Selfsufficientish.com

Dear Jammie*Dodger, Opened up the fireplace, cut a hole in a piece of sheet steel for the flue pipe. Used angle iron screwed to the chimney walls to support the sheet. Put the flue pipe through the hole. Connected the stove (Esse Diamond) and sealed all round the gaps with fire clay. CO monitor on t...

Dear Agapanthus,

Thank you, I'll try it next time she goes away for a few days. (Just to see if it does work!)

Love and Peace
Jim

Dear Mrs Flibble, So sorry to hear it. There are some real shits about! Not that I'm recommending it or anything but a friend of mine drove lots of four inch nails through several bits of plank and left them point upwards on his flat roof as if kids had thrown them up there ......... The idea of the...

Dear Shirley,
More than we've got, must keep my eyes open in case!

Looking forward to them coming back, I'll let you know when I see them cross the south coast .....

Love and Peace
Jim

Dear Millymollymandy, Yeh, the end of August always seems the time the last swifts are round here. They come very close to the ground at high speed and scream as they swoop past. Swallows on the other hand leave us about a month later, as Saturdays' observation bears out, the 2 or 3 you've seen over...

Dear Ina,

Had to give up growing Jerusalem Artichokes, my lady said the make me fart too much!

Love and Peace
Jim

Walking the Dorset Coastal Path on Saturday, we came to the cliffs above Dancing Ledges in Purbeck to find the air filled with thousands of swallows ready to fly back to South Africa. Up 'til now I've noted when I see the first of the year, (earliest has been the beginning of April - 4th not the 1st...

Large glass of red .... oh, and a few fat olives to nibble with it ....

Love and Peace
Jim

I agree with Rod that civilizations don't crumble overnight, although in terms of history their collapse can appear to be fast. Survivalist tactics are largely unnecessary and in some cases would exacerbate a bad situation. (That doesn't mean we should give up on keeping a good store cupboard and ro...

Since we cannot predict the needs of the future with any degree of accuracy providing long lists of what children should learn merely becomes a copy of the Nationalist Curriculum which politicians of every kind have imposed on schools. That is, largely irrelevant to the needs of the future and the n...

Dear Loobyloo,

Found the same last week, they're still growing. Leave them on the tree for another week and try then, they should be closer to eating by then. Put the ones you've gathered in the shed or conservatory 'til they open. They'll prabably be a bit smaller though,

Love and Peace
Jim

Southamton City Council has been heating the Guildhall by geothermal for over 20 years. The machinery is housed in the car park of the Temple of Mammon commonly known as West Quay shopping experience.

Love and Peace
Jim

Nuclear shouldn't even be considered as an option. The decomissioning, the extreme half life of the pollution caused by all levels of waste products, the terrorist target it offers, and the fact that they are energy sinks - that is more energy goes into them than we can hope to get out - should make...

Not really a food topic but it is foraging. The kids round here don't seem to play conkers. Never mind, all the more for the old woodburner! Just 10 minutes gathering will get you loads. (Probably enough to fill a couple of those blue and white gaily striped carriers they give out at Dame Shirleys G...

Dear invisiblepiper,

Why didn't you say? The REALLY BAD BOYS were always fantasizing about REALLY BAD GIRLS coming over to share their communal No. 6 at breaktime.

You'd have seen the ignominious sight of our backs as we fled in terror when one actually materialized,

Love and Peace
Jim