I spent my birthday money on 4gb of memory for the new lappy.
It now has 8gb which is more than any other pc in the house.
We have a LOT of computers in this house.
There are 6 that belong entirely to me. 3 laptops and 2 Windows machines and a Mac.
OH has a further 2 macs and a laptop,netbook and a tablet.
DS has a laptop and a desktop and DD has 2 laptops and a desktop.
Then there are at least 2 spare pcs and 2 amigas in the roof.
When I was about 18, I bought my first computer so I feel like I have grown up with technology as mich as the kids have.
The extensa laptop has been running puppy linux and is pretty nippy for an oldun.
I decided to combine one of the old extensa batteries with a battery from the old aspire.
I had to take the Aspire battery apart and do some soldering but it works so far.
I can get about 1.45 hours out of the combination .
The second extensa battery was better to begin with and is now giving just over 2 hours of running time.
So 3 more or less dead batteries have been resurected and mean I can run for 3 and 3/4 hours.
The charging is done on economy 7.
The new lappy has a newer battery and can run for around 4 hours all told.
I have dug up another load of spuds.
They are about a months worth and now only half of the spud bed still has spuds in so hopefully another 2 months of spud are still to harvest.
The Pumpkin is picked.
It is pretty big and heavy.
There is another one out there that is still dark green but nearly as big and a smaller one about 7" diameter.
Friday 28 September 2012
Monday 17 September 2012
Upgrades to speed up an old Laptop
Oh has had his laptop about 5 years.
It is an aspire 9300.
When he got it ,it had windows vista and has always plodded along slowly compared with everyone else's machines.
Even my older extensa (from the rubbish pile) with single core CPU and linux was faster.
Recently he has been having start up problems which we decided must be the hard drive having ruled out all else.
He bought a new bigger hard drive and we put windows 7 on .
Now it is zooming along. It is so much faster that he says it is like having a new laptop.
Considering we changed only the hard drive and the OS, it is a vast improvement.
I am playing with the oldest (Extensa) laptop at the moment.
I have 2 batteries for it but both are knackered.
At present I am trying to get some more charging capacity into the better of the two.
This morning I plugged it in and charged till it stopped(at 11.20% capacity),then ran it down again to 0%,now it is on its second charge and is at 11.34 so far.I think this will take a while but I believe I can get it back up to something more useful. The 11.20% took 35 minutes to run back down with the backlight turned off. Once I have one working better, I shall play with the other one.
I really haven't done a great deal on the gardening front this week.
I did start clearing the fruit bush overgrowth and will continue with that as and when.
I harvested another collection of marrows on Thursday. We had the little dinky ones to bulk out the tomato sauce on our bolognaise. There are still runner beans to harvest but the French beans are finished.
The Phacelia is covered in Bees.
They mainly seem to be the big fat ones but there are a few smaller brown ones which I believe are the honey bees.
No wonder it is called Bees friend.
I have scarlet clover growing in 2 beds.
Apparently it is a bean related plant so must remember not to put beans in the same place next spring.
The flower heads of clover can be dried and used in Tea to make a natural treatment for Menopause symptoms. I am trying it out.
It is an aspire 9300.
When he got it ,it had windows vista and has always plodded along slowly compared with everyone else's machines.
Even my older extensa (from the rubbish pile) with single core CPU and linux was faster.
Recently he has been having start up problems which we decided must be the hard drive having ruled out all else.
He bought a new bigger hard drive and we put windows 7 on .
Now it is zooming along. It is so much faster that he says it is like having a new laptop.
Considering we changed only the hard drive and the OS, it is a vast improvement.
I am playing with the oldest (Extensa) laptop at the moment.
I have 2 batteries for it but both are knackered.
At present I am trying to get some more charging capacity into the better of the two.
This morning I plugged it in and charged till it stopped(at 11.20% capacity),then ran it down again to 0%,now it is on its second charge and is at 11.34 so far.I think this will take a while but I believe I can get it back up to something more useful. The 11.20% took 35 minutes to run back down with the backlight turned off. Once I have one working better, I shall play with the other one.
I really haven't done a great deal on the gardening front this week.
I did start clearing the fruit bush overgrowth and will continue with that as and when.
I harvested another collection of marrows on Thursday. We had the little dinky ones to bulk out the tomato sauce on our bolognaise. There are still runner beans to harvest but the French beans are finished.
The Phacelia is covered in Bees.
They mainly seem to be the big fat ones but there are a few smaller brown ones which I believe are the honey bees.
No wonder it is called Bees friend.
I have scarlet clover growing in 2 beds.
Apparently it is a bean related plant so must remember not to put beans in the same place next spring.
The flower heads of clover can be dried and used in Tea to make a natural treatment for Menopause symptoms. I am trying it out.
Wednesday 12 September 2012
If only we had house elves
Do other people not actually live in their houses or is it just that we are the slobbiest family in the entire world?
I was just looking through an article called other peoples pantries.
The pantries are so clean and tidy, not a torn packet or rubber band in sight!
Unlike our own which is a motley jumble of boxes,bags packets and tins, some piled on top of others.
I have noticed that other people have clean, clean worktops, shiny like new, not a stain or cut in sight.
Mine are somewhat discoloured and scratched. The result of spills that wouldn't come off and little dears cutting without the cutting board over the years.
Our wood floors are a little dusty and smudged. They used to get cleaned far more often.
The sliding windows in the back have deep scratching where out German Shepherd dog wanted out.
Our stairs have a gouge where a piece of the wall was dropped when we were rebuilding our walk-in cupboard as a bathroom to make room for DD to have her own bedroom.
Others have beautiful built in wardrobes and all their clothes are tidily concealed within.
Ours are sectioned shelves made of unfinished fibre board ,some are a little saggy as the smaller sections are lined with books. My clothes live in a collection of deep cardboard boxes that act as drawers. OH has the same on his side of the shelves.We have linen coloured curtains which we bought to hide it all but they never get drawn closed because it is such a hassle to have to drag them back all the time.
Several of our doors were part stripped to reveal the awful shiny stain beneath, not wanting to reveal it all,we never got round to covering it back up.
Once,when the kids still went to school, we visited a house across the road from us to collect the little boy in my sons class. Their house was showroom like. My daughter who was about 4 said, why have all the chairs got cloths on them?' and the other mother said 'well I cant get the chairs in the washing machine!' which was very funny. My daughter did laugh! I smiled and wondered if she would faint if she were to come into our house..
When I read the Harry Potter series of books, I recognised the Burrow (The Weasley House) at once, it was where we live !
I was just looking through an article called other peoples pantries.
The pantries are so clean and tidy, not a torn packet or rubber band in sight!
Unlike our own which is a motley jumble of boxes,bags packets and tins, some piled on top of others.
I have noticed that other people have clean, clean worktops, shiny like new, not a stain or cut in sight.
Mine are somewhat discoloured and scratched. The result of spills that wouldn't come off and little dears cutting without the cutting board over the years.
Our wood floors are a little dusty and smudged. They used to get cleaned far more often.
The sliding windows in the back have deep scratching where out German Shepherd dog wanted out.
Our stairs have a gouge where a piece of the wall was dropped when we were rebuilding our walk-in cupboard as a bathroom to make room for DD to have her own bedroom.
Others have beautiful built in wardrobes and all their clothes are tidily concealed within.
Ours are sectioned shelves made of unfinished fibre board ,some are a little saggy as the smaller sections are lined with books. My clothes live in a collection of deep cardboard boxes that act as drawers. OH has the same on his side of the shelves.We have linen coloured curtains which we bought to hide it all but they never get drawn closed because it is such a hassle to have to drag them back all the time.
Several of our doors were part stripped to reveal the awful shiny stain beneath, not wanting to reveal it all,we never got round to covering it back up.
Once,when the kids still went to school, we visited a house across the road from us to collect the little boy in my sons class. Their house was showroom like. My daughter who was about 4 said, why have all the chairs got cloths on them?' and the other mother said 'well I cant get the chairs in the washing machine!' which was very funny. My daughter did laugh! I smiled and wondered if she would faint if she were to come into our house..
When I read the Harry Potter series of books, I recognised the Burrow (The Weasley House) at once, it was where we live !
Monday 10 September 2012
The pot of gold
I once had to explain to my daughter that there was a limit to the pile of gold,just as there was to her pocket money. Once it was gone, it was gone!
She expressed her surprise.
She had it seemed thought that adults had a never ending supply of riches and were just being mean when they said no.
For some families,I believe that misunderstanding is never resolved.
The children are under the impression that their adults say no because they don't want them to have nice things.
It is reinforced by other children who will explain quite innocently (or not ) that their parents have given them all these nice things because they love them and want them to have everything.
The child who is not enlightened is going to be the adult that cant say no to themselves .
They will learn at some stage in life that the things they value the most are the hardest won.
It is interesting to see how many children actually do the family shop.
They accompany their adult to the shop and proceed to tell them what to buy.
The adult sometimes raises an objection,often it is 'oh but you don't like XYZ' (and this said in a very questioning style as if to say 'please don't choose this and then reject it once we get home' but the child somehow has the power and will simply point out that they do like it since they had it at thingummies house.
Into the basket it will go. Although more likely the trolley as they want to make sure there is room for all those treats.
That child will have an uphill struggle when they get to the age of responsibility.
How can they say no to themselves, no one else ever has?
One quite polite little boy in the queue in poundland was just like that.
In the line his mother pointed to the chocolates and said 'oh grab a box of maltesers please johnny'.
Johnny said '2,one for me and one for you!'
We can share them says mummy but says nothing when he brings 2 and puts them in the basket.
You must share yours with uncle dave she says.
Back over he goes and picks up another packet, 'no uncle dave can have one too' he says and she says nothing again but proceeds to pay for 3 boxes of chocolates when she had chosen one for sharing.
The child has learned that mummy is not in charge and he doesn't have to share if he doesn't want to.
She expressed her surprise.
She had it seemed thought that adults had a never ending supply of riches and were just being mean when they said no.
For some families,I believe that misunderstanding is never resolved.
The children are under the impression that their adults say no because they don't want them to have nice things.
It is reinforced by other children who will explain quite innocently (or not ) that their parents have given them all these nice things because they love them and want them to have everything.
The child who is not enlightened is going to be the adult that cant say no to themselves .
They will learn at some stage in life that the things they value the most are the hardest won.
It is interesting to see how many children actually do the family shop.
They accompany their adult to the shop and proceed to tell them what to buy.
The adult sometimes raises an objection,often it is 'oh but you don't like XYZ' (and this said in a very questioning style as if to say 'please don't choose this and then reject it once we get home' but the child somehow has the power and will simply point out that they do like it since they had it at thingummies house.
Into the basket it will go. Although more likely the trolley as they want to make sure there is room for all those treats.
That child will have an uphill struggle when they get to the age of responsibility.
How can they say no to themselves, no one else ever has?
One quite polite little boy in the queue in poundland was just like that.
In the line his mother pointed to the chocolates and said 'oh grab a box of maltesers please johnny'.
Johnny said '2,one for me and one for you!'
We can share them says mummy but says nothing when he brings 2 and puts them in the basket.
You must share yours with uncle dave she says.
Back over he goes and picks up another packet, 'no uncle dave can have one too' he says and she says nothing again but proceeds to pay for 3 boxes of chocolates when she had chosen one for sharing.
The child has learned that mummy is not in charge and he doesn't have to share if he doesn't want to.
Saturday 8 September 2012
windows and washing machines
OH has been having trouble with his lappy.
It starts from cold if you go into safe mode and then all day long it will boot fine,then next day it needs safe mode again on the first boot.
It was going fine till the wretched automatic updates.
He being a non techy type of person, deleted everything and then tried to run the recovery thing.
It seemed not to fix it.
Yesterday I ran the recovery again and it did not help.
Today we formatted the drive and recovered yet again.
Not sure if it is software related at all.
I am thinking maybe getting it stable and then upgrading to 7 instead of the dreaded vista will make it seem a better machine in any case as this machine on which I am typing is the exact same model as his and runs about twice as fast.
Funny how it is always windows update that seems to muck things up.
The new old washing machine is installed.
It is an indesit W311 or something like that.
It only fills cold which is a bit of a downer but at least it means we can wash on cold if we want.
When we got it plumbed in,I pulled out the detergent drawer and discovered a 6 year accumulation of fabric softener and powder,thick like old fat under it.
The drawer itself was covered in mold and so was the space it fits into.
We ran it on the hottest wash last night 90 degrees (probably for the only time in its entire useful life) ,empty after I cleaned out as much gunk as possible.
OH is sworn to weighing his laundry before filling as it is his clutziness with overloading that has killed several of the previous machines.
It starts from cold if you go into safe mode and then all day long it will boot fine,then next day it needs safe mode again on the first boot.
It was going fine till the wretched automatic updates.
He being a non techy type of person, deleted everything and then tried to run the recovery thing.
It seemed not to fix it.
Yesterday I ran the recovery again and it did not help.
Today we formatted the drive and recovered yet again.
Not sure if it is software related at all.
I am thinking maybe getting it stable and then upgrading to 7 instead of the dreaded vista will make it seem a better machine in any case as this machine on which I am typing is the exact same model as his and runs about twice as fast.
Funny how it is always windows update that seems to muck things up.
The new old washing machine is installed.
It is an indesit W311 or something like that.
It only fills cold which is a bit of a downer but at least it means we can wash on cold if we want.
When we got it plumbed in,I pulled out the detergent drawer and discovered a 6 year accumulation of fabric softener and powder,thick like old fat under it.
The drawer itself was covered in mold and so was the space it fits into.
We ran it on the hottest wash last night 90 degrees (probably for the only time in its entire useful life) ,empty after I cleaned out as much gunk as possible.
OH is sworn to weighing his laundry before filling as it is his clutziness with overloading that has killed several of the previous machines.
Wednesday 5 September 2012
penny and penny laid up can lose money
Buying a few foods when they are cheap and storing them is a bigger saving than saving the money that they would have cost and then spending it on them later,even allowing for the interest earned on that money.
This needs more explanation.
Prices double every 10 years.
If food cost £100 in 2002, it will cost 200 in 2012 at least in the UK
If you put £100 in an ISA (tax free savings)at 5% in 2002, it will grow as follows
Year Savings Weekly grocery spend
This is very basic I know but Now look at it another way...
You pay 100 a week for food for a family of 5 or 6 people (some I know, spend a lot more).
If you were to put away £5'200 as a years food buffer, you would lose far more than £5
It would be around £260 or 5% in the first year alone.
You can store food for more than 1 year ,it just depends how you do it.
You would be hard pressed to find anywhere giving you 10% on your saved money tax free and risk free.
Prices really are that quick at rising. I used to buy fish fingers in Asda.
Once I could get 5 packets of 12 for £1,then it went to 4 at 25p and they reduce the packs to 10 fingers then 3 at 30p and now a packet of basic cheapo fish fingers is 60p ,so 5 packets would cost me £3. That is in about the last 10 years but is a huge leap in price of 200% even if you ignore the reduction in contents.
The tube of puree that cost me 30 pence last year now cost 48p
Tins of tomato are about 7p more this year than last 25 up to 31
'value' bread is 24 up to 48p and is terrible pasty muck,all air and stodge.
10 years ago sunflower spread was about 34p a 500g tub.
You are unlikely to find it for less than 89 pence now. Almost a 200% leap again.
Sometimes the biggest savings are the invisible ones.
Anything which saves you from spending will be an invisible saving.
Our bread machine was around £38 new (bought with vouchers from surveys)
It took around 8 months I think to pay for itself (The saving per loaf of bread each time was taken away from the cost of the machine until the balance was zero).
Since that time it has earned its keep. I think we have had it about 9 years. In that time it has had 2 new bread pans and one new bread paddle. Costing around £23 altogether.
A loaf costs about 29 pence to make and so saves around 60p a loaf if we bought a similar ready made loaf.
We have between 3 and 4 loaves a week say it is 3 (now and 4 when DD is home).
this is a saving of 93.69 a year or about £ 750 over its life span so far.
The whole investment of £61 has accrued a saving of £750 in 9 years.
If you also allow for the weekly pizza dough that it churns out,that would be even greater as a home made pizza is equal to a big filling pizza at £3 a shot in Iceland or Morrisons (29p at home plus toppings)
This was around £130 I think around 8 years ago.It is 12 square feet of drying space.
This year alone it must have dried at least 30 courgettes ASDA £1.50 for 3 so £45
Around 100 runner beans ASDA £1 for about 8 beans so £12.50
30 portions worth of spinach ASDA £1.50 for about 3 portions £15
30 portions worth of Kale ASDA 94p for about 3 portions £9.40
So £ 81.90
It is used for drying bananas and mushrooms when they are reduced in the stores. So I estimate it saves around £100 a year.
The whole investment of £130 has accrued a saving of £670 in 8 years.
This needs more explanation.
Prices double every 10 years.
If food cost £100 in 2002, it will cost 200 in 2012 at least in the UK
If you put £100 in an ISA (tax free savings)at 5% in 2002, it will grow as follows
Year Savings Weekly grocery spend
- =105 110
- =110.25 120
- =115.76 130
- =121.54 140
- =128.20 150
- =134.61 160
- =141.34 170
- =148.40 180
- =155.82 190
- =163.61 200
This is very basic I know but Now look at it another way...
You pay 100 a week for food for a family of 5 or 6 people (some I know, spend a lot more).
If you were to put away £5'200 as a years food buffer, you would lose far more than £5
It would be around £260 or 5% in the first year alone.
You can store food for more than 1 year ,it just depends how you do it.
- Tinned foods can be stored a long time.They have been heat sealed and the contents are sterile.
- Food sealed in jars with air tight seals.
- Dried foods
- Food dried and then sealed in air tight containers
- Food sealed in airtight food bags using a vacuum sealer
- Frozen foods
- Pickles
- Salted foods
- Foods immersed in oils
You would be hard pressed to find anywhere giving you 10% on your saved money tax free and risk free.
Prices really are that quick at rising. I used to buy fish fingers in Asda.
Once I could get 5 packets of 12 for £1,then it went to 4 at 25p and they reduce the packs to 10 fingers then 3 at 30p and now a packet of basic cheapo fish fingers is 60p ,so 5 packets would cost me £3. That is in about the last 10 years but is a huge leap in price of 200% even if you ignore the reduction in contents.
The tube of puree that cost me 30 pence last year now cost 48p
Tins of tomato are about 7p more this year than last 25 up to 31
'value' bread is 24 up to 48p and is terrible pasty muck,all air and stodge.
10 years ago sunflower spread was about 34p a 500g tub.
You are unlikely to find it for less than 89 pence now. Almost a 200% leap again.
Invisible savings
Sometimes the biggest savings are the invisible ones.
Anything which saves you from spending will be an invisible saving.
The Bread machine
Our bread machine was around £38 new (bought with vouchers from surveys)
It took around 8 months I think to pay for itself (The saving per loaf of bread each time was taken away from the cost of the machine until the balance was zero).
Since that time it has earned its keep. I think we have had it about 9 years. In that time it has had 2 new bread pans and one new bread paddle. Costing around £23 altogether.
A loaf costs about 29 pence to make and so saves around 60p a loaf if we bought a similar ready made loaf.
We have between 3 and 4 loaves a week say it is 3 (now and 4 when DD is home).
this is a saving of 93.69 a year or about £ 750 over its life span so far.
The whole investment of £61 has accrued a saving of £750 in 9 years.
If you also allow for the weekly pizza dough that it churns out,that would be even greater as a home made pizza is equal to a big filling pizza at £3 a shot in Iceland or Morrisons (29p at home plus toppings)
The dehydrator
This was around £130 I think around 8 years ago.It is 12 square feet of drying space.
This year alone it must have dried at least 30 courgettes ASDA £1.50 for 3 so £45
Around 100 runner beans ASDA £1 for about 8 beans so £12.50
30 portions worth of spinach ASDA £1.50 for about 3 portions £15
30 portions worth of Kale ASDA 94p for about 3 portions £9.40
So £ 81.90
It is used for drying bananas and mushrooms when they are reduced in the stores. So I estimate it saves around £100 a year.
The whole investment of £130 has accrued a saving of £670 in 8 years.
Rocket and egg sarnies
We have loads of Rocket in the garden at present.
It has started to flower so I will leave some to seed.
It seemed only right to have a boiled egg sandwich with heaps of rocket while it is so abundant.
There was one lonely little spring onion that got chopped and added and the smallest tomatoes in the world that wouldn't have looked out of place in a 1/12th dolls house kitchen.
I dug a 4 foot section of spuds and have about as many white spuds for my efforts as were planted entirely.
About 5/13 of the spuds are now dug up.
Another marrow emerged from the undergrowth that is the squash patch.
The pumpkin is a beautiful golden orange now.
It must be about 14 inches diameter.
OH says to keep an eye on it as Halloween approaches but I think we are the only people who can see it .
Last night we had HM Fish and chips using some cod that OH bought in the fish and chip shop- scraps bag.
The Chips and Green Beans were home made and grown so it was a very economical meal .
About 50p for the cod (2 bits each for 3 of us is less than half the bag at £1).Nothing for the chips,nothing for the Beans.
About 15p for the batter.
So 65p for the meal or around 22 pence each
I find Caterpillars every day on the Brassicas but just pick them off and chuck them.
There is a nice looking cabbage waiting to be harvested.
I always cut them leaving the stalk as the leaves continue to grow out if you do and you can come and pick them off when you want them.
The veg patch is beginning to wind down now.
I have seen my first sighting this year of an advert for onion sets .
Another month and I shall start clearing the fruit area .
It is very weedy and overgrown.
I left it too late early this year and so there is a lot to do.
Things I learned this year about growing at home..
It has started to flower so I will leave some to seed.
It seemed only right to have a boiled egg sandwich with heaps of rocket while it is so abundant.
There was one lonely little spring onion that got chopped and added and the smallest tomatoes in the world that wouldn't have looked out of place in a 1/12th dolls house kitchen.
I dug a 4 foot section of spuds and have about as many white spuds for my efforts as were planted entirely.
About 5/13 of the spuds are now dug up.
Another marrow emerged from the undergrowth that is the squash patch.
The pumpkin is a beautiful golden orange now.
It must be about 14 inches diameter.
OH says to keep an eye on it as Halloween approaches but I think we are the only people who can see it .
Last night we had HM Fish and chips using some cod that OH bought in the fish and chip shop- scraps bag.
The Chips and Green Beans were home made and grown so it was a very economical meal .
About 50p for the cod (2 bits each for 3 of us is less than half the bag at £1).Nothing for the chips,nothing for the Beans.
About 15p for the batter.
So 65p for the meal or around 22 pence each
I find Caterpillars every day on the Brassicas but just pick them off and chuck them.
There is a nice looking cabbage waiting to be harvested.
I always cut them leaving the stalk as the leaves continue to grow out if you do and you can come and pick them off when you want them.
The veg patch is beginning to wind down now.
I have seen my first sighting this year of an advert for onion sets .
Another month and I shall start clearing the fruit area .
It is very weedy and overgrown.
I left it too late early this year and so there is a lot to do.
Things I learned this year about growing at home..
- Make sure to pot the tomatoes on into big pots else there isn't enough water even if you water them religiously.
- Earthing up spuds with cut grass is much much better than with earth because they get a greater depth of cover, it is looser and they are being fed at the same time.
- You can grow carrots in boxes in the greenhouse.
- Sowing early gets some stuff off to a good start but some stuff needs the heat AND light of longer days.
- You can grow spring onions in the greenhouse if you are patient.
- Capillary action only works for about a 6 inch run at most.
- Covering up water containers with window netting keeps the gnats off.
- Pheasant berries make a raisin substitute.
- Nasturtium seeds can be pickled.
- If you have a good identity book,you can find edible fungi in the garden.
- Molochia is Jews Mallow which is edible and prolific.
Monday 3 September 2012
Brand new old machines!
The new old dishwasher (from Freegle) is installed.
Hooray hooray
I hate washing up by hand!
I guess it is the feeling that it is all dumped on me regardless of how much there is.
OH and DD went and fetched it on Saturday in our little tiny hatchback car.
We have a small trailer but the previous owner of the washer didn't know where we would be able to park it while we fetched the machine, so they went without it.
I am quite amazed at how meticulous some people are with their machines.
I clean ours out after each use but never thought to actually bleach it .
This one is like new and is 23 years old.
They said they hardly used it so I am hoping it will last a while.
It is an AEG which is a company with a good reputation.
Our last machine (an Indesit) was from Freecycle and lasted about 5 years but was much much older (maybe as old as this one).
We left the old broken one outside the front gate after I had extracted the baskets to be used as crop protection.
The scrap man drives around several times a week and this morning he knocked and asked if he could have it.
I like scrap men. They are the original recyclers.
It doesn't worry me that they sell the bits or metal because it would be wasted otherwise.
************************************************************************
Yesterday, OH managed to mangle the washing machine!
He is notoriously clumsy and is banned from most of the machines of the house but the washing machine is used by all because it is just easier if everyone does their own laundry.
While I was arranging courgettes on the drier trays ,a humungous machine gun rattling with a loud bang came from the kitchen.
Yes, it was the washing machine dying.
OH rushed in and extracted a large amount of clothes and went and hung them on the line outside.
He came sheepishly back in and turned the machine back on with one towel in but the damage was done.
This machine came from freecycle about 3 years ago I think.
It was a Servis (they went out of business) and was a replacement for our own Servis because the Drum had snapped off (from overloading OH!).
They were terrible machines but better than washing by hand.
The machine had a broken motor when we collected it but we had a broken machine with a working motor so it was win, win. The owner needed it gone,we needed the machine and the scrap man got the carcass.
Anyway,winding forwards
OH having broken the thing, went on Ebay and bought another (£50 and collect it ourselves).
This one is an Indesit which is a better make.
We haven't got it yet as he will be fetching it at the weekend.
We can live without a machine for a week easily.
*************************************************************************
Cant help wondering what number 3 will be as these things always do come in 3's
Hooray hooray
I hate washing up by hand!
I guess it is the feeling that it is all dumped on me regardless of how much there is.
OH and DD went and fetched it on Saturday in our little tiny hatchback car.
We have a small trailer but the previous owner of the washer didn't know where we would be able to park it while we fetched the machine, so they went without it.
I am quite amazed at how meticulous some people are with their machines.
I clean ours out after each use but never thought to actually bleach it .
This one is like new and is 23 years old.
They said they hardly used it so I am hoping it will last a while.
It is an AEG which is a company with a good reputation.
Our last machine (an Indesit) was from Freecycle and lasted about 5 years but was much much older (maybe as old as this one).
We left the old broken one outside the front gate after I had extracted the baskets to be used as crop protection.
The scrap man drives around several times a week and this morning he knocked and asked if he could have it.
I like scrap men. They are the original recyclers.
It doesn't worry me that they sell the bits or metal because it would be wasted otherwise.
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Yesterday, OH managed to mangle the washing machine!
He is notoriously clumsy and is banned from most of the machines of the house but the washing machine is used by all because it is just easier if everyone does their own laundry.
While I was arranging courgettes on the drier trays ,a humungous machine gun rattling with a loud bang came from the kitchen.
Yes, it was the washing machine dying.
OH rushed in and extracted a large amount of clothes and went and hung them on the line outside.
He came sheepishly back in and turned the machine back on with one towel in but the damage was done.
This machine came from freecycle about 3 years ago I think.
It was a Servis (they went out of business) and was a replacement for our own Servis because the Drum had snapped off (from overloading OH!).
They were terrible machines but better than washing by hand.
The machine had a broken motor when we collected it but we had a broken machine with a working motor so it was win, win. The owner needed it gone,we needed the machine and the scrap man got the carcass.
Anyway,winding forwards
OH having broken the thing, went on Ebay and bought another (£50 and collect it ourselves).
This one is an Indesit which is a better make.
We haven't got it yet as he will be fetching it at the weekend.
We can live without a machine for a week easily.
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Cant help wondering what number 3 will be as these things always do come in 3's
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