Selfsufficientish.com

Great thread, thanks for the links for patterns etc. I made the resolution several years ago not to buy high street fashion any more, only to buy clothes from charity shops or clothes that were organic/fairtrade, and have (almost) stuck to it. Just the odd lapse! I have a new sewing machine (old one...

I learned to crochet from a friend when I was about 19, and have been doing it ever since. She did it left-handed, so I just sat opposite her and copied what she did! If anyone knows any decent websites with crochet patterns, please let me know. (I can't knit, just crochet.) Good ones are very diffi...

We replaced our antiquated pot-bellied stove last year, and my partner did it quite easily. Main thing to remember is to seal all the joints well (and we have bought a carbon monoxide alarm just to be on the safe side.)

We had another bash yesterday, on an area of the sand dunes we know well, and got quite a good bagful. Damsons seem to be nonexistent this year, but we still have hopes of the sloes for sloe gin. There is a footpath where they all grow way above my head and everyone else's, so my partner (who is 6 f...

My partner stopped off to pick blackberries last night on the way home from work, and came home with a very pathetic little bagful.
Last year we had enough sunshine in September to bring them on, but doesn't look that way this year.
Anyone else?

I make blackberry vodka and sloe gin (missed the damsons this year for damson brandy, unfortunately.) Last weekend we went to London for my sister's 60th birthday party, and we loaded up the camper with all the ancestral portraits and big bits of silver that I haven't got room for since we moved, an...

I have the same problem - NEVER get plastic bags, always use a big jute one. But I need plastic bags to use for rubbish when we go away in the camper! I get them from the office, where whoever shops for the tea/coffee/biscuits always gets one, and there is usually a drawerful to help myself from. Tr...

Anyone tried this/can recommend it?
I like the look of it, but it's decidedly expensive. Also we have a rather uneven concrete floor!

No Ann, ours is a standard roofspace, terraced granite cottage.
You do seem to be having problems - good luck with the builders!
I am lucky as my partner is a builder...

Just a quickie - we applied for a grant (no insulation at all when we moved in) but were told it would be about eight or nine weeks. We didn't want to wait so went ahead by ourselves using warmcel, only about £100 more. The grant people told us that we would have to have fibreglass, horrid stuff! W...

Please can I bring this topic back from hibernation and ask for some advice? Our house has an old woodburner in which needs replacing, just a little pot-bellied one, but last winter it was quite successful at heating the whole house. It helped that it's a tiny house, literally one room downstairs wi...

Thanks very much for the welcome. Still not particularly cold down here, we hardly ever get frost as we are so close to the sea. We have a very small garden, but only grow herbs in it so far. There are two large trees taking up a lot of the space! But my partner spent this summer building a large co...

Hi there,
We live in the far west of Cornwall (half a mile further and you fall off the cliffs at the end) in a little cottage with just a woodburner for heating; hoping to get an allotment sometime soon. Interested in growing food and finding it too.
Meras (thank you in Cornish.)