We decided to write this blog to give you an idea of our shutdown time.
From the very beginning we decided to treat it as a fun adventure for Geeta. We
did not want this to be a time of bad memories for her.
We have also decided that we will not talk about the losses caused to so
many by this virus in this blog. There is enough sadness on Face book etc. We
pray for all God’s children at this time.
We hope you enjoy it.
Well how’s your lock down going?
HERE IN INDIA
Kris and I have
been in voluntary lockdown since the 11th
March. We have a great friend who visited Malaysia just as the
world was waking up to the virus threat. One day after her return lockdowns
started around the world. India asked for a voluntary lockdown of anyone who
had been to a risk area and those they had contacted. She lives opposite us and
we had all got together when she got home to say welcome back.
We are no
doubt very lucky to be as prepared as we were for what was to come.
This is how we started our lockdown.
We have
both always believed in growing our own food when we can so the garden produce
helps. We have a freezer nearly full of Veg.
We also
keep hens for eggs (and manure). We preserve the eggs for when they don’t lay.
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| Our Large Freezer |
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| Potatoes we keep stored in a cool place and have sacking over them to keep out the light |
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| Red fridge freezer and small chest freezer |
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| Our onions stored in coolest room of the house Kris's Studio |
We tend to
shop monthly (as soon as my pension arrives!) so we were pretty well stocked
up.
We have
battery backup (more on this later) for the two freezers (Veg and non-veg) and
the fridge. The fans also run off this system.
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| Our RO system with white drainage pipe leading outside to poo barrel we waste nothing |
Our own
well, although we do have to purify the water for drinking, with an RO machine.
We recycle
and make compost from household waste and chicken poo..
We cook on bottled gas, we keep a spare bottles in stock.
We also have our wood stove. In an emergency we can cook on it.
Solar hot water…lots of it.
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| One of our gas bottles, trade size only legal way for us to get gas in India |
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| Cooker or as they say in India cooking range |
Waste water
goes to a soak away, so it doesn’t evaporate and eventually returns to the
underground aquifer. All our rain water also goes to the same soak away from
our roof. Waste from the RO is piped to a barrel that contains a bag of chicken
poo. This is used on the garden. The bag is replaced every few weeks with fresh
and the ‘used’ goes onto the garden or into the compost.
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| Yes it had to be Kris trying to escape |
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| Kris going inside washed poo barrel to fix new tap |
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| Poo barrel in new location, with new tap and overflow system fitted. |
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| Main compost bin full and gently composting away, the blue bin to the left is in current use. |
How we prepared.
On the 9th March shopping
to stock up cupboards eg: frozen fish, sausage,chops and mutton.
10th March shopping to
stock up canned foods, rice, pulses etc. stock up of vital
medications, hand sanitizer and masks. Checked the first aid kits.
Jeep tank
filled. Gas, a spare bottle just in case. Veg stocked up, a bag of onions and a
bag of potatoes.
It begins.
11th
March self-isolating and keeping contact with outside to minimum. No extended
family allowed visiting, gates locked. No visitors unless they were also in
100% lockdown and came direct and returned direct. Our doors were closed.
Kris and I
had a long chat about our enforced isolation. It didn’t really bother us a lot.
We don’t go out often much prefer to be at home together either in the garden
or having friends around for a meal. Friends not being able to visit would be
the greatest loss for us. We have hours of music and films on the PC.
We decided
that to help pass the time we would have ‘special’ weekends, starting with
Christmas. We wanted Geeta to remember this as a fun time even if we were in
lockdown.
So for the
week of 13th march we decorated and put up the Christmas tree
(again). We played Christmas songs and told Geeta stories about Christmas.
Watched ‘The Snowman’ sang by Allad Jones, wonderful, Geeta loved it.
On the 14th all the schools were closed in India. We both feel that this prompt response to the crisis by the Indian government may well have saved many lives.
On the 14th all the schools were closed in India. We both feel that this prompt response to the crisis by the Indian government may well have saved many lives.
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| Geeta and Kris decorated the tree, mainly Geeta |
Christmas
Eve, Friday 20th March. We wrapped up presents for Geeta including a
sock for her to wake up to in the morning.
Christmas
day was amazing. We just made it for a delivery Friday from Amazon before the
system closed down. Geeta had fruit, nuts and chocolate and some little toys
all from what we had about the place. She also had a mega present. Kris and I
have both been through isolation before so we knew what to expect but we never
believed it would go on so long. It’s hot, summer coming, so we bought her an
inflatable swimming pool. Ever since we took her to a pool when we were on
holiday water has become her first love so this was greeted with joy and
disbelief that it was for her.
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| Chris and Geeta splashing in the pool |
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| Geeta relaxing in the heat of the day |
On the 21st
we had a full Christmas dinner including a lovely piece of roast mutton and a bottle
of wine.
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| Christmas dinner was lovely yum, yum |
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| The three of us tucking into our Christmas dinner |
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| Mutton in a mustard coating very yummy |
On the 22nd
Mr Modi our Honourable Prime Minister called for a Janata curfew. (Of the
people for the people) He asked that we all stay in for 14hrs but at 5pm to
yell, clap make noise with pans banging all across the country to say how much
we appreciated the emergency services and hospital workers. We gave it a full
drum solo on the disused tv dishes on the roof. All across the country people
did the same, amazing. We both suspected that it was a dry run for what was to
follow.
For the
next few days we chilled, played in the pool with Geeta and worked in the
garden. We began planting out of season veg and zucchini just in case this gets
worse. Cropped tomatoes, Broccoli and Papua. Continued our normal egg
preserving. The hens don’t lay in summer.
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| Papya from our own garden better than shop bought |
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| Some of our own tomatoes just off the vine |
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| Chris's plan to preserve eggs, It works |
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| Home grown chillies |
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| Geeta eating Papya she can't get enough of it |
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| Tomatoes and a lemon from our garden |
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| Chris's propagator in use again |
23rd
March we were all asked to self-isolate for 24hrs. Another dry run. Throughout all this Kris continues to bake
pies, sausage rolls and is really enjoying going back to her northern roots for
recipes. I make jams and Pâté
Our food was part of our entertainment. Geeta
loves helping in the Kitchen and is the official taster. On the subject of
food, Kris made a veg soup, ok so what? It had every veg we had in it and Thai seasoning WOW best veg soup ever.
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| Pate' that Chris made three different types |
Cheats Thai
Vegetable Soup
Knorr Thai
veg soup packet or if available Thai herbs and spices
Seasonal
vegetables whatever I have
Good
handful of Carrots sliced
Good
handful of lady fingers chopped
Handful of
Indian flat beans cut into half inch pieces
2 or 3
small bottle gourds chopped roughly
6 tomatoes
chopped roughly
Small white
cabbage chopped roughly
Handful of
small spring onions, peeled left whole
Handful of
peas
6 garlic
cloves
Place all
the above in a large pan with 2 litres water to marinade
Cook for
approx. 30 mins, bring to the boil then simmer until veg are cooked but firm
preferably andante rather than boiled to mush.
Serve with
home made granary bread or rolls.
Even better
if eaten the following day once the Thai flavours have infused into the veg
To thicken
I sometimes add pulses or potato to make it more broth like
Give it a
try, its worth a go.
Kris always makes our own bread, lovely, much better than the horrid stuff sold here as bread. Personal note: Kris went braless (heat) this is that day’s bread! Tasted ok but she has gone back to wearing her bra!
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| Kris braless loaf which tasted better than it looked Yes it was over proved |
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| Home made cheesecake |
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| Mutton and potato pies before cooking |
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| After baking |
26th India went into full lockdown for 21 days.
Weekend of
the 28th New Year party (tree still up). Late night with nibbles music
and dancing, Geeta’s favourite band….ACDC.
Battery back up system.
Where we live on the outside of Udaipur 14k from the city power cuts are
frequent, sometimes two or three short ones a day. Our back up system can
support our load for about 8hrs when fully charged. This became 2 or 3
hours because of the frequent power cuts were not allowing a full recharge.
Purely by coincidence my old battery charger had died some weeks earlier and I had bought a good 10amp charger. Peter a good friend; chatting on the phone suggested using it to charge the backup batteries. Mmmmm idea. Our system is 24volt and the charger 12volt however our batteries are wired in series, two big 12v batteries. By charging one of them the charge will distribute between the two. Not as efficient as a 24v charger but it works. Since fitting it things have really improved, thanks Peter, when this is all over IOU a pint.
30th March we started Geeta’s birthday preparations. We made a cake, corn flake crispies, sausage rolls jelly and a trifle. Donated by our friend a super cheesecake.
Purely by coincidence my old battery charger had died some weeks earlier and I had bought a good 10amp charger. Peter a good friend; chatting on the phone suggested using it to charge the backup batteries. Mmmmm idea. Our system is 24volt and the charger 12volt however our batteries are wired in series, two big 12v batteries. By charging one of them the charge will distribute between the two. Not as efficient as a 24v charger but it works. Since fitting it things have really improved, thanks Peter, when this is all over IOU a pint.
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| Our Inverter and batteries getting old now |
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| Better when you connect this to the inverter, less time without power |
Geeta is mega excited 7years old tomorrow. Going to be a big girl soon she says.
31st March Geeta’s birthday. What a wonderful day we had. We made her a fairy wand, she had a spelling game (Kris saw it ages ago and bought it ‘for later’) Our friend who had donated the cheesecake gave her a really lovely bag. We played silly games and had music to dance to.
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| No shops open to buy cards or anything so Chris did this as as surprise for Geeta's birthday, she loved it |
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| Improvisation a game we were going to give her later in the year |
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| Geeta wanted a wand so Kris made one from a tree branch and bits and pieces we had already |
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| Crayons yippee more art work |
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| Geeta with her wand |
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| Your not meant to eat it yet Chris its Geeta's birthday cake |
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| Geeta licking out the bowl |
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| Geeta's chocolate crispy cakes |
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| New bag for Geeta from a friend |
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| Homemade Birthday cake with improvised candles as no shops open for these |
On the 3rd I decided that I was going to make a chilli using
some minced mutton we had and the last of the Capsicum. Cooked it most of the
day, and that evening put beans to soak (red kidney beans dried).
The next day I finished it and Kris made fresh bread rolls to go with it.
It was probably the best chilli I had made for a very long time. Our fried also
had some and loved it.
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| Home made granary rolls |
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| Chris's best chilli ever with fresh bread buns |
We have spent a few days now catching up with planting, sorting out the
winter log pile and building an irrigation system for the leek and cucumber
beds. We are also trying a new idea to grow salad onions (or scallions). We
have bottles set up growing them. In theory it works, update later.
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| leek growing in the back garden |
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| Experiment growing onions from waste onion |
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| It seems to be working great |
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| Our irrigation set up in the back garden |
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| No plumbing shops open so recycled what we had to make a new connection for irrigation system |
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| Irrigation sorting out the pieces |
April 7th we had a stone painting day. We pop them all over
the front garden peeping from between plants….silly but looks great friends
suddenly spot one.
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| Stone painting these are Chris's |
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| We all got stuck into painting |
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| Were all having fun painting stones for the garden |
To give Geeta the best possible chance with her education we home school every day. A little while ago friends in the uk and here helped us to buy Beeju from Disney, a home learning system that follows the general school curriculum. Expensive but well worth it. She loves learning this interactive way. We use it as a treat that she can use as soon as her writing and numbers are finished that day. We have also joined ‘Curiosity stream’ as it is full of documentaries on every subject you can think of. She loves wildlife and nature films. We are determined that missing nearly 3 years will not be allowed to spoil her education. Thankfully age here at school doesn’t matter as you don’t move up until you pass the grade exams for every year.
What has disgusted us is that some of the schools we have spoken to won’t
take her because of her arm fearing they say she may be bullied. One of the
best schools here said that! Send her to a disabled children’s school. We
looked, we saw, we walked away. Home schooling it is then for now.
Changed the back garden to what we hope is now the final time. We used
the box the sidecar came in as a bench and will put all our pots and trays
under it. We have also moved the poo barrel and fitted a larger tap.
The other one kept blocking up. We plumbed the roc waste water to the new position and fitted an overflow to one of our raised beds.
The other one kept blocking up. We plumbed the roc waste water to the new position and fitted an overflow to one of our raised beds.
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| Our rear garden work area under change |
11th April. A full lockdown was extended here for at least
another 21 days.
With Easter coming up we started painting eggs and telling Geeta what
Easter and Good Friday means to us as Christians.
We all painted eggs ready for hiding in the garden. It was decided that I
was to be the Easter Bunny! Red ears and a mop head tail. Kris even painted a
water melon.
On Sunday we managed to watch ore home church’s Eater service via U Tube.
The worship band was brilliant. All in different places on a conference call, pastors
from their own homes. Really enjoyable to sing with them again.
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| Painting Easter eggs |
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| Easter bunny off to hide eggs |
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| Just getting started painting |
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| Kris painted the water melon |
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| More painted eggs |
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| Geeta won with 6 eggs, Kris only found 2 and needed help to find them |
Geeta won by finding six eggs and the water melon, although it was too
big to carry! She won the prize tube of smarties.
So here we are on the17th April. Still locked up still getting on ok we still
have plenty of food water and electricity so we are far better off than many
others. We can’t go out to help but our friend looks after the street dogs
feeding them and generally looking out for them. So many were not getting help but Indians can
be wonderful so day by day more people are helping them survive.
We were told yesterday that restrictions were going to be relaxed on the
20th. I’m not entirely sure what this means.
Got into curry making yesterday, leftover curry! Mutton, chicken, lots of
onion and veg, tomatoes and garlic plus the usual herbs and spices.
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| Mutton curry one of Chris's nicest |
Yummy was the comment from both Geeta and Kris.
20th. Restrictions for some industries lifted, farming and
transport also E commerce is allowed for essential items only.
Not a lot there to concern us so here we stay.
20th PM. We decided to
go camping.
We set off late in the evening; it was dark and very warm. Temperatures
were still over 80degF.
All three of us climbed our Mountain, a gruelling climb in this heat.
Having not long left cooler climates we were looking forward to the cool air of
base camp and the gentle rest it offered. Arriving there we realised something
was very wrong. Going ahead to protect the women folk I entered base camp
alone. It was dark, too dark and silent, not a sound to be heard. Gradually I became
aware how hot it was, no breeze, just the heat bearing down on me.
With
trembling hand I turned up the light. The site that met my eyes was horror indeed;
base camp was not being cooled by the cool breeze that carried a pleasant night
chill we had become accustomed to here. With a heavy heart I dimmed the light
and glancing back just once to the silence and darkness I returned to the
ladies, who were by now becoming concerned for me.
Having described what I had seen to their credit both ladies took it
well. We had no choice, we had to turn back and descend the way we had come. It
seemed so long but eventually we returned to the lights of civilisation, the
dog greeting us was most welcome.
That night by some good fortune a breeze sprang up cooling our overheated
bodies. We sheltered together talking about the base camp problems and before
sleep claimed us we decided to call an engineer the very next day for our bedroom AC.
Well that’s
about it.
May God bless
and care for you, until next time
Bye from
all of us Geeta, Kris and Chris.
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