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!