52 Week Challenge - week by week through 2013

[Sheneval]

This week I will be sorting the 14 large plastic boxes containing local history documents acquired over many years. If it goes as well as the previous week's challenge I will be well pleased

[mothhawk]

I have always taken my stuff to a charity shop and ignored these bags. However, a week of driving around with a bootful of charity shop stuff coincided with the delivery of a Heart Foundation bag and I thought "Stuff it, use it" - so I stuffed the bag and left it outside the door for collection. A little scribbled thank you note was left and that was the end of that - much easier than taking it to a charity shop. If only I had more bags to fill..........

Our district council actually have a charity collection in their rubbish/recycle program - they leave a 'Mind' charity bag, into which you can put good clothes, but also worn out clothes (which are recycled as rags for, among other things making bank notes), and small electrical items such as toasters, hair dryers etc. You put the bag out on rubbish collection day, and it's collected by a separate van, and a new bag left for you. Saves having to put all those odd socks in the rubbish bin

[veggiechicken]

What a good idea MH! I'm never sure what to do with tatty old clothes. There's a limit to how many dusters one needs

[Sheneval]

VC - Following my visit to Carnegie Library last night I have a mass of notes to write up to prepare a report for the FHS Journal so with your kind permission I would like to change my challenge for this week to:

'Visit Carnegie Library to view records held there and do a report on the visit for the FHS Journal'

I will leave the clearing the large boxes to another week

[Tripmeup]

This week I will be mostly changing the light bulb (surprisingly tricky to get at) in herself's car...

Done!! scrapes on my hands to prove it

[Nannysally99]

Just to let you all know, Age UK recycles all items received. Even if an article is deemed non saleable they still get rag or scrap money for them. Don't hesitate to take your items to them
Sally


Sent from my iPad using Grow Your Own Forum

[Sheneval]

Having just completed my notes on the visit to Carnegie Library on Thursday last I am pleased to claim the week's challenge completed

[Hazel at the Hill]

Week 47 - Grow a New Vegetable

Having had a half plot at the Hill for 7 years, I've tried to grow all sort of tasty fruit and veg. I do tend to grow pretty much that same thing year after year, though - partly as I know what I like, partly as I know what I can grow well.

But precisely because I have settled into growing mostly the same things year on year, it is a good challenge for me to have a go at something a bit different.

Following VC's thread earlier in the year, I decided to have a go at celeriac - I don't think I've eaten in more than a couple of times, and I certainly haven't grown it before.

The seeds are like dust, but they came up in their little pot. I pricked the seedlings out into modules, then planted out in June. They did well, as I kept them well watered, and kept the weeds down, and stripped a few leaves off the top of the growing bulbs each week or so over the summer.







And today, I dug my first one up. It might look like an ood, but peeled, boiled and mashed with potato and butter for tea tonight, it was delicious.





It might be the first time I have grown celeriac, but it will not be the last - and that's my week 47 Challenge completed!

[veggiechicken]

Week 47 - the most challenging of the year

Can there be a Challenge more demanding than being a Moderator on the Vine?
I doubt it!! Its certainly one that I never expected and, I must be honest, I had reservations about accepting
However, this week, I was scraping around the barrel for a new challenge, and when this landed in my Inbox, it seemed the answer to a Chicken's prayer.
So here I am, one of your new Moderators, hoping to stay in post until 2014 at least
Be gentle with me, please

[veggiechicken]

Week 48 - 25th November - 1st December

Last week of November - 4 more weeks to go
What will you do this week??

[bearded bloke]

I will attempt NOT to break the vine

[Sheneval]

VC - This week I will have go at clearing the 14 large boxes containing local history information - honest

[Sheneval]

VC - Another change of plan - cleaning the bathroom in advance of decoration and the painting of same has taken up more time than I planned and I had to babysit today and now have my brother and his wife coming tomorrow for the day.

As a result I would like to make 'Cleaning the Bathroom and painting same' my challenge for this week and claim Challenge Completed.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Week 48 - Make Sourdough Bread

I love bread, I really do - but what I do NOT love is the pappy cotton wool bread that you get by and large in the shops.

The alternative to spending an outrageous sum for a 'proper' loaf of bread is, of course, to make your own. Having had a bash on a couple of occassions in the past, though, any bread I have made has been pretty brick-like - I suspect I haven't got the knack of kneading.

So I have a bread maker. This is a pretty good move, as you can chuck into the pan any permutation of bread flour, honey, malt, oil, butter, salt, seeds, bran etc etc and get a pretty respectable loaf.

But earlier this year, my godmother sent me some instructions on getting a sourdough starter going, and to make bread from it pretty much in perpetuity, all without commercial yeast. Intriguing!

I gave it a whirl last week, and spent a week with a jar full of flour and water paste which despite my skepticism, eventually when frothy and I had my starter ready to make bread.



Well, not quite - the starter has to be primed with more flour and water, and left for another 24 hours. And then you can make your bread. Brilliant!

My first go was not a success. I used rye flour, which - if you think of how solid rye bread is - was always likely to be heavy going. A total failure, this went in the bin before it was even dough. My second go was more like it - I did half quantities and ended up with a perfectly edible loaf. Ha!

And this weekend, I've gone for the full thing. The starter was taken out of the fridge, part measured out and primed for 24 hours. Today I added flour and salt, kneaded the dough, let it rise (hours more), and tonight I have knocked the dough into shape and left it to rise AGAIN, and then into the oven.





I must say that it is utterly gorgeous, and I can see that the initial faff factor will soon become routine. But you do have to think ahead!



A success - eventually - and my week 48 Challenge is completed!

[Feral007]

One years tax to the tax man and the next two years to the accountant. That would be week 7, 8 and 9's challenge completed, I think?