Search results

I picked up a 50% wool 50% polyester felted donkey jacket style coat, with a nice big hood, from a charity shop. It was probably more fashionable rather than practical when it was made many years ago and has 'dry clean only' on the label. I would like to give it a clean to freshen it up but dry...

I've been looking at the various power stations again but trying to get something to cover our essential needs rather than an expensive setup that may not get used fully. As we work from home it will only need to power a router (possibly Starlink), charge a laptop and charge mobile phones...

I wasn't sure where to post this but it might be useful to read through. Not really bushcrafty although some of the advice could be applied. It would be sensible to keep this thread for useful comments and info rather than getting side tracked. There's some details there that many may not have...

I'm not a Luddite but as I don't drive much I don't find modern car features very useful and often a hindrance. Things such as auto-headlights which means when starting a frosty car early morning the lights come on main beam draining the battery before you even start the car. I don't even need...

I'm looking at getting a decent ethanol cooking stove that could be either used for a main camp or at home if required. Something larger than the usual meths camping stove. I've seen stoves used in boats and camper vans costing around £200 which is a bit much at the moment but I don't think a...

Has anyone seen actively worked oak coppice? The youngish oak in my woodland keep getting hammered by grey squirrels and will never grow into decent mature oak trees. There's a couple of thousand trees and looking at them it is hard to find any that have escaped bark stripping. Rather than...

One of our small fields had half a dozen small orchids appear when we first moved in, lurking in one corner and escaping the silagers. I decided to stick to my main conservation mantra which is to do mostly nothing and left them to it, the grass hasn't been cut in 10 years and the hedge has...

We've just experienced and rather strange experience in the garden tonight. We often get clouds of small flies/midges, very noticeable in the evening sunshine, but tonight we've had a dozen or so cloudy spirals of a large number of midges. They are behaving just like a murmation of starlings...

Do we have a recipe idea thread? Somewhere to post random ideas rather than full recipes? Anyway, at this time of year we tend to use a fair bit of wild garlic and we tired it on a home made pizza last weekend and it went surprisingly well. Just tomato base, moz, black olives and a good handful...

This year I'm trying out a method of growing a new goat willow hedge by taking 2"-4" rods of goat willow about 2'-4' long and laying them down horizontally to see if they root and throw up shoots along the branch. I've left the odd thick cutting laying on the ground in the past and they've...

I thought I'd have a go at making and testing some dipped candles using what I have laying about the place before buying a proper deep container for the wax. A rummage about found an extra deep metal container that had posh instant coffee in. Placed carefully on the wood burner and filled with...

I've been using chainsaws for several years now and I'm looking at getting a better saw, and possibly some more training. I'm mainly talking about petrol saws that can do a fair bit of work, from felling, to logging to clearing fallen trees. My main saw is a small 35cc Echo 352 semi pro saw...

I can't remember if I've asked this before but I'm trying to track down a modern candle lantern for the home. I have an Uco camping lantern and quite a few antique/vintage holders and lanterns but I'd like a couple of modern, hefty quality lanterns for the home. Something like a good quality...

Looks like there's another storm on the way coming in early Saturday. Winds up to 86 mph predicted in our part of the west and gusts around 80 for most of the day! What is worrying is they are not coming from the usual SW but more from the NW so I expect to see some trees down. Funnily enough I...

I could do with some new frying pans, both for the kitchen and cooking outdoors. However, these days you seem to have to avoid every type of pan and coating - forever chemicals, burnt oil, aluminium etc seem to rule out everything apart from stainless steel. Can anyone recommend something not...

I tend to mostly use a common utility/stanley knife these days and have found some nice small stainless lockback type knives. For some uses I'd like to use stainless blades and I note a manufacturer is making them. However, I can't find any shop or online outlet selling them. Does anyone know of...

I've been sorting out some torches recently and been wondering about the batteries. Firstly, with rechargeable lithium batteries, has anyone ever had one overheat or catch fire at all? I've avoided unbranded cheap batteries but never had a problem with a growing list of them, and I don't know...

I noticed the Met Office now has a lightning strike map on its site. I don't recall seeing it in the past so assume it's fairly new. Anyway, worth a look if it's thundery in your area. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/maps-and-charts/lightning-map

Just a heads up really. I buy the odd second hand item on ebay and try not to over bid so often don't win an auction. Today I went to bid and ebay insisted on my payment details before I could bid. This seemed strange as I never save my payment details with them, always pay promptly and never...

I'm after a simple, but well made, plug in USB torch or light. I.e. Just the light and not a battery. I have a power bank with a built in light that is useful and long running, but faulty. I've looked at other powerbanks with lights but the choice isn't great so a plug in light would increase...