This article was long in the making in my head... to list what stuff we make ourselves, and possibly when, by years and by who were the 'we' at the time. What I'll omit will be the building of our house (1983-1993) (changed my mind later, see below) or rebuilding the next one (2004-2007), that's construction, and also various fixes (manual switch for the cooler fan on the škodilak because the thermostat crapped out; the tank holder in the corolla made of coathanger wire; replacing the heater in the water heater; various outlet, switch, faucet replacements), these I don't even count.
Food:
- eggs from our own hens, 1998, 2014-, noodles from those eggs 2014- (but we had eggs up to 1961 or so, and granma made noodles until about 1966)
- yogurt - 1977 (Ljuba and I), 2014.
- cheese, 2005 and a couple more times later, just to try it out. Same with kajmak, it's a cumbersome job, takes lots of time, tried once, won't repeat, was excellent but not worth the trouble in such small amounts.
- bread - 2002-2008, 2012-2020 (from yeast culture she grew herself), 2023-.
- cakes, cakes, more or less at all times. Exception with cakes was 2010-2015, when dad ordered them from Brižita, and we becunted from her ever replacing more and more stuff with artificial, fake ingredients, so we talked him into giving up on it, switched back to our own.
- tomato juice - ...-1991 (except seventies, when we smuggled it from Romania), 2011- from our own production in Klincaid
- sour cabbage - 1967-1993 (dad, with cabbage from the vineyard), 2004-06 (we, cabbage from the grocery), 2013, 2015, and then finally the ready sour from grocery became good
- pizza including dough - 1977 (recipe by Ljuba), 2007-2010, 2018-
- pašteta - 1991-1999, 2007-
- čvarci - Oma 1977-1988 more or less, from pigs they grew in the pigpen in the back, we 2018-2021 while they sold the proper pieces of fat tissue in Lidl; again in 2024.
- pekmez - mom and granma were cooking it from fruit from the market, later from what came from dad's vineyard; she cooked it from fruit from Klincaid, various kinds, including strawberry, blackberry and pumpkin. You mostly can't buy pekmez, it's all jam.
- chutney made of anything - pumpkin, squash/zucchini, figs, apples, pears, plums, mostly combining any two of those, with our own hot peppers.
- majonez (fr. mayonnaise, fuck their insane spelling), since 2019 when she finally found, in Lidl, a stick mixer which won't fall apart.
- soup cubes, because the off-the-shelf [ones] are finally good enough, so almost to spite them. Not so compressed and less salty and no MSG in them, the umami is natural, excellent. Makes one tray of that, about an inch thick, cuts them into squares of about 30x40 mm, wraps each in aluminium foil, puts into freezer.
Domestic chemistry:
- soap - 2007- (I'm not using any shampoo since then, also shaving with that soap)
- windshield wiper liquid 2022- from methanol which is a side product from moonshine
- home photo laboratory (1967-1970 in Zmaj, 1970-1982 in the kitchen and some in DC-99), last four years in color as well; mixing our own ID-19 (aka DS-26) negative developer since 1976.
Garden (mostly hers):
- own saplings of tomato, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, tobacco, radish, zucchini, pumpkin and bunch of other plants, initially from bought seeds, but more of her own later
- fertilizer from own compost and chicken guano
- pesticide from nettle and later other plants
- rosehip tea (I picked it, 2022)
- extract from yarrow (2010), goldenrod (2014)
- oregano, swiss chards, motherworth and few other plants, in the garden and around the house, which weren't growing there before; regular crops of dill (2011-2015), cabbage, kolrabi, beet (only first few years), onions, garlic, leeks, corn, tobacco, zucchini and similar, pumpkins, even once rosehip for tea.
- chicken coop (2014) and movable tractor for hens (2015)
Clothes:
- custom tailored shirts for me 2012-14 (which she cut from from some Autocad add-on, written in VB6, the best fit I ever had)
- two-three winter coats, few raincoats, uncounted dresses, skirts, blouses; a few jackets for me, many shirts and t-shirts, half a dozen trousers
- various sweaters and knit vests (hand knit 1973-, hand-machine, e.g. vilhelmina) as well. I wore many of those, including some knit by Oma, mom, granma.
- lots of kids clothes, shorts, shirts, knit stuff, winter jackets (incl. feather padded), Nina's wedding gown...
- a heap of various jewelry in at least five different ways, of which at least two she invented, which she made 1999-2009, and the rest before and after
The rest of hedonism:
- I rolled my own cigarettes, of škija (1976-1988, other stuff until 2010)
- we make our own cigarettes from tobacco we buy 2012-
- we grow our own tobacco 2023-24
- distill our own rakija (dad 1986-2007 from his vineyard, 2010-2016 from bought fruit; we since 2011 except 2012)
- dad made wine 1986-2007
- mom made liqueurs, sixties-seventies
Things around the house:
- coat hanger (I made it from a plank butt end and bought hooks)
- one-plank bowls (special trick, which she figured out from somewhere on yoochoob)
- trays, pots, candle holder, mobile/tablet pedestal, karafindl, made of paper stick wickerwork.
Software for own use:
- dijeta
- fes
- statcounter.prg + api_posetu.prg
- Byo
- GenerAll
- solitaire (there are periods when we do play a lot of that, until we get bored)
And, of course, all three girls have at least one website each.
Furniture:
- three workbenches (I did one with iron legs and fosna [50mm planks] top in 1997, rusty but still standing in the basement; she made two of all wood no nails in 2011, 13)
- table (all wood, no metal, 2014), serves in the backyard now
- several shelves of various shapes, to hang on walls (her work 2012-16).
- periodic refurbishing - reupholstering the chairs several times, repainting the 1979 cupboard set in 2010 and the kitchen table in 2020.
The house:
- dug out the basement, completely on our own except a moba to pour the floorboard and the crane to lay the roofboards
- for unloading the siporeks, pouring of the foundation, floorboards (upstairs too), laying the roof tiles and digging the cesspit we had a moba. For the water pipes (except in the garage), electricity, sewer pipes (except in the garage and behind it into the cesspit), floor and wall tiles (except two rooms upstairs), laying the bathtub, roof construction, UTP cabling we had majstors. Everything else was we two, with dad and Arpi coming to help at times.
- various plugs, cables - made myself whenever I had the parts; sometimes it was the only way, sometimes I just didn't trust what they were selling
24-V-2024 - 13-V-2026