Kind Of ! With Self Sufficiency & Frugal Living Tips from Mr. and Mrs. Dirty Boots
Or, how to stop working for the man. How To Make Money Writing Online Not so long ago I told you that, in an effort to be able to continue our self sufficient life I decided to see if I could learn how to make money online. We had no work and things were beginning to get very serious, money wise. We already had this blog but it was set up more as a fun project to do together, rather than as a money making exercise. Just as well really, as it makes nothing in terms of monetary value really. […]
Well, it seems like I haven’t been here for ages. This is Mr. Dirty Boots in case you had forgotten about me. In an effort to ensure we can continue our self sufficient life on our mountainside I have been spending the last few months learning all there is to know about Internet marketing and making money via the Internet. Amazing what you can do with a laptop, a solar panel and a satellite Internet connection really. It has gone surprisingly well and I can see us being able to easily support our lifestyle whilst making money online via what […]
Today it’s all about making the most of the herb harvest, with basil infused oil so you always have summer to hand on the kitchen shelf. Okay, so we’re not technically self sufficient in basil. But, thankfully we know someone who is. And, better still (for us, not them), they’re spending summer in sunny Blighty. This means we get to carry out a weekly ‘huerto’ check. We see that their rather splendid automated watering system is working correctly and that the local bunny population hasn’t stolen all their vegetables. On our last visit, we noticed their basil patch was looking […]
Making the most of the vegetable garden, involves stocking up on those things in glut. At the moment it’s chillies and peppers. And, it looks like it may well stay this way for some time. That’s okay though, as I’m a lover of the humble pepper. Mild ones, sweet ones, spicy ones, super hot killer ones, I’m happy with them all. Preserving the harvest is a great way to extend the seasons and help your vegetable patch keep you self sufficient in certain foods for as long as possible. This year we have a few different sorts of chillies and […]
The cucumber plants in the vegetable garden look terrible at the moment. The leaves keep being shredded by the wind. But, regardless, they’re fruiting like crazy. So we’re enjoying cucumber soups, raitas and many salads. But, we’re also ‘putting some by’ to enjoy in the winter months, as gherkins, dill pickles, pickled cucumbers or whatever you like to call them. For me, they’re brine cured pickled cucumbers and here’s how I make them… Brine Cured Dill Pickles Ingredients First of all, we’re talking knobbly ridge cucumbers, not shiny smooth greenhouse grown varieties. But, that is the only rule I abide […]
With some things growing full tilt in the vegetable garden at the moment, I am on regular pickling duty. It’s not yet time for lots of chutneys, but every week a few batches of dill pickled cucumbers, pickled chillies and peppers are being made up. These types of pickles really are the easiest to create. It’s just a matter of picking things, cleaning them up, packing into sterilised canning jars, topping with brine vinegar and waiting for them to be ready. To keep things really convenient, I make up one large batch of brine vinegar. Then I can quickly preserve […]
This year in the huerto where all our organic vegetable growing, is going on, we’re self sufficient in… Chillies! Okay, so this is not the most useful thing to be self sufficient in. But, they are packed with vitamin C, so we’re feeling pretty healthy. And, it got me to thinking… I thought about how the vegetable plot is very different every year. We’re learning all the time and trying out new things. But, with the best will in the world, a lot of our successes and failures in the vegetable growing department, are left down to the weather. Weather […]