Being self sufficient in 2017

[Flo]

So what can we do for ourselves this year?

My allotment seed box is full and I don't think I need any more. Best to use up what I have. Should be able to fill up the two allotments I have.

My clothes cupboard is full despite wearing out two pairs of gardening shoes last year! Must admit that those were replaced though.

Enough of the paid for software came over to the new computer to make it fit for purpose (camera, blogs, writing news letters, forums and such). And what I didn't have I have replaced from the little that is still free.

Food and cleaning cupboards stocked up as is freezer (many veg still left from last season) at the moment. Lot of stuff I can't do myself food wise as I'm borderline vegan. Want to look at more foraging this year though.

I hate decorating but the bungalow needs doing in some places. I could well save up and pay for someone as the kitchen ceiling needs doing but I could do it myself.

I hope that there will be less shopping for the rest of the year after an extravagant month replace computer - no I can't make one myself. Not that sort of talented.

[Green Aura]

Mine may read pretty much the same as last years, I'm afraid.
We're still waiting on the joiner to come and do the roof. Which is holding up the final big renovating job - dry-lining the shop. Other than that flooring and decorating are the final jobs in the house.

Clothing may need to be replaced as I've found an effective and liveable with ( ) diet - lost a stone before Christmas and it's coming off again nicely now. I generally have a few clothes in a couple of different sizes but I'm seriously hoping they'll all be too big before too much longer.

We've had a major rethink of our gardening strategy for this year so I think (as mentioned elsewhere) we'll have what we need. Touching wood that the polytunnel has survived the storms so no major projects/expense/time spent on that.

So life as usual in the GA household then.

[Odsox]

So life as usual in the GA household then

Same here pretty much, except that I have some "needless" expense with the new greenhouse (needless because I've been turfed out of a perfectly good conservatory )
Timber was delivered yesterday (not paid for yet) and there will be glass and corrugated plastic to buy, but I think that should be it.
Hopefully we will be totally self sufficient in vegetables again, and almost in fruit (SOMEBODY demands oranges ) and eggs.
Sometime soon I will need a new computer, but unlike Flo I can build my own, although I still need to buy the bits of course and there is bound to be a few electronic components that need buying. I plan to build remote sensors for the tunnels and greenhouses so that I can check at least the temperatures in there from indoors.
But all in all only modest expense.

[Flo]

I've got the wrong skills and training for self sufficiency if you ask me. I was taught at a school with no other careers options than teaching in the old days just after it became possible to get married and have a job too. For my life it would have been more use to have learned basic car maintenance, dry lining as this comes under tenants repairs with the local housing association, house decorating (still no good with wood and don't do wall paper) and typing. As well as gardening. And computers were not then available for every home that wants one. Nor did every home have a telephone.

[Odsox]

I was lucky I suppose in that I was taught gardening at school. We had a big garden at primary school, but the only thing I remember is planting up an oblong garden with Lobelias, Alyssum and Salvias in the design of the Union Jack for the coronation. Then at secondary school we had proper "get your hands dirty" gardening lessons, although the main thing I remember about that was being taught how to graft apples. When I was 13 I went to technical school and the gardening was upgraded to biology lessons, learning the nitty gritty of how plants work.
All the other skills I acquired were self taught to a large extent. I had (have) the cocky attitude that when something needs doing, I tell myself "I can do that" and get stuck in and learn by doing. Sometimes it ends up messy, but most times whatever it is, it becomes obvious how to do it when you get started.

[diggernotdreamer]

I do the gardening and growing the food. We seem to always have something fresh to eat at all times of the year so I must be doing something right in spite of me thinking the opposite, that I have completely failed to grow this or that. We don't ever buy spuds or onions, we could flood the village with passatta, if only I could grow olives to make olive oil, wheat for the bread and have a cow for milk, we could be pretty much self sufficient in food. I have loads of alpaca fluff, which is out of reach in the Wizards workshop and would entail getting up onto the wobbly ladder, falling off, knocking over motorbikes, juke boxes and whatever else he has stashed around the place waiting to trip me up should I venture into the 'manlab'. He, the Wizard, is the Wizard and can make and fix anything unlike me, who turns into helpless female with two halves of the broken thing saying can you fix this, so I am hopeless at mending and making stuff.

[Odsox]

If only I could grow olives to make olive oil

Ask Maggie, she can grow olives.

[diggernotdreamer]

impressed, what is your secret Maggie, you are further north than me as well

[Green Aura]

We only do half size ones.

[diggernotdreamer]

Scotland set to be hotter than Barcelona get the oranges and lemons in as well

[Odsox]

if only I could grow olives to make olive oil

You could grow one in your new sunroom for €10.95
http://www.gardens4you.ie/index.php?/Fr ... 7QodtNcAfw

Edit: Just bought one of the pot grown €10.95 ones, so maybe we shall see ....

[Green Aura]

Scotland set to be hotter than Barcelona get the oranges and lemons in as well

We've got lemons, limes, mandarins and calamondins. Not very successful with fruiting but this year they've all had extra protection through the winter (the large lemon and lime trees survived the storm which blew the polytunnel down so they're allowed recuperation) so I'm hopeful for this year.

[Green Aura]

Flo we've taught ourselves most of our renovating skills via t'internet. There are fabulous videos which teach everything from cutting a piece of plasterboard neatly to rewiring your house.
I've sort of lost site of many of my self-sufficiency skillideas over the last few years - my attention has been on everyone else in my family's needs. This year it's just the three of us, everyone seems to be well and in a job (touch wood) and the renovations are nearing the end so hopefully I can concentrate on getting things back on track. I've continued to make all my own bread, bacon and sauerkraut etc throughout though.
I'm in charge of the polytunnel this year (OH didn't do so well last year - we tend to disagree on what constitutes "organic" so I left him to it). So keep your fingers crossed for me and good weather.
I'll be opening a new shop at some point (after joiner fixes roof) selling my crafts (mainly knit and crocheted although there will be a few other things).
I must look at some of my early posts on here to remember what I had planned - everything seems to change every year!

[Flo]

Have just picked this up off the BBC website - bad weather in Europe hits our vegetable imports.

But looking at the list of items that have been damaged - they are all what I think of as out of season vegetables at this time of the year. It makes me wonder exactly what people expect to see on the supermarket and greengrocer's shelves.

There is something to be said for growing and preserving your own. But I do have sympathy for the growers - us allotment holders have the same battles if our seasons go haywire.

[Flo]

I must look at some of my early posts on here to remember what I had planned - everything seems to change every year!

That's life - it doesn't work to plan. My not to plan was the computer.