They claim in the bible that Jesus turned wine into water, well we must be blessed as we have turned wood into meat.
With the help of some good old fashion bartering, we have barted the odd thing before with friends, but this is a real biggie, we have access to an unlimited supply of wood suitable for kindling, so we got some of those big netted onion bags, (thank heavens for e-bay) bagged up kindling and took it along to our local farm shop Fowleys and Wally he has offered to sell it in his shop and instead of us having cash we are having meat, all very simple.
Since hubby went away I set myself a task well more of a challenge not to draw or spend any money from the bank, so that the money in the bank just pays household running expenses, but anything else must be generated at home cash and that is what we have to live on for food, petrol chicken feed, entertainment clothes etc
Not an easy task but is is surprising how you do it, that s how the bartering came into being with the butcher, veggies we grow and I have just had the arrival of a new batch of veggie seeds for next year from Victoriana Nursery Gardens they have some great varieties and some real good old fashioned varieties, this year I grew there climbing peas and we had a great crop, I grew them over some arches in the garden, the climbed to about 7ft and the peas were gorgeous, I did intend to get a second crop in but the weather has been disastrous this year, but there was plenty to freeze so we are still using them.
so back to my plan, so far so good it all seems to be working well and I haven't touched any money in the bank, it has meant I have to be really carefully with using the car and think twice about it, if I can I walk or cycle, but we still need cash so I have been doing lots of little things to generate cash coming in, selling all the junk I have accumulated over the years on e-bay, its great to have a good clear out, I have also been selling some cards and hand made soaps its all bringing in little bits but the plan is working. It is surprising how little cash you can manage on and it makes you think twice before buying. The aim of course is to save and save so we can carry out our dream and buy a small holding, I did some calculations and I think I can save about £10,000 a year doing this, we will just have to see what happens.
Today we are building a new chicken house, now hubby has returned from his jaunt to Nepal we need to get new accommodation built for our growing family of feathered friends, The Hamburghs have now started laying really cute white bantam eggs, and my teenage chooks who are now 17 weeks have been moved down the garden next to the adults, the Silkies are growing fast and it looks like they both might be cockerels which is a real shame after all the problems I had with them.
