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I notice that Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn have a habit of losing their livestock. Are they the only 2 Englishmen in the world who don’t know what a good farm dog is for?

And what kind of self-respecting farmyard doesn’t have a good rat-catching cat?

I was lucky enough to have Ruth Goodman as a tutor during my Heritage Studies degree - what a fascinating and inspiring lady :O) Do you know if Ruth Goodman is married? If she is, I find it strange that she could do these year-long projects. One episode of Victorian Farm Christmas, that I have seen...

It served two purposes, really ... A lot of the established farming families were still using almost medieval techniques, so the book was an attempt to educate them in "modern" methods. When the book was written, we were still in the hangover Industrial Revolution process of creating the ...

Hi Flaja ... The book which was the bible for the cast of the Victorian Farm (and, I believe, the Edwardian Farm) and which I cannot for the life of me remember the name of (I downloaded it and, for the life of me, can't find it either :iconbiggrin: ) is available on the net for free. It was either...

If an American cousin can be allowed to butt-in I’d like to ask if anyone knows where online I can watch your TV? I found parts of “The Victorian Kitchen Garden” with Peter Thoday and Harry Dodson on youtube earlier this summer. But I cannot find complete episodes for October, November or December. ...

You're using terms I'm not familiar with in the UK; CEB - is that what we would call cob? Or rammed earth? Or adobe, possibly? Bond beam, also; the only thing I've heard of is a patent steel post and tie system, which doesn't sound like what you mean. The type of foundations you use is always going...

Does anyone know if you can use a rubble trench or a continuous earthbag for the footings or bond beam of a compressed earth building? Does anyone know of any kind of detailed cost comparison for different types of alternative building technologies? I know that you cannot readily compare costs from ...

Can someone explain to this American what an allottment is? I know that Britain has a long tradition of common land, but I didn't know any common land was left.

Does anyone know how to make mushroom spawn/get/harvest it? There are people, who have products to sell you, that say you cannot make your own spawn because you have to have equipment to sterilize the spawn since any contamination with spawn from inedible mushrooms will supposedly reduce your harve...

baldowrie wrote:think Tom left the 9-5 for the same reason many do, it was all too much and he wanted out!

In Tom's case I don't think it was too much; I think he was just bored to death. Jerry is the one that would have a stroke because of the pressure of his job.

In the agricultural shops here, mushroom kits are next to the seed racks in the shop. They're pretty small packages that contain (I think) the substrate with spores or fibres in it. If I understand it correctly, you layer the substrate on top of other stuff and leave in a warm damp place. You can k...

In the Good Life episode in which the Goods try to get away for the weekend, allowing Jerry and Margo to look after the animals, Barbara planted mushrooms as if they were seeds. Was this something that was made up for TV or is there a type of mushroom that can be grown this way? Whatever mushroom it...

I’ve hearing about the BBC program The Good Life for several years now, but it wasn’t until about a month ago that I managed to see any of the episodes. I realize the limitations of TV, but I cannot help but think the Goods went about their self-sufficiency the wrong way. Tom should have continu...