Selfsufficientish.com

Hello! I hope it's OK to promote a new green event that I'm putting on? I work as the Community Music person at Bishop Grosseteste University College in Lincoln. Because my job description is fairly loose (pretty much - "hook the college up with good music and build a community!") I get a ...

Just thought I'd share this. I've been out today in my "musician" guise, playing for the Great and the Good at the official opening of the first straw bale social housing in the country today - in Waddington, Lincolnshire. Because me and my partner were there early, we got a guided tour, a...

Just wanted to share a bad thing that happened, and the solution I found, in case it happens to anyone else... I've incubated lots of hen eggs, but when I had a broody bantam in February, my friend offered me some fertile call duck eggs. I've not got any ducks, so I thought I'd give it a go. The bro...

Waaah! Despite me moving everything in the greenhouse, my spare cucurbits got frosted last night! Argh!!!! I thought I'd been so careful! It must have been pretty beastly last night. I shall put some extra straw out for my poor ducklings...

How about the "George's Marvellous Medicine" cure? My mate does this with her egg-eating chooks... 1. Blow an egg and enlarge the hole at one end so that you can get one of those children's medicine syringes in it. 2. Get a bowl and put as many disgusting mixtures and strong tastes in as y...

The "1st of June" rule had passed me by. Oh well, I suppose we learn by our mistakes. Thankfully I learned from last year, and planted more than I actually wanted. I have spares. And they won't be going out until June! I had also been a *bit* cheeky and planted outside sweetcorn (I have no...

It's meant to be Nuts in May, surely? I grew the most fabulous pumpkin and scallop squash plants from seed for my kids' raised allotment beds. They were so excited. Elder son just reported extreme wilting and when I dash down to see them, I note that they've been frost-nabbed last night :-( Argh!!!!...

Congratulations! We're in the middle of a housebuild ourselves - we chose the carbon-bastard method to high insulation values and are building with Insulated Concrete Formwork (now we're living in it I find it hard to regret the decision as it's very toasty and warm!). Whilst ICF is a million miles ...

That's *terrible*! My husband's a builder and it makes me so angry when I hear about useless goits who give the rest of us a bad name... We're also self-building (literally due to husband's skills) and insulation is the top of our list - we also used neoprene strips between floorboards and joists to...

I'm feeling vaguely smug as I run a diesel car and currently have 500L of heating oil in my house tank. 500L of heating oil which I would *never* dream of putting in my car. Oh no. Particularly not with 1/2L of 4 star petrol to alter the burning point to the correct level for diesel fuel efficiency ...

Something which is getting less press, but will affect even more people is the fact that trials for a dual-lens implantation operation for people with Macular Degeneration are underway. Sounds very technical, but basically, as you get older, LOTS of people get patches of vision which just don't work...

Made a discovery a couple of months back, which I thought I'd share. I'd been reading the stories of "double-boilers" for candlemaking with concern - I had lots of bits of wax, but no double-boiler, and I was a bit scared by the phrase "spontaneous combusion" anyway :-( However, ...

Well, I've just investigated rotovator hire, and the price seems to be about £80+ a week, which seems very steep. If I'm going to try rotovating regularly (ie. every 10/11 days - which sounds like good advice), then I'm going to be broke in very short order. I may well be looking at the purchase pl...

Thanks for the advice. Thankfully there is no bindweed or ground elder, just lots and lots of twitch, interspersed with a few nettles and thistles for variety. My lottie neighbour tells me that the only way to turn this ground is mechanically - she resorted to bribing a local farmer to plough hers! ...

I surrender. Last year I almost killed myself trying to dig our heavy clay allottment (unused for 6 years and a local hotspot for couch grass/twitch/nettles and thistles). This year I have decided to think seriously about copping myself a rotovator. My parents bought a 4 stroke mantis last year and ...