Selfsufficientish.com

I learned the lesson the hard way too. Once as a poor undergraduate bought a pair mules for $9 (Singapore). They lasted about four days. Then 'invested' in a pair of 'Dr Something' health sandals for about $32. The latter lasted me at least three years. I think the saying that the poor cannot afford...

For me this period between 'no naps' and 'school' was the most difficult as I had no time to myself at all. I consoled myself with, "Ah! This will not last forever. Soon he'll be at school." sp No such relief for those of us planning on home-ed... :wink: I used to write my papers, book re...

I am in two minds about this. We often think a First World fix would solve a Third World problem. Sending tampons or even disposable pads is not a solution, clearly, as we are told on the site mentioned. But instead of sending reusable pads requiring lots of water to clean, at risk of causing infect...

I made my boy lie down for a 'quiet time' even when he remained awake. He could do anything, like listening to a story CD just so long as he does not bother me. :wink: For me this period between 'no naps' and 'school' was the most difficult as I had no time to myself at all. I consoled myself with, ...

A co-worker in Helsinki told me her mum bought her a sewing machine. Because her mum's mum bought her mum a sewing machine. So her mum thought it was the duty of the mother to buy each of her daughters a sewing machine when they were old enough to sew and/or time to leave home. A lovely story, I thi...

Sorry if I mentioned this before in a previous post: the most important advice -- I was told -- when posted to a predominantly Muslim country for work back in the 1990s was to bring my own toilet paper (and don't forget some in your briefcase!) The bank where I was consultant had buckets of water wi...

Problem is when they are not 'equal partners'. I've been involved with the local women's centre enough to realize the extent of 'DV' (domestic violence) cases to appreciate the equality I take for granted in my own marriage. Any way, ladies (and gentlemen), while continuing my research I found this ...

all the tins are leeching lead, all the veg and fruit is full of pesticides, the meat has blue tongue or something, the eggs are from confined chickens, loadsa sugar anyway, loadsa salt to keep products on the shelf longer. Thanks! Made me laugh. Especially when I've just been reading about lead in...

I do like when we look to history and we find that they had different reasons for such things, whether put down to religion or something else. But I don't like the thought that there are some people who translate old texts literally and believe therfore that woman are a lower class of being... beca...

When i shop I often find myself using different strategies to stop impulse buying. Wrote about this in my blog here:
http://organically.blogspot.com/2008/01 ... thing.html

The most useful 'anti-buying mantras' are:

1) “Do I really need another of those?â€

Just to say I'm back here to do some research on sanpro -- and because Andy sent an email to say he's going to purge the list! -- and found this interesting discussion. Has anyone thought that a woman 'being unclean' might be a good thing? I remember a Jewish man on TV saying that he was not allowed...

When I said 'communal' I didn't mean 'factories'. My picture (vision?) is people cooking large batches of healthy food from locally-sourced ingredients where possible, and shared/sold to within a short distance from home. So if you have loads of apples and make a wicked apple pie, you turn on your o...

I know how we go on about how home-cooked food is better, but have we considered the carbon footprint left by each and every little family baking their own loaf of bread, roasting their own joint, boiling their own potatoes, etc? I ask because it suddenly occurred to me that buying ready-prepared fo...

What about the smell of fresh seafood? I was delighted that a new independent fishmonger opened near us. I can now (with apologies to the vegetarians) buy fresh fish and raw prawns. Yum, yum. Now my house smells of fish!

If I remember the bumpf correctly, you rub it into appropriate area when you uhm start smelling. I mean, you can't keep running to the bathroom to do that, can you, when you are at an important meeting, say? Thanks for doing the experiment for us, though, and keep us updated. I really appreciate this.