Selfsufficientish.com

Read more than I've read for years over lockdown and I'm keen to keep it up if I can. We are having more evenings where we're just sat reading, rather than TV or DIY, which are our usual evening pursuits. Chewed through some Aldous Huxley, got some James Hogg next. I haven't really bought books for ...

Pleased to report a good selection of butterflies this year in the West Midlands. As you say though, my brussels are doing pretty well...

Do you have a supply of wood ready to use Viper - dried and seasoned? It can be a tad expensive if you have to go and buy from an empty storage space. Trees normally come down autumn and winter don't they so won't be ready till a year hence at least. I took down two trees last May, so my first self...

Lockdown was spectacularly good skip pickings for me. I have been nabbing old pallets for winter kindling (hoping to heat nearly solely on woodburner power this winter) and also got my hands on loads of old pots, hanging baskets... all sorts of stuff that just appeared on the pavement. Books, too. P...

Thanks for the advice. I'll leave the fallen ones for the squirrels for now and I'll keep my eye open in September and see how many nuts I can gather :)

Just need to suss out what to do with them; I've got little piles of these green fruity things that have fallen off the tree. How do I get to a nut from here? If I try and peel it, it's a bit on the fleshy side

Resurrecting an ancient thread for what appears to be the fourth or so time; we've come to the realisation that what I thought was a birch is a walnut tree, and we're being peppered with walnuts falling down from above. This is a big tree, and probably the same age as the 40-odd year old hazelnut it...

I don't know if you get anything from Amazon delivered? Every month or so I order a set of drum sticks - when they arrive (it breaks my heart) they're always in a box that's maybe a foot by half a foot and stuffed with brown paper. The brown paper can be folded into little bags and used for wrapping...

As somebody working at home, I've been acutely aware of increasing costs of this. Normally, it doesn't bother me too much - I make a flask of coffee in the morning, which keeps me going for the day. I am careful not to snack too much. A lot of soup gets eaten - prep in the morning, get up at about 1...

Mrs. Viper (she would hate it if she knew I called her that, not least because we aren't married) works for a University admissions office. Almost all universities are adopting the online/hybrid approach, but they're acutely aware of the social effect of that first term lost, and they're all very ke...

Hiyo :)

We've also struggled getting stuff secondhand from shops locally. I sell a huge amount on eBay (I break motorcycles for parts) I have been selling stuff at an incredible rate as people turn to projects they have in their garage as a way to kill time. This means I need a steady supply of cardboard bo...

Lettuce, chard, spinach, broad beans and a few strawberries are starting to roll in :)

Just got my first "crop" of lemonbalm in this morning - going to dry it for tea, which I was too slow to do last year :)

I've missed it over the winter months!

You know, I've quite grown into this lock down thing. I don't think I'll be getting out and about much even when and if ever they extend the rules for the over 70s. It's quite an education in being self sufficient in time management! I know that there are thousands of suggestions as to what you can...