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gregorach wrote:I'm starting to think about building an Ark... I've really had enough of this.

We’ve on the 220m contour, but started patching the boat. Just in case…

Today, I can see grey, grey and more grey. Either we have cloud sitting on our hill, fog rising up our hill or I’ve been breathing heavily and fogged the windows up. (Yes, that’s the effect Ish has on me.)

Reeeally want chickens, but the deeds to our house say no pets other than dogs and cats and specifies no poultry. I am sure the neighbours wouldn't mind (or notice) but could I get into trouble? Also can I cope with the work and the fact that our garden is only about 20 foot by 25 foot ish? There’s...

Agreed about rats gnawing through just about anything. We had an incursion last year when rats gnawed their way through the mortar in a three-foot thick stone wall, letting in a lot of water when it rained. Our infestations almost always coincide with the two neighbouring farms clearing their cattle...

I render my own lard. It makes by far the best pie pastry. And our boys love the cracklings. One non-cooking use for lard, or indeed any leftover fat, is as cutting fluid when drilling or cutting metal. I've also turned up a few uses for lard in Victorian books, but I don't know that I'd want to try...

Cut a few potatoes into slices (don't worry about peeling them) and blanch for a couple of minutes in boiling water. Drain. Cut the stalks from the Swiss Chard, blanch and drain. Grate a lot of cheese, something with a slightly nutty flavour is good. Grease a baking dish. Fill it with alternating la...

Half a dozen shirts (like these), a new mattress and a couple of tons of lime mortar to repoint all the buildings. Oh, and new tyres for the Land Rover. That would do me.

Secondly, I have always thought that commercial frozen peas taste manky and my own frozen peas tasted just fine ... until last year. I used to grow Onward peas but switched to Douce Provence and they DO NOT freeze well. So this year I am growing 5 different varieties of peas, just a 6' row of each ...

Does anyone fancy coming over for a pot luck dinner?? The more the merrier. We had a laugh at the last one,and I promised to organise another at Christmas but never got around to it. I am flexible on dates, so let me know what suits. Nikki I have two pots filled with goulash at the moment, but I su...

We're gardening…

Co-op wouldn't have us. Quit Abbey after one cock-up too many. Same with Nationwide. Currently with Lloyds as they're the only bank with a branch in the village.

Has anyone had any close escapes? These are some of mine. The list is not exhaustive as they say :icon_smile: I've had a few scrapes. Okay, quite a few. However, they're far outweighed by the number of times I've been around when someone else has come a cropper. Depending on your point of view, the...

That will not make running the croft easy Stonehead. Not easy at all. Can you get help for the manual chores? Probably not. The farmer across the road would help if he could, but he had his legs crushed by a loader a few weeks back. My family is in Australia, the OH's parents are in their 70s. Vari...

Wish you a speedy and full recovery Stonehead. All the detail is a bit much for me. Reminds me of my falling off a horse, but actually I didn't fall off, it's much worse actually when you stay on. because He fell- and I stayed on and as he rolled trying to get up his ribs did loads of damage. I can...

Stoney, have you thought about downloading a free PC Kindle from Amaz,on. I've got one and it makes reading on screen much easier. There are tons of free books about, check out Project Gutenburg. I use Project Gutenburg, and other similar resources, for research. We bought our oldest boy a Kindle f...