Selfsufficientish.com

Poverty is what you make it in this country. Anyone can be inept and not manage on their money. Or refuse to work, claim the benefits available or get themselves into dire straits wanting more than they can afford. I blame it on too much marketing making people think that there's only want in life a...

Went to support a local vegetarian cafe yesterday and had a cream tea (well sort of cream tea as they don't use Cornish Cream but the scone was huuuuggggeee and the spray on cream thick). That's my bad habit for the week. Must have at least one heart attack meal a week as a protest against the sensi...

Add patience as you won't improve good clay at once. Start off adding muck and compost. Repeat annually or as often as you can gain muck and compost. It's taken me four years to get somewhere with half of my allotment where you could have made bricks from the clay but it still grows stuff in the mea...

It's not just us old ones that forget. The youngest kid and family has gone back to a telephone on a string because they could never find the cordless hand sets or they were not charged when the phone rang. One daughter has never worked out how to log on to her on-line banking - it's too complicated...

There's the legend of the present secretary of our allotment society found a complete Ford Prefect buried on his allotment when he took it over in the dim and distant past. apparently it didn't work though

It's nice to hear that others had problems with carrots. I got swift moth as well as carrot fly just for the fun of it.

Watered the peas generously and got a good crop - peas with no water = no crop. Luckily no hose pipe ban so far down the allotment.

Rain is not getting over the hills from Cumbria to the east coast. I know that Cumbria needs the rain to fill up the lakes but just a little share would be nice.

Mobile phones are not essential to daily living. As I have found out over the last four years. Yes there is one in the cupboard for emergencies - like the electricity going off which stops the other phone as it's cordless. Used once in the past year. I carry a decent point and shoot digital camera i...

We don't have drought resistant crops in the UK so far as I know at present. Parsnips do need water and plenty of it to germinate. Swedes prefer water. I've had carrots dropping through heat and drought on the hottest days we have had! If you are on an allotment without on site water, I can only off...

Only move if you have a job to do when you get there. Everywhere looks better if you can support yourself from the word go. Moving with no income is not the best way to make a success of the move. The country changes as you change areas and foraging in Scotland will be a whole different thing to for...

I've learned that most of you laugh at the daftest of things. That apart, I've learned that I'm green before I'm ish and that I've learned more skills than I ever use. Ones that I know perfectly well seem to be new to others here and I've never thought that anyone would be interested in them.

Sooooooooooooooo - now that you've returned to normality, are you going to have to barter for a bit instead of using money? Reality hasn't dawned yet then?

Never mind, it's good to see you back and if you're happy with life that's good too.

I'm more of the make do school of thought. Question is - why do I need that? Too many things seem to be a good idea but ..... The but comes in the running of "it" with regards to cost and whether the job could be done just as easily without "it". That line of questioning comes be...

Caffeine in tea and coffee does cause problems with some sorts of arthritis. I'm afraid the women in my family know that one only too well. Mind the caffeine in Coke does no good either. Mind the poor old pot of tea has good company - red meat and alcohol are bad for arthritis too. Expect that the b...