Sometimes Life’s Just Tough Aboard Our Narrowboat - Off-Grid Life - Episode 207
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- #canal #narrowboat #offgrid
Food stocks are low but we're making pots to grow veg. We have been ill and Fran fluffs some wool for spinning.
NEW TO US? We are Fran and Rich, accompanied by our furry pal, Archie, as we navigate the UK's enchanting canals and rivers aboard our 58ft Narrowboat, 'Laura Maisie.' Now, with 'Percy' the motorhome, we're expanding our escapades to places beyond the canals!
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Thank you for this lovely video.
Hey guys loved the way Fran rustled up some brekkie.
Marmalade looked lovely ❤
Happy to know that you're feeling a bit better now. Looking forward to you next video.
Excited for the "man colours" 😊 Lovely to see you both XX
Yay! Thank you!
Pure escapism - thank you!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it
I may be strange but I enjoyed this video so much, it was calm and gentle and real. Good to see you again and to know you survived the storms and severe weather. See you soon 😊😊
Thank you so much x
What a lovely video! So glad you are both feeling better. Thanks for sharing your little paper plant pots. It would be a great craft to do with young kids! Be well!
Looks delicious.
Love Beans and eggs ,especially over white rice ummmm yummie
That’s a great boaters standby!
Just a little message of thanks from a far away place. The thank you is for letting us a little bit into your lives, participating in something that almost none of us can ever hope to experience. I know it is strange to "let yourself watch" that way, as you undoubtedly know and sometimes worry about. We also know this journey is temporary.Over the years, some of my favorite people on youtube have faded in and out of view - and that is true not just for narrowboat life. it is life. But you provide something positive to more people than you could have ever imagined when you started. So to you: stay healthy, enjoy your life, and if your life changes one day (as it will), there will be a little sadness when you decide or have to leave, but there also will be a lot of fond memories - that we can even rewatch! And hang in there: the end of winter is coming into sight!
Thank you so much for this lovely message. It makes all the difference to know that some people get a lot from sharing a little of our lives with us. We don’t intend to go anywhere for a while.
So happy your feeling better! I have just gotten over my first cold in years! Caught it from my grandson who has just turned 1!
I ric and fan a luvey vlog thakyou all for now😊
Beautiful photography. Glad you are both feeling better.
Thank you!
As a boy, I used paper pots like that to heat water over the charcoal coals of a camp fire to make tea. I found the idea in an outward-bound book, and did it just to prove it worked. I used chip -paper with no print on it. And had to keep topping up the water a drip or two at a time. But it worked!
Wow, that's amazing!
Love your vlog. Sorry to hear you’ve been poorly but good on the mend now , there has been so much of it around. I had it too, it really takes it out of you and takes an age to go.
I am really impressed you can find room for your spinning and weaving equipment. Proves you can pursue your craft even when living on a narrow boat ❤
Always a delight to catch up with your vlogs
So thankful Vanessa suggested your vlog! It's absolutely lovely seeing life through your lens! Thank you for sharing!!!
You are so welcome!
Lovely relaxing video. Thank you both. I'm sorry to hear you had the dreaded lurgy. Seems to be a lot of it about over there. And I love the foggy canal shots. Cheers.
Looks like we have another foggy morning tomorrow so there may be some more!
Love this -supplies running low on the boat, getting creative with the baked beans with baked egg & cheese for breakfast-an unusual combo, but hey, narrowboat life keeps things interesting! 😆 We were in a similar pickle during the big freeze just after New Year, hoping we wouldn’t have to crack open the dreaded tin of peaches. It got us thinking… just how desperate would things have to get before we were pairing peaches with pasta? 🍑 Life afloat: part adventure, part improvised cuisine! 😂
I think most boaters have their own stories of weird food resorted to in these situations. Some people think it’s fine to put sultanas or pineapple in curries, so why not peaches and pasta?😂
Love watching you weaving Fran, my husband has just made me an Inkle loom and I am learning to weave bands and also tablet weaving.
Now that blows my mind. I just can’t get my head around it. Good luck
I have the same thing
cough and cough and cough 🥱 thanks for the video. Take care.😃
You too!
Laughed out loud at the look on Archie's face when Rich asked him if he was hsppy 😅😅! Seeing Fran drawing the love heart on the back of Percy reminded me of the time I followed a white van on the A47 from Kings Lynn to Wisbech. The van was in dour need of a wash and someone have written on the back, "I wish my missus was as dirty as this!" to which some witty bloke had added, "She is with me!!". I laughed the whole journey I followed the van 🤣🤣🤣. Glad you got stocked up and good to see you back after the flu.
This gave me a chuckle too. Thank you
Thank you for the nice, relaxing video. Glad you are over that super flu going around the world. My husband and I had the same in mid America Wisconsin and also glad to be finally done with it. Enjoy the beautiful marmalade!!!
Actually enjoyed this video a lot. The fiber segment was informative and watching the whole process very satisfying. Loved the marmalade story! 😂😂😂 the vase of beautiful daffodils remind me that Spring is right around the corner. The beans and eggs looked gods too. May have to try that. Archie looking fit as well. Glad to hear that you are both on the mend. Safe travels and look forward to your next adventures!!! ❤
Thank you so much
Happy new year, lovely to see you both and of course 🐾😘
Great to see you both again and feeling better after your flu. Great video. Alpacas are my favourite animals. Super idea with the seed boxes. Take care. Thank you.
Our pleasure!
So sorry to hear about your illness. I had similar before Christmas and it went on and on……..There was a glimpse of a branch and it had buds on it so Spring is on its way. Thank you for filming this when you probably didn’t feel like doing it, but you are back in the swing.
That’s a neat little drum carder ❤ I used to spin - great fun but I just had too many hobbies and wasn’t using the yarn 🙄 Might do it again one day when I have more time.
Hii Rich and Fran great tosee you both again sorry you have not been well get better soon ❤x
A lovely watch you hadn’t popped up in y feed for a while so need to back track some vlogs! I’ll definitely try the pots for my allotment seed growing
, thank you 😊
You three are so enjoyable.
Thank you.
UHT milk, small bakeable baguettes. The eggs in the baked beans looked good. Keep safe AJ
Those paper pots are fantastic. How very clever.
I've missed seeing you folks on here. Know what you mean about "coughing". I've had the worst head, chest cold and horrible cough. Took about 7 days to finally be able to breathe again and taste something. Haven't had a cold for years and years. Glad you are better. Let's all thing of SPRING ! Take care.
I agree, spring will make us all feel better
Nice to see you again. Spring is on the way.😊x
Glad you two are feeling better!
Great video as always guys
Glad you enjoyed it
Just a lovely vlog, with a little bit of everything. The opening shots were just stunning, and I’m sorry, but I did laugh when Rich threw away your marmalade, because Pete would do exactly the same thing trying to be helpful 😂
It’s a good job we love them
Good to see you again!! Enjoy your week!!
This was one of the most beautiful videos! So simple with your beautiful dog and his beautiful face and a very simple breakfast when you have very little is one of the best you can have. So lovely. Great filming
Thank you x
morning - lovely vlog - glad you are both feeling better, we are both full the cold and a cough, its almost been 4 weeks now and we just cant stop coughing with the mornings just feeling terrible but we keep chipping away at the jobs on board our self fit out - great idea about the paper plant pots - i believe you can do the same with egg boxes - im trying out Micro-greens as they take up little space and are a quick harvest - happy days 🥬☀
Take it slowly or it comes back and bites you! We grew microgreens last year and had a lot of success. Good luck
Happy to see you both are well.
Enjoyed this video ,cause i love any kind of craft work ,
Glad you enjoyed it
Always love watching your vlogs and so glad you are both feeling much better.
Do you sprout your own seeds and beans? So much variety of fresh greens can be had in a small space indoors, without soil, just using glass jars. They are great in salads, or stir fried, or added to soup or stew at the last minute. They are also nutrient rich.
We have done in the past and you have reminded me to do this again. Thank you
Good to see you back. So glad you are both recovering well. Thank you for the email Fran.
I admire the projects you do, spinning wool, making your own seedling pots etc. I'm hopeless at anything like that, not an artistic bone in my body.
Thank you for sharing this video.
Take care and stay safe. 😊
Everyone has their own talent. It is a shame it took me until I was nearly 60 to find spinning.
Good day from the Canadian Rockies l*l.
Today has been exactly two weeks with a cold virus and it seems to have finally run its course. Left the house just once for a few groceries in that time.
Glad to see that you're on recovery and shall attempt the origami containers. Wish me luck.
Take care and God Bless.
It took us a couple of goes to get them right and now we are like lightening. Good luck
Hope you enjoyed it. Take care
Beautiful cinematography with the deer backlit by the sunrise. I enjoyed your demonstration on how to create your little origami planter boxes as well as spinning the wool through the fiber-wheel machine. You weave such lovely items and it's always a treat to see what you come up with next. Have a great weekend!
Thank you so much 😀
So pretty with the misty fog. Glad you got the tail light sorted on the van. Reminds me, my car needs a wash! Waiting on above freezing temps. Carding, spinning, weaving that wool has to be such a satisfying experience. Seems like a very Zen one too. And you make such lovely things with it, Fran. Rich, we need to see more of your art work! I've just moved into my new apartment, slept on an air mattress last night, movers come tomorrow. I think I need to try and make marmalade when I get my kitchen unpacked. Never done that! Thanks again for a lovely vlog. Glad you're feeling better and hope to hear another podcast soon. Hugs to Archie. Is he doing okay?
Thank you so much. Good luck with your new apartment. We hope you make it into a lovely home
I had forgotten about your carding machine but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you use it. I have carded a bit of wool in my days but only with the brushes. I’m curious if it makes things a lot easier. We had goats growing up, which I’ve probably said before. Nubians for their milk and they don’t have much hair, and Cashmere for the wool. We never cut them, we would find big clumps on the fences when they would try to squeeze through, and we would comb them. They loved the attention but if you let it go for several weeks, it was a hard job combing them without hurting them. My mother was a brilliant fiber artist and she did amazing cable work! That’s neither here nor there, but I ramble. Sorry, as always. Glad Percy’s okay! I didn’t understand at first. Doh! That’s the biggest mistletoe I have seen close up! I will see the clumps way high, sometimes and sometimes I wonder if it’s a squirrel’s nest. Doing nothing is the best thing to do when you’re not well. Don’t forget grocery delivery if you’re in a pinch! Great video! Take care! Rebecca A.
Hi Rebecca.nits good to hear from you. The carder is great and it definitely makes spinning much easier and the wool a lot smoother. I’m still learning to add more things to make art yarn using fabric strips etc.
@ - I like the uneven or lumpy yarn in weaving, too, but I am just playing right now. Eventually I will also use beads 11/0 is usually what I use because I used 11/0 & 12/0 beads in my bead tapestries. So I have boxes of them. But I don’t know if I will add yarn to a tapestry for texture or beads for shine. I can never leave well enough alone! But, I like to play.
Great to see you both again…
Beautiful. Informative. And Funny. Thanks again.
Oh I've missed you guys. Really looking forward to watching this now.
Also looking forward to seeing your beautiful new spun pieces Fran! x Nell.
So glad you’re back on track and as always, staying positive. Loving the fact that Fran has taken to processing and spinning her own fibres for weaving. I’ve just begun a similar journey. I call it forced slowdown. Keep the calm.
It is the best think for keeping calm and slow, until of course it all goes wrong 😄
glad you are feeling better, brilliant even so.
Too much time on your hands!❤
😂
Your a lovely couple
Thank you so much x
I think those little pots would be great for snack containers. Kids would love to make their own. So good to see you again. But it’s been a great time to just hunker down and stay warm and read.
That's a great idea. Or little party food boxes!
Hi Fran, Rich and Archie, thank you for your latest vlog.
Sorry to hear you've been unwell but glad your on the mend! 💗
I totally loved that sequence at the beginning that was so scenic...
Thank you Fran for showing us how to make the seed pots, I will definitely have to have a go at that, what a brilliant idea, simple and effective too!
Re your weaving Fran, I found seeing that process so interesting, you must have the patience of a Saint though!
Anyway, take care all of you and catch up soon.
Update, I literally just watched the pot making part again, Fran and did it with you! Yes I have a pot! 😅 Happy days! Thank you. 🙂👍🏻
Yaay!
Thank you. I think it has made me more patient, but also is so relaxing.
Can you not make marmalade from any citrus fruits? I didn’t realize it had to be actual Seville oranges.
Glad you’re feeling better, I’m coming down with some nasty thing or another and I had the 6 weeks coughing in the fall. Sure hoping it’s not that again🤞🤞🤞🤞
I love alpaca yarn it’s so soft and warm, makes lovely warm house socks for winter. My daughter has a Labradoodle and she is saving up his natural white fur/ hair to spin at some point to make something with. He found the bag last week while we were out and there were doggy curls everywhere, what a mess.
We have made the little starter pots before, they work a treat. Happy cruising, be safe and well🙋🏼♀️
That was a different breakfast 😂 ! When are we going to come along on a "Percy" trip ? Oh what a lovely misty morning. Very interesting and useful, the paper planting pots, we will be utilised that. So glad you are getting better. 💙🦋
We hope to be filming on Percy very, very soon x
That was a lovely little catch up. So interesting to hear about the carding and spinning and the marmalade disaster. These past few years I’ve found it easier to boil the oranges whole until soft then squeeze out the juice and chop up with peel. Much easier than chopping up the peel when ‘raw’. It’s a Marguerite Pattern recipe.
I used to do it like that do but got a bit squeamish about the slimy oranges 😂
So happy to see you! Was worried about your recent weather.
Love seeing you both. Glad you are better. Great video as always!
Wow! Have you done a cinematography course? Something has changed in a very great way! Well done. I LOVE the origami pots! Had the 'flu here in Ireland as well. It put me in hospital with the cough. 100% OK now! Laughing at the 'dome of silence' over where Fran sits!
Don't tell Rich that is what it is. He will have it above me as a permanent fixture 😂
I enjoyed the video, particularly the wool combing and had a good laugh about the fate of the second pan of marmalade. These things happen. Glad your both on the mend from a nasty virus. Might try the making a few seed raising paper pots later this week as well.
The only way to deal with these things is to laugh.
That fog I reckon is the culprit
Bake Beans are essential! Yes! I always keep and now get the serve for one tins .. with Whestershire Sauce yum! can't spell haha Dear Archie haha I think he is waiting for a walk haha (Hurry up you two!)
Rich would eat baked beans for every meal if he had the chance
Hi Fran & Rich. It was good to see you do things on your boat. With ref to the Flu you've had, are you not yet of the age where you get notified for a flu jab from the Surgery you're registered with. Just a thought. Always great to see you both.😍 xx
We can have flu jabs, but neither of us are really keen.
Glad ur feeling better. Missed you.
Great video of you 3! It’s nice to hear that the sickness has left your home. We are on the other side of it now in Philadelphia, too.
Glad you're feeling better
Good to see you both well again and back to your usual selves.
A lovely catch up... glad you are both feeling better xo xo
BTW! If you're in mixed company. I take a quercitin day 1 before day 1 day of 1 day after especially if vx'd for cvd
Glad you’re back among us!!❤
hey Fran I am making blackberry jam tomorrow... hoping to also have enough tho mak e some gin as well. I have some many blackerries on my bush..... great Vvlog as usually guys love it.
Wonderful. They are my favourite fruit
I think you should make a balaclava out of the black wool. Then you could go out and get some of those chicken eggs at night😂.
Side note,
Hi from Keith & Jaqui, we met you at crick and took a photo with you.
Thank you
Great to see you both glad U are both well
Hello again ☺. Would the ink be poiseness to the seeds on the paper pots Fran?. I made some out of toilet roll tubes and they rotted but there was a horrible mould on them too?
Thank you for staying home and not spreading the lurch, I wish more people woukd do the same. I've asked a couple of people recently to put they hands over their mouths when coughing near me. They don't like it but I don't care. They're oblivious 😷
Can't believe its the 1st February. Take care and stay warm and cosy.
Sending love, light and IMBOLC blessings to you both and Archie 🐶 xx
So many people use newspaper in gardening. I think the ink is ok these days.
Quite agree about people coughing and not staying home. Will we never learn!
hi guy great videos yes had the same lurgy dreadful flu never slept so much in me life good to see you back on your feet and looking forward to more content in the future
3 weeks in now and still sleeping loads
great see vlog out on channel keep up the great vlogs thanks lee
Thanks 👍
Thank you! I saved this video for the seed holder. I have a little green house..
I hope it works for you x
Brilliant pots, I will definitely try those. Great to see you again.
Beautiful camera work
Thank you x
Good to see you back again and glad to hear you managed to get through the flu. Nice idea for plant pots and look forward to your harvest in the summer. You really are a talented lady, Rich is too especially with his Van repairing. Been there done that.
It is amazing what you can do when you have a go!
Have missed you both - glad you are on the mend. Love the paper seed pot idea.
Thanks so much 😊
Good to see you two are still enjoying life
We do our best x
Lovely video. Beautiful opening. Always happy to see what you've been up to. Hadn't thought about putting a egg on baked beans and baking it but plan to give it a try. With cheese of course.
Good lecture on seed pots, Fran😊
Thanks so much! 😊
Great video...glad your feeling better now ❤
Hello Fran and Rich, i have some seeds i want to package up to donate to a seed -swap group in my part of the city where I live. And being a newby this year, i couldn't remember how to fold up an envelope to donate the seeds. So thanks very much for that how-to. I kept a paper supplement from the advertisements that get dropped into the mailbox to practise on. Archie's looking like he has his own hairy ear-scarf every time he runs. A lovely dog.
What a lovely idea, a seed swap. Hope you get some goodies back
Great watching as usual x sorry to hear u have been unwell x
Lovely seed pots ! ...My mug arrived and when I opened the box it was huge, I ordered the 15 oz and I'm drinking a lot of coffee, I don't know what I was thinking. I showed my friend when she came around today and she said 'bloody hell that's huge', she's not wrong, I confess to not filling it to the top. Your breakfast was creative, I like cheesy scrambled eggs (I use Laughing cow triangles in the eggs just before they are finished). Lovely to see you both x
Oh dear. I'm sorry about the mug but it did make me chuckle. Maybe good for soup or stew😄
sorry to hear you have been poorly, hope you are better now. the spinning looks beautiful. relaxing, and the marmalade looks yummy! we are off up to Saul marina next week, quite excited, as haven't been away in our camper for a while. we stay at a lovely campsite in Moorend near Slimbridge on a farm . thank you for sharing the seed making boxes , great idea. x
Hope you get good weather. We moored near there I think and both times it has been really windy.
Your beans, egg, cheese looked really good. Will have to give that a try. Lovely video.
Sometimes simple is best
Good to see you two. Glad you are on the mends. See you soon.
Thank you!
Great section on the seed pods, I have used toilet roll tubes in the past and even made my own from scrap cardboard. I am in the process of collecting egg cartons for my carrots.
Don't we all love a freebie and no plastic x
Gosh two thingswhat time does that big bell go dong above your head n be careful it won't fall down on you. To see you nice, n nice to to see you.
🤣😂🤣
Sorry you have been poorly. My husband and I have also had this flu bug. Like you we felt rubbish for a couple of weeks and it took me another week to feel normal. Loved the vlog as usual and the marmalade looks delicious.
Thank you
So nice to see you both again.. ❤
😊 thank you
Thanks very much for the paper pot tutorial- we are going into production in Paris Ontario, all ready for when the snow melts
Good job!