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My first batch of chickens would eye up a jump sideways (like they do) stare you down and (with clipped wings) flap/jump from a standing start up onto a 5-foot high wall.. I had to put lots of extra fencing in to contain them, and they were always escaping and getting lost/stuck. The current batch j...

£2.97 here http://www.buildingmaterials.co.uk/concrete-blocks.html

I built two garden walls with them, and can inform you that they are not precision-manufactured.... i.e. its a challenge to lay them accurately if you assume they are

rats digging into the compost heap tend to aerate it quite well, I find

plonk a baited rat trap nearby to catch the buggers

if I don't shred the twiggy bits, they emerge uncomposted ... and I put them round again for another cycle.
Maybe I should soak them first... nice idea

I trap rats, execute them with an air rifle and bung the carcasses in the compost bin.

Is this OK?

I've had a Panasonic Breadmaker for about 7 years, and use it regularly... The non-stickiness of the bread-pan fades/goes after a few years of regular use and replacement pans are nearly as much as a new machine (i.e. the greedy b'stards don't want you to repair old machines). Ebay got me a slightly...

I have had the current batch of chickens for coming up to two years - i.e. they have passed through two winters... In neither winter did they stop producing or moult properly (the previous batch did). Why is this? They have slowed down in production but not by much - still getting 1, 2 or 3 a day. N...

I was looking at method 2 here http://www.bunchgrapes.com/cuttings.html
all sorts of differing advice !

is that warm feet, cold head. Doofaloofa?

I have bought a load of dead twigs / prunings. a.k.a. Madeleine Angevine vine cuttings. Any tips to make them root and thrive? So far I have soaked them for 2 hours, planted some in perlite and potting compost, some of those on a heated seed tray, some with rooting gel straight into the ground outsi...

FWIW last year I unintentionally made a demi-john cloche by pouring in hot apple-juice through a funnel. I steam-extract apple juice and I had left it cool down for a bit.... not long enough obviously.

Does anyone recommend a good source of bare-rooted (maiden?) vines mailorder? I'm after about 10 Madeleine Angevine plants

FWIW I tried a large 12V computer fan powered by a battery to distribute woodburner heat... I consider the test a failure as it made no appreciable difference.. I concluded that you'd need a much more powerful office-style fan to shift enough air. My WB is in a chimney alcove so I was concerned that...

VAWTs are more "kinetic sculptures" than energy generators... there weren't any in the Warwick wind trials coz they are even more useless than the domestic HAWTs. have a browse through http://www.wind-works.org/cms/index.php?id=116 Small domestic wind is hopeless unless you have ideal cond...

bet they don't work anywhere near as well as claimed .... vertical axis!

look up the warwick wind trials