The outside cat's think Christmas has arrived early . We have a mountain of wood in the back driveway. Ken had it delivered yesterday and the cat's have discovered a new play area. This wood is lovely and will keep us warm and our kitchen stove pumping out heat hopefully all winter. Made pizza last night for supper and wow I wish you could taste the difference the wood stove makes .I am not a pizza fan, but home made in a wood stove will convert even the most picky.
See you soon
M
Friday, November 25, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
A Victorian Dinner
Greetings, we are continuing the experiment in Victorian living by holding a true Victorian dinner in January of 2012. We have set out the criteria below and welcome your responses. We decided not to do the Christmas Dinner because it is a very busy time of year for folks, especially those with small children. So a dinner in January it is. Read on good gentles...
We are looking for like minded people to share a dinner with us.Sometime in january of 2012.The year is 1865 and there is much to talk about. Join us for a truely authentic dinner. You must love history enough that you will be able to stay in 1st person period for the entire visit. Wear authentic clothing true to the period. And participate according to the manners and customs of the year 1865. You might want to hone up on parlour games as well.You will apply to attend in a true period manner. So use your imagination. The mailing address will be given to those interested. Please only serious responses. Also this is not a steam punk event.
This is part of an experiment we have embarked on and are continuing to live for the next year. have a look at our blog and see what we are doing.
http://victorianyear1865.blogspot.com/
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Winter wood & christmas
We have been dealing with winter wood for the past couple of weeks. Ensuring we will have enough to last all winter for both the wood furnace and the kitchen cook stove. Ken thinks he may have stumbled onto wood for $40 something a cord ,which is a fantastic price. He will find out today for sure. We have noticed that there are a lot more ads for wood. I am assuming the price of oil and gas is making wood is look like a good option again. It is a wonderfully warm heat. But not as clean. Our house is dusty and I need to clean more often to keep up with the dust. But I would not trade the warmth of wood for any other heat. When I first moved here to this house I spent almost $6000 for oil . In one winter .While it was a bad winter, I was still commuting back to Guelph because I had my restaurant so I wasn't even here 3 days out of the week. As soon as I could I had a new wood oil combo furnace installed. To date we have never used oil just wood . Probably could not afford to have the tank filled ,the prices are crazy .And the oil companies will not partially fill your tank. At least not around here . So we are happy with our wood heat and will continue on . Ken has some really large blocks which work well if we are going away for any length of time . We just build a good fire and bank the wood and throw a large block on top. pack other smaller pieces around and the fire lasts for sometimes 2 days. We have gathered lots of starter/kindling wood but will need more. By all accounts this is supposed to be a harsh winter. So we need /want to be well prepared. I have still not mastered the trick of starting the fire without paper. Luckily my seniors give me all of their old newspaper so I have a ready supply. One day I will hone my fire starting without paper skills. But not today.
Now onto Christmas.....
We have decided again to forgo the silliness that Christmas has become and just enjoy a lovely meal . We will have small gifts for the Grandchildren , but mostly practical things. For example Zoe will have a new bird feeder and some seed to put outside of her bedroom window. She loves creating so I will get her some art supplies too. Aidan and Jude are the same and love art supplies. I will send some money for Thor because he is in California. And sometime around Christmas Freya will arrive . A gift for all of us.
We think of Victorian Christmas which would include the year we are portraying 1865, with visions of flaming plum puddings,stockings,Christmas trees and beautifully dressed tables. Everywhere you look in ads for the Christmas season this lovley Victorian vision of the holidays is portrayed. But what was the reality of Christmas not so long ago...all over Victoria's world.
Dickens "A Christmas Carol" is more to the reality of the Victorian Christmas. Especially Victorian England in the cities which were over crowded and filled with underpaid and over worked mostly factory workers .Who crowded into the cities from the country sides looking for work. People were taken advantage of because of the over abundance of ready cheap labour. The industrial revolution had started and there was extreme wealth and dire poverty.
But I want to think about Christmas here , Upper Canada 1865. When I think about what Christmas and the on coming winter meant I think that the thought/focus of the season must have been survival. Just with our own little project here, despite our ability to travel into town if we need anything our thoughts are still on how to keep us and our animals warm, fed ,watered and to prepare for things such as maple syrup production in the early spring. It must have been a heavy burden to prepare for winter, to know your family and all of your livestock depended on you preparing properly and forgetting nothing in order to survive the winter months. You had no idea how long or how harsh that winter would be . I would also imagine that if you got together with family or neighbors it was your last visit often until the spring. Depending on the severity of the winter weather. Here where we live we are about 1/2 an hour from the outskirts of London. I can be in Lambeth in 1/2 hour from here .On the 401 doing at least 100 k's
I would imagine in 1865 it would have taken a good days drive to make the same trip. And another to drive back home .Which might have been slower depending on what you were carrying. So winter trips would not be made.
Just a few of the things that this project has made me think about. I am thinking more about what we take for granted, more about what we waste on a regular basis. How much free time we have that we waste. I am thinking about food and how and why some foods are prepared and when. What foods winter over and what foods need to be used up before winter. It is telling that since we have started this project how little spare time we have. We are constantly working. And have little spare time at all. Every day things are time consuming . But they also come with a satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. When you pop open a jar of home made whatever it is so much different than something you just payed for. You appreciate what that jar holds. And the work it took to fill it .
Ken here, I've spent the last two days cleaning out the basement and preparing it for the winter's wood. I'm also cleaning up outside so things are neat and tidy before the snow flies. It's not just the physical labour involved in cleaning things up, it's the forethought involved as well. It isn't enough to pick things up from one place and pile 'em up in another, I did that last year and that pile is still awaiting my attention on top of the other stuff for this year. That old saying " a place for everything and everything in it's place" means something different for me now. It isn't just neat tidy storage sheds, cut lawns, clean tidy houses and such. It also means, at least to me, that you have only the things you need and no more.
Tomorrow I'll be hunting up the maple syrup equipment and setting aside in our garden shed in preparation for sap in the spring. Why now, simply because I can find everything now without having to guess where it is or moving six feet of snow to get it. The list includes the sap buckets, spiles, sap storage bins, fire boxes, the bricks, stones and iron frame to make the boiler, assorted buckets, fire pokers and other miscellaneous equipment. It should take me about two hours to secure this equipment and save me about two days worth of searching in the spring when we need to set up for sap. This reminds me of another old saying " a time for everything". It would seem the Victorians were wiser than we thought.
That's it for me, I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogger, the lovely and talented Margaret. :-)
So as we all prepare for another winter and another Christmas season we seem to be thinking more about where and when and how. I for one am appreciating the efforts that simple tasks take . I am looking forward to winter and all of its challanges. And some free time so I can beat the pants off of my beautiful husband when we have time to play scrabble .
See you soon.
Now onto Christmas.....
We have decided again to forgo the silliness that Christmas has become and just enjoy a lovely meal . We will have small gifts for the Grandchildren , but mostly practical things. For example Zoe will have a new bird feeder and some seed to put outside of her bedroom window. She loves creating so I will get her some art supplies too. Aidan and Jude are the same and love art supplies. I will send some money for Thor because he is in California. And sometime around Christmas Freya will arrive . A gift for all of us.
We think of Victorian Christmas which would include the year we are portraying 1865, with visions of flaming plum puddings,stockings,Christmas trees and beautifully dressed tables. Everywhere you look in ads for the Christmas season this lovley Victorian vision of the holidays is portrayed. But what was the reality of Christmas not so long ago...all over Victoria's world.
Dickens "A Christmas Carol" is more to the reality of the Victorian Christmas. Especially Victorian England in the cities which were over crowded and filled with underpaid and over worked mostly factory workers .Who crowded into the cities from the country sides looking for work. People were taken advantage of because of the over abundance of ready cheap labour. The industrial revolution had started and there was extreme wealth and dire poverty.
But I want to think about Christmas here , Upper Canada 1865. When I think about what Christmas and the on coming winter meant I think that the thought/focus of the season must have been survival. Just with our own little project here, despite our ability to travel into town if we need anything our thoughts are still on how to keep us and our animals warm, fed ,watered and to prepare for things such as maple syrup production in the early spring. It must have been a heavy burden to prepare for winter, to know your family and all of your livestock depended on you preparing properly and forgetting nothing in order to survive the winter months. You had no idea how long or how harsh that winter would be . I would also imagine that if you got together with family or neighbors it was your last visit often until the spring. Depending on the severity of the winter weather. Here where we live we are about 1/2 an hour from the outskirts of London. I can be in Lambeth in 1/2 hour from here .On the 401 doing at least 100 k's
I would imagine in 1865 it would have taken a good days drive to make the same trip. And another to drive back home .Which might have been slower depending on what you were carrying. So winter trips would not be made.
Just a few of the things that this project has made me think about. I am thinking more about what we take for granted, more about what we waste on a regular basis. How much free time we have that we waste. I am thinking about food and how and why some foods are prepared and when. What foods winter over and what foods need to be used up before winter. It is telling that since we have started this project how little spare time we have. We are constantly working. And have little spare time at all. Every day things are time consuming . But they also come with a satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. When you pop open a jar of home made whatever it is so much different than something you just payed for. You appreciate what that jar holds. And the work it took to fill it .
Ken here, I've spent the last two days cleaning out the basement and preparing it for the winter's wood. I'm also cleaning up outside so things are neat and tidy before the snow flies. It's not just the physical labour involved in cleaning things up, it's the forethought involved as well. It isn't enough to pick things up from one place and pile 'em up in another, I did that last year and that pile is still awaiting my attention on top of the other stuff for this year. That old saying " a place for everything and everything in it's place" means something different for me now. It isn't just neat tidy storage sheds, cut lawns, clean tidy houses and such. It also means, at least to me, that you have only the things you need and no more.
Tomorrow I'll be hunting up the maple syrup equipment and setting aside in our garden shed in preparation for sap in the spring. Why now, simply because I can find everything now without having to guess where it is or moving six feet of snow to get it. The list includes the sap buckets, spiles, sap storage bins, fire boxes, the bricks, stones and iron frame to make the boiler, assorted buckets, fire pokers and other miscellaneous equipment. It should take me about two hours to secure this equipment and save me about two days worth of searching in the spring when we need to set up for sap. This reminds me of another old saying " a time for everything". It would seem the Victorians were wiser than we thought.
That's it for me, I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogger, the lovely and talented Margaret. :-)
So as we all prepare for another winter and another Christmas season we seem to be thinking more about where and when and how. I for one am appreciating the efforts that simple tasks take . I am looking forward to winter and all of its challanges. And some free time so I can beat the pants off of my beautiful husband when we have time to play scrabble .
See you soon.
Monday, October 31, 2011
What!!!! What do you do?
This is the response we heard when we told a fellow Rotarian that we do not have a television ...we then proceeded to explain our little year long experiment and he became almost appoplectic...was amusing to say the least.
We thought we should clarify what we do do without tv or radio or electric lights especially in the evening. Wait for it ..........we light candles. fairly simple folks. Candles placed properly will give you plenty of light. Not as strong as electric light (you won't see dirt in corners until the daytime) but good light to do whatever by. We play board games especially scrabble.We talk.(novel idea I know). I write handwritten letters with real ink and exchange letters with a lady in Arkansas who also enjoys Victorian letter writing. She is much better at beautiful letter writing than I am .And I look forward to hearing from her.In fact she puts my letter in a larger envelope , my letter is in actual Victorian wrapping and she even draws the post mark in according to what it would have looked like in 1865. She is very cool to do this. So that is what we do in our spare time
Actually the only appliance I miss is the radio.
But we really don't have time to watch tv. We keep ourselves busy puttering around. Our meals are enjoyed at a table with much conversation and generally(but not always) in the formal dining room. We are trying as best as we can, to while we are home here live as close to Victorian as we can. So regardless of the meal we do it as full service as we can. We linger over our meals when we have time to. And try to enjoy all the pleasures involved with good food and quiet conversation. People seem so rushed today and we are enjoying the calm. It is lovely when our Grandchildren come to visit how they also enjoy what we are doing and they insist that we eat in the formal dining room. They set the table and take great care to include knife rests and bread plates. It is very cool indeed. But I think they love the candle light the most in the dining room. It gives a peaceful glow and ambiance to the meal.Our Grandchildren have also learned they need a "traveller " to go into dark rooms with. A "traveller" being a candle holder with a handle. And it is funny to hear Zoe say" where is the traveller I need to go to ....." so she has learned to art of the "traveller" So in a nutshell that is some of the things we do without television, radio, lights...and it is lovely and quiet in our home ...see you soon.
We thought we should clarify what we do do without tv or radio or electric lights especially in the evening. Wait for it ..........we light candles. fairly simple folks. Candles placed properly will give you plenty of light. Not as strong as electric light (you won't see dirt in corners until the daytime) but good light to do whatever by. We play board games especially scrabble.We talk.(novel idea I know). I write handwritten letters with real ink and exchange letters with a lady in Arkansas who also enjoys Victorian letter writing. She is much better at beautiful letter writing than I am .And I look forward to hearing from her.In fact she puts my letter in a larger envelope , my letter is in actual Victorian wrapping and she even draws the post mark in according to what it would have looked like in 1865. She is very cool to do this. So that is what we do in our spare time
Actually the only appliance I miss is the radio.
But we really don't have time to watch tv. We keep ourselves busy puttering around. Our meals are enjoyed at a table with much conversation and generally(but not always) in the formal dining room. We are trying as best as we can, to while we are home here live as close to Victorian as we can. So regardless of the meal we do it as full service as we can. We linger over our meals when we have time to. And try to enjoy all the pleasures involved with good food and quiet conversation. People seem so rushed today and we are enjoying the calm. It is lovely when our Grandchildren come to visit how they also enjoy what we are doing and they insist that we eat in the formal dining room. They set the table and take great care to include knife rests and bread plates. It is very cool indeed. But I think they love the candle light the most in the dining room. It gives a peaceful glow and ambiance to the meal.Our Grandchildren have also learned they need a "traveller " to go into dark rooms with. A "traveller" being a candle holder with a handle. And it is funny to hear Zoe say" where is the traveller I need to go to ....." so she has learned to art of the "traveller" So in a nutshell that is some of the things we do without television, radio, lights...and it is lovely and quiet in our home ...see you soon.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Farmers Almanac says....
Farmers Almanac is predicting a long snowy winter this year. Given the amount of snow dumped on the Eastern United States over the past couple of days we should perhaps take heed. We are gathering starter wood today for the kitchen stove and will be bringing in the larger wood for the furnace in the basement. The furnace has been chugging out heat all week for us, as it has been quite cold. So the house is beautifully warm with the furnace and the kitchen stove. All summer I was lamenting the heat in the kitchen , now I am loving it. As are our inside kittens, they vie for the closest seat to the stove. Ken redid the chicken coop floor and has dig it out ,laid crushed stone, and patio stones followed by copious amounts of beautiful fresh straw in the laying boxes and beyond.. We are picking the last of the beautiful pears from the trees out back and I will need to figure out more recipes to preserve them.We will be back later on and talk some more about our winter plans...Dont want to waste the day , it is beautiful outside...M&K
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
It has been a while ....
We have had a small family crisis that has kept us busy . We apologise for being away so long and not posting our progress. But things are getting back to normal and so here we are again.
We have been very busy preparing for what we hear is going to be a harsh Canadian winter this year.
Our gardens have produced some beautiful gifts to last the winter ...hopefully.
We did not get as much squash this season as we thought we would. And our zucchini did not produce as well either. According to gardening expert Ed Lawrence this years way too much rain in the spring and not enought rain in late summer hurt crops such as squash,turnips,zucchini and garlic. One organic farmer lost over 2/3 of their crop this summer ...wow
We have been very busy trying to fit canning of apples ,pears, tomatoes and whatever else we can get our hands on .I think we might have enough beautiful apple jelly to keep our grandchildren coming back for more for a while.
Ken has been fixing the shop/shed in order to set up his forge. he has added a second floor for storage , and it looks fantastic.He has worked hard.
We managed to buy another wood stove at an auction to put in the shop. Although I am sure the forge will warm the shop too.
We will need to get in more wood and build up our kindling supply. Between the wood cook stove and the wood furnace we use quite a bit of wood. Add to that the shop and well you get the picture.
I have been thinking about what this all would mean in the year 1865 and again I come back to how we would have survived given the loss of some of our crops. For instance our tomatoes. We today can say oh well, and then when we need tomatoes or tomato sauce pick some up at the local store. that would not have been the case here in 1865. Gardening would have been a pretty serious business. This is an area I can say we have failed in during this project and hopefully can improve on next year. We need to fence some of the gardens to keep the chickens from having access to the veggies. They really enjoyed the cucumbers this year, and the watermelon...they loved the watermelon. Not sure what we can do about the racoons , they seem to be able to get into anything .
Speaking of chickens, our new breeds are doing well and are now producing eggs , wonderful green and blue eggs. Small but lovely.
We still have not purchased our quails , and I am thinking that will have to wait until the spring. We will be lining the outside of the chickens coop with straw bales this year for warmth and will let you know how that works. Until next time , I will say the wood stove in the kitchen is keeping us warm for now and the earth smells of fall. Thank you for being patient with us ...Margaret & Ken
We have been very busy preparing for what we hear is going to be a harsh Canadian winter this year.
Our gardens have produced some beautiful gifts to last the winter ...hopefully.
We did not get as much squash this season as we thought we would. And our zucchini did not produce as well either. According to gardening expert Ed Lawrence this years way too much rain in the spring and not enought rain in late summer hurt crops such as squash,turnips,zucchini and garlic. One organic farmer lost over 2/3 of their crop this summer ...wow
We have been very busy trying to fit canning of apples ,pears, tomatoes and whatever else we can get our hands on .I think we might have enough beautiful apple jelly to keep our grandchildren coming back for more for a while.
Ken has been fixing the shop/shed in order to set up his forge. he has added a second floor for storage , and it looks fantastic.He has worked hard.
We managed to buy another wood stove at an auction to put in the shop. Although I am sure the forge will warm the shop too.
We will need to get in more wood and build up our kindling supply. Between the wood cook stove and the wood furnace we use quite a bit of wood. Add to that the shop and well you get the picture.
I have been thinking about what this all would mean in the year 1865 and again I come back to how we would have survived given the loss of some of our crops. For instance our tomatoes. We today can say oh well, and then when we need tomatoes or tomato sauce pick some up at the local store. that would not have been the case here in 1865. Gardening would have been a pretty serious business. This is an area I can say we have failed in during this project and hopefully can improve on next year. We need to fence some of the gardens to keep the chickens from having access to the veggies. They really enjoyed the cucumbers this year, and the watermelon...they loved the watermelon. Not sure what we can do about the racoons , they seem to be able to get into anything .
Speaking of chickens, our new breeds are doing well and are now producing eggs , wonderful green and blue eggs. Small but lovely.
We still have not purchased our quails , and I am thinking that will have to wait until the spring. We will be lining the outside of the chickens coop with straw bales this year for warmth and will let you know how that works. Until next time , I will say the wood stove in the kitchen is keeping us warm for now and the earth smells of fall. Thank you for being patient with us ...Margaret & Ken
Friday, September 9, 2011
"Well Dorthy it isn't hot anymore"
Well how is that for a weather change?
I have been happily adding wood to the cook stove all week, I havent said that in a while. just was complaining about the heat of the wood stove all summer. This morning when I was sitting here all I could think of was my kitchen smelling like a true Canadian fall. The smell of wood smoke , the damp musty air coming in through the still open window, and the smell of tomatoes cooking down on the stove to be made into stewed tomatoes. Which we use for many recipes our favorite being poached eggs in stewed tomatoes and served on toast. Very yummy indeed. We have gotten most of our soft vegetables from the garden and will await the harvest of the squashes and harder veggies. Time to fill the basement with the larger wood for the furnace and pick the yard and fence rows for small kindling for the kitchen fire. Ken built a wonderful haystraw crib out of free skids from London...works great and the straw he has put in is dry and clean. We need to buy some square bales of straw to put around the chicken coop for the winter.Will insulate the coop better . It is time to really think about what and how this project will develop with winter,it has been easy being summer and not using hydro, with the exception of the heat and no fan or ac (not that I ever use ac). To keep cooler especially at night we just put a damp cloth beside the bed and wiped our faces and arms . Seemed to do the trick although not always. Interestingly our Grandchildren have been here a few times during the summer and did not complain about the lack of a fan or ac at all..
I will be back later , may head to the library ...thank goodness for laptops huh?
I have been happily adding wood to the cook stove all week, I havent said that in a while. just was complaining about the heat of the wood stove all summer. This morning when I was sitting here all I could think of was my kitchen smelling like a true Canadian fall. The smell of wood smoke , the damp musty air coming in through the still open window, and the smell of tomatoes cooking down on the stove to be made into stewed tomatoes. Which we use for many recipes our favorite being poached eggs in stewed tomatoes and served on toast. Very yummy indeed. We have gotten most of our soft vegetables from the garden and will await the harvest of the squashes and harder veggies. Time to fill the basement with the larger wood for the furnace and pick the yard and fence rows for small kindling for the kitchen fire. Ken built a wonderful haystraw crib out of free skids from London...works great and the straw he has put in is dry and clean. We need to buy some square bales of straw to put around the chicken coop for the winter.Will insulate the coop better . It is time to really think about what and how this project will develop with winter,it has been easy being summer and not using hydro, with the exception of the heat and no fan or ac (not that I ever use ac). To keep cooler especially at night we just put a damp cloth beside the bed and wiped our faces and arms . Seemed to do the trick although not always. Interestingly our Grandchildren have been here a few times during the summer and did not complain about the lack of a fan or ac at all..
I will be back later , may head to the library ...thank goodness for laptops huh?
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