Selfsufficientish.com

Good for you BOT. I'm sure that with the pesticides that the bees already have to put up with and with the poor queen-mating weather we had last year, bees that are put under too much stress will not survive. Mine were out collecting pollen from the snowdrops yesterday. It's quite uplifting. :sunny:...

Joining a local bee keepers association is a good idea - if you bear in mind that they will almost certainly all be using conventional equipment and methods, which *some* people believe are part of the problem... Agreed, but its the same as most new things, you glean as much info as you can from ev...

Hi WW. I would recommend joining your local beekeeping club. The fees for ours have just gone up to £20 for the year and the info and advice you get are so much better than books and 'going it alone'. When the course finishes in August you can then buy a nuc (a nucleus of about 5 frames of bees with...

Hi Mrs F., My daughter died 7 years ago on 23rd January. She was 21 and was involved in a car accident (she wasn't driving). Before that, I too thought like Rob and couldn't understand why people remembered anniversaries but the thing is, you have no choice, its something that happens in your head a...

Ah now, isnt that why knitting and spinning was invented? So that we girls can sit down and have a rest without feeling guilty - especially if its making something for OH. ENJOY. ww

I don't wash mine until they're skiened - I'm not sure if that's how you spell it. I bought about 70 fleece from e-bay and am storing them in the caravan. I take off the pooey bits and put them in the compost. Then the rougher bits get felted to make insulation for the bee hives and worm bins. The n...

When I went cycling in Holland the locals told us that the first thing they did to a new bike was paint it over with any old rubbishy paint they could find and smear dirt all over the shiny spokes and wheels. Do saddles and pedals come off easily these days? If you removed them when you locked up th...

Woops, sorry for the confusion. :oops: I've jsut found it on the website for the 12th too but OH was adamant (any annoyingly is usually right) that he found it on the 19th. So I did the old-fashioned thing and picked up the phone. Apparently the one on the 12th, although at Sutton Park, was not orga...

A friend of mine heard on the radio (so I cannot say its definate) that the reason hens stop laying is so that they can turn their energy towards moulting and growing extra warm feathers for the winter. Apparently, if you give them electric lighting then they don't realise its Autumn and don't grow ...

Good, maybe try again this Sunday. ww.

I try really hard not to use chemicals so I've (almost) got rid of mine entirely by hand. Every time a shoot appears I grub out as much as I can. As it's getting no nutrients from above ground the roots are gradually rotting and each time I dig out a shoot I get more rotting root. When we moved here...

Hi Sleepy Owl, OH has just checked the website for Sutton Park and reckons its next week??? Hope you havent left yet. ww

Hi T & F. Its good to see you backagain :hello2: . I can well understand. Once the gardening season starts I don't seem to keep up with anything either. This time of year is quite nice though - the weeds have slowed down and most of the hunter/gathering stuff is sorted and I've put the bees to b...

.... or, could I ply it with something else thats nylonish, any suggestions? ww.

Thanks Ina, I'm glad you told me. I could have had a really embarrassing New Year if all my presented socks wore into holes. My handspun wool isn't good enough yet to do sweaters and stuff so I suppose I could do warm gloves and hats instead of socks. ww.