How do I do this?

Well in an attempt to reduce the amount of stuff that goes in our wheelie bins ... I am currently looking into ways to reduce this but to also make some cash out of it.  So I have emailed a bunch of scrap metal dealers in Inverness (our closest city) to see if there is any way that they would accept domestic scrap metal (like food and drink cans) and if they do, then how much would they pay for this.  I know it's a long shot but if people in England and Wales can make money from their scrap metal then so can I! That would certainly reduce the amount of waste going in my wheelie bins!  I know our local council provide these little pathetic blue boxes for cans and paper but to be honest they are pants!  I can fill one in a week with tins and if I recycle my mum's tins as well I would fill two in a week and these pathetic little things are collected fortnightly!!!!

I am also getting my mum to save all her jars for me so that I can start making some preserves.  I will start small with stuff like onion marmalade but will branch out into jams and stuff when I am a bit more confident that I can do it properly.  That will prevent jars going into the bin as well!!!!

We already compost but that was a complete disaster last year and have had to start from scratch again this year and it's not really working as well.  Last year, my compost bin (affectionately known as george ... I'm going to get another one and call it mildred!) was doing nicely.  Then we went on holiday.  My lovely next door neighbour was providing us with her kitchen peelings etc which was really helping the composting along nicely but when we went on holiday she chucked whole potatoes in!!! So we came home from holiday to find tatties growing in our compost bin!

The whole lot had to be chucked out.  To say I was gutted was an understatement as we had some proper good quality compost at the bottom.  But off it all went and this year hubby decided to site the compost bin elsewhere in the garden.  Big disaster.  It's in a shady area at the side of the house and the stuff just does not seem to be composting down as fast.  But I will wait and see how things go.  I will continue to supply the bin but we are just not producing enough to keep the bin filled up.

But I did have a total brain wave!!! We have 3 brown garden waste bins.  One is ours, one is next door's (her gardens front and back are paved and gravelled) and we found one when out on a walk.  So the third one now has drainage holes in it.  I filled it with shredded newspaper and hubby then piled all our grass cuttings on it and we have left it.  Hopefully it will mulch down and we will be able to add this to the compost bin to speed up the processes.  If it works then I will be well chuffed!!!! But I really need to get one of those aerators for compost bins.  Having a really bad back means that I just can't use the garden fork to move the stuff in the bin as it's all so far down!!!! But I think I will just leave that for hubby to do ... it can be his job.

On the home front ... the children are really getting into the spirit of money saving and being thrifty.  They always give their teachers a gift at Christmas and last year it cost a small fortune as they don't just have one teacher, even though they are still at primary school.  There are a number of teachers so this year it is going to be different! I will post about it separately as I am very proud of them for it. 

Anyhow ... it's off to do some laundry and dishes ... although the dishwasher will do the latter ... all I have to do is load it lol.  I will be back later on ... have a good day y'all x

Summerhouses and the Tooth Fairy

Well good evening/morning all. I know this is a strange time to be writing on my blog but I am just about to go off to bed and suddenly thought of something to write and thought it best to get it down before I forget!

My youngest was at hospital this week and had 3 teeth removed. Her back ones had taken such a battering and with the vitamins the hospital put her on when she was first born (pure sugar really) they were on their way out. So the poor wee thing went and had her first operation and she was such a brave wee thing. I was the one in tatters! So the tooth fairy had to pay her a visit and then tonight my oldest came through from the bedroom and presented me with 2 teeth! So I suppose the tooth fairy had better visit her too!!!

But hubby was busy today and erected the kids' summerhouse in the garden. I will add a photo or two tomorrow after we replace the windows and give it a lick of paint. It was donated by my best friend who had it in her garden and it was only used by my kids so she told us to take it for our garden. So we now have 2 sheds, a summerhouse, 2 compost bins and a herb garden!

We are getting there slowly - I just wish the weather would stay nice!!! But it is typical Scottish weather. Sunny one minute and thunderstorms the next!

So it's off to bed for me and then off in the morning to see the nurse about stopping smoking! That should give me some spare pennies to put in the fund for the dreams!!!

Goodnight all, sweet dreams xxx

Composting for Newbies!

Well good evening all! I have decided to add this for any newbies who may stumble upon my lovely blog and are in need of some information or advice on home composting. I know I certainly found that when I started composting at home, I was unsure about what to put in the bin and what to dispose of in other manners.

Whilst browsing on the internet one day I stumbled upon a really informative site and wanted to let you all know about it. The website is www.gardenorganic.org.uk/composting and it is full of really useful information. I really devoured the section on home composting innovatively called "How to make compost"! Yes it really is that simple!

Anyway, I read this several times, and now I have a list pinned up on the wall of everything that can be put into the compost bin so that I never have to wonder and I just check the list if I am unsure about anything or if the kids ask what to do with their rubbish!

The article itself is pretty self explanatory but goes into details about exactly what can be composted and what cannot. In fact I'm off to my next door neighbour tomorrow to ask that the next time she is cleaning out her hamster, can she let me know and I'll put the waste sawdust into my compost bin to help the process along.

I was going to put a long list on here about what can and cannot be composted at home but I would really just be writing down what is already written on the website to won't go into too much detail. Although suffice to say I was surprised to find that hoover contents can be composted if it is mainly dust and that tumble drier fluff can also be put in as well! Needless to say, my tumble drier fluff is currently being collected in a spare kitchen caddy that I had lying around! I hate to bin anything that can be re-used!

I'm lucky that I have all girls as the clothes tend to get passed down, and we have managed to get quite a lot from freecycle lately. So once the little one has outgrown them, they really are not worth doing much with! Although I do tend to take them down to the fabric bank if they really are that bad. I have taken a lot of her stuff down to the charity shop but am going to start keeping it all for a massive car boot near to christmas, to see how much I can get rid of and make some money towards the kids christmas. My books get listed on play.com and that is being kept towards buying books for the kids for christmas. Same thing with DVDs that we don't need any more. I must get round to getting shot of the old computer games as well. I have several cameras that do not work any more that I must list on a certain website to see if I can get anything for them.

I'm even knitting towards christmas pressies! The two little ones only have one teacher each so they have a hand made scarf each so far. I'm in the process of knitting a jumper for my best friend and am making more scarves for various other people as well. I really must make a list and start ticking things off when they are done. I'm also making mobile phone cases for the two oldest and for a few other people too. They are so easy and are really done within a day. In fact I made 3 in one day and that was just going back to it a few times. I will take some photos of the finished articles and post them just for some extra artwork!!!

Right I must get my behind off to bed as I have the dentist tomorrow morning so really need to get myself some sleep!

Night night all, sweet dreams to you all xxx

What a day it has been today!! The sun has been shining and the weather was absolutely lovely. And I have ended up with a lovely sunburnt face! I suppose that could have been from sitting out in the sun in my mum's back garden whilst dad painted fences but also could have been from all the walking around I did as well!

Hubby went out and has almost finished his little raised bed and I checked on my various plants which are at points throughout the garden. No shows on anything that I planted over the weekend but it is very early days yet.

I did want to try planting garlic this weekend but have since found out that it needs planting in something like September and left for absolutely ages so will just have to wait till then and give it a try.

Even my poor babies ended up all sunkissed from playing out. I was very happy with the little one over the weekend as she really got into the planting with me. She is such a wee thing and a really fussy eater that we are hoping she will eat the fruit and veg that we grow and it will help her come on with her eating a bit. She has already been bragging to her pals that she has planted "sweet tomatoes" with mummy and she has been promising me that she will eat them when they grow. We found out sometime last year that she has a condition called Constitutional Short Stature. It has something to do with her being premature when she was born and the fact that her dad has it as well. It basically means that she is a lot smaller than the other children the same age as her, and she will be monitored for height and weight. Apparently if she has not caught up by the time she is 10 or 12, then the doctors will look at giving her some form of treatment but because they are happy with her current rate of development, they are just leaving her at the moment. And I am happy with that as I really don't want her pumped full of allsorts just to make her grow a little taller and heavier. She will grow when she grows, till then she is quite healthy and happy and that's the main thing for us.

Well, tomorrow I am full of big plans for the day!!! I have a mountain of laundry to do and a living room that looks like Afghanistan on a good day! So they are the first things that will be tackled in the morning. Hubby is taking the kids to school so I will be able to just get on with things. Then I have a letter to write in application for a part time job in town and get that emailed off with my CV and cross my fingers. Then it is off out into the garden and start clearing more weeds from a small patch.

And also I will be compiling a list of items that we compost, to try and clear it all up what we can and cannot put in the bin! The kids are getting really into composting so it will help me and help them.. I think I will post my list on here and it could help someone else who is new to composting. I know the thread on www.moneysavingexpert.com is really helpful. I think it's called "Homemade compost is so exciting!". It certainly has helped me immensely and is an invaluable source of information. As are many of the threads on the forums. Full of useful information and a great place to make friends.

So a good night to you all and I promise to post at least twice tomorrow! xx

Well a very good morning to you all! And what a day yesterday was. I never did get all my housework done, the call of the garden was too strong for me to resist, although I did try!

Hubby did rather well and has now built his raised bed, not too bad for his first attempt! He did quite well at tiling the living room floor when we moved in as well, and he had never done that before! He just needs to finish the top and then fill it with compost and whatever else takes his fancy! And here is the proof of his efforts!

He did buy the blocks from a certain garden centre but the rest of the stones are the ones he blagged on his way home from work a couple of weeks ago. We did buy a bag of cement for the base and a bag of mortar for the walled parts. And he did also use the adhesive/grout that he used on the living room tiles when he ran out of mortar! How's that for recycling!!

I was also a rather busy bunny and got loads of pots planted out. I know I'm rather late at getting the seeds planted but I'm hoping to get some crops that will spur us on for next year. And the weather up here in the North of Scotland is starting to get nice and warm so the heat may just help my little plants grow big and strong. And not to mention the special feeds they are getting from me.

My own little recipe for lovely plant food is ..... tea. Yes good old fashioned black tea. Hubby drinks loads of tea. I can get through 100 tea bags in a week and I don't like to waste anything so I follow something my grandmother. I just use hot water from the tap and steep the tea bags to get some nice strong "tea". I then put it in the watering can and water it down so it is nice and weak and use it at night to water all my plants. And the houseplants seem to be thriving on it, especially my money plant. It is from a cutting of my grandmother's big huge one and my mum gave it to me and it really is thriving on my kitchen windowsill with all the sunlight and food.

I also have a vase with 3 bamboos in it and these get fed with a small amount of tea mixed with the water and they are really growing some lovely shoots as well.

Right, I must really get my behind off to bed as I am shattered and have loads to do tomorrow. So goodnight to you all and I hope your gardens are taking shape just in time for the nice weather to come in! Take care all xxx

Can't Sleep

Well it is 5am in the morning and I can't sleep so I thought that I would come on the laptop and add a little update and another photo to my online diary as I have been rather lax at posting and I am feeling rather guilty!

My youngest daughter planted some tomato seeds the other week and I was concerned that they would not grow as it is a bit late for planting from seed and I have had these particular seeds for over a year! But on checking this morning, there are a couple of seedlings poking their little heads out of the soil! She is over the moon about this. She is only 4 and is such a fussy eater that we are hoping that she will eat the veggies that she has grown herself. If it works just watch me get her to plant all the veggies next year!!

My oldest is now not chuffed as her flowers have not grown at all yet! But try and explain to her that the seeds were free and they may not grow! But she is going to help me in the morning and do some more planting. The kids are off school on Monday for the bank holiday so should get some decent planting done if the weather keeps up!

Have also listed on Freecycle for some fence posts and fence panels so that hubby can get the garden fenced in and hopefully create a bit of a wind break as our garden is rather windy. I would rather get off Freecycle and know that I'm recycling something that someone else doesn't want anymore than pay a fortune at a garden centre when I might not have to. I was also a bit cheeky and advertised for slabs so that hubby can do a patio area and hopefully slab our driveway at the front. Then I topped it all off by asking for pots and stones/bricks for the raised beds. Hubby has also got into the recycling mode as he always stops and checks any skips that he sees now. So far he hasn't seen anything that he could use but you never know what's going to happen.

And I have finally opened and ISA to start saving for my dream ... a house with land!!! I have only so far paid the £1 to open it but will be adding to it as I get some spare cash. I think dream number one is to be debt free but the big dream is definitely a house where hubby needs a sit on mower! It's been a dream of ours since our youngest was born. Somewhere where we can keep chickens and ducks and geese and maybe a couple of piggies and possibly be a self-sufficient as possible but that's a dream for another day!

Right am now starting to get tired! Typical, just when its almost time for me to get up, that's when I get tired! Well I will heed my poor aching fingers and go off to bed and will post more later on! Take care all xxx

OOPS!!!! Update number one!!

Well hello to you all. Big apologies to all of you for the gap in postings. I have slapped myself for it though!

So there has been quite a lot of news to report since my last posting all those many days ago!

Firstly hubby was coming home from work on Easter Monday (yes he had to work lol) and spied a skip at the side of a house full of stones. They were the kind that are seen in the old fashioned stone walls. So he goes up to the house and politely asked the owner what he was doing with the skip full of stones. Well, it turns out that the skip was to be collected the very next day and he was just getting rid of the stones. So hubby nicely asked if he could come back later that day and take some of the stones out of the skip. The owner was quite happy for him to do that so he came home, emptied the boot of the car and promptly went straight back to the house. About an hour later he came home with a car full of stones!!! But they are going to good use. He is building a raised bed and is using the stones to make the walls round it. But the only downside is that he needs more stones as he only got enough for one part of the wall!!!

Hubby is now a very happy bunny as his shed was delivered and he put it up straight away! It is only a small one (6x4) but it's enough for now. And he has been promised that when the money situation is better, he will be getting a bigger metal one! But this one will remain as a potting shed of sorts. The kids are also getting their own shed! My dad is getting a new one in the summer so the one he has at the moment will be transplanted into my garden as a kind of wendy house for the girls to play in and store all their garden toys in during the winter! Although this has made me wonder about this bigger shed hubby wants. I don't know if he will really need a bigger shed if the kids' one is to be used to store their stuff!

Compost bin number 2 also got delivered! So Derek the Dalek now has a girlfriend by the name of Davina! I just have to get the sticky faces so that they will be more fun for the garden! Derek is coming along nicely with his composting. I am going to go and buy some activator as hubby just will not pee in a bottle for me to use as activator for the composter! But am still working on him and I'm sure that I will get him to wee in a bottle one day - I'll just have to wait till one day when he has had a couple of beers!!

Okay that's enough updating for one post or it will end up being a book! Am off to add some photos now and will post another update later on today - I promise!!!