Sunday 25 December 2011

The Great White Telephone

Well goodness me, the things some folk choose to do on Christmas Day! No, Ben hasn't drunk nor eaten too much - he's just decided to REALLY clean the toilet. Now that may seem disgusting, or rather our toilet may look disgusting and many folk looking at it may think it doesn't ever get cleaned. Wrong. We just have very calcified water so the calcium gets left behind on the pan when the lovely underfloor heating evaporates off the water, and the hideous residue holds on to all the 'colours' that head that way.

Yes, there are chemical cleaners out there that will take off limescale but they will also kill off the bacteria we need to make our fosse septique sewage system work, and then flow out and pollute our land - so they are not an option here. The horrid fact is that it just takes elbow grease every week - Ben's elbow grease to be more precise.

You're probably sitting there thinking that's unfair and why aren't I taking a part in this scrubbing exercise. Well, the truth is that I want a dry-toilet in the house, a composting loo. I've said that if we have one I will make myself responsible for emptying it because it's a whole lot easier - and pleasanter - than sitting with your head down the loo scrubbing off chalk! But Ben insists (for the time being) on keeping a conventional toilet so it's his job to scrub. Lucky him!!

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Making Cornflour

We had an excess of sweetcorn this year so we gathered them all in, put them in a basket and brought them indoors. There they stayed in the true style of our farm! When I finally thought to actually do something with them they had withered up and looked most unappetising. I was about to give them to the pigs when I thought of cornflour. The boys helped me to shuck all the kernels off the cobs, we put them in the grain mill and Ben cycled us out some super corn flour. With that we made some delicious cornbread. We'll grow more next year with the absolute intention of grinding some up for flour.

Thursday 1 December 2011

Science Gone Mad



Well not quite 'gone mad' but B looks somewhat kerfuzzled by this crystal making experiment. Salt, water and a bit of food colour - science in the home!