Selfsufficientish.com

Anyone heard of these gadgets? Strikes me as a potentially useful idea, although I'm not sure how easily or efficiently one can generate the necessary 120W, 12V input. Rolling your own low-power PC. *sigh* Yet another project to add to the queue... Edited to Add: ...Although to be honest I'm more li...

That's an impressive piece of kit there, Simon. Your invention? Looks clever as all hell. Just out of interest, how much "lawn" would such a pony need to thrive sustainably? Other than grass, what's the feed / maintenance requirement? ETA: That'll learn me to read the "Hello" bit...

Y'see, I should be celebrating, but this kind of thing depresses me. Mostly because we're just so very, very, very far behind. Also, because despite being so very far behind, there seems to be so little enthusiasm to try to catch up. Ugh. Still, Yay NZ! If you weren't so very far away from everyone ...

Ooh, congratulations JR! Looks like a decent-sized plot. I look forward to hearing about your progress...

So... Does anyone here brew their own biodiesel? Encouraged by the success of our early attempts at home-brewed beer and washing detergent*, I've been giving it some thought (more as a way to make good use of a resource which will otherwise be wasted than as a solution to the "big picture"...

I don't think the raw energy produced during your average gymmite's workout would power much; it would make sense to draw the power for the exercise machine's onboard computer from it, but it probably wouldn't keep the TV going. I use my spare energy from my daily exercise routine to propel me to an...

Ain't that the truth, Karen. Oh, and when the developers promise to keep disruption of the local area to a minimum, you know that doesn't actually mean anything, don't you. But let's not go there... So our plot's ten rods, but Charlie's post has inspired me to 'fess up: We're not really using all th...

I don't know. I'd say a site with 400 plots, all being actively cultivated by keen, involved people would be a far less attractive target for rogue developers than the same site largely kept unused by a far more sparse tenant base. But I'm no expert.* I say go for it. * I thought, for example, that ...

From paragraph 77 (introduction to "Making Bread") it is the custom to allot to labourers " a potatoe ground" in part payment of their wages! This has a tendency to bring English labourers down to the state of the Irish, whose mode of living, as to food, is but one remove from th...

I'm just re-reading "Cottage economy" by William Cobbett - written in 1821. (I think I posted something on that ages ago.) He reckons you can feed your family (and a cow!) on a quarter of an acre... And families back then were a little larger than nowadays! Thank you so much for the tip. ...

On a side note: Ever wonder how they figured out that those poisonous beans were okay once you'd cooked them? I mean, if they'd killed your Grandad and made Great-Aunt Mabel very ill, then you probably wouldn't be adding them to your stoo, would you?

I'd also recommend picking up a basic hosting package (I've been very happy with Cirtex for my sister's "We've-got-no-kids-and-earn-altogether-too-much-and-fancy-taking-a-year-off-and-travelling-the-world-how-can-we-make-everyone-jealous" site, and will probably switch my own account to th...

Being a techie spod I already had my own domain so it made sense for me to set up a blog on my existing webspace. I found Wordpress to be the best for that; easy to set up and straightforward to use, but the self-hosted blog isn't a solution I'd recommend to someone who isn't reasonably au fait with...

...They definitely have preferences as to which brassicas are best. In my recent study (watching the damage and staring at them and cursing alot) brussels are number 1 followed closely by broccoli and psb. Least fav was january king cabbage and cauliflowers... Hmm... Given that I don't much like sp...

Hmm... Sounds like it might be worth talking to the council directly. they're the ones with the rules and so they're the ones with whom you'll stand the best chance of working out a solution. If it's purely a question of being more competitive than another trader, then I don't see how that can lead ...