Just a couple of videos of the family pony!!!!

These were taken in Wales...Bob in his small paddock next to the caravan we were staying in, wound up by the wild horses on the hills!! These are the lesser rated versions!!!

Oh and a photo of a gorgeous quiche I made with David back in the summer.

A much needed list of what we've been doing.....

I've had a turbulent few weeks and now it seems that the dust may just have settled enough for me to look back at the last few months and remember what we HAVE been doing.
It will be a bit of a jumble and there may not be any photos tonight ( they are all the boys computer and will get Tom to load them up another day, so please check back) but I feel that as this blog is supposed to be about our learning journey and not just me whinging on about things, it needs to be done, and quick!!!!
So in no particular order...
Robs new job is only 3 days a week and although initially after the sharp intake of breath and the 'How will we manage financially?' questions, we decided that it was just what we needed and we will survive, we always do and if we don't, whats the worst that can happen? Lose the house and either live in a boat or run to Wales...or both!!!
There are or have been a couple of perks already....left over bits of wood from the carpentry side of the business.....ideal for little boxes that Jonathan loves to make (and another use which I will gloat about later)and 6 free pheasants, already plucked but not gutted. So who do you think gutted those? Rob? Me? NO!!! Jonathan. Not only did he gut them but he gave a friend of ours a demonstration. Impressed? We all were!
Tom has been learning to weld...not on a course or being instructed by a proffesional, but by just getting a welder and having a go!! It started with watching our neighbour weld the horse box for the trip to Wales and having a go then. But at home, he just bought a welding manual from Ebay and was given an Arc welder ( I have no idea if that is spelt correctly)which he and Jonathan experimented with. Then we realised we needed to get a MIG welder...so much better apparently so off Rob and I drove to Peterborough to pick up the outcome of a bidding war on Ebay. They both were getting so good that instead of asking our neighbour to weld the bulkhead of the 110, Tom has actually done it himself!!! With Rob standing by on fire watch!!! The test will be when it goes for its MOT hopefully next week.


Here he is in action!

Tom has also made a snorkel for the 110...yes I am fully aware that this is not an amphibious vehicle, but apparently for off roading in any kind of worth while way, it is the only thing to stop the engine from cutting out in deep puddles!!!! EEEEEK! How deep are we going!!!! He has been very ingenious and used all recycled parts so far, and has even posted it on a forum for offroading, WITH pictures. Items used...
damaged drain pipe piece salvaged from the local village shop!
margarine tub!!!
baked bean tin!!!
I will stop there, for fear of you all either thinking I'm crazy or pulling your leg..like I said pictures to follow. ..... David has been particularly difficult in an emotional roller coaster kind of way...I don't think he coped very well with the change of Wales, talk of moving there, Rob's redundancy and then the change of routine at home with Rob doing a 3 day week. Yes, a 3 day week. Sounds positively lazy doesn't it but I can assure you that he now works twice as hard, because to live on that kind of money we have to be inventive when it comes to food, fuel and entertainment!
David has settled down a bit now and we have just made our first ever LAPBOOK!!! We have talked about doing one for ages but it never seemed to come together, for one reason or another, but we have now done it!!! It is about Knights, so no surprise there, and is basically free resources printed from this website although I have hopes of including some of our own ideas next time and then increasing them gradually. But for now, a good start, a success, David is pleased with it and he really enjoyed doing it and wants to do more! So I think I have cracked it!!!
So back to the frugal living side of things. We have only been burning wood on the fire, the heating hasn't been on hardly at all, and even then it was dual purpose because I had loads of washing to dry. The wood itself has all been free...starter wood from pallets and twigs from the branches we have regularly hauled home from the local woodlands, some 6 miles away. NO we didn't walk, although I had you going for a minute then, didn't I?!! The branches were all strapped to the roof of the car and a few wedged in the boot between the boys!!
We have also looked at Vegetarian cooking as this is obviously a cheaper option. Well, it is when you only buy free range and/or organic meat and we have tried quite a few recipes from a library book...fantastic book...just not that happy about having to take it back in 3 weeks, as I'm on my last renewal :-(
We've always made a fair few of our christmas cards but this year it will definitely be all of them...you have been warned! but a friend of mine has inspired me to make my christmas gifts again this year. It is something that I have done or should I say periodically do, but with a few of her magnificent ideas from here, I am so enthusiastic this year!! Also been re-reading some Green parent magazines and found some ideas there too...
But my best 'make' so far has been these....
Stamps for painting. I started one day with a landrover for Willie, and then I bought some wooden christmas shapes for decorations and made some out of those too. Left over lino from the dining room, off cuts of wood from Rob's job and a bit of careful cutting and sticking with the glue gun, and hey presto!! I am so ridiculously proud of myself!
I have also been to a pottery class!!! Its great, I love it and now would desperately love a wheel so that I can do it at home with the boys and get good enough to make bowls etc for at home. Anyone got one lying around in there garage from a dim and distant craft phase? No, I know it isn't likely but no harm in mentionning it!! This one is made without the potters wheel and was just experimental, my other ones are still to be glazed and fired!
Jonathan has joined in on the idea of making presents and is making special boxes...I won't give too much away here. They take a little more thought and working out to get them right but I am sure he will have enough made by christmas for the chosen recipients!
Aaah yes, and David has just started to make lego and Knex from the instructions, BY HIMSELF. This is something that he has never really done before...always too worried about getting it wrong and not being able to find the right bits, but we have turned a corner! Lego adventure cars and Knex motorbikes are the beginning! I still have yet to teach him to be more tolerant of Willie wanting to play lego too, but that seems like an insurmountable task right now.
And William... he has the most enormous vocabulary, fantastic memory for detail, excellent at puzzles, loves books and duplo, lego and animals, and has been sporting the most unlikely winter garment these last few weeks...TIGHTS!!!! He loves them. They keep him warm, they don't slip off his feet or get wrinkled in his boots and he can wear his shorts with them so that with his wellies all his legs are covered but with nothing dragging in the mud. FANTASTIC Of course the most masuline ones I could find were plain red, red with blue spots and blue with white spots, but our favourites were a 4 pack of stripy orange, cream and brown, pale blue and then 2 pairs with flowers from NEXT. Some people might be frowning right about now, but he likes them and we don't care!!
William also loves playdough and painting...he likes to choose the colour of the playdough I make and then touch it when it is still really hot and feel it cool down. The stamps have been a real hit with him...he sits and carefully covers the shape in paint and then presses down on the paper, sometimes too hard and it skids making the picture blurry, but he likes it. We also did some leaf painting which he enjoyed.
We have a new winter hen house too...room for them to be inside when the weather is really fowl ...hehe nudge nudge. Just need to rig up the light now for them. We are missing our eggs!
I have also managed to plant some garlic, onions (red and white), broad beans and peas in the veg patch. The garlic is brilliant...about 4 inches high already some of them and the peas and beans are just showing through. The onions are a little slower on the uptake but I think that may be due to the extra layer of compost they had on them. I have also planted some mushrooms in the old landy tyres, but I need to build a frame over them to keep them warmish(16 deg, I think) but airy...I'm not too sure that they will come to much, if anything.Next lot are going in the shed or the loft!!
So here I think I will end it, although I am sure there is so much more. This is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak! There are also so many things that we would like to do but just don't get around to ....there are not enough hours in the day.
Don't forget to check back for the pics!!!



And I was thinking of replacing the original blog photo with this one but not sure whether to or not...what do you think?

New look for the blog page...

So what do you think?
I'm feeling a little quiet and thoughtful at the moment. Reflecting upon this last year...yes I realise its not New Years Eve or anything but it has been a year of much change and development. A mix of good and bad but I need to look at my blog to remember the good as the bad is all too prominant.
So a quieter, more toned down look to the blog page. Although that doesn't really reflect our life as a family!!! Ever busy and full of projects and things to do.
Its funny that when we started the Home Education journey it was more for David than anyone else, but it seems that the others have benefitted so much more. It is over David that I have my worrying days and my bad patches. The doubting days and the 'Why am I doing this?' days.
So in an effort to regroup and recharge my batteries and to look at things in a calmer, more laid back way, I have decided to start here. Funny how the vibrant colour of my blog and the Chicken Out campaign banner with its sound effects were preventing me from blogging. I have missed it. I almost started to write a journal instead!!! But a text from a friend asking me how we all were, made me remember how many people use this as a way of keeping up with our antics!!
I can't begin to catch up with the last few months now but I hope that writing this will spur me on to blog regularly once again. I realise how important it is to me to look back at all the things we HAVE done, so that I don't just sit and think about all the things I HAVEN'T got round to doing.
And how can it possibly be only 6 weeks to Christmas?!!! 3 birthdays to make and bake for before then. And I had so many plans for craft activities...best get a move on, eh!!!

Survival is the name of the game

Nearly 2 months since I last posted....goodness me. Where do I start?

Well, we went to Wales at the beginning of September to house sit for some friends...for 3 weeks!!!! Mid Wales. Beautiful hills and mountains, streams and rivers, waterfalls and rocky outcrops. Gorgeous. 5 acres of smallholding with a shetland pony, 3 dogs some hens and a goose to look after...heaven. There was a little hassle with 'our' field before we left, so a friend of ours lent us their horse box to take Bob with us...sort of swopping one woory with another really!! I've never towed a horse box before, let alone for 150 miles down windy mountain roads!! The weekend of the severe weather warnings too!! But we made it. In one piece. Bob travelled beautifully and it was a great experience for us all to have Bob just outside our window for 3 weeks. The boys rose to the responsibility of looking after all the animals and cutting the grass etc There rae lots of pictures so will add those in a minute.

We went to CAT twice and became members so that we can go back again and again. I just love the whole wind turbine, solar power and composting thing. I felt so at home there. I want to live off grid. In a self built house. Simply and as low impact as possible. It felt so feasible while we were in Wales. We even found a couple of houses we were interested in and I even applied for a job at an organic dairy farm!!!! Although I didn't get it :-( No surprise really. We spent 4 weeks in a mobile home ( we stayed on a few days longer!!)and not once did i miss our house. Well, maybe the chickens!

The boys were all keen on the idea of moving to Wales and while we were there, our closest HE family friends moved to Pembrokeshire...we shall miss them and that in itself is enough to keep us focussed on moving to Wales.

So what else did we do? The boys had several trips to the beach and went in the sea, crab catching, visited the Red Kite Centre ( even though they flew over our heads all the time at the house!) and took Bob for a few hacks and even a picnic! Oh and we took the Landy down the Strata Florida byway as directed by Tom!!

We just lived really, but in a beautiful place with plenty of space. I certainly didn't want to come home, and when Rob was made redundant on his return to work, I certainly couldn't see any point. We had already put the house on the market by then. What a month.

We had 2 visits to the vets. One with one of their dogs and one withour own after she picked up the crab catching bait and ran off with it...hook and all. A barbed one so no chance of getting it out ourselves. EEK.

Good versus Evil

Should we allow our children to watch TV?

This is always a hot topic in our house. I do hate it when the boys sit and flick through the channels and then settle on watching something I consider to be rubbish. You know, those horrible cartoons on POP? Police, Camera, Action or worse the American ones!! Pet Rescue is another one I hate. There are lots that I don't know the names of and it turns them into vegetables, unable to move until I insist they get up and do something else.

Well, this is rather an extreme scenario, as it doesn't happen very often. The boys are far more interested generally in being outdoors but when the weather is bad, or one of them is a bit poorly.....we find it hard to play games and do puzzles etc at the moment. Willie is at the worst stage I think. The 'I want everything that you have' stage, the 'scream and shout until I get it' stage....or worse...the 'bang my head or bite myself because i'm frustrated' stage (What is that all about? None of the others did that!!) so it makes playing anything involving small pieces difficult.

Sooooooo.... we have taken the TV out of the living room for a while, leaving just the small one with DVD player in our room. The big boys have the PS2 in their room (minus a few games that I loathe) which means they can watch DVDs together in there occaisionally.

I don't mind the actual TV watching if they are watching a film or series on DVD that has a definite beginning and end. A set timescale to it.

Its funny how there has been a pattern emerging...
Tom has been re watching the Long Way Round/Down series (motorbikes/off roading/geography/adventure) and David always wants to watch films that have goodies and baddies or adventure films...Lara Croft, Indiana JOnes (the old ones) and Power Rangers, borrowed from a friend while he is on holiday.

So should I still worry? I hate Power Rangers because of the fighting aspect but it is the old fashioned Cops and Robbers however unrealistic the characters are!!!



So we are thinking of putting the TV back in the living room, but minus the TV aerial ( even might go so far as cancelling the TV licience...not sure yet.

I certainly won't miss it generally...although I hear Hugh is doing a River Cottage Autumn.....but I think I can watch that on line!!!





And now for a couple of pictures..

Our next door neighbours are away this week and have left me in charge of the chickens, fish and cat! One of their Silkie bantams had been sitting on 3 eggs but they hadn't hatched on day 21 so went off on holiday leaving me to sort out the removal of the eggs, when I was sure they wouldn't hatch.

Hee hee!!! So I had to find her a house and run, and some food and water for her beautiful, clever little self and her new babies!!

Our hen Buffy that successfully hatched 3 earlier this year is broody again so we have given her 4 silkie eggs and one of her own AND one from our laying teenager to incubate. Trouble is they will be due to hatch the day after we go to Wales, so we will miss it!! :-(

This is Bob trying on his new rug for when the nights get a bit chilly in the autumn. Doesn't he look smart!!!

The Discovery has gone in for its re test today for its MOT....it just needed a few minor things doing. Rob and Tom handled them easily!

And the 110? Well they have drained the oil to flush the system through twice now (the first drain was thick and black full of gunk and bits), they have fixed the leaking water hose and the other couple of very obvious minor things...and guess what? It runs brilliantly!!! It sounds so much better...ticks over fine and so much less smoke now too! So just the doors to sort out and they reckon it will go through an MOT too! We could be going to Wales in convoy!

I made Chocolate Courgette cake the other day...yummy! The best way ever to use courgettes, which by the way, are growing prolifically in my garden. I need a bigger veggie plot for next year for certain. One way or another, I will have more veg and goats, even if we do move to Wales to get it.

A few pictures,

Sophie sleeping in the sun in the kitchen, looking so much like Sonny!!!
Now for some veggie pictures.... 8 tomato plants! One of the tripods of beans growing in the old Landrover tyres, and 5 more tomato plants!
The tomatoes are coming!!!!!!!!!
Tom, picking a few beans for tea...think the knife is a little over sized, but hey ho!!! BIG pumpkin.....

Medium pumpkin!

Courgette plant...

4 yummy courgettes!This is my NEW leek patch with leek seedlings from Freecycle! With hens in background eyeing them up!
3rd sowing of carrots, still under netting as protection from the chickens!!!!The beetroot, looking a little over crowded and...yes! 4 more tomato plants. I must confess to there being a least half a dozen more in the mini greenhouse!!! A tomato plant fetish? No, just burnt by the loss of last years crop through blight :-(Newly potted Lemonbalm and Oregano...probably not a great partnership but until I get another ornamental pot they will have to share.This is David's latest collection of money. Dollar bills printed off from Enchanted Learning and coloured in. He just loves money!!!!And that is all for now. A verbal catch up another time.

Return of the eldest son....or order is restored.

Well, the most important piece of news is that Tom has returned from his exciting adventures in Australia. He had a fantastic time. He went to school, took part in Venture Scouts and passed the practical part of a boat safety certificate, got a job trimming vines, drove the Jackaroo, saw Koalas and Kangaroos, bought a new camera and took lots of photos. He came home, took the photos to Scouts the next day to do a slide show for them and whilst transfering them to one file on his USB, he lost them!!!!!! What is it with us and photos at the moment? Poor boy. It is just the excuse he needs to go back and do it all again though!!! He does of course have his own pictures in his mind and the memories will stay with him forever I am sure. Such an amazing thing for a boy of his age to do.

He has brought back one really great thing. He has always been a good lad and helped around the house but an insight into their way of doing things has been a god send!! He has come back and taken charge properly of the younger ones and is getting them to lay and clear the table, wash and dry up and to do as they are told!!! Fantastic! They have been really bad about helping regularly but in Oz they all had to take turns so he has brought it home. That said, he was only back for 2 days before they all went off to survival camp with Scouts, so back to the regime tomorow!

My ankle is feeling much better than when I last posted but is still very painful and a little swollen, 4 weeks on!!! Is there a light at the end of this dark and dismal tunnel? Thank goodness Tom is back to help keep my chin up. It has been very difficult for me here without him. I really miss the conversations I think the most. It has been a very difficult 2 months here. First my knee and then a really long list of things going wrong and then climaxing with the horse incident. Things must begin to get better now surely.....


So a few good things to post about.....


An afternoon at the Warriner School Farm making a willow yurt and a felt covering for it from real wool from their sheep.

Here they are squidging the wool with their feet. The wool is soaked and then trampled under a sheet!!! David really enjoyed doing this part!!

And here it is!!They had beautiful Anglo Nubian gaots there too....I really do love them and it reminded me about my quest for goats. So further discussions ensued at home. There were also some little teeny weeny piglets just a day old. 17 of them were born in the field to one sow!! 3 died straight away and these 3 were considered too small and weak to survive in the field yet. So cute!!

The weather having been so beautiful the last few days, I have been filling up the old sand pit with water for Will to play in. He has been loving it!!! We also found some face paints that they had some fun with...especially Will!!

In the background you can see the pumpkin plants growing like Bongleweed (anyone else out there read that book as a child?By Helen Cresswell I think)along the veggie patch, about to overshadow my third sowing of carrots!! I'm so pleased with my vegetable patch this year. Carrots are doing well, beetroot looking good too. The tomatoes are flowering and the beans are forming!!!! Yipee!!

There are lots of things going on in the garden at the moment, but no pictures as yet. It looks a bit like a building site. Or a war zone. Or both!

Workshop under construction. Chickens moved temporarily. New fence for veg patch (can just see it in the pic above!). Gate on th eside where my tomatoes and beans are. And,......

the front garden is about to become a home for this!!!

The new Survival Family vehicle!!! It needs a little work for it to go through an MOT (but then so will our disco!) but it is great!!! 12 seats! Sunroof! The windscreen folds down!!! and a roof rack too! So cool! A great project for Tom and Rob. Can't wait until it is up and running!! Thats a while away yet though as they are going to do it all themselves.

We went to see some ferrets today too, after we picked up the boys from camp. They had a great time and no rain!! They ate rabbit and fish and cooked over fires with no utensils. Jonathan is actually saying that he will join scouts too. Wow. The ferret lady was lovely and has 3 that she is looking to rehome. She has a gill that is pregnant and due in a couple of weeks but Jonathan fell in love with the 3 adults so it looks as though we may go and fetch them sometime this week. Could they be taken to Wales? Or maybe nextdoor will look after them for us. Hmm. We'll see. Maybe we should wait until we get back. More thought needed.

So need to rehome the Guinea Pigs really and possibly the quail too. Any takers?!

Oh and Kim came to collect the chicks this week too. The Cream Legbars and the Old English Pheasant Fowl. This was taken just before they went! We'll miss them but we have so many here and with going to Wales in September we need to get someone to look after them all!!

Thats the OEPF and Ican't find one of the beautiful legbars :-(
Oh yes, here they are!!!!
So that about wraps it up I think. The 2 middle boys went on holiday with my parents for 10 days to Dorset and so there hasn't been a great deal happening really!!! Hehe!