New member , hello

[Skippy]

Walking my daughter to school we go across a small field and all around the edge is a thick band of nettles. Now I've eaten nettles in the past but this time thought , hmm , nettle beer but where did I put the recipe? Google it I thought which is just what I did and whilist searching found your forum and found myself thinking that an awful lot of the content I could identify with and several evenings of reading posts made up my mind so to speak and I took the plunge and signed up.
My user name , "Skippy" is actually a nickname I've had for many years and refers to my inability to walk past a skip without having to look in it and my equal inability to leave it unraided.

[Milims]

Hi there and welcome

[Green Aura]

Hi Skippy, welcome to Ish

[Mustardseedmama]

Welcome Skippy!

[happyhippy]

Hi Skippy,and good luck with that beer you'll be making!I thought for a moment you were called Skippy because you were an aussie!(I get called it all the time for that reason!lol)So what else are you up to self suff wise?

[MuddyWitch]

Welcome to ISH

Sounds like you'll fit in perfectly!

MW

[Skippy]

So what else are you up to self suff wise?

I'm not going to claim to be self sufficient by any stretch of the imagination but failing there being a www,selfreliantish site this forum ticks enough boxes.
My Grandfather was a smallholder although that went when he died , something to do with there not being a will , large family and death duties and only being 7 at the time I didn't really understand it but the times I can remember there were good. My father whilist getting a job on the council still had a deep affinaty with gardening and our garden was always dug for vegatables. We relocated a few doors down just to get a bigger garden which Dad dug almost up until his last days although the veg plot had got a bit smaller by his eighties. He tended just to grow basics rather than anything too exotic and felt a bit avant guarde when he set up a spinnach bed.
I've followed in their footsteps and have a decent sized garden with vegatables and fruit trees. We haven't got any yet but have talked about having a few chickens.
My wife is a decent cook and often makes meals out of what we grow , and jams and pickles. Her sister is a bit more fussy and critisises my wife for a lack of presentation and also for using the dreaded out of date foods but we're all in good health with clean plates.
I also re-enact medieavel history which instills a self reliance and I've made clothes , furnature, tents and treen and the whole way of life is so much more back to a simpler form at least until it comes to sunday evening and having to pack it all back into the van.
Not quite self sufficient but I'm also a member of a photographic forum where the members make great use of old lenses for their cameras. As I said not self sufficient but it does fit in with my "if it isn't broke don't try to fix it " view of the world.

Pete