Granny Spears

I Blames The Planes: What’s Wrong With Torquay?

There always seems to be some new sickness going around these days.

We live in an era of "fast fashion" where things are of abysmal quality, super low in cost, but mass-produced to keep up with the latest trends.

The Monthly Mending Session

My children had a roof over their heads, food in their belly and a warm bed at night and they were grateful for that, anything else was a bonus.

Raising a family off-grid requires very careful planning

There’s no doubt in my mind that having electricity is the one thing that would have improved my life. Having mains water would have been fantastic but the ‘lectricity would have been better.

Why is everything so fast these days?

Fast food, fast internet, fast cars, everything it seems is fast. Some of my grandchildren can barely cook a decent meal, preferring to stuff something in the microwave or go to McDonalds.

Making Clotted Cream From Raw Milk

Anyway, raw milk makes the best cream and that’s that. The rich Jersey milk we can buy in the shops is the next best, far better than regular milk but nowhere near as good as ‘real’ milk.

Entertaining The Old Fashioned Way

I think it’s good that the kids learn some of the old ways you know, it’s a funny old world and one day some of it might come in handy.

The Best Firewood For Heating

We had an awful lot of trees to choose from to burn in the range, and some were far better than others.

Outdoor Cooking Was Essential To Keep the Cottage Cool

In the Summer, especially if there was no breeze passing through the place it was suffocatingly hot, and unbearable if you lit the range. In order to burn less fuel as well as keep the cottage cool we would cook and eat outside as much as possible.

Fertilizing the Vegetable Garden

Mostly animal manure was used to fertilize the garden but sometimes it was too fresh, it hadn’t been stored long enough and that’s no good as it can burn the plant roots and often it would kill them as it was too strong.

You Need to Grow A LOT of Sugar Beet to Get a Little Sugar

I would usually end up with six or eight jars of beet syrup, four or so jars of crushed leaves and several dozen eggs from the swapping of the mash. Not bad from a handful of seeds.

Dealing With Flies the Old Fashioned Way

I’m sure there are other ways to deter flies, but these worked for me so I stuck with them.

Ironing Day Using Flat Irons: The Blight of My Life

There were two types of iron years ago, the solid metal ones, flat irons which was what I had, and box iron, a similar thing, but the top of the iron where the handle is, lifted up letting you put hot embers inside to save keep reheating it.