Selfsufficientish.com

Hi all, It is true that in a cold climate they will need to winter indoors. We have tried them outside, even in protected places and they definitely died. Our temps are pretty cold over winter with heavy frost and light snow. Indoors we have managed to keep them going with care but find them a bit t...

This is great! What a creative bunch we are. Great thread Ina. MKG - what a great idea - we are all history buffs in our house. Have you a particular interest in Blyth? WiseBird - very impressive. I think many people love Teddy Bears, I will check out your site. Ellendra - Good for you. Had a giggle...

Ok Stonehead - I wondered whether you had the same laws as us. I agree, it simply wouldn't be worth the risk to sell without all the correct procedures. We don't sell meat or made products from home just excess live piglets which does help cover some of the running costs of the farm. :D Annpan - Org...

Great idea - I would love to hear what other ishers are writing about.

Cheers
Mauzi

Hi Cherry_Blossom, welcome. I visit from time to time from Australia. I am married to a Cornishman and having just had our annual Celtic festival - it was the year of the Cornish - we are all in the celtic feeling :lol: Anyway, sounds like you are having fun and look forward to catching up some more...

We have grown soya bean and they grew easily but do require quite a long season to maturity so timing is important. We are in Australia but live in a cold mountainous area with short season so we just made it by planting as soon as the frosts were over and harvesting just before the new season frost...

Hi, I have transplanted potato plants and so long as you keep them moist they transplanted well.

Yes, certainly agree. The tops of the plants can also be used as early greens and cooked in a little butter. Tastes good. I love broad beans also because of their early season produce. Yum!

Thanks for the detailed breakdown Stonehead. We also keep pigs and chickens (and goats, geese, ducks and so on). In Australia we can kill our own animals so long as the meat does not go off farm. Anyway, for us the costs are less because we do not have the abattoir costs, nor the butcher costs - we ...

I have used garlic for medicinal use and also as part of a worming program for horses, goats, sheep, geese, ducks, chickens, pigs, rabbits, dogs not to mention my human family. I haven't used a chemical for 20 years on my animals so I guess that is proof enough for me as my animals are in excellent ...

Hi Smokehouse - we went off the grid and into a self-sufficient lifestyle some 4 years ago now. Just love it and wishing you luck. It was the best move we have ever done. We are in Australia by the way, so a bit different but as we are in the New England Area we do have similar weather temperatures ...

Mirrie, just caught up with this thread. Takes me awhile sometimes. Bye the way, I just love your avatar - is that your piglet? As I am in Australia, our breeds of chickens may be different but as a dual purpose I go for Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks. I love the Plymouths as they are just so ...

Thanks Andy, Nice to catch up with you. I came to the forum when you were busy writing your book which by the way I intend to buy shortly. Look forward to reading it. I believe Nev is over visiting at the moment and hoping to catch up with a few people. Hi Nev if you are still there. Cheers Mauzi

I have also heard that it is not a good idea to keep chickens and turkeys together but we did for years and had no problems. Blackhead was meant to be the difficulty but we put garlic in the water and apple cider vinegar which seems to keep them pretty healthy, along with herbs etc. We went out of t...

I used to feed pellets (along with fresh grass,various herbs, comfrey - which I believe you can actually feed as the majority of the diet once they get used to it) but we have been having some trouble with pellets in Australia. The mill has been changing the mix regularly, depending on what grain is...