Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Sunday 17 August 2008

Musings ..on not being Super (Compost) Woman

It has been a busy week so far, I am not feeling well at the moment ( probably linked to the busy time....) and I yesterday had to let a fellow Master Composter down today and not help her with a Show...so I feel bad about that...I DON'T like letting folk down!

The vegetables are pouring out from the garden and I MUST start making space in the freezers for this year's crops...so I will be making chutney and probably more wine (hic!) out of the plums and soft fruit left in there...I have already made some Blackcurrant Vodka from some frozen ones which is sitting in a dark place maturing.

Compostman makes the jams and very good jams they are, too. Sadly it looks like we will have no plums or damsons this year, there were not very many ANYWAY and the squirrels have eaten the few which DID form ( Grr) HOWEVER I do still have 10 lbs or so in the freezer which will be jam and wine very soon!

I DO have a tree of Blaisden Red plums but the wet weather is making them rot on the tree before they are ripe!

Its hard work at this time of the year! I love living here and growing stuff and keeping chickens etc BUT at this time of year it all comes at once, everything needs harvesting blanching and freezing, or otherwise preserving.

Now I have the Dehydrator I would like to dry more stuff, I would also like to bottle more so I am not so reliant on the freezer for storage, but it all takes TIME and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the many tasks which MUST be done at this time of the year.

Also this week it has not stopped raining so I haven't been able to keep up with the outside chores as I would normally do....I worry when I can't do stuff fast enough!

I have CFS/ME and although I am better than I used to be I still often get to the point where I just can't do things when I need to and I have to rest. I also catch more bugs and take longer to recover from them...sadly my immune system ( despite my healthy diet!) is not wonderful :-((

I get very frustrated that sometimes food we have grown is not being harvested or prepared when it needs to be, or chores have to be left till another time when I SHOULD be getting on with them!

Compostman does a lot of work around here, both outside AND inside stuff, he is absolutely wonderful BUT he IS only human and he can't do all his work AND all of mine...and he has recently got a hernia which is troubling him and limiting what he can do....

So sometimes things don't get done when they should. :-(

Oh well, I guess thats life and I need to be grateful for the help I get and for what I DO get done :-))

Sorry, self pitying rant over now!
It is Full Moon and I am tired I guess :-0

Normal Compost service will be resumed tomorrow I hope

2 comments:

  1. Oh I do hope you are feeling much better soon {hugs}.

    Rosie x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Rosie!

    Well Compostgirl has the lurgy now, too....

    so we have spent a lot of today in bed together snoozing....a bit like the Kittens do

    Hopefully normal service WILL be resumed ASAP but at the moment I must admit to feeling quite carp and low...:-((

    Thanks for the kindly words tho'.

    They DO help :-))

    ReplyDelete

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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