Becoming Domestic

As we were fortunate enough to be given LOADS of second hand washable nappies I am really enjoying not having to use disposable nappies which I’m glad about as disposables cost a fortune (about £10 for a week’s worth of botty changes) and they also are super stinky in the household refuse bin (even when bagged in a nappy sack). The washable nappies are collected throughout the day in a lidded pail with a mesh drawstring bag as a liner and few drops of tea tree oil to keep fresh and they are washed with a load of laundry at 40 degrees each evening or every other evening if I’m feeling slack (we have so many I don’t ever run out of nappies).

Before our baby arrived three months ago I wasn’t aware that people who use washable nappies also tend to use washable wipes and I had stocked up on a box of ‘environmentally friendly’ disposable wipes. These went fairly quickly and it was just by chance that I came across a woman on eBay selling brand new washable wipes made from fleece in a huge range of cheery patterns. I bought one pack of 10 from her (£1.50) then another and now we just use lovely pure warm water to clean the baby. The fleecey squares are kept in a little basket near to the babe’s changing station.

They are so soft and really big that the task of cleaning a really nasty nappy is far less trouble with these cloths than with any thin shop-bought tissuey wet wipe which must be full of chemicals. They get popped into the nappy pail along with the nappy and being fleece they don’t colour run in the wash.

I always have a few in my baby’s changing bag and get lovely comments about how pretty, soft, thick and useful they are. When the bub starts to eat solid food I’m sure I will get through plenty as little face cloths. I shudder to think how much I spent on disposable nappies + wipes with the twins before they were toilet trained it must have been close to £2,000 during the two years of their lives.

My local butcher stocks really good quality meat but doesn’t supply chunks of stewing lamb as by the time he has taken all the cuts of meat from the animal there is very little left to cut into pieces worth selling. For some reason though the supermarket does sell stewing lamb and so when I saw a couple of packets in the reduced refrigerator section I decided to snap them up and find out whether we like traditional Lancashire Hot Pot (we do)…

Some recipes for this dish call for lamb kidney but being a hater of all things offal I gave these a miss and made a simple stew of lamb pieces, 2 sliced onions, 3 carrots chopped into mouth sized pieces, 2 parsnips (instead of turnip which some recipes called for) and finely sliced celery heart (including the flavoursome leaves).

The meat was browned by heating a little vegetable oil to a high temperature then added all the chopped veg and sauteed it all with the lid on for a little while, I added a teaspoon of cornflour to thicken the stew liquor, some thyme and a bay leaf, loads of black pepper and a little salt. I then added just enough water to cover the ingredients. About 3 potatoes were sliced thinly (skin left on) and arranged in a pretty overlapping circles pattern across the top.

I then went to collect the kiddies from school and when I was giving them their tea I brought the hot pot back up to a gentle simmer and the casserole dish was then baked with the lid on for about 1.5 hours at a low-medium heated oven, then 30 minutes before eating the lid was removed, the potatoes were brushed with oil and returned to the oven without the lid so the potatoes could go golden and crunchy on the top.

It was really nice. We had it without any extra vegetables as Bealers was in a hurry to go out to meet someone but I thought it would have been even better with a portion of freshly cooked purple sprouting brocolli.

The Willow Den in the background will get much leafier this summer

Last March we bought the willow withies to make a willow den for the children as our garden has no shade after midday during the summer months. Withies can be bought from November-March in the UK when the wood is dormant.

We followed the instructions found in a great book called ‘How Does Your Garden Grow?: Great Gardening for Green-Fingered Kids’ and within a few weeks of planting at the beginning of April, the willow had taken root and formed a superb play den in the corner of the garden.

Now it is a year on and I’ve been asked to show a picture of just how leafy it is. We’re not sure whether the maintenance of tying in the bows at the top of the dome will be an annual job. It may be that using the recommended rafia twine was a bad idea for long term growth as it just rotted during the winter and the vigorously growing willow burst its joins. Bealers is going to use more sturdy non-biodegradable ties when he has the time to bend the open roof branches over again.

Not a very good picture as the plum tree growing behind makes it look very tall! 

I was fed up of watching steel ‘TP’ climbing frames go for more than I wanted to pay on eBay. I’d decided a while ago that a climbing frame would be a great investment in my kids health and had some money given to them for Christmas by their Aunty and Grandma in the giant piggy bank in my bedroom. I was prepared to spend £126.79 I decided but all the TP Challenger Frames near enough to us to collect were being sold for £170. Very occasionally some kind soul would offer a metal climbing frame on Freecycle but was overwhelmed by responses.

I lamented to Bealers that there should be something ‘between local Freecycle groups and eBay’ to which he suggested I try the Malvern FlogIt/SwapIt group. I’m thrilled to have signed up as its is similar to Freecycle in the way that messages are distributed to subscribers but people are able sell things second hand via an email description and can put out ‘Wanted’ adverts too which is exactly what I did. After posting that we were after a climbing frame a local family got in touch saying they would be happy to sell us their frame + slide for slightly less than my top price would have been on eBay.

Both parties are happy as they did not need to go to the bother of photographing and description writing for an eBay sale, they made money from something that had been gathering dust in their garage since they moved and we did not have the stress of bidding against others and watching the price rise. My kids are beyond thrilled and so are we to have such a fine piece of equipment for such a brilliant price. Admittedly I do now owe my blessed husband a day of his time…

The new climbing frame - halfway assembled (it now has a slide & scramble net too)

Mmm-mm. Whilst sorting out my cupboard I found 3 full bags of red lentils which is a lot for someone who only knows one recipe calling for red lentils. As we are keen to use up store cupboard supplies in light of my recent thoughts on food prices increasing but me being determined not to let any more of our income go on the weekly food shop thought I’d better increase my lentil repetoire.

A quick search on ‘red lentil recipe’ came up trumps as one of the first recipes I found (on the BBC Recipe website) was for a quick, easy and tasty sounding dish, was gluten-free and I just so happened to have all the ingredients for (apart from the cream so I just omitted it). I added a bit more cayenne than it called for too (2 teaspoons instead of 1/2). It was delicious and what’s more the Meat Lovin’ Husband thought it was tasty too. We had it with a green salad with a lemon juice, olive oil, sun dried tomato paste dressing.

Ingredients
175g/6oz red lentils
350ml/12fl oz water
110g/4oz cheddar cheese, grated
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
½ tsp cayenne pepper
a little lemon juice
1 large egg
3 tbsp single cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp butter

Method
1. preheat the oven 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2. Pick over the lentils for any sticks and stones. Rinse thoroughly and cook in a tightly covered pan with the water for 10-15 minutes. Check after 10 minutes in case you need to add more water. The mixture should cook to a stiff purée.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the grated cheese, chopped onion, parsley, cayenne pepper and lemon juice. Season to taste.
4. In a separate bowl lightly beat the egg, stir in the cream and pour this mixture over the lentils.
5. Grease a 450g/1lb loaf tin with the tsp of butter and press in the mixture.
6. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the top is golden brown and the mixture feels firm to the touch.
7. If you are serving this loaf hot, let it stand for 10 minutes in the tin before turning it out. Alternatively, serve cold with a salad.

Hmmm. I’ve just been watching the boldest, chunkiest rat while I did the washing up. He/she/it was waddling around the path in the garden, popped up the apple tree and sat looking at me then waddled back down, had a sniff around the drain and the rubbish bin (no lid and generally has refuse sacks containing the week’s waste complete with holes made by a mystery creature) then waddled back to where I presume it sleeps in the ex-outdoor toilet which is now used as a garden store.

Until I came upstairs I thought little of the latest visible wildlife in our garden other than a fleeting ‘Gosh aren’t they sweet looking, nimble and intelligent too’

Turns out they have nasty diseases, nasty habits (like popping themselves up nearby sewage pipes and into one’s lavatory), can cause nasty things to happen (especially if they chomp through household electricity cables) and the only thing to do if you have signs of rats living near your premises are to kill the blighters. The best way to kill them is apparently with a rat trap.

Great. It wasn’t something I had on the to-do list but here goes - better start getting rid of them before they get the better of us and start being really cheeky like coming into the house. I’m a bit scared of traps though as I imagine they would hurt A LOT if it went off on a human finger or toe and with two daft five year olds living with us I guess we’ll have to wait until after their bedtime to set the things up.

The following advice is taken from the very helpful page at King County:

Rats are dangerous! They can ruin your food, destroy things in your home and start electrical fires. Rats and their fleas can carry disease.

Where do rats live outside?* Under wood piles or lumber that is not being used often
* Under bushes, vines and in tall grasses that are not trimmed or cut back
* Under rocks in the garden
* In cars, appliances and furniture that has been put outside and is no longer being used
* In and around trash and garbage that has been left on the ground
* In holes under buildings

Where do rats live inside the home?

* In the insulation of walls or ceilings
* Inside the crawl spaces
* Behind or under cupboards, counters, bathtubs and shower stalls
* Near hot water heaters and furnaces
* In basements, attics and wherever things are stored in boxes, paper or cloth

What foods brings rats into my yard and neighborhood?

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