Another good day. Got a lot done. Up early and got busy outside the front to tidy up a bit, chainsawing a pallet and some recently acquired branches. Also started stacking a new next-to-the-front door pile.
Gill went to the library with our eldest and I got a message from Nick, who wanted to come and pick up some riddled compost for his gardening work. There was also talk of growing mushrooms on logs.
So he arrived just in time for a hommous sandwich and then we went down the garden and he picked up about 6 carrier bags of riddled compost. He's bought a load of inoculated dowels from Adrian at Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms, of a native Yorkshire Oyster mushroom, so I gave him two recently felled Ash logs which I hope will make a good host. I think he's going to give me one of them back with dowels in it. I will supply him with more logs as and when they become available!
So he left at 2pm and I got on with more work, digging out a compost heap into sacks, and then doing the same with a builder's bag, which I need to have empty as another compost heap needs turning/emptying as there's signs of life in the base, and I want them not to get too settled!
I came in as it got dark and put the tomato soup on the stove. Gill made toasties. This evening this meal tasted just perfect... the boys both enjoyed the soup and complemented me on it. I did a few apples still looking fine from the garden which had just been left in the preserving pan in the conservatory, put them for drying, and then later, got 5 free onions and a large carrier bag full of tomatoes and made a preserving pan nearly full of tomato and onion 'base'... which I think we'll freeze most of. It can be used for soup, pasta sauce, nutloaves, all sorts. This is the first time I've made so much, but it's because of the large number of over-ripe tomatoes thrown out by Freshways.
So, a productive day. But a late finish, just after 3am. This is when I'm at my best, though.
Showing posts with label free stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free stuff. Show all posts
Woke at 9ish feeling somewhat better and mid morning I'd got both the large cans of water warm enough for a bath... the first one in some while! Shave, hair wash, lovely!
I felt much better after this, not that low mood is necessarily connected with grubbiness...
I did lots of washing up after this and after lunch, did some work in the garden, including a job I've been wanting to do for a while but not had the enthusiasm. I've been chainsawing logs on the front garden on top of a large tarpaulin sheet, to catch the sawdust and other bits... the sawdust is my compost toilet cover material, the largest bits and bobs are bagged up and dried for kindling, and the medium sized bits, wet bark and small twigs etc are a useful 'carbon rich' constituent of my compost heaps. So I got the large flat riddle up to the front garden and put it on a bedsheet, and started riddling the large pile of sawdusty twiggy barky stuff... I filled two paper potato sacks with kindling-sized bits, 3 plastic sacks of sawdust and 3 plastic sacks of compost additives. I am perhaps a quarter of the way through the job, but there is several months worth of cutting and splitting frass which needs putting to good use. Anyone want a sack or two of compost toilet cover material?
At about 4pm I loaded up my trailer with our old television which has been going on the blink over the past few days, and has finally stopped working. I took it down to the repository for dead electrical equipment, the 'WEEE table' at Hazel Court. I also took two loudspeakers that I rescued months ago and didn't find a taker for, and a plastic bag of metalwork from the stove (mainly nails from pallets) and some metal from various street-skips. I had no hassle whatsoever from the nice skip-site workers, who obviously don't give a damn that i use my bike trailer to deliver recyclables to the right place. I approve of this attitude.
From here I picked up a few logs from where tree surgeons had dumped stuff and also a sack of compostables from Freshways.
After tea I cycled round to my Freecycling (and soon to be unicycling!) friend Mark, who had responded to my Freecycle request for a TV. His Mother in Law had upgraded her system and was going to chuck out her old TV and freeview box... so he said, no, I'll put it on Freecycle and someone will be very happy with it. And indeed we are. It is slightly bigger than our previous one, which was £20 from Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, and had a scratched screen. This one has a really clear picture, good colour and no scratch! Brilliant, thanks Mark. One unicycling lesson as and when you want it!
After I delivered this home, for Gill to install, I went to a friend on Melrosegate who had some sticks for me,and I brought those back home. And I did some more after-dark riddling too, before coming in and sorting out hot water for yet more washing up....
I felt much better after this, not that low mood is necessarily connected with grubbiness...
I did lots of washing up after this and after lunch, did some work in the garden, including a job I've been wanting to do for a while but not had the enthusiasm. I've been chainsawing logs on the front garden on top of a large tarpaulin sheet, to catch the sawdust and other bits... the sawdust is my compost toilet cover material, the largest bits and bobs are bagged up and dried for kindling, and the medium sized bits, wet bark and small twigs etc are a useful 'carbon rich' constituent of my compost heaps. So I got the large flat riddle up to the front garden and put it on a bedsheet, and started riddling the large pile of sawdusty twiggy barky stuff... I filled two paper potato sacks with kindling-sized bits, 3 plastic sacks of sawdust and 3 plastic sacks of compost additives. I am perhaps a quarter of the way through the job, but there is several months worth of cutting and splitting frass which needs putting to good use. Anyone want a sack or two of compost toilet cover material?
At about 4pm I loaded up my trailer with our old television which has been going on the blink over the past few days, and has finally stopped working. I took it down to the repository for dead electrical equipment, the 'WEEE table' at Hazel Court. I also took two loudspeakers that I rescued months ago and didn't find a taker for, and a plastic bag of metalwork from the stove (mainly nails from pallets) and some metal from various street-skips. I had no hassle whatsoever from the nice skip-site workers, who obviously don't give a damn that i use my bike trailer to deliver recyclables to the right place. I approve of this attitude.
From here I picked up a few logs from where tree surgeons had dumped stuff and also a sack of compostables from Freshways.
After tea I cycled round to my Freecycling (and soon to be unicycling!) friend Mark, who had responded to my Freecycle request for a TV. His Mother in Law had upgraded her system and was going to chuck out her old TV and freeview box... so he said, no, I'll put it on Freecycle and someone will be very happy with it. And indeed we are. It is slightly bigger than our previous one, which was £20 from Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, and had a scratched screen. This one has a really clear picture, good colour and no scratch! Brilliant, thanks Mark. One unicycling lesson as and when you want it!
After I delivered this home, for Gill to install, I went to a friend on Melrosegate who had some sticks for me,and I brought those back home. And I did some more after-dark riddling too, before coming in and sorting out hot water for yet more washing up....
I enjoyed today as I visited my friend Ann for the first time in ages. She had requested some compost as she's just prepared a little patch of land for growing things in.
So I took 5 sacks of well rotted compost in my trailer over to Clememthorpe, and also some freegan Masala tea, freegan Saudi biscuits and a small bag of apple rings. I had a coffee and chat, met her handyman who was replacing a Velux window.
After this I went over to Millers Yard to pick up 5 sacks of orange halves, which I took to St Nicks. I collected my tin bath from here, as I left it there after Apple Day.
Home for lunch.
During the afternoon I finished building the logpile outside the front door.
And during the evening I watched The End Of The Line on More4, as well as playing Scrabble on facebook and doing the washing up.
So I took 5 sacks of well rotted compost in my trailer over to Clememthorpe, and also some freegan Masala tea, freegan Saudi biscuits and a small bag of apple rings. I had a coffee and chat, met her handyman who was replacing a Velux window.
After this I went over to Millers Yard to pick up 5 sacks of orange halves, which I took to St Nicks. I collected my tin bath from here, as I left it there after Apple Day.
Home for lunch.
During the afternoon I finished building the logpile outside the front door.
And during the evening I watched The End Of The Line on More4, as well as playing Scrabble on facebook and doing the washing up.
Gill woke me up just before she went to school with our youngest, and again when she came back after 9. So I got up then as I was due at St Nicks at about 10am, and got there in good time.
The school party were late, they'd come over from Harrogate and got stuck in traffic I think.
'Saint' John did intros and split the group into Saints and Rotters. Then he led all of us into the Nature Reserve and along the butterfly walk where he explained about the apple trees which arrived as pips at the tip with the Rowntrees apple waste and some grew on the top, and are now mature fruit-laden trees. Then to the stone circle and back to the Centre, stopping to look at the green roof.
I then took one group and did a half-hour composting session with them, encompassing what happens in landfills, what happens in an aerobic compost pile, we found lots of beasties including centipedes, millipedes, worms, springtails, woodlice, beetles. Then had a good poke around the Can Of Worms wormery. Then an open Q+A.
After a break I took the second group and we did the same again. I was finished by soon after midday.
Home via Freshways where I was given a lot of interesting compostables/edibles, some of which will have to go in a tumbler along with shredded brambles and hedge.
I got our youngest from school and spent quite a bit of time sorting things out in the garden and brought quite a bit back in for re-use.
Excellent day.
The school party were late, they'd come over from Harrogate and got stuck in traffic I think.
'Saint' John did intros and split the group into Saints and Rotters. Then he led all of us into the Nature Reserve and along the butterfly walk where he explained about the apple trees which arrived as pips at the tip with the Rowntrees apple waste and some grew on the top, and are now mature fruit-laden trees. Then to the stone circle and back to the Centre, stopping to look at the green roof.
I then took one group and did a half-hour composting session with them, encompassing what happens in landfills, what happens in an aerobic compost pile, we found lots of beasties including centipedes, millipedes, worms, springtails, woodlice, beetles. Then had a good poke around the Can Of Worms wormery. Then an open Q+A.
After a break I took the second group and we did the same again. I was finished by soon after midday.
Home via Freshways where I was given a lot of interesting compostables/edibles, some of which will have to go in a tumbler along with shredded brambles and hedge.
I got our youngest from school and spent quite a bit of time sorting things out in the garden and brought quite a bit back in for re-use.
Excellent day.
A late start after a late night. But I got up in time to get on my bike and heading for Clifton Moor for a meeting at midday. I had responded to a message about some unwanted garden equipment sent to people on the Low Moor Allotments email list a couple of weeks ago, and had a phone conversation with one of the old lady's daughters. The lady had been bereaved and her keen composter husband had several good bits of kit which she was selling, as she wasn't quite as keen as him!
So I viewed the mid-size Compostumbler, a Can-O-Worms wormery and a 'Merlin' wormery. I was mainly interested in the Compostumbler, and we'd negotiated on the price and I'd been offered it for £70, very reasonable. I bought the Can-O-Worms and she gave me the other wormery. They were VERY surprised that I was able to get all these on my bike and trailer, although I'm glad they didn't see my trailer fall over when I turned the Bumper Castle corner! The Compostumbler stayed on the trailer and I was able to pull it upright again quite easily, and I managed to get home slowly and more carefully.
I got home at about 1.30 and had lunch, and waited for my friend Friedmann, whom I met on a Critical Mass cycle ride ages ago, and his new partner Bettina, and his 14 year-old son. They came at 2.30 and we had a good chat over a cuppa, then a walk down the garden, then I took them to St Nicks. I really enjoyed their company, and was glad they came with me... and they might participate in the Eco-Active day next week.
I came home and got on with setting up the new Compostumbler, and doing some tidying up.
After 8pm I popped round to a Freecycler called Mark who was offering a set of 3 juggling balls and some size 10 'Dr Marten' shoes with steel toe caps. I had a good chat with him as he is a keen cyclist, has just bought a unicycle (but cannot ride it yet!) and is about to go and work at BikeRescue.
So a very busy day.
So I viewed the mid-size Compostumbler, a Can-O-Worms wormery and a 'Merlin' wormery. I was mainly interested in the Compostumbler, and we'd negotiated on the price and I'd been offered it for £70, very reasonable. I bought the Can-O-Worms and she gave me the other wormery. They were VERY surprised that I was able to get all these on my bike and trailer, although I'm glad they didn't see my trailer fall over when I turned the Bumper Castle corner! The Compostumbler stayed on the trailer and I was able to pull it upright again quite easily, and I managed to get home slowly and more carefully.
I got home at about 1.30 and had lunch, and waited for my friend Friedmann, whom I met on a Critical Mass cycle ride ages ago, and his new partner Bettina, and his 14 year-old son. They came at 2.30 and we had a good chat over a cuppa, then a walk down the garden, then I took them to St Nicks. I really enjoyed their company, and was glad they came with me... and they might participate in the Eco-Active day next week.
I came home and got on with setting up the new Compostumbler, and doing some tidying up.
After 8pm I popped round to a Freecycler called Mark who was offering a set of 3 juggling balls and some size 10 'Dr Marten' shoes with steel toe caps. I had a good chat with him as he is a keen cyclist, has just bought a unicycle (but cannot ride it yet!) and is about to go and work at BikeRescue.
So a very busy day.
Up early to get some riddled compost ready for Glenda, who asked me yesterday if I could come and sort out her Bokashi bins, and take the bokashi-ed stuff away, as she does not compost...
I cycled 3 carrier bags of recently riddled compost over, plus a sack of riddled last year. She was delighted, and also that I took away her 3 bokashi bins-worth. I'll help her set up a compost bin next time I visit.
Then went on to another friend who wasn't in but had left a Freecycle gift (a sewing machine!) and had asked me to break up an old bed. This didn't take long but then I got involved in a discussion with a neighbour, who seemed good at giving responsibility for sorting out the world's mess to everybody else but herself... corporations, governments, and she said twice that it was better to make little changes rather than not make any at all... which I agreed with, but then said that little changes were not enough. She got a bit pissed off with me. But then another neighbour came out, and saw my load of wood on the trailer and offered me some more, and was very very positive about what I'm doing as we loaded up even more stuff into my panniers etc.
So I came home with a huge load of bokashi-ed gunk, wood and sewing machine.
I processed some of the wood, enjoyed lunch did more stuff outside, washed up as Gill was preparing tea, and at about 4 Lorna turned up. She had really wanted to come on the World Naked Bike Ride, after participating in the Spencer Tunick photos over at Blarney Castle.
So we got ourselves ready, Lorna borrowed Gill's bike and we cycled into town, popping into Waterstones for a voucher for a birthday present and then the pastie shop before having a sit down in Museum Gardens awaiting the other naked riders. People started trickling in, painted up, or were painted by friends there and then. Lorna put my slogan 'No Fossil Fumes' and an arrow pointing downwards on my back, and she asked me to put 'I (heart) bikes' on hers.
Dave Taylor, Green Councillor sent us on our way, and the police escort was good. There were 100 people on the ride, 30 more than last year, and we cycled very slowly for about 90 minutes, about 6.5 miles, according to several people with mileometers on their bikes.
Lorna and I went via St Nicks on the way back, and then onto home where we warmed up and chatted with Gill, Lorna leaving at 8.30.
What a lovely day. Very enjoyable.
I cycled 3 carrier bags of recently riddled compost over, plus a sack of riddled last year. She was delighted, and also that I took away her 3 bokashi bins-worth. I'll help her set up a compost bin next time I visit.
Then went on to another friend who wasn't in but had left a Freecycle gift (a sewing machine!) and had asked me to break up an old bed. This didn't take long but then I got involved in a discussion with a neighbour, who seemed good at giving responsibility for sorting out the world's mess to everybody else but herself... corporations, governments, and she said twice that it was better to make little changes rather than not make any at all... which I agreed with, but then said that little changes were not enough. She got a bit pissed off with me. But then another neighbour came out, and saw my load of wood on the trailer and offered me some more, and was very very positive about what I'm doing as we loaded up even more stuff into my panniers etc.
So I came home with a huge load of bokashi-ed gunk, wood and sewing machine.
I processed some of the wood, enjoyed lunch did more stuff outside, washed up as Gill was preparing tea, and at about 4 Lorna turned up. She had really wanted to come on the World Naked Bike Ride, after participating in the Spencer Tunick photos over at Blarney Castle.
So we got ourselves ready, Lorna borrowed Gill's bike and we cycled into town, popping into Waterstones for a voucher for a birthday present and then the pastie shop before having a sit down in Museum Gardens awaiting the other naked riders. People started trickling in, painted up, or were painted by friends there and then. Lorna put my slogan 'No Fossil Fumes' and an arrow pointing downwards on my back, and she asked me to put 'I (heart) bikes' on hers.
Dave Taylor, Green Councillor sent us on our way, and the police escort was good. There were 100 people on the ride, 30 more than last year, and we cycled very slowly for about 90 minutes, about 6.5 miles, according to several people with mileometers on their bikes.
Lorna and I went via St Nicks on the way back, and then onto home where we warmed up and chatted with Gill, Lorna leaving at 8.30.
What a lovely day. Very enjoyable.
I woke as Gill was doing something in the bedroom, and she said she was going to the garage to get our eldest child's bike out, but I knew it was kinda tangled up with other bikes, or at least mine would have to come out first, so I said I'd do it. He'd been invited to go to the Yorkshire Museum by Simon and his son, as there was a 'Portable Antiquities Open Day' event there, and Simon's son has been doing some field walking near where the new sewer has been put in between the new University Campus ('Heslington East') and Elvington... and has found lots of pottery and one enormous iron nail.
So our lad set off with just one item.... a clear glass bottle with a marble stopper and the original rubber seal ring which I found near where the University had trashed a stretch of woodland.
I got a delivery of a HUGE poster from The Age Of Stupid. I'd like to find somewhere sensible to put it up...
So, a peaceful day ensued... I did some paperwork... an invoice (on reused paper, as usual) and a couple of other bits and bobs, including watching a 50 minute film about the making of The Age of Stupid. This was fascinating... the concept was born in 2002, as 'Crude' and used a novel approach to funding, called 'crowd funding' with 'shares' being sold (the first batch were £500 each), and then the subsequent evolution of the film, with Pete Postlethwaite being invited to be the crux of the film right at the last minute. Really worth watching... I am so looking forward to seeing the film on the 15th... next weekend.
I got a phone call from a chap round the corner who had got some waste wood outside his house I was interested in, and I'd left a note saying if they didn't want it, I would be happy to recycle it for them. He rang as he was clearing out a house in Tang Hall/Heworth area where a relative had died last year, and there was some wood in the garden he was wanting rid of. So I said I would come round within half an hour and see what there was. He admitted he'd already disposed of some stuff on a bonfire. Anyway, I easily found the house as the whole of Heworth was full of the smoke from his bonfire... There was quite a bit of wood left, and I sorted out the stuff I wanted from the non-burnable wood, and advised him to get the rest of it recycled at Hazel Court. There was also a couple of rolls of chicken wire which they wanted rid of, and I was glad to have this! As I was leaving, he offered me a pair of unused wellington boots with steel toe caps... my size too!
So I cycled into town with a trailer full of wood and wire netting and the wellies too, and went in search of a beard trimmer. My research had not found a wind-up model although there are a couple of wind-up shavers available, just not beard trimmers. So I went to Boots and got a model by Remington with rechargeable batteries, costing £25.
Came home via Country Fresh, and once I got home and unloaded, I popped back down to Freshways to pick up their 'resources'. After a coffee I did an hour's worth of filling the Compostubler with a mix of fruit and veg, shredded Christmas tree, sawdust stuff which was too big to go through the riddle and unwanted bokashi bran which St Nicks didn't want, as it had got damp and partly gone mouldy.
Spent quite a bit of time preparing pears... I have absolutely loads from the collections over the past few days. I wash each one and let it drip dry on the plate drying rack, then cut it in half from the stalk to the flower remnant, take out the core, flower, strings up to the stalk and the stalk, then peel it, taking out any bruises or damage. Then I cut each half into three, lengthways, resulting in 6 slices per pair, put on the cake racks for drying. Dried pears are one of my favourites!
Our eldest son came in having had a good time cycling and playing. We had tea... home made tomato soup and a Thomas' Vegetable Pastie. Not too bad an evening, although there was noisy resistance from the children to being asked to go to bed at 10.20.
I stayed up late whilst Gill slept on the sofa next to me as usual, until the early hours when I go to bed and she comes up too.
So our lad set off with just one item.... a clear glass bottle with a marble stopper and the original rubber seal ring which I found near where the University had trashed a stretch of woodland.
I got a delivery of a HUGE poster from The Age Of Stupid. I'd like to find somewhere sensible to put it up...
So, a peaceful day ensued... I did some paperwork... an invoice (on reused paper, as usual) and a couple of other bits and bobs, including watching a 50 minute film about the making of The Age of Stupid. This was fascinating... the concept was born in 2002, as 'Crude' and used a novel approach to funding, called 'crowd funding' with 'shares' being sold (the first batch were £500 each), and then the subsequent evolution of the film, with Pete Postlethwaite being invited to be the crux of the film right at the last minute. Really worth watching... I am so looking forward to seeing the film on the 15th... next weekend.
I got a phone call from a chap round the corner who had got some waste wood outside his house I was interested in, and I'd left a note saying if they didn't want it, I would be happy to recycle it for them. He rang as he was clearing out a house in Tang Hall/Heworth area where a relative had died last year, and there was some wood in the garden he was wanting rid of. So I said I would come round within half an hour and see what there was. He admitted he'd already disposed of some stuff on a bonfire. Anyway, I easily found the house as the whole of Heworth was full of the smoke from his bonfire... There was quite a bit of wood left, and I sorted out the stuff I wanted from the non-burnable wood, and advised him to get the rest of it recycled at Hazel Court. There was also a couple of rolls of chicken wire which they wanted rid of, and I was glad to have this! As I was leaving, he offered me a pair of unused wellington boots with steel toe caps... my size too!
So I cycled into town with a trailer full of wood and wire netting and the wellies too, and went in search of a beard trimmer. My research had not found a wind-up model although there are a couple of wind-up shavers available, just not beard trimmers. So I went to Boots and got a model by Remington with rechargeable batteries, costing £25.
Came home via Country Fresh, and once I got home and unloaded, I popped back down to Freshways to pick up their 'resources'. After a coffee I did an hour's worth of filling the Compostubler with a mix of fruit and veg, shredded Christmas tree, sawdust stuff which was too big to go through the riddle and unwanted bokashi bran which St Nicks didn't want, as it had got damp and partly gone mouldy.
Spent quite a bit of time preparing pears... I have absolutely loads from the collections over the past few days. I wash each one and let it drip dry on the plate drying rack, then cut it in half from the stalk to the flower remnant, take out the core, flower, strings up to the stalk and the stalk, then peel it, taking out any bruises or damage. Then I cut each half into three, lengthways, resulting in 6 slices per pair, put on the cake racks for drying. Dried pears are one of my favourites!
Our eldest son came in having had a good time cycling and playing. We had tea... home made tomato soup and a Thomas' Vegetable Pastie. Not too bad an evening, although there was noisy resistance from the children to being asked to go to bed at 10.20.
I stayed up late whilst Gill slept on the sofa next to me as usual, until the early hours when I go to bed and she comes up too.
