Selfsufficientish.com

If you are "difficult", then you are not alone. I believe it is a man thing. They want something and feel everso slightly guilty about it, but it must be right if you want the same thing too. If you don't then you make them feel uncomfortable and they don't like that, hence causing a minor...

I don't have a mobile phone. Not that this is a matter of principle, just that I do not anticipate the need for one. They cost money, there is a carbon-footprint implication in their manufacture and disposal, and like many perceived necessities, a moble phone isn't one as far as I am concerned at th...

This type of form is surely created by someone who has never had to fill in this type of form.

My understanding of garlic growing is that the best time to plant is October or November and plant about 2" or 3" deep but no deeper because you want them to benefit from really hard frosts. They love a long spell of freezing cold weather during which time they go completely dormant. Then ...

We tend to think of energy as something that runs a piece of equipment - a toaster or cooker or washing machine etc. But turn this on its head, and think about your own personal energy - think how you can use it and avoid the plug-in kind. This is me: If you have a wood buring stove or open fire you...

Put some lemon juice in the final rinsing water and hang the garment in the sunshine to drip dry. The combination of sunshine and lemon juice will make a positive difference to the whiteness.

Another idea if you want a warm bed cover is to use an old blanket as a lining. One that is past its best but clean, one that is too small for the bed as a tucked-in blanket - maybe blag one from a neighbour . Cut it down to size and make a cover for it like an envelope. Put the blanket inside, sew ...

If you have friends who enjoy a take-away meal ask them to save the containers. I acquired a stack and they are the perfect size for a one-person portion of stew, for example, and they stack really well in the freeer.

I see that back in 2008 I commented on things I had picked up in the street - plant pots, modules for setting seeds, a length of copper wire - all useful stuff that is just lying there, discarded. A couple of replies referred to finding stuff in skips, wood etc. Is it OK to take stuff out of a skip ...

We do not put potato peelings in our compost bin now. Not only do they shoot in the bin, taking nutrients out of the compost, but the peelings don't seem to rot down as well as the other stuff. We also had spuds coming up all over the garden and when we started to get blight on outdoor tomatoes five...

Those tops are very annoying. My Mum is 94 and isn't very strong so whenever she has a bottle of something with one of those tops we have to loosten it for her and she has to leave it semi-tight which is worse than the old type tops. In the old days when I were a gal, nothing had child-proof tops on...

Unfortunately you can't make a patchwork out of old socks, or any knitted stuff for that matter, because once you cut it the knitting comes unstitched, whether it is hand-knit or machine-knit. But you can certainly use any other non-stretchy fabric for patchwork. If you haven't done any before the e...

No worries! Underplant anything that grows tall with lettuces/salad leaves and radishes work particularly well because they mature quickly. I grow onion from seed in modules and plant them out amongst other crops to grow as salad onions. They thicken out quite quickly.

Oh yes, I see what you mean. I saw some saucepans in Wilko today, £5 for a set of three. Dead cheap! But they won't last long (well, my Mum's cheap saucepans didn't), the non-stick wears off quickly, and because the metal is thin the food burns on. So in a few months time that's three saucepans in t...

I am picking up this thread a bit late since the original post (picking up the thread, ha ha ha). Making something out of a bit of something else is one of the most rewarding thing about being self sufficientish. Here are my recent projects: You can re-use old curtains to fit a different window by a...