Free range kids and the great divide.

Regular visitors here may have noticed that I have a blog list at the side of the page.
This list is a snippet of the blogs I admire, contribute to and think are relevant to the subjects I post on The (almost) Car-less family.
The Eagle eyed among you may have noticed that one is now missing.
Now I have nothing personally against the creator of the free range kids website. Many of her principles are sound and dipped in common sense.
The reason I have removed the blog is because of the bad feeling, vitriol and down right one-up-man-ship.
The post comments are full of parents belitteling anyone who dares to say "I'm sorry I don't agree", anyone who admits that no, their child doesn't walk to school is pointed at as the archetype helicopter parent.
The main thing that disturbed me was the black and whiteness of the whole thing.
Don;t get me wrong, I have no fear thet paedophiles are lurking behind every bush waiting to steal my children, but I DO worry about the fast road past my house where the only place to cross is at the bottom of two hills and is easy for an ADULT to misjudge let alone a child.
Because of this they can't go up the village to play in the street (another free range kids must), or ride their bikes without supervision.
Not one person on the blog comments could say "yes, I can understand that problem" without being shouted down by parents accusing them (and me) of just not letting go.

I don't need that kind of hate in my life.
Parenting should be a fantastic and loving journey, as individual as the people who created the children. There are no rules, there are no boxes that fit children perfectly.
The children, the area you live in, your own lifestyle, these are the things that determine how you can parent.

There are very few true free range children, just like there are very few true free range animals in farms.
Again it depends on several variables.
A pig for example cannot be taken out of the barn and called free range. He is the wrong pig on the wrong farm, making an intensively reared pig into a "free range one" means it becomes a form of neglect. You can see fields full of pink pigs in the winter, only steel shelters and not enough bedding to keep warm.
An old breed of "hairy" dark pig on a purpose made free range farm would be much happier. Many farmed boars are kept in woodland and have shelter from the elements to complement the hide they have.

Is this a strange analogy??

Stick with me now.....

These post commenter's bang on and on about how they where aloud to do this that and the other when they where kids and THEY didn't get hurt.
30, 40 50 years ago the traffic was a 1/5 of what we have now, the cars are faster and streets and housing complexes designed for the use of a car not a child's feet. To throw open your door to a wide eyed 6 year old and shout "Go play free range" is neglect in an unsafe area.

I just wonder, when will parents start to use common sense when they raise their kids, instead of latching onto a "method" and guarding it as jealously as a pit bull with a bone. When as people did we become so unsure of our abilities as parents that we have to belittle other people for being different in their own parenting approach.

Thoughts?

This time I'd really like to hear them.

The home school debate, or how to dig yourself deeper into the weird family hole.

The topic of home schooling has been one that has come up a lot over the last 7 years or so.
It started when we met up with an old friend of husbands and his wife and children. It transpired that they homeschooled and a nicer pair of articulate and confident children I had never met.
Eldest was two at the time and I remember giving it some serious consideration, but then I had #2 and #3 son in quick succession and the thought went on the back boiler for a while.
I had always dug my heels in about sending the boys to nursery, something that parents routinely do from 2 and a half in Scotland (from 3 it is government funded). I always said no way. Our nearest nursery was too far away (even though we had a car then I don't drive anyway), there was no public transport and I had no desire to put my 3 year old son in a taxi with a stranger to go to a nursery where I would probably never even meet his carers.
People made noises about how good it would be to socialize him, how he would be "ready for school" and possibly behind if he didn't go.
I pointed out that no single doctor or lawyer practicing today was made to go to full time nursery and they did just fine.
As it happened when eldest started school I was taken aside by his teacher and told that it was so nice to have a child start school who wasn't already jaded by the "system", a child who approached learning like an adventure.
And for the record he is a million times more gregarious than me or his father ;)

Anyway....

I digress.

Home schooling popped up again when he started to have trouble at school. He has just (yesterday in fact) been diagnosed with Dyslexia and Audio memory problems, something we and his teachers have known for a while but until now has not been "formally recognised" by the powers that be.
Sometimes I would think about the amount of wasted time he has in school and then the extra work he has to do after school and think "what is the point? I could do this with him in half the time." But what stops me is that it is a genuinely GREAT school. Its small (22 pupils split in to two classes) the teachers are enthusiastic and approachable, nothing like the teachers I had as a child. And he loves going, he loves being with his friends and working.
I know that if he was in a larger school his problems would not have been picked up for a long time, he is clever at hiding and diverting when he is struggling with something.

So I had decided that primary school should be attended.
However I was having thoughts about secondary school.

Only 2 years away and he goes from a school of 22 to a school of 784 pupils. I admit ti having some worries about how he will get on there, if he will get the kind of support that he gets now.
So maybe I will homeschool them for secondary school, but it raises other issues.
On a budget and without a regular car can I grantee he (and eventually his brothers) will get to do things. Will they get to clubs or activities and meet other kids. Even if we have the car can we afford to do that.
Again, living in a town or city this would be fine, there are buses and museums and libraries and youth clubs all within walking or cycling distance. In truth though most things like that up here are in the nearest large town 15 miles away.

Its a consideration.

Luckily in a meeting with the support teacher and the assessor yesterday I learnt a lot about the new software the secondary school has for kids who need additional support, the allowances with things like spell check and calculators so they can do exams.

More research is needed I think.

Should have not have kids and brought a new puppy instead ;)

Money and other ways to make your life choices that much harder.

There is a hard truth when it comes to doing without the traditional car aspect of getting your family and goods around.

Since being car-less (Landrover has yet to leave the yard :P)I have done a lot of digging around, looking at blogs, reading articles of people who live without a car in their lives.
One of the prevailing common traits ( and although I say common I KNOW its not everyone, before anyone jumps up and down saying "not me!!")is money, as in pleanty of.

Now I don't mean RICH.
Not David Beckham, Donald Trump rich, but nicely comfortable middle class rich. The sort of rich where the juggling of bills is an exception rather than a rule, the kind of house where shopping does not need to be totted up and the none essentials put sadly back on the shelves.

A classic quip is something along the lines of " ...Of course getting bulky things can be tricky, but if I need a sofa DFS deliver so its not really a problem...."

....But it is a problem, for me anyway.

If I need a sofa the furniture shop is not the first place I look. The first place I go sofa hunting is Freecycle and if nothing comes of that then the free papers for a cheap second hand sofa.
Here lies the problem.
Although the big furniture chains will happily deliver your large item, very few private sellers/ freecylers will.

An example is this....
I saw in the free papers last week an unused trail gator, unwanted gift £20.
Now these retail here at @ £60....and I need 2 of them..this should have been fantastic but....it was 25 miles away no where near a bus or train route and much too heavy for it to be worth posting.
I would have used about £5-7 of fuel..just a little over postage and packing from a shop, so I would have still paid a lot less than buying new.

So we see..the comfortable "middle class rich" car-less person would not have been looking in the free papers for a trail gator..they would have just ordered one online and paid the full price.

My bike came through freecycle BUT the girl who brought it was coming to my house anyway to pick up some items I'd listed.

This is the bit I am finding the hardest. Not the day to day stuff of shopping, but the "too good to miss" items on freecycle, the bulky things like second hand windows and bikes that we need to collect.

We are so far away from most of these things (Our freecycle cover's a very large area) that it is getting to the stage where it is almost not worth having it.

How do other people in this situation cope???

Wheels..I got dem' :D

I have a bike!!!!

Granted it is not new, it needs some TLC, a new front tyre and break, some tweaking and adjusting..but I don't care!!!

I had posted a wanted on my local freecycle along with some offered items, and the girl who wanted my stuff said she could try and get me a bike!
She volunteers for Aberdeen BeCyle ( http://becycle.wordpress.com/ )and a while back (BEFORE the dead car :P ) I had freecycled some redundant bikes to her. They had been left in our steading when we moved in and where in need of more repair that we were capable of performing. So she turned up on behalf of BeCycle and took all 4 of the on.

I guess it must be Karma then. She read of our wish to cut down on the car and sourced me one to keep :)

Some other news (Oy..24 hrs is a long time in blogland!)we have also found ourselves in possession of a landrover!

It was always on the cards that a Landrover would appear here again, to my mind they have the worst reputation among the "green" fraternity but is actually one of the most environmentally sound car choices in my humble opinion.
Lets have a look at some facts and figures.

1. A series Landrover is basically a large meccano set. Anyone with an owners manual could strip it down and put it back together again. 99% of repairers can be undertaken by the owner.
2. Series Landrover parts are stupidly easy to get hold off. There are companies all over the country (and the world!) who specialise in "pre-loved" parts. The ultimate in re-cycling!
3. Sensibly driven a well maintained series (diesel) will do @ 25 miles to the gallon...not earth shattering but when compared to a modern car.....

(2008 EPA Average All Cars - 21 MPG)


"The Environmental Protection Agency reported that the average performance of new, 2008 model cars and trucks was 20.8 miles per gallon in 2008." -- Boston Globe, 9/19/08


"Ford's Model T, which went 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline, was more fuel efficient than the current Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle -- which manages just 16 miles per gallon." -- Detroit News, 6/4/03

Sobering thoughts.


The biggest thing I have for the Landrover though is the fact that they never stop. There are still series I's working day in day out as primary cars for their owners, cars that are as much as 60 years old!!
When you look at a new off the "shelf" car you know that in 1 year it will be worth half what you paid for it, within 2 years something major will have had to have been replaced, within 5 years the car is a bargain basement car and within 7 it is most likely in a junkyard. In that one cars life time its original owner could have been through 4 or 5 cars and why? Why is this obsolescence built in?? To keep the car industry in big bucks that's why.

So we have a car but we haven't given up on our goals. Also if I know Landrovers (and our budget) we will be mostly car-less anyway while husband spends free time "tinkering" under the bonnet..ah, Ce La Vie ;)
Anyway, I did have a "wow how do we do that then?" moment, all the bikes need at "mot", Eldest child's need new breaks (too many sliding sideways stops)and the gears checking over, middles needs a special chain, and mine needs all I said about at the beginning of this post. How to get them there *sigh*

20 miles away, no near train..... me thinks its time to buy a bike repair book ;)

The unwitting campaigner.

I'm trying to find out all the things that are available in my area and have once again found myself in the position of campaigner to get a service re-instated.

This is not a task I enjoy..beyond this blog I am a wallflower.

A mobile library runs through this area so I got in touch to ask if they stopped in my village.
I was told not anymore.
Here's the kicker.
If I can find three other people to sign up they will consider re-instating it!
Talk about pressure!

So now I have to put my "people" hat on and *gulp* talk to them...*sigh*

But it could be worth it, it could be the start of young mums using it rather than carting the kids 20 miles away to use the library. It could get the old folks out of the house once a week! It could cut down my book spending bills!!

Ok..deep breath...I can do this..its a greater good thing.

Whimper.

The complexities of lunch and other ways to alienate yourself.

Well the kids went back to school today...ALL of them :D

Hmm, when did I get old enough to have THREE kids at school...damn!

So 3 pack lunches went into school with them today...and it brought all the past terms grievances back to the fore.
You see, as we are on benefits we are entitled to free school meals. Now in theory this would be fantastic, it would mean the children's dinner at home could be soup or sandwich, something light and inexpensive, that's the whole point of the free school meal.
We were all ready vegetarian and then @ 18 months ago we gave up dairy. This was, initially, a health move..I get asthma and the eldest and youngest son get eczema..all of which either vastly improved or disappeared all together, so you can imagine the results were worth the effort!

School was wonderful, yes they could still provide school meals even though they were nearly easting vegan, I even made it easy for them by allowing the menu to include fish and eggs (fish is something we don't eat at home and we only eat our own chickens eggs usually).
The meal company was informed and we were told that the meals would be provided and a menu sent to us in due course.

A whole YEAR went by and no menu came, despite repeated attempts by myself and the school administrator AND head teacher to get in touch.
In the meantime the two eldest were coming home with increasingly bizzar lunch tales...baked potato and rice...banana sandwich and pasta....seriously 3 or 4 days out of 5 was baked potato and baked beans..a good meal but not every day.
When the headmistress complained to the meal company about the lack of variety and haphazard nutritional value (sometimes 3 carbs and no protein, often no vegetable)they told her that school meals where designed to be spread "nutritionally" through the week not day to day!!!!!

I could have stuck it out and fought the good fight for the next child, but that winter my normally robust and healthy kids caught every virus and cold that went about, I had no idea what lunch would be for them so planning dinner was a nightmare.

The headmistress reluctantly agreed that it would be best to give them a packed lunch..but she was angry that I would now have to provide meals for my children when I was fully entitled to free ones at school.

We are on a budget...look at the price of a lunch box, an insulated bag, a flask, extra small pots for grapes and other small food...then times it by three.

However, it can only be worth it health wise.
They went today with apple juice, seeded wraps filled with peanut butter, kiwi fruit, carrot sticks, strawberries a pot of homemade potato salad and a homemade courgette muffin for break time.

It will be interesting to see how their health is this winter :)

Sometimes the money Gods smile on us....

Well, some weekend!
We managed to sell the broken car (£450) which was fantastic and means we can pay the garage bill with some left over. They guy who had bought it wanted it for spares for HIS Frontera but declared ours so tidy that he is going to do it the other way round, so he went away a happy camper.

THEN.....

I get a phone call from my Mum telling me that she and Dad have decide to give us £1000 towards a car!!!

WOW!

This means that husband will be able to not only buy the old Landrover he has his eye on BUT that the money we would have had to pay for one can now go towards all our bike stuff!!

What?...Do I hear grumbles of "humf....thought they where going car less?" at the back there?
Well I never said we would never get another car (hence the "almost" in the title).
The aim is to still get mobile under our own steam, but life where we live without a car at all....not impossible but very very hard.

I talk to people who have no car at all and they all have the same thing in common, the live in the city, they live in a part of the world that doesn't take glee in dumping feet of snow on you for 2 months of the year.

The plan is still to kit us out with the equipment to cycle as a family safely and in most weathers, the plan is still to use the public transport that is available to us.

The check list should run...
1) if I can walk I'll walk.
2) if I can't walk I'll cycle.
3) if I can't cycle I'll take the bus/ train.
4) if I can't take public transport I will see if it can be delivered.
5) Only if I have exhausted ALL of the above options will I use a car.

I am not anti-car per say, but I AM anti-wasteful journeys. The village school here is 5 minutes walk from my house and I live the furthest away. However on several occasions I have seen ALL the other village children driven to school, or driven BACK to school for after school clubs! Not one child in the village lives more than 4or 5 minutes walk away...so WHAT if it rains! Carry an umbrella, wear a rain coat and wellies!!

I think you can't be anti-car if you then expect things to be delivered to your door (groceries etc) but you CAN accept that it is more Eco friendly for one small van to bring groceries to 8 or 9 houses than for 8 or 9 cars to drive to town.

If it wasn't for the fact that we have the horses I would seriously consider a move to a more urban area, so long as I could still grow all my veggies!!
I read with envy the people who talk of cycle lanes and bike racks and no car zones and eye up our fast car designed roads and shudder.

BUT!!

But we will solider on....I can't get fit in a car!
Although when there is 3 foot of snow in February I suspect that I may slink into the passenger seat of our landrover pretty quickly :P

Planning the new wave of transport, and other ways to spend money you don't have.

The serious question of how we are going to get around was discussed by husband and me at length last night. This came after he and eldest son (9) took a trip into the nearest town (3 miles, lots of hills).
"He is going to need a new bike." He said grimly.
He got his bike for Xmas last year, its a good one, a rallie, but it only has 6 gears and they are the handle bar rotation type which he finds difficult (stiff) to use.
Consequently up the big hills husband had to reach across and push him because his gear-adge wasn't low enough.
This home truth also meant a serious look at how the littlies (6 and 5) will cope. Middle boy is off his stabilisers and very competent on his bike but won't be strong enough to peddle the hills on his small un-geared bike, and youngest is still on stabilisers and likely to be so for some time.
After sifting through some catalogues and looking online I think we have made a decision on what to do.
For one, eldest will need a better, more sophisticated road bike rather that just s good "toy" which is what he has now.
For the littlies we are going to buy two "Trail Gators", poles that attach their bike to yours so they can still sit and peddle (vital for these hills!) but won't end up too tired or in danger of veering into traffic.





I also think it would be a good idea to invest in a bike trailer, the kind designed for younger children. This could have a myriad of uses. For example if one of the littlies need a (none urgent) trip to the doctor they could be bundled in the back of the tailer and taken into town in comfort. We also have pets who will from time to time need a vet. Due to the new car-less-ness we are changing our vet for one in the nearest town rather than the usual further away one, even so a dog or cat will need to be transported and a child's trailer would be idea for this.






I really want to get out for some longer walks with the dog once the children start back at school and the trailer would mean I can transport my dog to some really beautiful walking areas with a few miles of home.
And of course, a trailer would be invaluable for those times when you want to pick up more than a back packs worth of shopping from town.
Well.....I hope we covered everything....fingers crossed!

A borrowed car and 5 frayed tempers.

Because our car died without warning and we where left with a limited amount of time before school starts to buy supplies for our three kids, we borrowed a car from some friends yesterday.
I thought this would be an interesting experiment.
Have we been car-less long enough to make a difference? Would we be tempted back to the "delights" of a car like an alcoholic thinking they can handle just one drink?
I asked Husband if he would let me know how he felt (he is the driver)but he said he doubted it would make much difference after only ten days.
Ordinarily I would agree, but I know from experience that sometimes when a light has gone on in your head its nearly impossible to view the work the same way again. Time scale has little to do with it.

I remember after being Vegan for a while I babysat for some friends.
Now we have no TV at home (yeah, another of those things that make us the weird family!) and this was the first time I had watched some TV for ages.
I watched the adverts with a mounting distaste, image after image of frolicking cows for milk and smiling pigs for sausages. Pictures of kids tucking into fast food while tranquil rolling fields dotted with cows served as the backdrop.
I even got riled when an advert for weedkiller came on with an "evil" cartoon dandelion being zapped by some urbanite with something gross (Dandy lion leaves are wild food in my house, young leaves taste like rocket).
I turned the TV off.
I felt angry that people, really MOST people, bought into this.
It made me feel isolated and yes, surrounded by idiots.
Unfair?
Maybe, but it was my reaction.

Anyway....back top the car.

The drive into town was fine, but in town the volume of traffic seemed magnified. I noticed husband getting tense as he had to wait for yet another driver in a hurry, in such a hurry that the way to drive was based on a style of driving that involved putting your foot down, wearing blinkers and presuming that everyone would get out of your way.

Our fist stop in town was the lovely little Grocers (The "Green" Grocer, Inverurie, and I found out they will deliver!!)which supplies us with our oat milk, smoked tofu and other vegan and highly decadent food items and toiletries.
The woman who works there was highly interested in our car-less-ness.
"Ach, we didn't have a car when I was a child." She said to be wide eyed children.
"Did you have to cycle?" Asked my eldest.
She laughed and shook her head. "No! We couldn't afford a bike! We had to walk everywhere! Aren't you lucky you boys all have bikes!"
Of course she was right, but I couldn't help feeling that it was so very different then.
50 years ago even our tiny village was possessed of a butcher, baker and mill and general stores. In the 1980's there were still old folk who had never even visited the town 3 miles down the road.
There was no need, everything was HERE.
Our village post office and small store closed 4 years ago, and the heart of the village left with it.
It was more than somewhere to buy a paper and a loaf. The owners would make a fuss of the children, they would introduce new people to villagers as they came in, they where the glue that held our community together.
Now the old folk stay in their houses and there are new faces in the village who walk past you without a smile or hello.

The dreaded TESCO was a trial.
I have never liked big supermarkets, but I think this one has a serious case of sick building syndrome. The AC upstairs makes me feel ill, the kids always get hyper. My tolerance for maneuvering through the crowds was almost 0, almost panic inducing. The headache that was to stay with me for the rest of the day started in there.

There where a few more stops on our borrowed car day out, and although we got everything done, everyone was pleased to be heading home.

As we headed through the outskirts before hitting countryside, Husband turned to me and said "You wanted to know how I feel? Bloody awful." He pointed to cars pulling up at junctions. "I wonder if their journeys are really necessary? I bet most of them are only going 3 or 4 miles."
A mild evening, 3 or 4 miles in a residential area would be a pleasure to walk.

The car has gone home this morning.
Husband is even more determined to make sure tha majority of our journeys are now either under our own steam or by public transport.

I was just glad to be home.

The veggie garden, an essential!!

I had a separate garden blog (see blogs I follow) but I have decided to consolidate the two.
After all what can be more "food miles" friendly than walking out the door and picking food from the garden.
Our garden has been a working progress for the last 3 or 4 years and every year we seem to grow a little more.
We have planted apple trees and berry bushes, potato's and courgettes, onions and garlic, peas and beans, and every year I see a gap where I should have planted more. Next year the emphasis will be onb lots and lots of peas and beans to dry and eat over the winter, an essential part of the vegan diet!!
I got my groceries delivered yesterday and for the first time really noticed how much money I had spent on what seemed like a very little amount of food...and we are lucky! We are eating around 80% of our veggies and soft fruit from home for free!

Anyway, we are working hard converting the garden to be as none dig as possible. This is where we can justify keeping the horses! Every bed that is picked clean of produce is now used as a muck heap until winter, this way when I want to dig beds over in early spring there is already a good layer of natural and organic fertiliser waiting on top, nicely rotted down.

I also think I would like to invest in some temporary chicken fencing so that over the winter I can let the chickens run out on the spent beds, digging up larvae and complementing their food with other bugs and weed shoots.

Growing a proportion of your own food is an option even for the family that lives in a 10th floor apartment, there is always a windowsill for herbs or a dark cupboard for seed sprouts.
Take a look at your living space with new eyes and see what you can grow today :)

Kicking the habbit

I think few people really know how addicted they are to their cars, or maybe more how addicted they are to the easiness of getting somewhere and all the other off shoot addictions that stem from that.
After a particularly crappy day of things going wrong, hard work and frayed tempers, I was standing in the tack room and round myself thinking "God, I wish we had the car. We could go up town and get some chips and something from the shop."

WHOA!!

Lets take a step back here.
When did I become the sort of person who measured her happiness in fried food and snacks?? (1990 actually, but that's another story :P )
It would have been so easy....such a rubbish day, we all needed a boost, chips and chocolate and coke would have felt goooood..But only for a while.

As it turns out I slunk indoors and surveyed the contents of my cupboard, which initially looked bare as the moon. I pulled out a bag of TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) and eyed it cautiously.
I soon realised I had the makings of a veggie chili and with some paprika roast potato's (dug from the garden) we had a meal.
And not just a meal, but a GOOD meal in all ways, everyone ate it (even the littlies ate the potatoes) and declared it scrummy!

But how easy would it have been to drive to town and spend £20 + on crap.

Our car-lessness has taken us by surprise and I relish the little things it is showing us.
I need to hang onto these moments when I am cold and wet I think ;)

Ah..the peace of country living...erm...?

Many people may wonder "Why oh why...!" ( as these things invariably start) "Why does this family need a car? They live in the country! There should be winding lanes and village shops and thick green hedges and lashings of ginger beer DAMMIT!"
Well this did exist.....around about the same time as Eynid Blyton 1st editions where being printed.
Face it, in this day and age it is by FAR safer to be car-less in the town or a city than it is in the country.
IN the towns the cars all go at 30 miles and hour or less, the amenities are closer, there are even (sit down now!) BIKE LANES where cars are not allowed!
The country however is a very different beast.
The trouble is that most villages have ceased to be quaint dwelling places for the farm workers and millers and shop owners, they are now almost exclusively populated by commuters.
The whole point of being a commuter is to ...Commute to your place of work...quickly.
They long to live in the country but they bring the worst of the towns with them.
Although there is a (blatantly ignored) 30 mile and hour limit through the village itself, outside the village it is the national speed limit of 60 miles an hour, which, on these long stretches of road, are often exceeded, even around blind bends.
This has always been the reason we have kept a car before, the shear fear factor of being splattered across the road, not to mention with children cycling with you.
Husband bought a bike a few weeks ago and has now though found most of the safer routes to the next town, so we feel a little more confident.
There is a daily bus that takes you to the town (3 miles away) but it leaves at 7.30 am and returns at 6pm, so not handy for a trip to the local cost cutter.
There is, however a a weekly bus that takes you all the way to the BIG town (15 miles away) which (once the kids are back at school) we can use to do the things we can't do online, and believe me, we will make great use of Mr Tescos internet shopping.
Most things can be delivered to your door nowadays and surely still remains a more eco-friendly way of shopping against having to drive into town every few days.
Alas the village shop here is no more, but this is no bad thing, when its raining and you fancy some chocolate, the thought of a long weary bike ride suddenly makes those cravings VANISH!
Hmm, I could lose some weight yet!

The car dies...no flowers please....

Our car, a highly polished, highly confusing, HIGHLY electric based, Frontera died.
Time of Death was record at @ 9am on Tuesday the 4th of August on our way to the doctors in the town.
It ground to a halt outside our village and has not moved under its own steam since.
On the long walk back through the stubble fields (in inappropriate clothing..of course, well no one had planned on walking had they!)the Husband and I discussed what we were going to do.
We already had a good idea that this was a BIG bill.
We have no money, in fact church mice are Donald trump compared to us at the moment. A big garage bill was not part of the plan this month, we had to eat, buy school supplies for our three kids, we had a barn full of straw arriving.
"Well its OK!" I said to him with a forced gaiety usually reserved for very small children on the edge of a large melt down, "We can finally have a go at living without the car!"
His glare was almost enough to shut me up.
Almost.
So I prattled on happily about reduced carbon footprints and exercise and money saving and the idea began to grow.
Now at this point I should say the reason this is called "The (almost) car-less family" is because it would be impossible to live where we live without a car forever. The plan is for Husband to buy an old landrover, which means that for about 9 months of the year he will be working on it and we will be without a car anyway....but also that an old landrover is not a car to be hammered around the hills and vales of Aberdeenshire willy nilly.
Well the final consensus is that we will use the Landrover for emergency journeys (Doctor, vet etc)and for planned trips into the nearest large town for those things that cannot be delivered or cycled to.
Well..it'll be a FINE adventure, won't it children...won't it?