All go here

There was a spot of bother this morning when I went to sort out the poultry this morning - the heat lamp over the chicks had stopped working for one reason or another. That necessitated a frantic ring round of all the local possible suppliers to find a stockist, and then a trip off to fetch one. I don't know how long they were without heat but they all seem fine so far.

I have had a bit of a tidy up this morning and then I cooked a hot meal for lunch for a change. It meant that tonight, when I cooked macaroni cheese (except it wasn't macaroni but fusili) for the family, I wasn't really hungry and just had some hot pudding - it was one of my favourites - pear crumble and custard.

The FGs had some friends round after school - three sisters from church - for chatting and playing, which was fun. Their mum came too as she is interested in the chickens so we had a tour of the various chicken runs whilst the girls were playing. It was lovely to connect with someone else who shares some of our values. We ended up chatting until about 5.30pm when they had to leave to go home to look after their dogs and cook tea.

The economic times we are living in now are hard, and people are encountering all sorts of problems. We are blessed to have no mortgage to worry about, and no debts hanging over us. We live on pensions and so our incomes are relatively secure at the moment, and my earnings from bookselling never amount to a fortune, a couple of thousand a year at the most - and that gets swallowed up in the "treats" that we have (like a new computer or a short holiday), or it gets saved, but it is never counted as a part of our regular income because it isn't! I am not old enough to have experienced the deprivations of life during the war, but my father and uncle are, and the FH remembers some of the time after the war when rationing was still in force. It was a time of making do, of re-use, and of reducing one's needs, and I think that that sort of scenario is one that we are returning to here. A friend let me know today that the shop she works in has started its "sale" and it is a clothing shop that I use when I need new clothes, but I am not going to rush over there this week as there is nothing that I need. A few years ago, I would have gone and probably snapped up a few bargains, as I would have thought of them, and then they would have languished in the bottom of the wardrobe!

Rhonda has an excellent list of 20 ways to survive tough times, and I am relieved to find that I am doing at least half of these things, and working on the rest! Have a look at http://www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ where you will be able to see how you are getting on compared to her suggestions - and I reckon that they are all excellent ideas!

PS The car is going into the garage to have the new alternator fitted tomorrow morning, so I am hoping to have it back in full working order by Friday afternoon. Thank goodness for friendly, honest and reliable local mechanics.