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No doubt that some will find benefit and help in all this, and that is all to the good. But 'vulnerability' seems fashionable nowadays. As far as stat's go and by these very measures, society seems in many ways to have been healthier in days not so long ago. While there is nothing wrong with...

Well... make the most of the forum, you can save a lot of time and money by learning what others have found to be good or bad, of course personal preference is a major factor too. If you can get away with buying something secondhand, do it, if the thing doesn't prove to be as good as you hoped...

Antihistamines, ibuprofen and some micropore tape, which will fix a hell of a lot - it's the Duck-tape of first-aid; + always have spare toilet paper, in case your guts need it... :rolleyes: Many people get bogged down with the 'but what ifs...' yet that leads to the madness of trying to cater...

'Eastern Approaches' by Fitzroy Maclean; a fascinating insight into early Soviet Russia, the British effort in North Africa in WW2 - including early SF - and the war in Yugoslavia. Well written with good humour and very intelligent observations and analysis.

Probably starts with chirality.

Yes, sorry about that, I am rather clockwork if I can't just copy and paste something...

The classic saying of the old boys who used billhooks all the time was 'Keep them shoulders back', meaning the the shoulders of the bevel, not the user. To use one properly, the greater part of the cutting side needs to be at far more acute an angle than many realise; obviously not a razor-fine...

Used to have roofs like that in Tz, just left them as made for years, until... sparks from a braai set one off and we lost a whole section. After that we used to spray with borax solution to offer some fire-resistance, just as we should have from the start... :banghead:

That was almost unbelievably awful... :rolleyes2:

Apologies for this, it's a test post because I can't put something up in another thread and want to see it's just there or general...

As written above, it will burn well if dry, but makes astonishingly loud 'bangs', not sure it would be ideal in a woodburner with any glass in it. A few years ago I had to burn a lot - we have / had several patches of it - and from not too far away it sounded uncannily like a fire-fight was...

Unlimited beef on the scale I make tong at; we have cattle and although most are sold on for beef or as breeders, we always have one or two in line for ourselves. So at the scale I make the tong for family consumption, a few kgs at most each year, I have access to more beef than I'll ever need...

Air-drying is the aim, no sun, no real heat, just a steady movement of air - but it needs to be dry air... I've facilities for biltong, and from my early years in Africa I wouldn't be without it; and I have nigh on unlimited beef, but since the climate here isn't conducive, I can only make small...

I've only been up that way in Winter and high Summer, so have no experience of other times. The Winter is certainly dry enough, I'll have to take your word for the other times.

And then we come on to the next problem... we don't get a reliable period of frost nowadays. Great in one way, since not having such low temperatures means less inputs for livestock, but not so great when you want a bit less humidity. Interesting.

For the obvious reason that it's dry there; it's rarely temperature that is a problem, just humidity...

Yes, I forgot to mention season; typically we get pigs in the early Spring and slaughter them from mid-Autumn onward.

As in the post above, the climates aren't comparable. Maybe, you could pull it off reliably in Southern England... Look at Serrano ham from Spain, then look at northern Europe and it's basically smoking and pickling.

We have a deep well / borehole and the house's old source of water... a spring about fifty yards up the hill. I hadn't thought of our suggestion, I'll do some research and see if it's already a 'thing'.

Thanks for that; yep, I've made a lot of biltong over the years, outdoors where possible and indoors where not. But it's the scale and the time that make it difficult with a large volume of pork. I've started a thread on this in the 'Homestead' section.