Selfsufficientish.com

What a lovely day! the first warm sun of we've had this year. I've spent the day burning-off the old grass underneath the brambles. I find if i burn the grass around the areas where the bramble is thickest the burning grass kills the brambles and spreading blackthorn. The rabbits then get in to eat ...

I'd go for a white orion on UK soil (about £3 a plant). The reds don't make such a good wine in our climate.

But the man to ask is: Derek at: http://www.winegrowers.info

If you go into some woods (especially ones that have been recenty thinned) and look really close to the ground you can normally find a patch where there are lots of 1 to 2 year old saplings. Most of these won't grow into large trees and you'll be doing the wood a favour by thinning them out. You can...

1 & 1/2 cups of rice* 3 cups of water in a pan, with lid bring to the boil turn off the heat, cover the pan with tea towels news papers etc and leave for 15 minutes. Don't take the lid off for at least 15 minutes!!! *To the rice add anything you like vegtables, a bit of olive oil, nettle leaves,...

It might not live a long life in the wild, but at least it will be a free life!

I visit my local tescos to buy reduced organic veggies, then use the seeds from the fruit to plant. It works well because the seeds have not been treated and are also a lot cheaper than buying from seed suppliers I also planted some maize this year and got the maisze seed from a fishing shop (80% ge...

Not really a music festival but Devizes Festival in June is usually worth checking out. Rumour has it, the Yardbirds are playing this year. Also the party in the park has Jackie Leven playing this year and August Bank Holiday Monday the Market Place is shut to traffic and there are bands and street...

I've always been a bit unsure of the Chippenham folk festival - a few too many morris dancers

Any suggestions - of other bands worth seeing, that are playing at this years festival?

Good strong food on Jacobs crackers: cheese/chorizo sausage, olives, anchovies, venison mince over-loaded with coriander :hugish: And... a good bottle of chilled, white wine. :drunken: And all beacuse i've just heard that my dad is getting out of hospital after catching legionairres disease - we all...

Totally agree with helping towards a state that looks after people in need. But i suspect that my small contribution isn't going to make much of a dent in the 1 trillion that we owe.

A meet-up sounds great! There are four of us, (wife, 2 children: 4 & 7) we live in Chippenham, but have a small holding nr Marshfield and i rent a bit of land nr Spirthill. I totally agree about the obssesive shopping mentality - although in the last month I've bought: 10 telegraph poles, 100 sc...

We've been downsizing for about 10 years. I had a fairly succesful busines and each year have reduced it's turnover and concentrated my efforts on going fully self suffcient. We sold our house last year, so that we could buy something and be mortgage free. i suspect that it would be easier for us if...

I spent a month over mine. I just do a section at a time, then come back and re jiggle some sections. I find that it is better for the blood pressure

If you lived closer i'd let you have some of mine. I only shoot about 4 a year - which is enough meat for a family of 4. the rest of the year we live off lentils and beans.

Venison burgers! - Shot last night . The kids won't touch it until it has been minced and covered in melted cheese