turning an old demijohn into a cloche

I discovered this method by accident a few years ago while trying to clean an old bottle. I found an old demijohn outside and well past being able to clean it and more wanting to try this out!!

It’s dead simple, get a washing up bowl and add really cold water enough to cover the bottom of the demijohn, about a couple of inches. Leave it in there for a while to make sure the base is nice and cold. Then just boil the kettle and pour in the boiling water. If your lucky it should crack instantly and the bottom just drop out. If not give it a twist.

There you have it instant mini green house, the best part is you recycle something thats otherwise useless and it won’t blow away like plastic bottles.

Ben Law - Grand Designs vote

Hello

Channel 4 is asking viewers to vote for their favourite 25 Greatest Grand Designs.

The programme’s celebrity fans, tv critics and experts all have their view, but there is also a public vote.

If you have seen the programme featuring our author Ben Law we would love you to visit the Grand Designs site today and vote for Ben’s remarkable woodland house design and build.

Visit the link below, which has a summary of each of the programmes, and register your vote for Ben’s home at SUSSEX: THE WOODSMAN’S COTTAGE:
www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/grand-designs/Grand-Designs-Awards/2008/Vote

The results will be unveiled during Grand Designs Live television event on Channel 4 from May 4th-9th.

Visit Ben’s website (www.ben-law.co.uk) for the latest details of his Open Days, courses, books and news.

lemon and ginger wine

Well the lemon and ginger wine finally stopeed bubbling and cleared so yesterday I bottled it. This has been on the go since around january. I finally tatsted it and it’s like a cross between paint stripper and acid. On the upside it’s strong. I mixed it with lemonade which took the edge off, well for a while. I’ll just list it under experiments!!! I’m going to call it ‘you won’t like it’.

safari concession threatens Hadza tribe

This is not directly to do with me but it is something that is close to my heart so if you hav enever heard of survival international then shame on you, no you should really check it out, give it a look and see what you think.

Hundreds of Hadza hunter-gatherers face eviction from their ancestral lands if a foreign safari company is given a hunting concession on their land.

Tanzania UAE Safari Ltd, which is reportedly backed by members of the United Arab Emirates royal families, is negotiating with the government of Tanzania for a concession of 3,975 sq kms in the Yaida Valley, where Hadzabe (‘Hadza people’) have lived for millenia.

If the hunting concession is approved, the Hadzabe will lose access to crucial food sources such as game and wild tubers. They are likely to become destitute, with devastating consequences for their life expectancy and general wellbeing.

Last month two Hadzabe activists were arrested when they attended a meeting with local officials to voice concerns over the deal and its impact on their tribe. They were later released.

The Hadzabe are reported to be trying to seek a sustainable solution with all parties concerned, which respects the tribe’s land rights and way of life.

The Hadzabe number between 1,500 and 2,000 people. They are one of Africa’s oldest tribes and speak a click language like the Bushmen.

As they are hunter–gatherers, adequate land and natural resources are essential to their survival. Until the 1950s they survived entirely by hunting and gathering. Living in small mobile camps, they had no ‘chiefs’ or formal political organisation.

Tanzania’s government has made repeated attempts to settle the Hadzabe in villages and get them to take up farming. Today, most Hadzabe people live in settlements, inside their distinctive grass huts, but they still move off into bush camps to find food.

No Hadzabe farming has been successful, unsurprisingly, since the hot, dry climate is unsuitable for it. One Hadza elder told Survival, ‘No Hadzabe ever died of hunger when we had our land. But now that so much of our land has been taken and is still being taken, many Hadzabe are hungry.’

van conversion

Over the weekend I’ve been getting on with the van trying to turn it into a campervan, I think that the warm weather has spurred me on. I’ve never done anything like this before and it’s alot harder than it looks. Part of the problem is that none of the angles are square. I’ve tried to get round that by simply making everything square and ignoring the curved walls.

I’ve finished the hob/sink unit which now needs another connector to fit the gas supply which will go under the unit.

Next to that is a seating unit with storage under. This will become a bed once the other side is finished much the same as in a caravan. The seating cushions my wife bought from ebay, they came from an old caravan and luckily enough fit perfectly.

It’s still early days at the moment I still have to insulate the roof and pannel over it, get all the electrics in and sort out the gas connection but I feel that I’ve made a good start.

april’s garden photo’s

Here is is part of my tub crop raddish lettuce and garlic

this is the herb spiral looking a little healthier.

I proud of the thifty use of this old window that I’ve just put into the shed door. I just need to get the roof on the shed now! I’m hoping for something to turn up on freecyle as up to now all the materials have been free.

Permaculture video

I’ve been wanting to post some videos on the blog for a while as I still feel that they are a great way of explaining an idea. Next to seeing something first hand a video gives a greater insight into many principals of permaculture.

This one comes from “Peak Moment” a weekly half-hour TV series featuring conversations about local food, renewable energy, transportation alternatives, preparedness, economics and other areas of concern as we move into a period of declinging fossil fuels.

Give it a look and then check out the rest on you tube. This is my favourite as I love the chemistry between the presenter and the guy.

Suburban Renewal - One Backyard at a Time

freeze distillation (moonshine cider)

The one the left is the normal cider and the one on the right has been freeze distilled.

We had some friends visiting this weekend so what better way to celebrate than with alcohol. I’d been wanting to try this technique of freeze distillation with cider for a while but never got round to it. Basically you put your alcohol in a container then put it in the freezer. All the water freezes and you are left with a higher alcohol content and a stronger flavour.

Freeze distillation is a metaphorical term for a process of enriching a solution by partially freezing it and removing frozen material that is poorer in the dissolved material than is the liquid portion left behind. Such enrichment parallels enrichment by true distillation, where the evaporated and recondensed portion is richer than the liquid portion left behind.

Part of the reason I did this was that I was not convinced that the cider had much alcohol as it does not taste as if it does. However after the freezing process the change was considerable. It had definatly enhanced the flavour, colour and raised the alcohol content. It really works!

Although I did not end up with much compared with the volume that I started with what I ended up with was a much better drink. I am going to try it with the second batch of cider that I made as this was mostly Bramleys and although it’s not as bad as I was led to believe, I think that it could be turned into a far superior drink if distilled.

According to Wikapedia this process is illegal in many countries because a number of by-products of fermentation (fusel alcohols), which are mostly removed by heat distillation, tend to accumulate to an unhealthy level in freeze-distilled beverages.

From what I understand, this process was very popular among the New England colonies.
Barrels of apple wine would be set out in sheds during January and February when the temperatures where blistering cold. And, by first thaw it would be ready to drink. In America this drink is called Apple Jack. Freeze distillation is also refered to as the Mongolian still and is said to have been in use since the 7th century.

“consider the lilies”

” HE’S HAVING A GO AT THE FLOWRES NOW”

Now I’ve normally got little time for a plant unless I can eat it, however there are times when flowers play an important role in our lives. Even I, a miserable frugal shopper, sometimes find myself buying cut flowers. Before you ask not to smooth over an argument between the wife and I!! Whether it’s weddings, funerals, birthdays or anniverseries a bunch of flowers can mean alot to somebody.Don’t worry I’ve not gone all ‘hippy’, here comes the ranting bit.

The commertial flower industry is big business, billions are spent every year across the world on giving that special somebody a bunch of flowers. We often read about organic, fair trade and local when it comes to food and drink but how often do we consider it when buying flowers? Well we should considering the fact that around 65 countries are involved in the cut flower trade, the main countries being Colombia, the Netherlands, Israel, Ecuador, Spain and Italy.

Flower growing is a big operation, and like most mono crops, productivity is king. Chemical spraying is vital for the level of production that we require. If flowers are gifts of affection then we should treat them as we do the food that we put into our and our familys bodies. If you would not give chemically sprayed out of season produce to your family why would you give them flowers treated in the same way?

I have made a commitment not to buy flowers from florists or the supermarket and only to source them locally or grow my own just as I do with vegatables. Like my choice not to give greetings cards it is met with comments of being tight fisted but who cares.

It is also worth remembering that flowers purchased from the supermarket are more than likely going to be from Africa or south America as these countries can meet demand but at what cost? There is not only the Fair trade issue to consider but the standardisation of the flowers themselfs, just as we lose varietys of fruit that don’t fit the mould we could risk the same with flowers.

It is easy to grow flowers, even more than veg so why not grow your bunch of flowers? or go out and pick some wild ones. It’s true that there are more flowers about at certain times of the year but why should that be a problem just make the most of it while you can. I think that a carefully grown plant or flower says alot more about you than a bunch bought at a service station on the way to a party. I always buy bulbs for my mothers birthday and plant them up on that day, not much to look at but after a few years when they all come up together around her birthday, I think it’s worth it.

freestanding not fitted

Take back control don’t live your life through a catalogue. Why support mass production and designer culture when you can be an individual and help reduce waste by reusing old furniture. There are so many positives when you do this, you often get old furniture cheap but not as with modern culture at the expence of quality. Most of the furniture we have is pre 1960’s and we have never paid over £100 for any piece we have. The white kitchen cabinet in the photo was £75, the green one was free and the one in the middle was £20. Most of them needed a little work but mainly just a paint job and a good clean.

They give us loads of space, a sense of individuality and best of all a cheap kitchen. Many people spend thousands on a fitted designer kitchen as seen on TV or in a magazine. They buy into a lie that this will give them credability and style, where as in actual fact it’s just boring and will be out of date in six months.

So much good quality furnature gets smashed up and sent to land fill each year, furniture that can so easily be reused again and again. It’s just a sign of our throw away and fickle culture that something over ten years old is dated where as something over one hundred years is a sort after antique.

I do admit that part of it for us is we like having an eclectic house, I don’t think that we have a new piece of furnature in the house but there is no reason why people with no real interest can’t pick something up from freecycle or a secondhand shop.

Free yourself keep kitchens freestanding.

Now before any of my friends say “hang about, you have fitted sink units” yes thats true but only because they are the ones that were there when we moved here. We simply made new fronts and replaced the handels. We recently got a new workopt as we put the old sink and worktop in the utility room. We tried to waste as little as possible.