Hi Mrs. Tweedie from THE COLONY'S

[Mrs. Tweedie]

I live in Ontario, Canada. We heat our house with wood that my husband cuts himself. We also have a large vegetable garden that supplies all of our vegetables that we eat year round. We freeze most of it. We also raise meat chickens for our meat & I have six hens for eggs (I sell the surplus which covers the cost of buying laying mash for them). I enjoy reading, cooking & baking. I also like to preserve my harvest. I enjoy people & like having family & friends over for a meal or for an evening of entertainment. I like old fashioned things (historical).

[Millymollymandy]

Hi Mrs Tweedie.

Welcome to the site.

You sound self-sufficient rather than 'ish' like a lot of us! I hope you can give us lots of information and advice!! It's also very interesting on the site having people from different countries to compare notes etc. Look forward to hearing more.

[Wombat]

G'Day MrsT,

Nice to meet you, and good to see you here!

All of your activities sound interesting and it would be good if you could post some of the details

I also appreciate your quote from Ghandi!

Nev

[2steps]

hello and welcome to the site

[ina]

Hi Mrs. Tweedie

Welcome to our bunch of would-be-selfsufficients!

Like Wombat, I also picked up on your quote - but unlike him, I had no idea it was from Ghandi...

Is Mrs. Tweedie your "real" name, or did you choose it for a particular reason? Maybe you like wearing tweeds?

Hope you enjoy being on this site

Ina

[libran]

Hi, I'm new too to the site. Isn't it great especially when we hear from people at the other side of the world. I was brought up in the countryside and we had our own hens and two geese which we reared each year to celebrate our Christmas and New Year with. Now, unfortunately I live out on the edge of Sheffield - South Yorkshire and Chesterfield which is North Derbyshire. Both of which are towns so I only have a small garden. I would love to have chickens again but my only knowledge about keeping them is that as a child I used to collect the eggs from the hen house and then the cockeral used to catch me and not let me out with them!!. I faired better with the would be escapee chickens who used to lay them in the grass outside the hen house.
Hope to hear from you soon on the site.
Libran (linda)

[tawny owl]

Is Mrs. Tweedie your "real" name, or did you choose it for a particular reason? Maybe you like wearing tweeds?

Presumably Mrs Tweedie from Chicken Run? The cartoon character with the chicken pie-making machine?

[Sue]

Linda - can't believe you said "unfortunately" about living in Sheffield
its on the doorstep of beautiful Derbyshire and York moors around - a farmers market in town once a month - and all the local allotments and country fairs etc - not to mention the best venison farm in the country down the road



(should I be on commission from the tourist board)

mind you I do wish I had a larger garden too - but my little patch will be thriving soon - and I am going to scrounge a few tyres from a local dogdy motor dealer to grow spuds next year too

[diver]

Hello Mrs T, yoyr self sufficient life sounds idyllic bu I am sure it's hard work, especially in the Canadian winter...do you work away from home or are you really sefl sufficient, welcome,

[Mrs. Tweedie]

ina & Tawny Owl, my name does indeed orginate from the popular movie "Chicken Run". Mind you I am a kinder & gentler Mrs. Tweedie. My husband lopes off their heads (meat chickens) instead of me.
Diver, we do not work away from home nor are we self sufficient. We live without a salary. My husband took early retirement at 55 yrs. I am on long term disability. We live on my husbands savings & my disability pension. Our combined yearly income is about $37,000 Canadian. I don't know what this translates into in pounds sterling? Total self sufficiencey I believe is near impossible. One still needs money to a certain extent. A Canadian chap by the name of Charles Long has written a book called "HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT A SALARY". It is a very good book. I have an American friend who with her husband live on $8,000U.S. per year & claims that she could live on even less if she really tried. Trash picking (in others dustbins) is not my idea of a way of saving money though.

[Mrs. Tweedie]

Yes Folks we do have to work very hard. But as my husband says hard work never kills you just the lack of it. Unfortunately my husband has to do the lions share as I have many health problems that preclude me from doing any heavy work. My husband doesn't seem to mind as he hates to just sit around doing nothing.
Has anyone here done cheese making? I was wanting to try my hand at it if I could get a cheap source of milk. Here in Canada all of the milk farmers have to buy quotas in order to sell their milk, but they are not supposed to sell it to the general public. Maybe I can find a farmer who will sell me some of their excess milk, if I promise to keep mum about it? What are the regulations like in Britian?

[ina]

Sounds familiar, that problem with the milk...
Actually, I'm not quite sure what the regulations are in England, but in Scotland you are not allowed to sell (or give away!) any raw milk. (Which for me is the only "proper" milk - I used raw milk, from various farms and farming systems, and from cows as well as goats, for about 20 years with positive rather than negative health effects!) So if I wanted to make cheese (or, indeed, just put some raw miklk into my coffee), I'd have to keep a cow or goat myself. That way they couldn't stop me doing what I liked with it... I spent half a year in France making goats' milk cheeses. A fascinating craft!

As far as I know it is still possible to buy unpasteurised milk in England, but I'm not sure about direct sales from the farm. Anybody out there who knows more?

(And I do remember Mrs. Tweedie now - I love that film, but I'm hopeless at remembering names!)

Ina

[ina]

Sounds familiar, that problem with the milk...
Actually, I'm not quite sure what the regulations are in England, but in Scotland you are not allowed to sell (or give away!) any raw milk. (Which for me is the only "proper" milk - I used raw milk, from various farms and farming systems, and from cows as well as goats, for about 20 years with positive rather than negative health effects!) So if I wanted to make cheese (or, indeed, just put some raw miklk into my coffee), I'd have to keep a cow or goat myself. That way they couldn't stop me doing what I liked with it... I spent half a year in France making goats' milk cheeses. A fascinating craft!

As far as I know it is still possible to buy unpasteurised milk in England, but I'm not sure about direct sales from the farm. Anybody out there who knows more?

(And I do remember Mrs. Tweedie now - I love that film, but I'm hopeless at remembering names!)

Ina

[ina]

Sounds familiar, that problem with the milk...
Actually, I'm not quite sure what the regulations are in England, but in Scotland you are not allowed to sell (or give away!) any raw milk. (Which for me is the only "proper" milk - I used raw milk, from various farms and farming systems, and from cows as well as goats, for about 20 years with positive rather than negative health effects!) So if I wanted to make cheese (or, indeed, just put some raw miklk into my coffee), I'd have to keep a cow or goat myself. That way they couldn't stop me doing what I liked with it... I spent half a year in France making goats' milk cheeses. A fascinating craft!

As far as I know it is still possible to buy unpasteurised milk in England, but I'm not sure about direct sales from the farm. Anybody out there who knows more?

(And I do remember Mrs. Tweedie now - I love that film, but I'm hopeless at remembering names!)

Ina

[ina]

Sorry about that triple message - at least now I know what you lot mean with error code coming up...

Ina