Making do and moving up.

Today was ..snowy..again.
Wow.
Seriously long winter this year, and I can officially tell you that -13oC is the temperature that snot freezes inside your nostrils. (You DID finish Breakfast, right?)

Well its been a funny few days for the (almost) car-less family.

We're still without a washing machine, the spin giving up the goat a few days ago. But its OK, really it is.
At first there was the usual panic of "OMG!! We're going to have to find the money for a washing machine!!" followed by the doom and gloom of having to buy the cheapest one available and knowing it would break withing a couple of years.
Then I told Kim that actually the hand washing was OK, maybe we could get by with just a spin dryer to spin the clothes to make drying them easier, lots cheaper than a full washing machine.
And then it was fine.
I have been washing clothes every day so there isn't a huge pile waiting to be washed (as there always was when the washing machine was alright.) This has had a knock on effect that a) clothes are no longer left in a damp pile at the bottom of the wash basket, b)The bathroom is pretty tidy!! and c)the kids have a constant supply of clean socks!
It seems having a washing machine made me lazy ;)
So I've assembled a home laundry kit
(2 tub trugs, rubber gloves, big stick and the end of an old play pen)and its working pretty well.
The clothes get a soak in a tub trug with some laundry liquid and an agitate with the big stick every time I go in the bathroom, then they get tipped into the bath, wrung out and put back in for a rinse or two, then I hand wring and put large items on the washing line (it may be snowy but THANK GAWD its sunny at the moment!) and socks go behind the log burner. The play pen end I use for drip drying heavy items like jeans, towels etc before putting them on the line.
Anyway, before we go out and buy a spin dryer I want to read HUMAN POWERED HOME-CHOOSING MUSCLES OVER MOTORS.Apparently it has instructions for converting your washing machine to run off your bike!!
"This book provides a compendium of information on human-powered devices for use in and around the home, including their history, fundamental principles, plans for building them, and stories of those who make and use these machines around the globe today."
Sounds good to me!

Some good news.
Kim will be officially signing off next week and going self employed. This means he can advertise his services for re-schooling and backing horses and hopefully get some interest going! He has some regular work with a private endurance yard so we will have a small income but at least there will be no more calls to Aberdeen and fighting through the papers to apply for jobs that aren't there. Will be sad that we can't spend so much tine together though. Its been fun cycling around together and going for cups of coffee.

...and some bad news.
Our plans of doing most of our shopping locally have been dashed. The farm shop cabin has shut due to people stealing bags of veg. Potato's, carrots, cabbage for gods sake! Its not going to be kids is it!
So because a few people have been dishonest the rest of us will have to suffer.
So its no longer viable for us to do local shopping on a big scale. Instead we have started using the Co-op in Alford.I like the co-op because it has ethics. All its toiletries and cleaning products are BUAV approved and most are free from animal products. Also, if a product is vegan they tell you!! No more guessing!!

Anyway, highs and lows as always. Life moves on and hopefully some of this snow will move on with it!

That CAN'T be vegan!

There are lots of vegan cookbooks about, all stuffed with mouth watering recipies that would make most meat eaters forget that they feel the need to eat flesh.
They all have one thing in common though.

None of them seem to cater for kids.

Lets face it, I like a spicy stir fry as much as the next person, I love a hearty vegan casserole packed with beans and dumplings, love a vegan chili and any of the million ways you can eat pasta without meat...but what do you do with the kids?

Ollie, my eldest, will eat pretty much anything (except risotto)but the two younger boys...well I wouldn't call them picky but they have average kid tastes.

Ask my middle boy, Owen, what he wants to eat and the answer is usually Chips or Veggie sausage, preferably both. And that's it.
Oh sure he will nibble at what I serve him for dinner and bread is a great bargaining tool for one more carrot, but at the end of the day he likes his food simple.

So I thought I would share some kid friendly animal free food.
These two recipes are vegan versions of animal based meals and so are great for wither the transitional period or when none vegan kids (or their parents!) are visiting.

Faux tuna mayo

Easy as can be and great for sandwich/ baked potato filling.
We use Marigold marinated tofu, mayola mayonnaise and tinned sweetcorn.



Mix and serve! Simple as that.



The marinated tofu does NOT taste like tuna, although the tin says you can add some cooked nori to it to get that "fish" flavour. The tofu has a slight sweetness to it so the first bite will leave you thinking its odd, because you expect tuna but I'm telling the truth when I say it is very yummy!

Why bother?

Eliminating tuna from your diet helps keep you safe from all those nasty heavy metals that are found in large fish.

You also do your bit for the delicate Eco system of the ocean bed and save the lives of countless other sea animals that find themselves caught in devastating trawler nets.

Maca-no-cheese

Macaroni seems to me to be a kid pleasing staple. Here in Scotland we also have a knock off Italian version which involves stuffing a small pie with macaroni, which I have to admit I LOVE! (But don't tell my bathroom scales!)

For the sauce you will need :




* 3 tablespoons plain flour (Gluten free is fine)

*3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes.

* 2 tablespoons of parmezano (cheese replace)

* 1 teaspoon garlic powder.

* 1 teaspoon vegan bullion stock.

* Pinch of mild/medium curry powder.

* Salt and pepper to taste.

* 1 large table spoon vegan spread.

* None dairy milk (rice or soya, unsweetened)

Melt the spread in a large sauce pan.

In a bowl mix the flour and all the other dry ingredients.

Whisk into the melted spread until absorbed then quietly add the milk, whisking well until smooth and the desired consistency.

Add to cooked pasta.

Serve straight away or transfer to oven dish, sprinkle top with breadcrumbs mixed with olive oil and bake until golden brown.

If you want that macaroni and ham dish, add cubes of smoked tofu for the same taste.

It may seem like a lot of ingredients but once you tweak it to find a taste you love you'll find yourself able to make it in your sleep!

Why bother?

Apart from saving the lives of dairy cows by forfeiting cheese, you are also saving your own! Cheese (and the milk you would use in the sauce) is chock full of fat which sticks to your arteries as well as your thighs.

I hope you enjoy these two recipes, and if you do let me know! I'll try and take pics and write up about every kid friendly and meat eater friendly meal I come across!

Poverty and going green.

Looking through the magazines and catalogs you could be mistaken for thinking that to ge green you need to spend a lot of money.
After all, those solar panels and hybrid cars don't come cheap do they!

As a family who live below the poverty line set by the government I can categorically state that money is no barrier to living as green as you can and in many cases is a positive hindrance.

A lack of money can make you more aware of the materials you have around you to do a job. A bottle does as good a job as an expensive candle stick, half a plastic drinks bottle is a fantastic mini cloche in the greenhouse.

Yesterday I saved myself £100 by building my own wormery.
Admittedly its with supermarket boxes that don't OFFICIALLY belong to me, but that's by the by. They shouldn't keep leaving them with me should they!

I took 3 boxes and lined the bottom one with thick cardboard then half filled it with well rotted muck, then I put the second box in and filled that halfway with muck, then lastly the third had a sprinkling of muck then some veggie peelings and a layer of newspaper.



Yes..that is more snow you see *sigh*



The worms came for free out of the muck heap and will be added too as the weather grows warmer. Hunting for worms in the snow wasn't very profitable!
I topped the whole thing off with a lid held on with a bungee rope.
Not only did I save money but I also had no need for a product to be made for me and transported to me, so extra green brownie points for me!

I also had to use my (rusty..ok , none existent)sewing skills this week.
Little Merle dog is still teeny tiny and has a thin coat not suited to being only 3lb in sub zero temps, so he needed a coat, but I wasn't about to spend £30+ on some ting that probably wouldn't fit him as he's so small...so I MADE one!!!




Its basically the sleeve of broken fleece jacket that I cut and hemmed and added a band of elastic too! Does the job and fits him well, and I won't cry if he out grows it!

So that's my creativity this week.

Another problem this week is the semi-demise of our washing machine.
I don't know if its because we can never afford the "good" electrical equipment or because all electric goods have built in obsolescence but this stuff just won't last!!
At the moment I can get a spin out of it so I am washing clothes in the bath and spinning them after.
How long this will keep working though I don't know.

What I would really love is a good twin tub like my Mother in law used to have.
You could fill it from the tap with water as warm or cool as you liked and re-use the water as well. I used to split washing into 3 groups, lights, darks and dirty's.
The lights would go in the first, then the darker clothes then the dirty clothes like gardening and stable clothes, gloves etc, that way you could use the same water for 3 washes. Then simply swap it into the spin part and fill with water for a quick rinse and spin.
Looking out for one in the free papers, a brand new one STARTS at over £250.
The other option is a spin drier and to continue to hand wash but I don't know how feasible that is, guess I will find out over the next few weeks!

So you see its pretty easy to be green when there is no money.
There are a million stores and websites catering for the monied green wannabe, but is it really a "green" option? Is it better to buy a dress made form organic fair trade bamboo or to bye one from a charity shop and then turn it into something else when your done with it?

What do you think?

If you can't stand the heat....

I am a BIG fan of kids knowing where food comes from.
From the earliest age when my kids have asked where a truck load of cows was going I would tell them "Off to be killed and made into beef burgers."

Does that make me sound like some militant vegan mum?
Were they upset?
Not really, at the age of 3 or 4 your concept of death is vague but now they are a little older (10, 6 and 6) they understand a lot more.
I don't show them graphic factory farm pictures on the Internet, but I do answer their questions truthfully.

The reason I do it is because I feel they have a right to be informed.

If they go to a friends house or a party or are eating our when they are older and without parents to guide them through the menu, I will have at least equipped them with the tools to make their own minds up. If they choose to eat meat that is THEIR decision (outside the house) BUT they will be eating it without blinkers on.

So when I read about Marcus the lamb, brought by a Primary school to teach children about where food came from I couldn't totally condemn it.
Sure I think a veggie garden would have done the job, but at least the headmistress was being honest.
When the time came for the bottle fed and petted and loved Marcus to say goodbye for the last time (and come back as chops for a school raffle) there was suddenly an outcry from the parents (yes, the parents, not the children).
Oh they all thought it was lovely to have a pet lamb at school but to be faced with the reality of death and mince..well it was too much for some of them.

One parent even said her daughter would need counselling to get over the trauma of Marcus being sent to slaughter.

Oh dear god.

First of all you have to wonder, are any of these disgusted parents with traumatised children vegetarian? Oh maybe one or two but ALL of them? Statistically I very much doubt it.
Agree with the headmistress or not I at least UNDERSTAND why she did it, and Marcus most certainly lived his life in the lap of sheep luxury, which is something many of his mass farmed cousins won't have. Also being a single animal taken to slaughter he would have had as stress free a journey (being very used to being handled) and would have been taken through the abattoir quickly rather than waiting all day in a pen with hundreds of other frightened animals.

Why do parents think that the origins of where your chicken, beef or sausage comes from should be kept from children like a dirty secret? Seriously, if the secret is so dirty WHY do you think its ok to eat meat??
In an age were kids are taught the fundamentals of sex education by 7 or 8 why are we worried about a 10 or 11 year old being upset about how her chop got to her plate?

To me it smacks of double standards.

The parents didn't save Marcus but they did drum the head teacher out of school. For her bravery in trying to educate a generation of children removed from their food she has now been forced to resign.

One thing that really annoyed me once was book at the kids playgroup. It was called "A year in the life of a pig" or something like that and told the story of a pig from birth to having her own piglets. Not ONCE was ham, bacon, pork, farrowing crates or slaughter houses mentioned and by then end of the book a child could be forgiven for thinking that farmers keep pigs as pets. With no association between pig/ham ham/pig how can a child make a choice?

Am I sorry for Marcus?
Yes, of course.
Can't be a card carrying vegan without feeling sorry for the lamb.

The upside is though that maybe a few kids will have the worm of doubt in their heads now.
Maybe they will wonder about their roast chicken or their beef burger and maybe they will think about the living, breathing, bright eyed Marcus.

You never know, in theory his death could save thousands in years to come.

Oh and for the record, a couple of months ago my middle boy was talking about a birthday party and asked me to make him a packed lunch for it because "everything will be meat and dairy and I like your lunches".

He had thought hard about his food. Couldn't have felt prouder.

Development, NIMBY-ism and the enviroment ..Oh my!

This Saturday there is a "consultation" at our village hall about a proposed housing development in the village.
As with many things like this I am sure it is already a done deal and this is just the planners/ architects way of making soothing noises while ignoring us.

The development will be taking over approximately 20 acres of agricultural land between the village and our croft.

Now I must admit that when we first found out about this we were not happy bunnies. We like our privacy, we relish the break we have between us and the rest of the community and we didn't want houses backing onto our property.
But...and there is always a but isn't there, I could see the advantages.
The plan shows lots of trees, lots of green space and also a small shop and local business complex, which would all be gratefully received by the community, our own village shop having folded nearly five years ago.

Over the last few months I've been giving this a lot of thought.
You see,when people think of agricultural land they think of this......

When in actually fact alot of them are like this........


No hedges, no trees, no natural habitats at all for wildlife and wild fauna.

The country has been turned into a huge outdoor factory and the fields and animals are only the raw materials.
I posted a while ago about the barrenness of the fields next to me HERE.
The truth is this field, although classified as agricultural land, is little more than a brown site.
It is blasted several times a year with toxic chemicals (which incidentally end up in MY garden and on MY vegetable and breathed in by MY children) then a sparse crop (always the same crop, no rotation here!) is harvested and its sprayed again. NOTHING grows on it.
No weeds or grass.
NOTHING.
There is no wildlife.

When we first moved in and the field was set aside for a couple of years, we used to get ground nesting birds on it, arctic turns, night jars. There were rabbits and mice and butterflies and all sorts of other birds and insects, but now its like a sterile petrie dish, waiting for the next batch of chemicals.

Maybe houses aren't such a bad idea.

Every house will have a garden, ample opportunity for bird feeders, hedgehog habitats, butterfly and bee friendly flowers and best of all little to no industrial chemical sprays throughout the year.
Its a controversial thought in a village where more development is not wanted.
In fact a site being developed now I was very sad about.
A small acreage that had layed fallow for as long as we've been here and hosted wildflowers and all the wildlife that came with it.

But the field next to me?
I can't get worked up about it, not when I consider the environmental benefits.