End of the challenge

Hi guys, sorry for the delay in making this post. We've been rather busy since the challenge ended.

Alex and Gabriel kindly updated our blog and Twitter pages when we were away, so there were updates about milking the cow. You may have also heard us on Radio Suffolk during the week.

We baked a variety of cakes and biscuits during our baking challenges. All the recipes were from Rachel's 1930s cookbook. We made Brussel's cake, angel layer cake and 'easily digestible biscuits' with added chocolate chips for our chocolate chip cookies challenge. Although we had some problems when we were baking (small kitchen, weighing scales which stuck, no temperatures to cook by) all the cakes tasted really good. This can be confirmed by Rachel's family, who ate all of the leftover cake before she even had a chance to unpack it. Rachel decided it was safer to not walk around the village wearing her Norwich shirt, but she did wear it from 8am until about 1.30pm when we left to sell the cakes. From the cake sale we got £17.30. We also got sponsored £20 by Alex's family on the same day.

We got sponsored £5 by Kat's cousin to make an item of clothing during the week. During the closing ceremony of the Olympics we knitted scarves, gloves and a hat for a teddy. Rachel discovered why she stopped knitting in her childhood, and only just managed to make a small scarf. Kat managed to make the rest of the outfit in the same amount of time.

We both listened to a lot of classical music and made a lot of puzzles. Kat is crowned the Scrabble queen, as she is unbeatable. Everyone tried to take her on, but were still beaten.

Handwashing laundry was hell. We had to wash our clothes in the bath using soap powder. We only had our hands to use, and had to climb in with our laundry to wash it. The soap stayed attached to the clothes no matter how many times we tried to rinse them. Taking waterlogged clothes down stairs is very tiring, as we both tried to stall the laundry for as long as possible, and therefore had a lot of clothes to wash.

We posted our letters on the Friday. Kat used a fountain pen that didn't work and left drops of ink everywhere. We just think it makes it look more authentic. 

Kat read Brave New World first, and was very impressed with it. The book also fell apart during her time. Rachel then read it on the Saturday. We were both more fascinated by the science in it than the fiction, and spent Saturday evening talking about it.

Unfortunately, we couldn't do the Lindy Hop during the week, as we could not learn it without a visual aid. Gabriel watched the video and tried to teach us, but it didn't work. We did it straight after the stroke of midnight on Sunday by watching a YouTube video and copying it. Kat was definitely better at it, and also had the dancing partner of Gabriel. Rachel just copied half of the video without a partner and fell into a hedge.

Milking the cow

Sorry for the delay on this one - had to figure out the editing system first! -Alex

So, on Monday, we went to milk Belle the cow. She is apparently the (test tube) daughter of the dairy cow of the millennium, which lives in Canada. Here she is, look:

Kat was first to milk the cow. Belle wasn't particularly cooperative at first, and it wasn't long before the bucket was kicked, but some milking did indeed occur.

Then it was Rachel's turn. Belle was quieter at this point, but with the bucket... misplaced, Rachel only really got to see that she was doing it right before we had to stop.

Then we got to say hello to the front end of the cow, and headed home. One challenge down. You may also notice that we're wearing our 1930s-style clothing, in keeping with the challenge. 

Big Declutter total

Sorry for the long wait for this total. Rachel was in charge of the money and forgot to post the actual figure when we counted it up.


The total amount  we raised is £21.71. Not a lot of money, but every penny counts.


Thank you all for your help.

Milking a cow update

Rachel got in contact with Colette a couple of days ago. It is now confirmed that we will be milking a cow at Rendham Hall on Monday, but not Jane the cow as she calved late. We will now be milking a cow called Belle (or Bell), who is a Friesian (we think). 


We should be on Radio Suffolk whilst we do this challenge, so keep an eye out for updates on Twitter and on this blog.


The number of followers we have on Twitter have doubled in the last month, so thank you all for your help and support.