She's Off ...

Just before the heatwave hit the other week, we made the decision to turn off the Aga.  Before that she had not been off for well over a year, she was switched off briefly early last Spring but we missed the familiar warmth so much she only stayed off for a couple of days ... she was after all the heart of the home.

Well that's what I thought, this year though it's strange but I feel totally differently about her.  

The beautiful cool of the kitchen each morning is wonderful to step into.  No rushing around opening windows to let the overwhelming heat escape.  Of course, we do miss opening the oven doors and chucking something in knowing it will be beautifully cooked in next to no time.

But shhh ...  don't tell her ... she has a couple of little replacements, that between them are managing to do all the things that her great big hunk of hot cast iron usually does. 

 A simple little hot plate bought off Amazon deals with all the boiling, simmering, and poaching, while our trusty old Remoska is sharing oven duties with the microwave.   As Alan has found it cooks a mean steak and has his bacon sizzling and crispy in no time.

I'm loving the simplicity of this so much I'm very tempted to get rid of the hob in the Van and have just one of these instead.  Just think of all that extra space I would have on the worktop.

Ours is an electric Aga, a reconditioned older model that is a doddle to switch on and off, although she will take a full 24 hours to reach optimum temperature once we decide that it's time for her to be switched back on.  And for that we need to run off the mains as she only runs off our solar power during the day.  She drained the battery back up system so much at night when we first installed her that she would have shortened the life of the battery bank.  So she was switched over to a 50/50 use of mains and solar power.

And talking of power we are saving a lot of money while she is switched off and the sun is shining so regularly, the 45 solar panels are pulling in the lovely daylight and sending a much larger proportion to the National Grid meaning more money for us and less being eaten by a hungry Aga.

Sue xx

Miss It When I'm Away

Vanlife suits me to a tee.

I miss it when I'm away (like now) .. but relish it all the more when I can get back.

The lazy moments are celebrated and appreciated.

Doggy walks are to be enjoyed by everyone.  

I try to get into the dogs' mindset ... noticing the things around me, the smells of the damp grass, the all invasive Himalayan Balsam.  I see the damselflies flitting over the river, I hear the sounds like the river lapping at the bank and the motorway humming in the distance, the crackle of the electricity in the pylons as we cross under the wires.  If you forget all about everything that usually fills your mind, the lists of things to do, things people have said to you, things you want, things you need and give yourself over to the walk it becomes so much more in every way.

Photo from Google Images

Forgetting the worries or thoughts of the day and being in the spirit of the walk means it's so much more relaxing. 

And if Suky leads me almost unbidden to our favourite 'coffee and cake' shop it is usually very welcomed, with the hustle and bustle of ordering a filter coffee, picking up a glass of water and a Bonio dog biscuit (her 'coffee and cake') for Suky, exchanging pleasantries with the staff and other customers, and finally finding a table leading me back in a nice gentle way into the day ahead.

Sue xx

A Fruity Day

Yesterday was a fruity day.  

Unusual for me as I'm not a great fruit lover, but I am enjoying English strawberries at the moment ... and adding them to my morning Weetabix means I at least have one of my five a day in the form of fruit.

I also tried adding some to my jug of tap water stored in the fridge.  

To be honest, I'm not sure if it's completely my cup of tea but it made a pleasant change.  I don't like sweet drinks and the fruit did obviously make the water sweeter and sweeter over the course of the day and it went mushy which I found a bit disconcerting ... although the chickens enjoyed eating it when I fished it out after drinking all the water  :-)

This though I can live with ... it tastes bloody gorgeous.

Sue xx

Selling What We Don't Need

We are in the zone.  We are selling what we don't need to fund what we do need.  Whether it be physical things or time together.  This weekend saw the touring caravan sold ... the money we received will be buying Alan a new car, well a new to him car.  He needs a more fuel-efficient and presentable car for the day job and now he has the funds to start to look for one.

Our Facebook Marketplace selling started with this running machine.  

Seldom used and taking up a lot of space in the conservatory, it sat there making Alan feel guilty at its purchase every time he passed by.  I listed it realistically priced and with a link to the new details on the companies website so that the potential buyers could read all about it and see for themselves its value.  It went within four hours of being listed and made us £100 ... and what was even more important to us, space in the conservatory and no more guilt.

Next to go was the Ifor Williams tipper trailer.  It sold within days and got us a good price ... enough to pay completely for our long weekend in Amsterdam.  It was nice to come back to lots of space on the driveway too.

Next, it was a little sale ... I got £8 for the little caravan wall cupboard.  We'll never need it again so far better that it go to someone who needed it for a reasonable price.

We were tidying up at the back of the shed when I saw the wire parts of the Eglu and realised that we would never be using it again.  So within a couple of hours, all the components parts had been found, washed and assembled and we got it listed.

It made us £110, and made a lovely couple that traveled a long way in heavy traffic very happy ... now they can begin their chicken keeping adventures, with a good bit of kit bought at a reasonable price

At the end of last week, we sold this still boxed under the counter fridge-freezer, bought a week before our first flat sale fell through ... which was over two years ago, wow where does time go.  As Alan pointed out even if we kept it to put in our current flat, by the time we come to use it the guarantee will have run out and for the price it cost us to buy it in the first place, space in the workshop was more valuable to him.  We sold it for £60 to a very grateful young lady who's fridge had just given up the ghost.

We've sold a few other bits and bobs over the last month and simply used the money as our housekeeping money.   Today there are a couple of things that Alan cleaned up over the weekend ready for me to photograph and list.  The money we get for these we have decided will supply us with spending money for our holiday to Sark in a couple of months ... yes, you were right all those of you who guessed at Sark.

It's just the sort of simple holiday that we are both craving at the moment, and getting rid of stuff we don't need or use anymore to help us live our lives the way we want to live them going forward, is proving to be very cathartic.

Sue xx

The Less I Have, the Less I Need

It seems the less I have, the less I need ... a strange statement after yesterday's over-shopping in the food department post.  But just looking at that shopping, at the fridge and cupboard filled almost to capacity with things I could have quite easily lived without has brought me to my senses.

True simplicity is the way forward for me.

No more spending this month, unless it's on a coffee to enjoy in the sun ... sat at mine and Suky's favourte 'coffee and cake' place.

Simple tasks, done in simple ways.

Using products that I can refill when they do eventually run out... although I use so little it will be interesting to see when that will be.

Just before the spending stopped I booked us a holiday to the simplest place of them all.  I gave myself a budget of  £762 ... our car boot sale takings up to now this year ... and I managed it.  Two nights at PremierInn, one on the outward journey and one on the way home, flights, car parking, a lovely little one bedroom holiday cottage and kennel fees for the dogs and Ginger.

 We literally just have to pay the ferryman 😃

Alan needed something to look forward to after a gruelling few weeks working down South, and a workload that will be almost as heavy in the weeks to come, and I decided a break to somewhere that is truly a step back in time would be perfect,  a quite literal breath of fresh air ... just what Alan needs ... but also a break that fits in with my simplification ethos one that really is my kind of holiday.

  No cars, just horse drawn carts, tractors or bicycles.  A population of around 600 plus some visitors and day-trippers.  Only accessed by ferry a few times a day, and at the time of year we're going it should be calming down after the Summer season. 

Simplicity at home and on holiday.

Sue xx

Never Shop on an Empty Stomach

I try to keep things simple here at the Van.

  A big jar of pasta  on the worktop, a couple of onions in the fridge and tins of tomatoes, pulses etc in the cupboard means I always have the makings of a meal.  I don't need much, I prefer to eat simply.  But then every now and then I go and have a blip. 

  I went shopping before I had eaten any breakfast yesterday ... BIG MISTAKE!!

Now my fridge looks like this  ...

... and just as I was making headway eating through the contents of the cupboard,  it once again is full to busting.

 I won't need to go shopping for a while, but when I do it will not be on an empty stomach 🤣🤣🤣

Sue xx

Regrets ...

As the song goes 'Regrets, I've had a few.  But then again too few to mention ...'

One of my regrets after starting to read through this diary, which was with all the other diaries in the drawer that I have now emptied, is deleting my 'A Year Without ...' blog.  I should have kept my old Challenge blogs for posterity.

This one, for some reason I thought so much of that I printed out almost every post after writing them ... and stuck them onto the pages of a spare desk diary.  

A huge investment in ink and paper, but one that I could put through my company as a 'business expense'.  Owning a company comes in handy sometimes  :-)

It makes for fascinating reading.

And I might even be tempted to keep it.

Although having it all saved as a Blog would have taken up a lot less space!!

And speaking of saving space, all my old important information has now been moved from my large desk diary into my lovely new Filofax.  It's so much smaller, lighter and easier to carry from house to Van when I'm on the move.  The address pages from my last business-sized Filofax that had been folded and living in my new but never used address book have also been copied into the new version.  

It only took me about five years to do it.  Talk about procrastination  😄

The last thing to copy into my little blue book is the information from my 'banking book'.  Although I do virtually all my banking online, both personal and business I do like to have a paper record of movements in and out of my account ... of which there surprisingly few these days now the mortgage is paid off and the mortgage insurance has been cancelled ... so I use a small A5 notebook to keep tabs on things.   As you can see from the cover I've had this little book in use for quite a few years, at the end of each year if the accounts are all balalancd I rip out the pages and start again, so although over time it has gotten lighter it will never reduce in its actual size. Now this too will be recorded in my little blue book.

Lots of lovely simplification.

Sue xx