean-to potting shed. It's just leaning up against the side of the barn at the minute but we hope to make it a substantial, permanent structure that will double up as a learning room for the children. It isn't a full height sed but it it high enough for short people (like me) to walk about and the children love it. I want to make a proper panelled wall where it meets the barn and turn it into a chalk board on one side and a pin board on the other. It will then make a great space for displaying all the nature leaflets, posters and childrens's artwork.

Goldcrests everywhere this month! It hardly seems any time since they were here las year but here we are, picking them up from the barn where they have arrived, exhausted after their long flights from, I think, Scandinavia.

The new ponds finally settled and we got a bit more of the track around the edge laid, thanks to the help of our lovely volunteers. I am now 99.9% sure that this part of the project will see the arrival of its first amphibian visitors in spring, as we already have an assortment of birds and insects visiting. I plan on planting a row of willows around the edge just as soon as I have got them all cut.

Willow cuttings

The forst of the willows got cut but all of these were planted along the side of the newly cleared path beyond Lyn's bridge.

More tomatoes

We weren't the only ones with late tomatoes - these were all handed in as surplus to requirement, so they got made into pasta sauce, curry and chutney.

99p pumpkins are amazing!

As October came to an end, we had visitors arriving for the Hallowe'en paty at the holiday park, so we bought some pumpkins. We had tried growing our own but the wet weather just didn't give them a chance. So here's what I got made with the shop-bought variety.

Happy Halloween

Pumpkin carving at Halloween

As the month ended, we started looking towards the final events of the year - Bonfire night, tree planting, winter solstice and Christmas. I also had a couple of volunteers arriving to help during November, so that was an extra bonus and something to look forward to, with the arrival of Marnie, from France.

The Wildwood Fairy

This is one of the latest sculptures made by Mr Ecoarts - it was made for daughter and son-in-law, who recently moved house, but I couldn't really post it here before Christmas - even although she did see it before then. 😊 Being this size, it was kind of difficult to hide at the caravan or at Frugaldom, where the children explore.

'Mr Darcy'

 The horse sculpture was commissioned to go on display at a very special project in central Scotland. 'Mr Darcy', as we nicknamed him, was modelled on a real horse and the sculpture is now on display at Darcy's Equine Assisted Learning Centre near Strathaven in Lanarkshire.

I think that's enough for October but I did say it was a very busy month. Onwards and upwards... to the penultimate month of the year. I'll be back soon with some more updates.

August 2017 and the frugal living challenge continues

Where do I start? It was another tremendously busy month at Frugaldom but it didn't stop there: August was as busy on the home front as it was at the field and at the caravans, with work exchange students, holiday makers and the next investment to join the realms of the Frugaldom project. 😊
Work on the main yard seemed relentless but we finally got to the top layer and even during the very wettest days of summer, we had no puddles or floods in this area.

 At Frugaldom, we had several visits from little people wanting to play with ponies, search for beasties, make things, learn more and explore the willow dens. This frst one is progressing well and has sprouted so much that we need to coppice the new growth.

In the Thrift Cottage orchard, there were apples galore to be picked and processed. It would seem that our regular apple crumble with custard habit has now been carried back to several European countries, thanks to it proving to be a hot favourite with all the students.

 August saw several visitors arrive at Frugaldom and on one particular weekend, we had a jolly get together after moving more hay - I think there were about a dozen off us took part in the most fun-filled archery tournament ever and then had a great chatty night of giggles and laughs.

 It wasn't all play and no work, we made a serious start on schooling ponies to get tem accustomed to some of the work they will be doing in the future. All 3 ponies have now been ridden and are continuing their training barefoot and bitless. We don't need metal!

 Willow takes absolutely everything in her stride and is ready to join in or take part in anything at all! Eldest grand daughter has been practicing her grooming, mane pleating and pony leading skills, as well as having her first bareback riding lessons on our medicine hat 'spirit' pony. I'm still intrigued by native American tales of these unusual ponies and hope Willow will live up to expectations as a fabulous companion.

 Over the past almost 2 years we have been introducing heritage variety apples to Frugaldom. Our longterm aim is to farm these apples for supplying locally and for trading from Frugaldom. The trees are now 2 and 3 years old, so the first of them bore enough fruit to allow us to try several things with them - cooking them into crumbles, chutney and sauce. The Galloway Pippins are lovely apples and are also tasty eating apples. We haven't tried cider making with them.

Our orchard project will be expanded year on year, as we clear and prepare more growing space. We'll be focussing mainly on the apples but now have a mixed orchard of pears, plums and cherries as well as the apples. Now that we have the lean-to, I plan on experimenting with grapes and hardy kiwis.

 
 As you'll have noticed, keeping up with blogging has been very difficult but that should hopefully, now, be brought back under control and I'll be able bring us all up to date now I can get online anytime. This is the latest gadget to hit the Frugaldom family - the Huawei sim-operated mini wifi hub on pay as you go data! I LOVE IT! It can provide internet access via wifi for up to 9 connections, so now it's easy to get online from the caravan. Now all I need to do is get online from the barn and we're sorted!

 Chickens have been laying eggs daily and providing a regular supply for fellow caravan residents at the holiday park. With only 4 lating hens, we have still managed to sell a dozen or so each week and still have enough leftover for home use. Once the next 3 hens start laying, we should be able to sell a few more during 2018, when 4 out of the 7 hens should be laying blue eggs.

During quieter, more reflective moments, I have had the great pleasure to be able to clamber onto spirit pony and sit with her as she carries on being a pony. I know that this sort of 'riding' is not recommended, nor is it seen as safe, but we are strongly focussing on a much more holistic approach to horse-keeping here, a method that is based on trust and allowing ponies to live the way nature intended.

With plans afoot to open our Galloway pony heritage trail by 2020, our ponies will need to be well used to all sorts of events and activities by then, so August was also a fun month for pony play school. Frankie, Willow and Pippin could be representing the ancestors of some of the greatest horses the world has ever known. Who'd have thought that their common denominator would be the humble Galloways?

There was so much going on throughout August that I'm cutting this blog post off here and doing a second August one - announcing the next phase of our frugal project - the long awaited frugal living experience that we first set out to offer several years ago. Follow our progress on Facebook and get updates via Twitter or hang on in there and wait for the next installment of the frugal blog. 

Life of Pie

The world, according to Frugaldom, is a complete package. We have all we need to create all that we want and if we break it, we have the wherewithal to fix it. Nothing is fake, everything is real - just take the time to look into this amazing frugal bubble that is our world. It's like the life of pie!

Life of Pie!

Humour me, if you will. I'm still the same person living the same frugal life surrounded by the same people, same space and same basic ingredients that make up Frugaldom and the world around me. Yes, some faces and places may have changed, some friends and family have passed along the way and new little humans have been born into our extended family, but nothing much has actually changed. We are still in this same bubble that holds all the secrets and solutions to all the mysteries. It still dumbfounds me that some people just can't see the bigger picture when it comes to looking after our spinning rock as it hurtles around that blazing ball that we call the sun.

Planet Earth (Free Blog Photos)

Don't get me wrong, I'm no scientist, I'm just someone who likes to think more and spend less when it comes to the topics of money and life. I can't stand money but it's a necessary evil in our society. Whether we see it as paper notes, metal, coins, pebbles or digital points, it is merely a number that can represent pretty much anything else, anywhere else. Our imaginations know no bounds and are restricted only by how much we can experience, not by how much money we have. It's like pie - some of us can bake our own from very little while others are happy to pay whatever it takes for others to do it for them.

Our world is a mish-mash of every possible ingredient available to mankind and it is all contained within this giant, multi-layered, bubble oven that's heated by the sun and insulated or protected by the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, atmosphere and any other invisible-force spheres that engulf our ball of spinning rock. They contain everything, dictate our weather, our climate, our tides and the phases of our moon. As far as mankind is concerned, nothing more gets added and nothing gets lost - it is baking mankind in an ever evolving life 'pie'.

Life of Pie

We have what we have and it is up to us all to keep making pie and sharing it accordingly. Some people will be researching and developing the very basic ingredients, some will be tweaking the recipe, some harvesting and preparing the ingredients and some making the dough. Some will be helping bake this never-ending pie while many more will be contributing to all the various fillings needed to help our spherical bakehouse stay in production and meanwhile, we all need to contribute to maintaining the oven, as a complete break-down would be globally catastrophic.

Sadly, there are those who will always want a larger slice of the pie than others and there are also those who aren't prepared to share their slice with anyone else under any circumstances - they'd rather pig out, get fat and dictate the pecking order. But one would do well to remember that when times get tough, those who spit feathers, bully the flock and crow loudest are likely to be next in the pie, even if it's just to bring peace to the neighbours.

Feed the world... every single person is contributing to the global pie in their own way - even if it doesn't turn out the way we like it.

There is only one way out of this kitchen and it isn't by any earthly door that anyone's ever found. We're in it together and we're in it for life... only you can decide how you choose to contribute. What holds it all together and keeps things going is the balance of nature and our combined, conscious efforts to maintain the equilibrium. I believe this is the very basic principle of life itself and that everything we amount to is what gets returned. Trying to lead a balanced life and helping those who can't should be first and foremost, in my mind. Money won't buy food, water, shelter or even fresh air if this bubble bursts, so why accumulate useless 'stuff' that has no meaning in the meaning of life unless you already have everything you need for a balanced and happy life? By all means, protect your investments, but spare a thought for those who have nothing.

We need to find alternatives to save our bubble from bursting!

www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk / Frugaldom

Growing Willow

PART 1

One of my long-term goals has been to cultivate willow (Salix). There are hundreds of different types with many colour variations, so I refer to them all as just willows. I have successfully grown cuttings and planted small rows of willow in each of my previous three gardens, always to be foiled by the need to move on so, when we finally bought Thrift Cottage, I set about, once again, planting my willow.

Being of the frugal ilk and in developing this as a frugal project, you’ll understand my need to create my willow plantation from scratch and on a very strict budget, so all cuttings are appreciated.  

Read more here

I’m hoping to develop it far enough to make the willow growing self-funding and productive enough to help support the entire Frugaldom project

Frugal Blog - Slow Cooking Beef Silverside

Scottish Multimedia | Slow Cooking Beef Silverside

It's a rare treat to have beef in the Frugaldom household but such a special occasion arose today, with the arrival of a spectacular roll of Silverside that went straight into the slow cooker! This one's not for vegetarians or vegans, so look away now.

We're meat-eaters here, so the protein option of choice is normally chicken, thanks to it still falling within the realms of affordability, being readily available and so versatile. But look … read more

Day 2 of Making it in March - Frugal Room Fragrance

Day 2 of 31 Days of Making in in March

All Natural Air Freshener / Room Scent

 

Dismal day of rain and fog

My plan to make the effort to get out and walk more has ground to a temporary halt today, owing to the ferocity of the torrential rain and my fair-weather attitude to exercise. I ventured no further than a neighbour's house to hand in a cheesecake. Today was definitely an indoors type of day!

 

Where should I start? I made my bed and made it downstairs - that should count for something on a day like this, shouldn't it? I lit the fire, chatted with a couple of neighbours who arrived and then it turned into a bit of a swapathon - I love a bit of bartering! I now have onions, bacon and hash browns that I didn't have when I woke this morning, not to mention what I've made since then.

 

Making Mango Cookies

 

Mango, apricot & pistachio with fig and almond

As many of you will know, I love experimenting with biscuit baking and sweet making, so today became a biscuit day. I'm still using up the first tin of mango pulp that I bought (4 tins for £1) and I have about a dozen blocks each of the fruit paste that's meant for serving with cheese - another bulk buy for pennies. I couldn't spare any eggs today; neither the hens nor the ducks are laying, so the mango pulp and fruit paste got added to the cookie dough. I didn't weigh or measure anything - I had the last of a bag of wholemeal self-raising flour to be used up, I melted some cheap margarine along with the two fruit blocks, added a spoonful of sugar and then started mixing in the flour, using the mango pulp where I'd normally use eggs. I split the mix, as I have only enough space for one tray in my mini oven, and the remainder of the cookie dough is in the fridge for another day. Next time, I'll omit the sugar.

 

Making Cheesecake

 

Blackcurrant cheesecake

While the biscuits were baking, I made two of the packet cheesecakes (4 packs for £1 from Approved Food*) and left them to set in the fridge while making the blackcurrant topping. It's just a tablespoon of homemade blackcurrant jelly mixed with a couple of handfuls of blackcurrants. I still have about 5kg of garden grown berries in the freezer, so no shortage of these here. One cheesecake went to the neighbours and one we have kept.

 

Making Knitted Blankets

 

The long-awaited pink blanket

Owing to the awful weather, I decided to spend this afternoon finishing off the long-awaited, pink, fluffy blanket. This is the third blanket I have knitted over the past year and this one is for youngest grand daughter, as she loves pink and lilac. I really do hope she likes it - it is so warm and fluffy, but a bit of a nightmare sewing the strips together after having knitted them on large needles! I am pleased with the finished result and equally pleased that it's completed.

 

Making Frugal Fragrance Air Fresheners

 

Citrus fruit, cloves and cinnamon stick

I first saw this 'recipe' on a site called 'The Yummy Life' when it was shared on Facebook. This is my 'frugalised' version, as I used what was to hand rather than wandering outside to rummage in the rain-battered herb garden. I had 3 limes waiting to be sliced and frozen, so I used half and froze the other half. From my baking cupboard, I found cloves (I use these mainly for marzipan fruit making) and a small cinnamon stick.

 

Recycling another jar

Find yourself an empty jar and a piece of something bright - I found this lovely little piece of ribbon among my crafting stash, just long enough to go around the neck of my jar. Warm the jar slightly by swirling some hot water around in it, then place all your ingredients into the jar and cover them with boiling water.

 

 

 

That's it, a simple case of infusing whatever scents you like in a jar of hot water. In the original instructions, which can be found here, the infusion gets simmered and can be used in place of oil in a burner, but I found my combination a strong enough fragrance vaporising from the jar cooling in a safe corner of the room. 

 

I now can't wait to experiment with other scents that look this pretty. Many years ago (about 40!), as a child, my friends and I would do this with rose petals, lavender or mint in jam jars of rain water, shaking them every day and making our own perfume. Today's make reminds me of those days, so let's think of today's scented make as the 'grown up' version. Come summer, of course, I love nothing more than the heady aroma of sweet pea blossoms, which I try to have in all the downstairs rooms.

 

Confession Time

 

I tasted my room fragrance! All the ingredients were food quality from my kitchen and this smelled so good that I had to taste it once it had cooled... and yes, it could easily make a lovely twist for a wee dram of whisky or even as an addition to cheap lemonade. In fact,. with a bit of sweetening - honey, perhaps - it could make a refreshing drink all on it's own! I reckon the liquid would make far better ice cubes than plain water, too. :)

 

That's it, day 2 of March done and dusted and tomorrow there will be something new to write about in the Frugaldom household. Then, it will almost be time to make pancakes!

 

NYK, Frugaldom

 

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