When you loose almoust everything?

Today I visited my co-worker/friend first time after she had a house fire. Or kitchen fire, but result is about just as devastating.

I bought her flowers, and then I realised she wouldn't have a vase for them. So I bought a vase, too. No, she didn't have a vase. (and tea, and tiny lemon cakes and strawberries and... and... and)

With a stroke of luck, there was an empty house only few blocks away from their own house, and they were able to move in right away (insurance pays for the rent). But it was an empty house. So what do you need first? Beds, or at least mattrasses to sleep. Bed sheets, bankets, pillows. They had this guy from the local red cross to help them do shopping. He was adamant children should have sweets! (and he was right, they also bought toothbrushes and toothpaste, he clearly knew what he was doing).

But, for real. When you have to start all over again, with just the clothes you were wearing?

At work we passed the hat around and gathered around 700 euros for that family to buy something. 

She is still at shock, I could clearly see that. I promised to go shopping with her when she wants to go. (She asked my help, just to walk with her at the shops, she said she panics every time she needs to make a decision, just even if it is as simple as should I buy these navy or brown socks.)

I mean, I CAN imagine what it is like, but I DON'T understand. 

Minced meat soup

I made chili con carne on the other day. I had only big bag of minced meat (700g) in the freezer, there is a shortage of minced meat here. I try to use it sparingly, so I used only half of in in the chili.

Potatoes need using up, they are sprouting already! I got half swede and a nice parsnip for free, but I needed carrots anyway, so those I bought. And never-ending cabbage from the fridge.

Peeled and diced potatoes, carrots, swede and parsnip, and sliced a thick wedge from the cabbage (and sliced it to smaller pieces). Into the pot I added leftover ketchup from the "empty"bottle - there's always some left that will not come out. I just pour some warm water into the bottle and shake... A stock cube and some green powder, paprika, salt and pepper with a whole clove of garlic. And tumeric! I forgot about it. Once the soup was boiling, Iadded fried minced meat from the fridge.

Once potatoes and swedewere soft, soup was ready. We ate it with sourdough rye bread, which was free, too. Very good warming meal in this dark rainy day. I think most of the world thin soup as a lunch, but for us it is just a meal. Meal is a meal, no matter what time of the day it is eaten...

                                                                 (added a picture later)

The whole pot of soup (or stew, we call it soup because there is liquid) was max 4€ for five people! No leftovers, I think. (later: I was wrong, there's still 2 more portions left, so lunches later)

Tomorrow I'm going to make something with the chicken leftovers. Pasta? I don't mind I can't eat it, I'll have some leftover chili.

Now I've managed to pay all the credit cards I had to use earlier this year for car repairs. Next, I need to save up money for another surprices which are wainting to happen. I've not had credit cards unpaid at the end of the month for a long long time, so this wasn't very pleasant situation. At the same time I'm paying for another loo to be built. I haven't bought the seat yet, but I do have the sink, tiles for the walls and floor and panels for the ceiling. And there is no water connected yet. Yay.

Medieval madness

 So it's midsommar. Midsummer. We've had a warm week lately, and now - cold and wet. Yay!

But luckily it was warm and dry last weekend, when we had our Medieval Fair. Of course ys wanted to be a plague doctor- he has this black leather beak mask. Well, he didn't have rest of the outfit.

Mom to the rescue!

Idk if there's enough needles?

It's been a long long time since last time I made any garment of this detail...

So in a few days I made him a tunic, a veil/robe and a hood. Next year he needs new trousers (he has brown medieval trousers but they are not good match to this outfit, they were for the peasant outfit.

Here is ys and my lovely brother. He is ys's godfather, which is a bit strange because both of them are atheists. But it's completely another story... Oh yeah, ys really really really needs proper shoes, too. I can't make leatherwork, so have to find another solution for that. Anyone has elephant skin for the shoe soles? Maybe mammoth skin? Dinosaur skin?

(I know there are a lot of anacrhonisms in those outfits, but you just can't have it all)

We found very nice buckle/clip for ys for his tunic - but of course it's not visible. But it was only 18€, which is a bargain! Th mask was filthy expensive, we bought it last year. Fabrics for the outfit were less than 70€ (they are linen or linen blend). I bought an applewood needle for needlebinding (? oh, its nalbinding?) but I still don't get how you are supposed to proceed after the first loops... Maybe I'll get it by the next summer.

I'm trying to NOT to do any food shopping for the rest of the month. I have my freezers shockingly full, I've been able to get food and bread from the waste food distribution organisation (grand words, the organisation is a woman from my community society, and she's also the distribution system...). Now I'm trying to get us eat to eat through the freezers. Just now there's a whole chicken in the oven, it was already seasoned, so I just dumped it into the cast iron pot (dutch oven) with the lid on. Now I need to wash and boil potatotes (I got maybe 6 kilos of new potatoes), and we will have some freezer veggies steamed/boiled with them. Of course I don't eat poultry, so I'll have some pickled herring (lime and ginger), which was free.

New potatoes, butter and pickled herring with some sourdough rye bread - my summer is here.