Klondike Pete checking in

[Thurston Garden]

Ahoy Pete!

[Landman]

Ahoy Pete!

Ah ha ... a Nautical greeting! Most appropriate as I live in the Cornish Port of Falmouth, not a barnacle's throw from the Harbour, and English Channel .....

A really lovely website you have there. Your poly-tunnel reminded me of the time I lived next door to a nightmare of a neighbour - always giving us grief. Anyhow, I'd bought my young son a poly-greenhouse - sort of a small garden shed shape. It took me two days to sellotape the *** thing together, finally pegging it to the ground in the dark.

Three hours later roaring gales blew up and, at 2am, it started to levitate. ..... So there was I in the pouring rain cutting a fine figure in my unionjack boxer shorts and wellies, wrestling with the "beastie" cursing aloud, madly hacking at it with a meat cleaver. It did the trick, both it and I collapsing in an exhausted heap .... the greenhouse in total shreds. It wasn't until then that I noticed my antagonist peering down at me from his bedroom window with a sheer look of horror on his face ... perhaps it was the shorts? ... anyhow after that he was quiet as a lamb, and the For Sale sign appeared in his front garden a week later ...

Who said horticulture was for pussies?

Keep up the great work

Best wishes

Pete

[Shirley]

Oh Pete, that conjured up one heck of a picture (and if I'd been your neighbour I'd have likely got the camera out )

Shame about the greenhouse but it makes for a great story.

[Thurston Garden]

Aha Pete - one is from a nautical background having enjoyed significant worldly travels at the taxpayers expense..

I do sympathise with the midnight semi-nudity, wrestling with your tunnel. Ours is suitably far enough from the house to warrant at least one layer of clothing and I have had to don a layer quickly on a number of occasions.

Thanks for the comments on the blog. Posts are few and far between these days. Too many non veg/pig/hen things taking up my time atm and it's going to get worse, but the plus side is a regular income

[Landman]

Aha Pete - one is from a nautical background having enjoyed significant worldly travels at the taxpayers expense..

I do sympathise with the midnight semi-nudity, wrestling with your tunnel. Ours is suitably far enough from the house to warrant at least one layer of clothing and I have had to don a layer quickly on a number of occasions.

Thanks for the comments on the blog. Posts are few and far between these days. Too many non veg/pig/hen things taking up my time atm and it's going to get worse, but the plus side is a regular income

So you took the Kings Shilling and roamed the mighty seven seas ..... no worries about overheads then ..... and all your needs taken care of .....

Struggling to survive, and these days that applies to most of us, certainly detracts from whole heartedly jumping into the mode of self-sufficiency. Wouldn't it be great to set yourself up, lock stock and barrel to be as independent as possible, from the word go.

Fortunately developments in technology, science, micro power generation, hydroponics etc are making micro-homesteading more feasible each day. Everything needed equipment wise is out there, ready, or will be soon. Your own super efforts demonstrate just how prolific a small scale operation can be ... imagine if there was co-ordination within communities on produce and services to meet it's own requirements, before looking outside of the virtual village for the shortfalls.

Stating the obvious, the future really relies the attitude and common purpose of folk. People aren't perfect, which is the downfall of many a good project.

Not wish to sound like Uncle Albert .... but at the end of WW2 when the troops came home, my parents ended up with many others on a huge, brand new council housing development - big houses and gardens, but they were all potless. So my father gathered together other willing tenants and formed an Association. Each household put in a few pennies and collectively bought a dozen forks, spades, hoes, three lawn mowers etc, then rented them back for a tanner a go. Everything went swimmingly, the collective activies boomed - street parties, dances, trips to the seaside and tattoos - it was nothing to see 20 double decker buses in the road whisking the inhabitants off to some do or other. Pig Bins were put dotted around the houses to collect food wastes ... and so on. The last venture was to have been a central communal freezer centre where each dwelling would have it's own compartment, and food purchased in bulk.....

Then the rot set in. As households recovered financially, each wanted their own gardening equipment, despite it laying in the shed unused most of the year, and people became more insular, less sociable, until the Association was finally disbanded.

However things do go full circle, and here we are again.. This time though, co-existence to mutual benefit won't just be for necessity but also the fun and quality of living.

Ever the optimist!

Best wishes

Pete

[Landman]

Oh Pete, that conjured up one heck of a picture (and if I'd been your neighbour I'd have likely got the camera out )

Shame about the greenhouse but it makes for a great story.

Hi Shirley

.... yes it wasn't a pretty sight, not for the faint-hearted - I hear the ex-Neighbour is still in therapy ......

The worst part was the look on my little son's face as he appeared the next morning, with his gardening gloves on, trowel and fork in hands ready to do the business .......

Have a great day!

Pete