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.

Big Adventures on a Small Budget

Frugal Gran Fun on our Budget Scottish Adventure!

(Part 1 of this post can be found here, where I first announced plans for some big adventures with eldest grand daughter.)

October school holidays arrived at last and I was able to pack the tent and rucksacks then head off into the wilderness with my 9-year-old grand daughter, taking her on her first ever frugal adventure - to 'climb a mountain'. We headed for Stranraer, boarding the train for Glasgow and taking many photographs along the way.  It cost a grand total of £26 for the two of us to get into the big city (Glasgow) and then a further £5 to get us from there to our destination in Lanarkshire, where we were planning to hill walk.

Along the way, we saw Ailsa Craig. This is a small island about 10 miles off the coast and is known locally as 'Paddy's Milestone'. It's part of an extinct volcano where they used to (and possibly will again) mine granite for making curling stones. At the moment, it is a bird sanctuary that you can visit by boat from Girvan. It's also for sale, if anyone has a cool £1.5 million to spare.

 



Once we reached Glasgow Central Station, we walked to Buchanan Bus Station to catch the express coach to our destination in Lanarkshire. We passed a puppeteer putting on a free street display, we stopped to see a student demonstration against Monsanto and we stopped to enjoy a free performance by this  fantastic pipes and drums band known as Clanadonia. Grand daughter wasn't overly enthusiastic about their music until I told her the name of one of their songs - 'Hamster heid'. (You can listen to Hamster Heid here.) I think the combination of bagpipes and tribal drums is brilliant! Free open air concerts - how frugal is that in the entertainment stakes?

 

We arrived in Lanarkshire at dinnertime on Saturday after travelling for about 6 hours. We spent Sunday catching up with family and then, on the Monday, we headed off to Black Law wind farm, near Forth. There are over 50 huge turbines, each measuring over 125m in height. We took a picnic and had that while seated under turbine number 43. From the wind farm, we were able to see that there was no snow on the top of Tinto Hill, our next destination. Unfortunately, we got absolutely soaked when a huge rain cloud arrived and burst over our heads!

 

A curious find we made last year had to be checked out again and, sure enough, it remains to this day - a massive pine tree decorated with Christmas baubles! It sits by the edge of the forest that runs along the main road from Black Law to what's known as 'The Headless Cross'.

 

 

Tuesday dawned fairly dry, so we packed our rucksacks and headed through Lanark towards Thankerton and Tinto Hill. The summit of this hill is the highest point in central Scotland, at 711m or 2,332ft. It's a 5-mile walk from the car park and a perfect introduction for anyone interested in hill walking. On arrival, we couldn't see the top for low clouds!

 

 

Fortunately, the rain stayed away for the couple of hours it took us to walk to the top and back. It took us approximately two and a half hours to complete, walking at what I would call an easy pace, stopping for littlest member of our group to eat sweets, add or remove layers of clothing as required and check out the landscape while looking for all sorts of weird and wonderful beings! Visibility was very poor from about the halfway mark, so it made for an eerie first hill-walking experience for grand daughter. She did seem to enjoy it, though.

 

The cairn at the top of Tinto dates back to the Iron Age and is the largest cairn in Scotland. We could just make it out before we reached the rocky scree and, although we had passed several other walkers, we found ourselves alone at the top.

 

Like all good visitors to the site, we carried our pebbles to the summit to add to the pile. On a clear day you can see for miles and pick out many of the other Scottish peaks but we didn't get a clear day - maybe next time. We left our pebbles, on which we had written our names and the date, on the cairn.

 

As you can see, 9-year-olds aren't very tall compared to the summit décor and the view was non-existent, but we made it! Hats and gloves were soaked by the swirling fog, grand daughter had to cling on for all she was worth to stay upright in the wind that blasted the summit and the place was deserted. Not quite a day for picnics, but it didn't stop us from scoffing what we had with us.

 

 

As we descended from the clouds we managed to catch a glimpse of the views lower down the slope. Despite the lack of sunshine we still had a sing and dance on our trip back down. Indeed, we jogged the final leg of our journey while singing all sorts of silly songs, pretending to be on exercise like army recruits!

Our next port of call was the Carmichael visitor centre, where we went in for a late lunch.

We also had a trip around the little animal park, meeting the hens, goats, pigs and a lovely Sebastopol 'furry' goose, among other creatures. Then it was time to explore their waxwork museum!

It's quite a scary place, especially when you get further in to the part with Sawney Beane and family, displayed in all their gory glory! Entry to the waxwork exhibitions is free, although we did drop a donation into their collection tin. (But who is Sawney Beane, you might ask?)

Alexander Bean (or Sawney) was an infamous Scottish cannibal said to have originated from East Lothian in the 15th Century. He lived with his wife and extended family in a cave at Bennane Head, between Girvan and Ballantrae on the Ayrshire/Galloway coast. We pass through the area when travelling between here and Lanarkshire but I haven't, yet, taken the time to go in search of the gruesome cave.

After all the excitement of wind farms, mountains and waxworks, we had a surprise birthday party to throw, so we got ourselves some modelling balloons and had fun making balloon animals, designing cards, decorating a room and then enjoying all the party fare.

Next on the agenda was a crafting and making day, when we did knitting, crochet, weaving, needle point and pompom making. After that we had a shopping day and then, on the day before our holiday ended, we carved a pumpkin.

Lighting the pumpkin lantern marked the end of our first big, fun-filled, frugal adventure. Everything got packed up and we now need to wait until next year to do it all over again, but in a different location.

I hope you enjoyed sharing our frugal mini-adventure.

NYK Media, Frugaldom


Cat on a Wet Tin Roof

Making the Frugal House Watertight

Yesterday dawned fine and bright. The workmen arrived at 8.30am, the rain  arrived at 8.45am!

We're in Scotland, we expect these things. Besides, it didn't exactly pour down, it was more of a steady drizzle that kept the inquisitive cat indoors while work continued in making the frugal house watertight for winter.

By lunchtime, most of the foam-filled tin sandwich that had been our flat roof was piling up in the back garden awaiting its next adventure. Who knows how long it has been sitting up there, above our kitchen!

This roofing should be able to get recycled into a new roof for the outbuilding or some other such project.

Around lunchtime, the drizzling rain decided to stop and the day brightened up a bit, thankfully! This allowed the pitch of the 'flat' roof to be altered slightly, then the new wood decking was fitted before felting began.

The rain was threatening to return by 5pm, but the roof was 99% watertight with a layer of felt and the edges torched down at the joins.
Temperatures aren't too low at nights yet, so the 6" gaps around the overhang wouldn't cause much of a problem. Luckily, the swallows have long, since, finished nesting, otherwise they would have been straight into the kitchen, the way they did every time the door was left open during summer! Had it been any earlier in the year, I'd have been hiding from wasps and bees!

That was yesterday. Thankfully, today dawned bright and sunny, so we are hoping for progress in leaps and bounds.

The leaves on the trees at the bottom of the garden are gradually turning to russet and falling to the ground. There are a few evergreens, so we won't lose all colour or shelter down by the hen run, but it is going to look quite bare soon. For now, I'll make the most of what is still growing and prepare for 2012.

While work progresses on the back roof, Floppity bunny is confined to her hutch. It was too wet for her to venture out last night, so I'm sure she'll be desperate for a run around tonight.

I really must organise more stockproofing for next year's veggies, though, as I can't begin to imagine how any of the newly planted carrot seeds will germinate after the number of times she has dug up the bed. I'll say that I'm hopeful of seeing some carrots grow, but won't go as far as saying that I'm confident.

The strawberry runners are rooting nicely in their pots, but some have already been snipped from their mother plants, compliments of... yes, you guessed it.... Floppity! The only things she doesn't seem to be  interested in at the moment are the pumpkins! My guess is that even she couldn't manage a whole one on her own!
I need to bake a loaf of bread today, but the kitchen is kind of off limits on account of the men on the roof. If anyone is visiting this afternoon, expect a breadmaker to be set up in the livingroom.

Who Needs a Roof when The Sun Shines?

September Sunshine

After several dull and rainy days, the sun shone for most of the afternoon yesterday, so blogging fell by the wayside in favour of being out in the garden.

It's sunny now, but I've already had my coffee while sitting out watching the rabbit bouncing around the garden, helping herself to whatever she fancies. Not much damage to be done at this time of year and I don't grudge her the bottom leaves from the brussel sprouts or kale, nor do I mind that she nibbles the carrot tops.

It costs nothing to sit out and enjoy the afternoon, frugal fresh air, the chance to appreciate nature and, if lucky, a walk about to gather in some of the fruits of your labours.

Who needs a kitchen roof when the sun shines? It's a case of making the most of the patio, even although that probably won't be fully cleared before next year. We did get the Saffron crocus bed made (seen on right) and all 60 of the bulbs planted, so I'm happy with that. I've had to lay wire mesh over the top of the bed to keep the cat from going in and digging, though!

Despite all its flaws, we bought the house to develop it into a home and, most importantly for us at the time, for the potential we saw in the garden.

Compared to how it looked  6 months ago, it's now unrecognisable. I'm really pleased with progress and I'm delighted that everything is growing so well.

I do sometimes look in dismay at what still has to be done out there, but the blog and photographs serve to remind me of how much we've achieved so far.

Decided to check on the pumpkins, as I'd really like to have one ready for carving in time for Halloween. These are meant to be giant pumpkins, but I had my doubts at the start. That was then...

Now, my football-sized pumpkins are approaching medinice ball size and seem to be growing by the day. Not sure what to do for the best, as I have never grown pumpkins before this. Having had to double the size of the bed they are in, I left a few marigolds scattered among them - mainly because I couldn't think where else to move them!

Watch this space for pumpkin news.

Further down the garden, behind the rhubarb, I had thrown a handful of sunflower seeds. It was rather late for planting them but they have managed to survive.

Yesterday morning saw the arrival of the first flower, so I'm quite optimistic that a few others will follow suit, assuming the weather doesn't suddenly deteriorate. Fingers crossed that the garden birds get the chance to enoy the seeds this autumn.

The garden is an absolute haven for birds, as long as we can keep an eye on the cat! (She's now onto her third collar with bells, as she keeps losing them while scrapping with the other neighbourhood cats.) One of these days, I'll be lucky enough to snap a photo of all the goldfinches and the bull finches that frequent this part of the garden. Item to be added to the next 'to do' list - tie up the sunflowers, as they have long, since, grown up over the top of their current garden cane supports.

The broccoli is now sprouting all ways. Not sure if I like this as much as being able to simply walk out and cut one large head off the plants, but the sprouting variety is certainly productive, so might prove to be more economical.

The raised beds are planned for next year, so I'm hoping to get back to some more 'square foot gardening', as I like the variety it produces, all from the one smallish space.

In the micro-orchard, the nine home-hatched ducklings are now almost fully grown. At only 9 weeks old, it's getting difficult to tell the white ones apart from Phoebe and Joey, the adults. They all seem happy together and spend much of their time waddling around the pond. Soon, however, a few will be leaving to go to their new homes.

Thankfully, 'Custard Cream', the pale coloured one, and 'Orio', the black and white one, both seem to be ducks, so they have secured their longterm home here in Frugaldom.

I'm not sure how many of the others will remain but I was intending keeping half a dozen ducks for eggs. We now need to decide which three of the others can stay before rehoming the other four. It's a tough decision to make, as I like them all!

Hopefully, my spring bulbs will arrive in the next week or so. This will let me get a bit more done at the front of the house, as I'll can plant up all the tubs. The nasturtiums are still flowering, as are the marigolds. The 'Millions of Bells', given to me by a neighbour, have started to flower and the tiny violas rescued from the cobbled gutter seem to be surviving alongside one tiny begonia.

Seed collecting has begun, from both my own flowers and by way of packets traded through the Galloway LETS group, so next year should be a colourful one. It might not be frugal as far as growing edible produce is concerned, but the splash of colour and the extra bird life it encourages is well worth it. Bird corner should take on a life of its own in 2012.

That's almost it for today. I did manage to make a huge batch of carrot and lentil soup, which has now been split up and frozen. The last of the heritage 'blue' potatoes got eaten with dinner last night and I still have a bucket of carrots, loads of beas, courgettes and the big tub of broccoli to blanche and freeze but space in the freezer is at a premium, so some creative thinking is required, especially knowing that the kitchen has to be emptied completely for the roof work starting. But tomorrow is another day. For now, I'm off to do a bit more weeding before it's time to make dinner.