Just Humans Being...

We believe that many of you dear readers may recall our quirky illumination device that we repurposed and installed at our old home, Meadowcroft – a 300 year old former farmhouse. It was a great place to live and we stayed for 12 years, but it had its faults and one was that it was very often dark inside – even on a summer’s day. The dining room was particularly gloomy. We can laugh about it now, but at the time; we injured ourselves on serrated knives, razor wire, drawing pins, chainsaw blades, stinging nettles and wood splinters almost on a daily basis. One dark evening, I tripped and fell heavily against the back of a solid farmhouse chair, not only breaking some ribs in the process, but I also dropped a full plate of hot food and catapulted a glass of red wine at the ceiling. My ribs, though painful took a few weeks to heal, but the red wine stain remained for years until we finally redecorated. We needed light and quickly and once the problem was solved, we saved a fortune on ...

Today, we have been asked to think about the energy we use... Well, we already have reduced our usage of electric & heating oil  over the past 12 months, which we wrote about in a previous blog. Infact, we have halved our electricity consumption & when the oil company came to top up our tank on Tuesday, the delivery guy said it was still 85% full, so we didn't need any extra! Sime made the quick video above about the the light bulbs he wired up in the kitchen to replace the expensive spot lights. We've always switched lights off when exiting rooms & electrical equipment gets switched off at the mains when we've finished using it. As appliances break down, we haven't replaced them & are always on the look out for manual versions. We were persuaded by the kids to buy a second-hand dishwasher for £20 when we moved into this house & it lasted for 3 years (even though it was already 22 years old)! We haven't replaced it & feel happier washing ...