Selfsufficientish.com

you don't need to do a thing to your eucalyptus except enjoy it; i pruned mine purely because i had to move it and the top hamper was inconvenient since circumstances changed and i didn't want the poor thing suffering where it was - it's quite young, and was only about ten feet max before i lopped a...

OJ, i put coal dust in with paper pulp and make paper and coaldust pulp balls, they burn quite well because i can't abide waste

heh, ours often miss... one of them digs a neat hole in the middle and widdles just off the edge. i have newspaper around the tray and that just gets burned. i have a clay based litter, the one that sinks the pee to the bottom when you shake the tray so even with four cats shut in overnight [on main...

with a lot of places being refurbished near us - newly a uni town and property being turned into student flats - i make a point of making a cup of tea for the workmen and ask if they wouldn't like to save the price of one skip if i take away the wood and anything else that takes my fancy. last house...

8-ply polypropolene from a ship chandler, often offcuts are available cheap in lengths that are too short to rig a racing yacht, lol; wrap and tie a sack around the branch you tie it to to avoid chafing. 8 -ply multi plait has a breaking strain of one and a half tons if i recall correctly. i use it ...

i know this is an old topic but i'd like to say i'm one of the people who has never found the brickette maker satisfactory; even put our solid fuel cooker out which takes some doing. i make my brickettes by hand in an old sieve, pressing the water through by hand - or rather with a plastic bottle - ...

nice tips! i mix sawdust - we bought a chainsaw - with coal dust and mix it in with paper pulp and make it into briquettes in an ordinary seive, compressing by hand. slow, but one of those jobs to do a bit at a time through the summer. i like the firelighter idea, and i shall certainly try packing c...

i reuse old envelopes to make my own paper; great project with kids. and my frame and deckle are old picture frames with net curtain stapled onto the deckle [which method i also use to make a screen printing frame]. i have made paper from first principles from grass, sweetcorn husks and banana skins...

NICE!! my compost bin - er room? - is built from recycled bricks against a brick wall, with gaps - sort of Flemish bond without the bond - and with two access holes at the front with old roof tiles that slide up and down, so the cost was half a bag of cement and a couple of days work. four foot by e...

i have a really early nokia; i think it's 1990's but i've been quite happy with it and i too get in a strop with salespeople trying to give me a new one; and when cameras first came in that was what they were pushing. i was quite happy to have my [omits boring technical detail because that's another...

thanks for the tip about firelighters; my fire can be very temperamental when we have a west wind, i've been shaving wax into 'crackers' made from folded newspaper, the way my great aunt taught me, though i don't know anyone else who does it! i just gave my eucalyptus a bit of a hair cut so now i kn...

drawer full of odd screws, nails, bits and pieces [and stray lego that needs to go back in the proper place when i get around to it] things-that-i'm-not-sure-what-they-are which are bound to come in useful some day, wire, bits of old computer, cardboard, bubble wrap, plastic net veggie bags - which ...

i keep tea bags in summer for a few days to use to slap damp on sunburn - i only have to look outside to catch a freckle and by the time i've turned round i burn, and however careful you are it CAN happen - so that is another use for them! very soothing, though you do end up with a tea-coloured fals...

best thing i ever found in an old shed in the garden was a rusty billhook that cleaned up just lovely; brilliant for attacking the jungle! i use the straight edge to chop kindling too, better than a hatchet any day, though the postman is now a little wary when i went to the door with it in my hand a...

nice work; nothing like a solid fuel cooker! what's more they burn anything; coal, wood, chipboard [not very hot the last but can keep a fire in a long time if you're going out, say] old shoes, the sort of rubbish the local rules won't accept in the blue bin [we've had trouble because our council is...