Wiping away our carbon footprint.

Hi all,

Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet of late, it’s been hectic here these past couple of weeks.

Writing up my green goals was a good motivator. After posting I decided to chase up British Gas, who are supplying the solar panels, and I’m pleased to report that the fitters have just arrived. In less than 8 hours we’ll be generating our own electricity – woo hoo!

The scaffolding went up yesterday, so this morning I overcame my fear of heights to climb up onto the roof, and here is the view.

It was lovely to see our garden and the mountains from up above, although I must confess I was a gibbering wreck! Not being such a baby was little NW, who seemed completely unphased by the fact that he was standing on the roof, snuggled close to his daddy in the sling as he was.

I’ve also had a go at making my first batch of bread. Here is what the bread looked like in the recipe book.

And here are my attempts!

Not too bad for a first go I think, what do you reckon?

I quite enjoyed it to be honest, though the kneading was really hard work and I can see myself getting some pretty hefty arm muscles if I do this regularly! It was a pretty good workout though, much needed to counteract the nearly whole loaf I ate to myself while it was still sightly warm. Yup, it was that yummy!

Another of the goals I’ve been putting into practice is trying to use my washable wipes, and they haven’t been quite such a success. I have three different types; the popin bamboo wipes from babi pur, a set of double sided wipes (towelling one side and fleece the other), and some old fleece blankets that I cut up myself. All have their benefits, but I think I prefer the bamboo ones. They are more absorbent than the fleece blanket, and less chunky than the double fabric ones so better at getting into those little crevices! 🙂

I love using the wipes when in the house. I just run them under the tap and the boys have lovely clean bottoms with no nasty chemicals. I can’t believe I used cotton wool on NW’s bottom for so long!

I’m not quite so good at using them while out and about though, and to be honest I can’t quite get my head around how to do it. If I take the wipes out dry, then inevitably I end up with a monster mess somewhere there isn’t a tap so I can’t get the bottoms very clean. I’ve tried to take them out wet in the wetbag that came with the pop-in ones, but then everything all around gets soaking wet. I’m wondering if this is because its a drawstring bag, and I’d be better off getting a zip one?

I’d be greatful to know how you ladies do yours? At the moment I end up taking dry washables out with me and bring a packet of disposables with me just in case, which kind of defeats the object, especially as I end up reaching for the disposables a bit too often.

Ooohhhh! Hang on a minute. Let me share my excitement, the panels have just arrived by courier!

I never realised how big they are. I’m 5’6” and if I stand next to them, they are taller than me!

Anyway, back to the blog. It isn’t just the green goals and kids that have been keeping me so busy of late. We’ve gone and done something really really stupid……

We’ve fallen completely head over heals in love with a ruined old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. It could be the house of our ‘good life’ dreams. It’s a proper ruin and would need to be completely gutted, but then we could build it back up into the super insulated ground or air source heated house we’ve dreamed of, and there’s even a nice south facing roof so we can have solar PV there too, and maybe even a wind turbine as its so high up, oh I’m getting carried away here!  But the thought of all that and the couple of acres it comes with makes me really excited.

Anyway, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome before this has any chance of becoming a reality, the first of which is to sell our house. We’ve been going hell for leather trying to get all those little jobs we’ve meant to do for ages done, so the past few weeks have been filled with painting, cleaning, putting up pictures etc. Our house went on the market yesterday, so cross fingers we get some interest, although everybody seems to refer quite despondently to ‘the current market’ so I wont hold out too many hopes. 🙁

Right, I’d better go an make some brews for the lovely installers. Ta ta for now, and if anybody fancies a nice 2 bed cottage in Snowdonia then you know where to find me!

Cat