Popularity, swingometers and the new challenge

How very thrilling - not only are two people following my blog, but three people have voted in my poll! I suspect one of them of taking my previous post's title literally and voting more than once, but I'm not complaining - two people read my blog! On the downside, we have something of a hung Parliament, with regards to the results, and my Peter Snow swingometer shows that each of the three options have an equal 33% of the vote.

Still, in the best tradition of autocratic dictatorships, the poll has been rigged and I'm happy to tell you, with my outsized military cap in place, that I've decided to go with the 'don't buy anything new for a week' option. And I'll tell you for why: my cupboards are quite well stocked with food at the moment, so 'not visiting a supermarket' would be too easy and not worth blogging about. Refusing all surplus packaging sounds good, but I'll do that one another time. In truth, this coming week falls between two niece's birthdays, so I know I can avoid buying anything new for at least this one week!

If you'd like to join in, here are the rules...or maybe I should call them 'ideals', so we don't feel quite so bad when we don't achieve them!

1. Aim not to buy anything new for a whole week, except for food (you don't have to forage in the

bins behind the Kentucky Fried)
2. ...but you can buy second-hand or use Freecycle

You're not banned from acquiring stuff, you're just aiming to reduce what you buy and not to buy new. No need to worry about the economy finally going belly-up, because there appear to be only three of us doing it!

I'm also going to keep up the kitchen-roll thing to, as that turned out to be quite easy and did, I think, make a difference.

Disclaimer: Mrs Ruby and the 'Do One Thing' blog do not endorse the idea of autocratic dictatorships.

Vote early, vote often!

Ooh look - I have managed to add a poll to the blog! (Scroll right down to the bottom of the page - even I couldn't find it at first!) Please cast your votes on what you think the next challenge should be. Oh - and feel free to suggest other potential challenges, because I am running out of ideas.

Today's non-use of kitchen roll...

...after cleaning the guinea pig cage, I used an old baby vest of TR's (stained beyond even charity shop donation) to dry the base of the cage. I thank you! The press-studs made a funny noise though, on contact with the plastic cage-base. Note to self: cut off he press-studs, if using baby vests as rags.

A friend told me her son used kitchen roll today as part of a craft model. I feel that is a good use of the stuff. I'm sure he would have gained fewer housepoints, had he presented his teacher with the same model, only with one of TR's manky old vests substituted for the kitchen roll.

Good news about pig bins!

For those of you unable to sleep last night, owing to your curiosity concerning the apparent demise of pig bins, I have good news: they are still feature at Guide and Scout camps! I can't substantiate this claim, unfortunately, but I have it on good authority, from a friend whose children are in the Scout movement. You'll just have to take my word for it.

For those of you more interested in what I did and didn't do with kitchen roll today (you poor sods!), I am happy to inform you that I didn't use any to mop up a puddle of water on the kitchen floor - indeed, no, I used a microfibre cloth.

Speaking of microfibre cloths, what did we do before they were invented? They are truly marvellous! Last week I cleaned a good deal of my conservatory with one of them. Yes: one microfibre cloth and a bit of water and the framework is still shining, which is a vast improvement on how it was before. (Minging and mouldy, in case you were wondering.)

As ever, I became completely distracted while finding links for this blog entry. I read all about Rainbows, via the Guiding link. I can't wait until The Mouse gets her call up papers for Rainbows! It looks like so much fun!

Kitchen roll-free since... yesterday

Yes folks, I managed it: a whole day without kitchen roll. I was tempted to reach for it after scrubbing the birdfeeder, but managed to find an old towel Mr Ruby had left lying around and used that to dry the bird feeder, instead. How very resourceful of me!

In other news, my mum has signed-up for the challenge and reminded me of 'pig bins'. Whatever happened to them, I wonder? (Commercially available 'complete' pig food, I imagine.) What do modern-day Girl Guides do with their food waste, in the absence of pig bins?

Oh yeah - and Tech Support tells me it was golf he was watching, not cricket. (It's all balls and sticks to me.)

Time for a rethink!

So, even I have to admit that this blog lacks a little pizazz. Actually, it lacks any pizazz and is completely pizazz-poor!

A good friend of mine suggested I change the format slightly and I like her idea, so here it is (cue fanfare) I'm now going to attempt one new challenge per week. Yes, folks: one a week. Without further ado, I shall announce that this week's challenge is...

A week without kitchen roll!

Well, think about it: it is pretty wasteful and there really is only so much of I can compost, so most of it goes into the bin. Here is what I currently use kitchen roll for:

1. Patting dry food, e.g. potato wedges, before cooking - actually I mostly use a clean tea towel for this, but it sounds more of a challenge if I pretend I use it more often than I do!

2. Wrapping otherwise inedible gluten-free food before microwaving to 'refresh' it. Not sure what I will use instead, but will give it some thought. TR will thank me for it. (The thoughtful alternative I shall come up with - not the dried-out, inedible gluten-free food.

3. Wiping up random spills from kitchen floor. I guess I could use rags or a microfibre cloth - appear to possess quite a few of either.

4. Blowing noses when I can't be doing with getting a hanky or tissue. Let's face it, this is not nice or kind - kitchen roll scratches your nose, something awful.

5. As a place to put compostible items, because I can't be bothered to get a bowl out of the cupboard. (How lazy am I?!)

6. Sometimes use it to grease baking pans. Could equally use an off-cut of baking parchment, because greasing a pan usually means there is some of that kicking about.

Well, I think that's about it, but we seem to get through a lot of the stuff, so goodness knows what other uses we have for it. I did recently ask my mum what her mother used, instead of kitchen roll. Her answer was, 'I have no idea, although I have wondered about that myself.' Will try and get my mum to sign up for this challenge too!

By the way, sorry for the bunched-up post. I need the advice of my tech-support department, but he is sleeping on the sofa, pretending to watch the cricket.

Back Again!

Oh dear. This blog rather ground to a halt over the summer, didn't it? Sorry folks. Children to look after, holidays to go on...etc. etc.

So, how did I do in the garden? We-ell, not so bad for a beginner, I guess. Actually, not that well at all but I did manage a nice crop of Pink Fir Apple potatoes. Admittedly some were tiny, but they were delicious. I'm still growing my corn, although I am starting to despair of it ever being ready for harvest, and we've had cherry tomatoes all summer long. I'm also still waiting to harvest TR's remaining carrot.

Next year I have far grander plans for my potager, which is a fancy-pants name for a vegetable garden. I'm hoping for a bean hide (tipi-like structure, made out of canes and runner beans), some peas, more potatoes and tomatoes, herbs and maybe some onions.

And now for the next challenge... I'm not sure what to go for, but I'm thinking something about housework, as I'm newly inspired to keep the house tidy. Or I might take up the challenge of 'Buy Nothing New for a Month'...but that actually might be genuinely difficult!