Hi folks

[Beek]

Hi ishers,
A first post just to say I'm new here and to introduce myself. I taught for 20 years in our marvelous edukashun system and watched it deteriorate into a sausage factory churning out exam passes. My BH and I educated our own three twiglets, for a year, by backpacking around the globe but were not brave enough to go completely "Education Otherwise".
We have dabbled in self sufficiency for hurumph years, eaten most edible things in the British Isles (I can reccomend cormmorant but not seal) had a stab at growing vegetables, curing skins, curing hams, keeping goats for milk and meat, brewing, salami making, bottle-rearing lambs and a calf, etc. etc. The chickens and country wine making have been a constant and last year we got back into beekeeping after Varroa wiped us out first time round.
A "personal best" in self sufficiency was delivering twiglet #3 at home. The "at home" bit was planned but the lack of a midwife wasn't. She had stopped to put on makeup. A doddle, this giving birth business
Must go. The garden awaits
Beek

[ina]

I taught for 20 years in our marvelous edukashun system and watched it deteriorate into a sausage factory churning out exam passes.

That shows you how useless it is: 20 years, and you still can't spell!

You seem to have had a pretty full life of it! I think I'll give your recommendations regarding cormorant a miss, though...

Welcome to the world of Ish. I'm sure we can learn a lot from you (including the home birth thingy - I can deliver lambs and calves, but haven't tried my hand at humans yet). Bees are still on my list of things to do, too.

[MKG]

Hi Beek

[tim&fatima]

Hi beek, welcome to the madhouse.

[Rachel Squires]

it sounds like you've got a wealth of experience to bring to the forum! A newbie myself, I'm very hungry to learn! Would love to try curing skins, maybe that's something I'll have a go at this summer.

Anyway,

Welcome!

Rach.

[red]

welcome

[Shirley]

Hello & welcome to Ish.

[marshlander]

Hello Beek!

[Thurston Garden]

Ahoy Beek

[Beek]

Hi Ina

That shows you how useless it is: 20 years, and you still can't spell!

A much overated convention, only one spelling for one word. The Bard would never have entertained it and, in this age of political correctnes, I'm sure it it institutionally predudicial to the more dyslexially orientated among us. Seriously though - it got to the stage where we were instructed to "ease off" on correcting spelling when marking kids work so as to not be too "negative" and cramp their free expression.

You seem to have had a pretty full life of it! I think I'll give your recommendations regarding cormorant a miss, though...

You're missing out there. My crofter neighbour shot one, for no apparent reason, whilst we were out working the lobsters one day and I fished it out of the water when he told me that his grandparents used to eat them. I asked his mother-in-law for a recipe for scaraff (in Gaelic), imagining a stuffing of machair herbs, parboiling, rolling in egg and oatmeal, roasting whilst basting with goose fat etc., but my enquiry must have lost somthing in the translation. "You chop off the head,the wings and the legs, pluck it and draw it. Then you boil it" The tone of the reply made it clear that she thought me feeble minded. I forget now how we cooked it but I do remember that it was good. Not at all fishy.

Welcome to the world of Ish. I'm sure we can learn a lot from you (including the home birth thingy - I can deliver lambs and calves, but haven't tried my hand at humans yet).
Pretty similar. It's the afterbirth that freaked me out and, luckily, the midwife arrived in time to sort tha out.

Bees are still on my list of things to do, too.[/quote]
Let me know if I can be of any help. Consider getting yourself on the Council pest-control list of volunteers to collect swarms. Swarm taking is fun and you get your first colony for free. A full hive was fetching £250 at auctioh this spring

[Beek]

Hi everyone
It's nice to get friendly greetings in a forum.

Beek

[Millymollymandy]

We're all friendly here! Welcome Beek!

[hedgewitch]

Hello Beek and welcome to the ishers.

[ina]

Let me know if I can be of any help. Consider getting yourself on the Council pest-control list of volunteers to collect swarms. Swarm taking is fun and you get your first colony for free. A full hive was fetching £250 at auctioh this spring

That's a great idea with the council list... I have a couple of old hives (need a bit of a clean and a lick of paint) - but they've been sitting in my garage for a couple of years now, and I've still not done anything about it! Problem is, I always leave it too late, and then we get busy with the lambing, and I've missed the boat for the year.

[Beek]

Ina,
You may be still lambing in Kincardineshire, Scotland but here in Lincolnshire we finished a fortnight ago. Swarm season is from the end of May. Go for it. Any swarms which you don't take will be destroyed by the pest-control people. Get them and get them into those empty hives.

Beek