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My next door neighbour lives alone in a three bedroom house. No hobbies, two of the bedrooms are literally mothballed. She did have a friend staying for a couple of years, but decided she wanted her own space, so friend had to go. She lives in a studio flat now miles away from where she grew up...

I know you love working there, but there are a lot of Heritage sites in England, a fair number near where you live. I realise that that's perhaps not quite your experience of 'near', but here if I want to work a commute of over a hundred miles each way was fairly common. M

Ah, cultural and political (sorry, that's verboten) differences. We don't really 'do' medical debt here, do we ? Thankfully :) I live in a fairly affluent area (we're local, not posh) and while I know a lot who choose to go privately for health care, that's always backed up by the NHS if...

Biggest worry for most folks is mortgage payments. That's actually another want/need situation. Everyone seems to want their own place these days, but there are actually an awful lot of empty bedrooms in houses. I'm not saying homelessness isn't an issue, but well, that's a social construct...

We're spoilt for choice these days. Any history of our food shows how very seasonal, and how very unvaried it was for most people. There's an awful lot of waste in the system now, an awful lot of 'I want' and not 'I need' too. I know, I'm an optimist, I think we'll manage.

Am I the only one who's suddenly understanding why a too light hatchet could 'bounce' off the kindling at times ?

I've been reading. I was told, and believed, that it wasn't for use on agricultural land, but was fine for forestry. Lo and behold..... https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/ScottishWater/Document-Hub/Careers-and-Education/All-About-Water/110918WasteWaterTreatmentStages.pdf...

Some Indian villages built digester tanks....everything goes in there, from food waste to 'nightsoil', cow dung, etc., It ferments and gives off gas; gas that they use to cook instead of constantly foraging and burning wood....and the left over resultant fermented and used up mulch is brilliant...

:happybirthday: Happy Birthday Cliff :) and many more of them too :cool: M

I was a tiny child. I knew every nest in our hedges because I could see them. I mind feeding the blackbird worms as she sat on her nest in the hedge. The robin sat on my shoe expecting me to feed him crumbs. I still feed the birds :) these days I have woodpeckers and nuthatches competing with...

They come with a five year guarantee for all that they're cheap. I admit mine do not have the easiest life, but they've been rock solid reliable, and I'm not fretting about the pair that cost £450 getting damaged. We didn't have Lidl's when my sons were little, I bought them Praktico...

I bought a pair of pocket carryable binos from Lidl's a few years ago. Cost me something like ten pounds, iirc. Small, lightweight, easy to use, no fuss to carry, inexpensive, and suprisingly good. They just focus in and out, no adjustment between the sides to accomodate vision issues, and no...

That looks blissfully peaceful :D Thank you for sharing :cool:

Wrong Mod to set up a poll, but, you're all right :) I know the whole, "Do more by carrying less", kind of bushcraft ethos, but honestly, sometimes that just makes hard work for yourself. I think the question might be better asked about 'Always' or not, carrying an axe. Time and place, why...

Hello :) Long time no see; the kettle's on, and I'm sure we can rustle up biscuits :) Seriously though, pleased to see you back :) cheers, Toddy

Douglas fir is fine, sort of lemony/grapefruity/resiny. If you take very new tips and just cover them in sugar they'll leach out the liquid/oils/saps, etc., and it makes a golden coloured very flavourful syrup. Known sometimes as pine honey. Nice stuff :)

A lot of very different looking kind of millipedes and centipedes. Every stone I turned over, ever bit of moss I removed from the flagstones, every patch of leaf litter I swept up, there were millipedes, centipedes and woodlice. Kind of interesting :D

My biggest issue was the heat. I worked outdoors, and I already have had a run in with skin cancer, I got read the riot act about covering up....that's a tad hard to do working hard outdoors in Summer, even here. A decent hat, with a neck cover attached is a good thing, and they can be...

I have eight North Face ones from the late 1990's and they're still superb. No idea if the modern varieties are as good though. They look like these ones, but I have lots of different colours. The NF factory shop used to be down river from us, and their sales were legendary :) I bought one...

I honestly don't know. I used the Leki ones because it was what was in the house, but Himself bought a set of Lidl's ones and they seemed to be fine too. :dunno: Pretty sure someone more knowledgeable about them will comment, I just use them. I find the basket things on the tips wear...