New room

Posted by louisa on Thursday 14 October 2010 in DIY | 2 comments

Our house is the house that just keeps on giving.

We broke through into what was once our house’s coal hole yesterday and will soon have a new room – which we’ll use as a utility room. Our neighbours have both opened up theirs – one uses it as a store cupboard, the other as a utility room – but at maybe 8ft by 6ft, ours looks slightly bigger than both (which makes sense since ours is the end terrace and slightly bigger in general) so it should make a very useful room. We’ll put the washing machine in there, freeing up valuable space in the kitchen, and possibly get a chest freezer and/or possibly install a toilet/sink too.

This is already the second room we’ve found in the house – we found “the room of doom” shortly after we first moved in — a void underneath our kitchen (which is a modern extension on the original Victorian house). We had an idea it was there but were surprised to find a full size door into it when we pulled out some fitted wardrobes in what is now our office. It is filled with rubble – which we initially thought was the ceiling (ie, the floor of the kitchen!) hence the nickname – including asbestos sheets so we decided to reseal it for now, until we’ve got the time/resources to clear it out safely.

We also have a suspicion there may be another smaller void next to the coal hole, behind our existing store room – we’re going to poke a brick out of there and check it out.

I wonder what we’ll find next!

Seeing how it works

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 13 October 2010 in anti-consumerism | 3 comments

Two of my geeky friends have bought next generation Kindles recently – Amazon’s new version of its ebook reader.

The first friend lives in Belgium but Amazon only ship them to the UK and US, so the friend had his shipped here, and we sent it on. Because of a bit of a delivery hoohah relating to a not-working doorbell, we spent a few days last week negotiating actually getting it into our sticky sticky hands then I had to take it to the post office and wish it bon voyage — more time thinking about it and dealing with it than I’d expected.

The second friend, who bought and broke a Nook (Barnes & Noble’s ebook reader) a few months ago, brought his when he came to stay on Friday night. We ooh-ed and aah-ed at the incredibly readable screen, and were surprised by how slim and light it was.

By coincidence, I’ve been going onto Amazon a lot over the last week – buying some books but also some kitchen items and chasing up a lost jam strainer – and there is a giant ad for the “all new” Kindle on the front page. And every time I see it, I think “ooh”.

I have no interest whatsoever in getting an ebook reader, less than none. The second friend is a contractor and travels around a lot, staying in different places for a few months at a time before moving on. He doesn’t really have a permanent base to store an extensive book collection. We do though, we’re not moving. And I like book-books – the feel of them, the smell of them, the fact they don’t crash, break easily or need upgrading. Some of my books are 50 years old, I’ll still be reading some of my other books in 50 years time.

But I keep seeing this silly gadget everywhere – in my real life and online – and it’s worming its way into my brain. It’s strange to be able to see it so obviously – to see how uninterest can be changed into a desire, into a want, into a need just by repetition and existence in my friendship sphere. I don’t want an ebook reader, I really really don’t, but I can’t stop my brain going “ooh” in recognition.

I feel very conscious of it happening, which makes me worried about the times when I can’t see it happening – or what would happen if I was subject to more advertising or more friends-with-shiny-things on a regular basis. Frightening.

(Photo by nkzs)

Chicken food consumption observation

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 12 October 2010 in chickens | 2 comments

(Just a note to myself really – but if anyone has had a similar experience/any advice/thoughts, I’d love to hear about them.)

Our four girls get through 20kg of layers pellets a month. For the first few months, we got the same each month (Farmgate, I believe) then last month, we got some different stuff, from a different shop (“Golden Yolk” – not sure if that was the make). This month, they’ve moved onto a third sort (Crowthers) – from the same feed shop as the second one but more like the first ones in appearance.

The Golden Yolk pellets were green in colour, like the grass nuggets for feeding to sheep and goats at hands-on educational farms. I remember someone saying at some point in my chicken learnin’ that chlorophyll makes the yolks extra yellow, so that makes sense – food packed with green bits = golden yolk. In an “exactly what is says on the tin” manner, the yolks were very rich in colour – but the chickens ate considerably more per day (20g per day extra) than they did the previous stuff — and they pooped a lot more too.

(She’s alarmed because I’m talking about her poo on the internetz.)

Water-saving: how-to fit water-saving aerators to taps

Posted by louisa on Monday 11 October 2010 in green | 0 comments

A few weeks ago, I found out that our local water company Yorkshire Water was giving away some water-saving gizmos to its customers. Our water isn’t metered here so we’re not interested in saving water to save money, but more interested in it from a green point of view — and I guess getting into the habit in case we ever do get a water meter fitted.

As well as a shower aerator, a pretty pointless thing for the toilet cistern and a four-minute shower timer (which I’ll use for eggs), we got two tap aerators and a fitting tool.

We fitted one of the tap aerators in the kitchen yesterday and we’re already noticing the difference. It doesn’t feel like we’re getting less water when we’re washing our hands etc but it takes considerably longer to fill a glass/the kettle – showing how much it’s reduced the water flow.

It was really easy to fit the aerator – you don’t need to turn off the water (well, you do at the tap, but not at the stop cock) and we didn’t even need to use the tool provided (I’m guessing it was a wrench type thing to unscrew tight bits).

Let’s start with a shot of water running from the existing tap – for comparison.

Start by unscrewing the very end bit of the tap. You might need the tool or a wrench if it’s tightly attached. Ours screwed off easily with just a bit of a manly grasp (not a euphemism).

Line drying – Petra’s peg airer

Posted by louisa on Saturday 9 October 2010 in frugal, green, making | 1 comment

One of my top 5 clothes line drying tips is to use a “peg clothes dryer thing” – it stops the little items taking up space on your main line and is easy to take inside if it starts raining.

Petra left a comment to say she’d made her own from “some electricity pipe, an old iron coat hanger, some rope and pegs”. I asked her to send a picture for inspiration for when I make my own and here it is:

How great is that! Simple but does exactly what it needs to do!

Thanks so much for sending over the picture, Petra!