Down the Allotment

Spring is taking a long time to show up this year, but we are using the time wisely and preparing our allotment for planting! It's pretty exciting.

Most allotments are long, narrow strips of land, measured in "poles". A standard 10-pole allotment is about 250 metres squared, which is a LOT of digging. We share our allotment, and it's a 5-pole, with a chicken house on the end, so it's not a lot of land.

This is our first year to actually plant anything, since we got the allotment too late in the year last year to do anything. It was COVERED in weeds - especially wild blackberry vines, which was a bit tricky to remove. We've just focused on preparing the area for planting and setting up our chickens.

This picture shows the full length of our space; I am standing at the beginning of the land and if you squint you can see a brown bin and a chicken enclosure at the back. (I don't know what my daughter is doing)

Our half is on the left. I have four raised beds and a patch of ground we dug up.

This raised bed at the front will house brassicas. It is 1 metre square, so not a lot of space, but I'm still a beginner! Don't run when you can't walk, etc...

This is the same bed with netting over the top to deter cabbage fly or whatever the nasties are called. Several years ago we tried to grow cabbages without netting and they were destroyed by the caterpillars of these white moth things. Sad.

This bed has a frame of chicken wire over the top, the better for peas and beans to climb. I'm looking forward to watching this get tangled with plants!

These beds are narrower (I was using wood we have lying around the house and didn't want to buy stuff) and are about 800cms squared, instead of a full metre. One will be for root vegetables, and the other will be a mini greenhouse, with clear plastic sheeting wrapped around a framework of some type. That'll be a job for next month, after payday. :)

This patch of ground will be for a three sisters project -- sweetcorn and beans planted side by side (beans will climb up the sweetcorn) and some squash in the middle to cut down on weeds. I'm also going to plant kale and cardoon (some sort of old-fashioned vegetable, no idea). Maybe some more carrots or something.

This is the view from the back of the allotment. Oh, and a few chickens! We have five.

1. Chickens stink.

2. Chickens aren't especially intelligent.

3. We really like them anyway.

The ladies were enjoying the results of our digging very much; they ate lots of little bugs that day, and got in the way of shovels and forks in their excitement! They are ex-battery hens, so it is nice to feel like we've improved their lives in a substantial way. They've fattened up a lot since we got them, and their feathers are so glossy now. I think they are moulting at the moment, so not many eggs, but that's ok. They are a bit like a garbage disposal, and love our kitchen scraps. They are particularly fond of soggy breakfast cereal, cold porridge and leftover pasta.

Chicken enclosure. They aren't as free range as I'd like, but there are foxes about and we need to protect them from danger! They have a little house to hunker down in at night and during inclement weather, and a small yard to scratch around in during the day. We let them roam while we are there, which they love a lot. Someday, we will own our own house with a big enough garden to keep chickens at home. Yes, they smell, but if they were all the way at the bottom and given room to roam all day, I think the smell wouldn't be as concentrated. (yes, yuck)

I convinced my husband to pose for this picture. It's the closest we'll ever get to being farmers...

....but this is how we normally behave. No decorum.

Five Things for Friday: TSA and Opting Out

When I flew to the States last month, I also made a separate journey from Indianapolis to Salt Lake. All told, from start to finish, I think I flew on 8 different planes!

That's a LOT of potential scans from those TSA x-ray machines, and although they say it's safe and all, why expose yourself to more radiation than necessary?

When choosing to opt out of their scanners, please use the phrase "I'm opting out." That is the legal terminology they are listening out for, apparently.

So here are some tips gleaned from my experiences.

-1-

Don't wear any loose, flowing clothing, and if possible, wear comfortable trousers/pants without pockets. I originally planned on wearing a skirt (I usually wear skirts anyway), but decided on the trousers because of pat-downs -- it makes it easier for the TSA officials to do their jobs if you don't have extra fabric of the skirt getting in the way.

My blazer was great, because it did have pockets, but I could take it off in the queue and simply told the officials that I didn't have pockets when they asked. It just simplified things.

-2-

Speaking of pat-downs: they aren't fun, but in the end it wasn't a huge deal. I opted out of the scanners in Indianapolis (twice, but had 3 pat-downs!), Salt Lake City (once), and Newark (once). 

Every time, I had a short wait for a female official, and I was always treated with courtesy and respect. 

Of all those opting out moments, interestingly enough, only one other person opted out that I could see. Hmm.

-3-

Here's a little tip: Don't wear hairspray! The TSA officials wear blue gloves during the pat-down, then wipe them with some sort of paper which is then scanned for chemicals. I hardly ever wear hairspray, but for some reason decided to give it a try on the morning of my flight, and it made the machine test positive for TNT.

I was asked to move into a private room (gulp) and the lady's female manager came in for another pat-down. They asked me about the hairspray, which I confirmed I was wearing, and they didn't seem surprised. I then watched as the original official wiped down my electronic items with fresh paper and scanned them for chemicals.

All told, it was an extra 10 minutes or so of my time, but it wasn't onerous or anything. I even said to the woman, "Thank you for being professional and courteous" to which she seemed taken aback; she responded with "Thank YOU for not being hateful!". Sounds like a stressful job....

-4-

I realise that everyone's experiences are different, and things like this can be so random depending on who is working that day, how busy it is, and what mood those TSA folks happen to be in at the moment. But even at Newark, where the line was mega huge and took FOREVER to get through, the officials were never less than courteous and polite. I never even got a "look" or huff when I told them I was opting out.

I was getting myself all freaked out by TSA horror stories, like retaliatory wait times or men performing pat-downs on women, but it never happened to me.

I didn't particularly enjoy choosing the pat-downs, and looked longingly at a few families that walked right through the metal detectors (like in Britain!), but oh well. That's a small price to pay to avoid all that radiation, I feel.

-5-

The pat-downs in the States are so much more... thorough... than the ones in Britain. I flew out of Birmingham airport and was chosen for a pat-down there, too. (hurray?)

It was a quick check for any suspicious gun-shaped lumps on my person, I'm assuming. In the States, every area subject to pat-down was checked at least twice. 

It was funny to notice the difference, although it didn't matter much in the end. I'm a placid mother of four for goodness sake. The most exciting thing I took on the plane was my very dangerous hairspray.

(speaking of which, what do they put in that stuff, to make it test positive for TNT?!)

Stake Conference Activity Sheet

For anyone who is interested, last year I made a Stake Conference Activity Sheet. It's tailored for our times and area, but you could modify it for your needs. My son especially enjoyed it!

Link

Let me know if it doesn't work!

Mood swings and dishes

I've found a connection between my moodiness and the state of my kitchen. It turns out, the dirtier and messier it is, the more depressed I get!

This cute little wall sign is just not true for me:

See the artfully "messy" display? That sort of a mess breeds in my house, turning into something like this:

Only my kitchen is probably about half the size of this one, with twice as many bowls and cutlery stacked up perilously high.

I once got published at a comedy site and they came up with this info-graphic to match my words. This is how I feel about doing the dishes most of the time:

It really is strange how my mood changes so significantly while I'm doing the dishes. We don't have room in our kitchen for a dishwasher -- and I'm not entirely convinced it would cut down on my work load anyway -- so it's just me standing there for a half an hour, at least once a day.

Once I get over my disdain for STARTING the job (see above), I actually don't mind it all that much. It's a bit meditative, doing repetitive tasks, and I have frequently received flashes of insight or inspiration while washing bowls and spoons. The feeling of satisfaction after a job well done is also nice.

I have this tendency to think that once I've cleaned something, it should STAY THAT WAY for a really long time. HA. Ridiculous, I know. I have four kids, for goodness sake.

But I just can't get away from the fact that my mood is linked to the number of dirty dishes in the house, or just the general cleanliness of the kitchen itself. I don't require it to be sparkling (the oven needs to be seriously scrubbed soon and the floor is always covered with something crunchy...) but I need enough space to prepare food and it needs to be clean enough to avoid contamination.

My standards are really high, I know.

Thoughts on Violence

Do not attend, view, or participate in anything that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way. Do not participate in anything that presents immorality or violence as acceptable. (source)

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have agreed to live to a certain code of values, one of which is described above.

Too often, I self-limit this set of values and focus only on the vulgar, immoral or pornographic side of things. If a movie, tv show or song describes/shows/infers sexual activities, I tend to turn away from it and put it out of my mind.

Am I as diligent when it comes to violence? Have I accepted violent behaviour as normal or even desirable?

After re-examining my viewing habits, I've had to conclude that violence permeated these forms of entertainment far more than I realised at first. I watch crime shows with images of dead bodies in gruesome circumstances, the characters showing little to no reaction to the scene and often banter or flirt while standing over the kind of gore that would make me vomit in real life. But hey, they are cops and "professionals" so it's all in a day's work to them. There are spy shows that frequently have characters hitting, shooting, and blowing other people up. All in a days' work, right? Besides, they were the "bad guys" and had it coming to them.

Or what about books? I have recently read a book that discusses violent behaviour over and over. The descriptions run along the line of "I hit him several times until he fell unconscious to the floor" or "I buried my sword into his chest up to the hilt". These aren't direct quotes, but you get the idea. There wasn't a graphic description of blood and guts, but I was still able to imagine a pretty detailed scene in my head and knew that the death count of the main character was disturbingly high (the character himself didn't seem particularly perturbed, however).

After I'd read the book, I considered watching the movie -- it's fun to see a story come to life! But after reflecting on all those fight scenes I had just finished reading, I realised that I didn't actually WANT to see it.

Is it odd to be so used to violence in our media? Is it better or worse to see violence, to imagine violence, or to play a violent video game? Are there shades of grey? Does it affect our psyche?

I suppose everyone has to come to their own conclusions. I myself have found that when I turn away from violence in the media, over time, my ability to consume it is lessened. I can't seem to cope with it as well and it can actually turn my stomach. I regret reading that book, and have decided to be a lot more careful with my choice of reading material.

I sometimes consider the reason given in the Bible for the Flood:

 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all ^aflesh had corrupted his ^bway upon the earth.

 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with ^aviolence through them; and, behold, I will ^bdestroy them ^cwith the earth.

It wasn't corruption through greed, tyranny, sexual perversion.... it was violence. People were violent, and God found that unacceptable.

That's an interesting thought.

What to Wear on the Plane; a Plan to Survive Jet Lag

In a few weeks, I'm flying out to visit family and friends in the USA, my country of origin.

Excitement abounds! I haven't been to the States in five years (almost exactly!) and I'm looking forward to spending time with friends and finally meeting my little nephews!

Today I've been thinking about what to wear on my flight. I'll be travelling for many hours - about 12 or 13 - and want to be comfortable but still look half decent.

Last year I stopped wearing trousers/jeans entirely, so I figured I'd just wear a comfy skirt with a nice top.

That's all well and good, but most of my skirts wrinkle easily or have waistbands that I wouldn't really want to sit in for hours on end (buttons/zips/etc). After reading other people's advice online, I wanted to do a bit of layering so I can keep warm or cool off as the temperature fluctuates. I have two jackets - a denim one, which is nice but not something I'd want to wear for long periods of time in a confined space (it's not stretchy enough) or a cute short-sleeved jacket that isn't really suited for keeping me warm!

After a bit of on-line shopping, I settled on Matalan (sale! woohoo!) and came up with a few nice items that should travel well.

The blazer is on sale for five pounds! Total bargain. The top (described as navy, so hopefully will go okay with the navy blazer, but I'm no fashionista, so who knows) is also five pounds. 

The gold maxi skirt supposedly has a slit up to the knee (it's very hard to tell, but I think it's that high), so I'll probably sew it up a bit. But for five pounds again, I am okay with that slight flaw. The waistband is elastic, so it should be comfy to sit in for a long time. Also, the nature of the fabric means that a few extra wrinkles won't look out of place!

I already have a yellow pashmina (extra warmth/layering), black leggings and black flats. I think it's a cute little outfit, and the clothes are all something I can wear with other items in my wardrobe. 

In fact, right now I'm wearing a long skirt with leggings underneath (gotta love the layers), a long sleeved top and jacket. I guess this is my "style."

Also on my traveling list:

kindle

MP3 player

earplugs

neck cushion

warm socks

toiletry items: toothbrush, gum, deodorant, hairbrush, talcum powder

spare clothes just in case my luggage gets lost!

Is there anything else that would help?

=========================================

My time in the States is super limited, and there is a lot of stuff I want to get done and many people I want to see while I'm there. So I've decided to try a certain trick to overcome jet lag: fasting. 

Apparently, our body clocks reset faster with mealtimes than they do with sleep times. My plane takes off at 9am, and lands in Newark at noon, local time. I'll have a three hour layover while I'm there, so my plan is to eat a super light breakfast before I get on the plane, and abstain from food until I land, eating lunch alongside everyone else in the airport.

There are lots of nay-sayers to this plan, saying that it's too hard to fast for such a long time and in such close quarters to other people who are eating freely, but I have plenty of practice fasting for my religious beliefs. I think I'll be okay! Hopefully I'll be able to distract myself with good books and snoozing. 

I think it's worth the sacrifice to allow me the ability to overcome jet lag as fast as possible, without resorting to over the counter drugs or caffeinated drinks. 

To be quite honest, although I'm not necessarily looking forward to being cooped up on the plane for such a long time, the prospect of reading a book with no interruptions certainly appeals!!

Five Things for Friday: Family Life Edition

-1-

My youngest child is the clown of the family. At 2.5 years old, she does everything and anything she can in order to get a laugh from someone else. Unfortunately, my older children do not have discerning tastes when it comes to humour, so toilet jokes rule the day. Specifically, she has recently taken to calling me "Mummy Butt". 

I'm not too fond of that nick-name, to be honest.

So after a few days of asking her to stop, she occasionally reminds herself by coming out with, "No say butt?" and every time, I have to confirm this fact.

But this has severely limited her joking material. A two year old only has a couple of jokes, and I've taken one away! Don't worry, she came up with a replacement. 

Whenever I do something she approves of, such as helping her on the toilet, or serving food, or tying shoes, she'll say "Good doggie!"

At least before, I was actually human.

-2-

Yesterday was another daughter's birthday. She is now six years old! She has to use TWO hands to show her age! It's a breakthrough. As you can imagine, having a birthday so close to Christmas can be quite hectic. Ever since I found out her due date (the 1st of January, actually, so hurray for not going overdue!), I stressed about how to make her birthday memorable and separate from Christmas itself.

Our birthday traditions don't change for her, for one thing. She still goes out shopping for her own presents with birthday money (usually with just Dad, but we've had to be flexible on this one from time to time), she still gets to bake her own cake and eat the "first bite". (birthday kid takes a bite out of the cake before cutting) A banner or balloons or some such are put up. We usually forego birthday wrapping paper and either use plain paper or pile everything up on the table with a cloth covering it all. (I'd like to say this is because we're just so good at being green but it's mostly due to laziness!)

The day after Christmas, we take all the decorations down. We put them up during the first week of December, so we don't mind the mad rush to put them away straight after Christmas. This gives us a small break between two celebrations. 

Birthday parties are best in early January, after the flurry of family visits are out of the way.

Yesterday, I asked her if her birthday felt special, and she said yes. She quite likes her birthday being so close to Christmas, because she gets a mountain of presents by the end of it all! The rest of the year seems a bit hum-drum, of course, but at least she won't ever feel like her birthday was lumped in with Christmas. I heard stories of people's birthdays being forgotten, or presents combined into one "big" present, or a present wrapped in Christmas paper.... I mean, if it was no big deal, kids wouldn't carry those memories into adulthood, right? I didn't want that to happen to my daughter.

So far, so good. I look forward to making the same effort for many more birthdays to come!

-3-

We rent. Due to house prices, the way banks lend, being a single income family, and our family size, we'll probably be renting for a long time to come. As such, house decor has never been high on my list of priorities. 

A few years back, my friends came up with an AMAZING surprise while my husband and I went away for a short weekend break. They looked after our kids while at the same time repainted our living room! We had talked about painting the lower half of the wall a lovely chocolate brown for several years, but never really got around to it. These friends called in some more people and completely blitzed the house in 24 hours. It was jaw-dropping! I still smile thinking about it.

On a sad note, we moved out of that house a little over a year later, and the landlords wanted the walls back to off-white. Repainting the walls was a little bit heartbreaking but also just plain ANNOYING. The brown was really nice! It may not sound as good as I'm describing it, but it really gave the house some character, in a quiet sort of way.

We painted the house after moving most of the furniture out of the way, but it was highly stressful in a stressful situation (is moving EVER simple?!).

So this house has all white walls, except for in the kids' bedrooms, and we're keeping them that way. The girls' bedroom has one garishly pink wall - fine. My son's bedroom as a bright yellow wall - also fine. We've put a few pictures up and that's that.

But the rest of the house is bright white. Well, bright white from about 4 feet from the floor and upwards. My toddler views the walls as her blank canvas, and grubby hands make marks all along doorways and around light switches! 

I digress. On one wall, there was a lovely centrepiece of pretty wallpaper just on the part that jutted out around the (gas) fireplace. When we first moved in, it was in pretty great condition. Two years later, not so much. There were gouges and scratches and peeled bits of paper and it finally succeeded in driving me just crazy enough to do something about it.

Last night I started pulling it down, and 24 hours later, it's over halfway done. I do a little bit at a time, encouraging the kids to join in, and soon there will be more bright whiteness staring me in the face.

I will not succumb to the temptation of painting colour on the walls. I will keep them white. 

I may, however, buy some sort of vinyl sticker motif to put on the walls; at least they come off easily!

Source: vinylimpression.co.uk via Sarah on Pinterest

-4-

In about a month, I'm going back to the States for a visit! I've lived in England for 13.5 years, and have only been back ONCE. Isn't that crazy? Well, I mean, the cost makes it difficult, but still! Since I've been married, my husband has been to the States like 5 times or something. HE'S NOT EVEN AMERICAN. LIKE ME. I AM AMERICAN.

Okay, so most of those times he went for work. I'm still not letting him off easy.

The main reason I'm going back is to visit my friend and help her with her new baby. She's pregnant with her eighth! She'll need all the help she can get! I haven't seen her since she moved back to America about 6 months ago? I can't quite remember. Anyway, it's been a while! And my other friend, who also moved back to the States but over a year ago, is coming along to help with the baby too, and it's going to be a reunion! I'm super excited!

Hopefully, I'll be able to see family, too, but I don't know... direct flights between the two cities are hard to find, which is silly. The other flights had 2 or 3 stop overs and took 12+ hours to reach the destination. A direct flight would take 3 or 4 hours. Bah!

I'm kind of scared to leave my kids for 11 days, because I'm still breastfeeding my toddler and don't want to forcibly wean her. I have a feeling that she'll pick right back up from where we left off, but who knows, y'know? We'll see. She has Daddy and all her older siblings, so she'll be ok. Me? I'll probably be a wreck by the end of it, but at least I'll be comforted by a brand new baby to hold. Aaaahhh.

-5-

Y'all remember my Living Chemical Free series? Well, I thought I'd mention a new hair wash alternative that I just tried today.

Eggs.

Yup. Just crack that baby on your scalp and you're good to go!

Okay, not really.

You use the egg yolk. I just did it all in the shower, straight up. I cracked the egg into my hand, let the whites dribble through my fingers down the drain, and agitated the yolk in between my palms just like soap. I was surprised at how big the yolk is - way more to it than a blob of shampoo!

As I scrubbed it into my hair, the yolk left a white residue on my hands. Weird?! I don't know if the white was the grease coming off or what, but that was not the colour I expected.

Today my hair was pretty gross; I can't remember the last time I washed it, but probably a good week ago at least. I needed two eggs to get the job done thoroughly! (I just feel the need to mention here that I actually shower much more regularly than I wash my hair....)

So two egg yolks destroyed the oil slick on my head and left my hair tangle-free and soft and lovely. Hurray!

It doesn't smell of anything. My hair smells like hair. I was ever-so-slightly concerned that my ultra-hot shower would cook the egg on my head (which is silly, because I don't like my showers hot enough to scald my skin), so out of paranoia I turned the heat down to more luke-warm ish. 

I gotta say, I LOVE THIS. How easy is it to crack an egg, right? No prep work, no extra thought, no concoctions to brew up. Crack, plop, done.

So yeah. Try washing your hair with an egg. See what happens.

I also washed my 9 year old's hair with apple sauce today, because apparently it's good for dandruff and that child has dry skin issues. I didn't want to bathe her scalp in chemicals, so this seemed like a good alternative. FYI, make sure your homemade applesauce is skin-less. Those little pieces of apple peelings are not easy to wash out! However, I think it's been worth it because her head looks flake-free. I will update on that later.