Years ago, E and I arrived for our weekly visit to his Grandmother’s house to find her burning all of her papers. Postcards and letters sent from her husband on the front during the first world war were now gone. She said “No one wants all this garbage” or words to that affect. We strongly disagreed and urged her to stop what she was doing.

Was it the idea that, perhaps one day, I might have a big house again to furnish, or the mistaken idea that my children would in any way be interested in items like antique Blue Willow platters, that I carried so much “stuff” with me here to the island. Nothing is as interesting as postcards from the front but some of the items are pretty unique. A pearl handled cocaine spoon from the early 1900’s is probably the most unusual item we seem to have inherited. Everything else we carted about for years upon years is pretty mundane and, dare I say, no one in the family wants.

We went to town on Thursday and had a perfectly miserable day. We do hate town days. E basically spent six hours driving up and down the highway. There are no two stores we needed which are located at the same mall. We came home with a few of the bits and pieces E needed to finish a couple of his current projects. A vent, trim and stain for the gen shed, a timer for the well pump, gas and groceries for the next month and the dogs got their hair shaved which is the only way to survive living with them here in the rainy weather and mud.

The well pump now has a timer which automatically pumps water to the storage tanks twice a day for forty minutes. We are collecting 200 gallons a day just from the well. This is unheard of and probably due to the fact we haven’t pumped from the well in a very long time. This is E in the rain and mud connecting the wiring for the well pump after digging a trench for five hours. A job he is well done with and happy to see the last of.

I tried my hand at making pickled eggs for the first time. Yes, you heard that right. Hell might well have frozen over but apparently they are delicious. They can be eaten on their own as a snack or thrown in a sandwich or salad. I made these ones with Tumeric but I understand beet juice and chilis are also good ingredients. In two weeks we shall see. They can keep for a couple of months in the fridge so could be a good addition to winter emergency supplies in the future.

Almost everything we owned was lost in the fire. I look around now at the very limited storage space we are left with in the house, and at the knicknacks which survived simply because they just happened to be in the house at the time of the fire. I wonder how, if I can get over losing precious items like the family photos, can I really care if I keep the stuff now occupying the very limited shelving in this house.

Well the answer is, I don’t care, anymore. So, shelf by shelf, cupboard by cupboard I am going though it all and most of it

has to go