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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    Thanks! It would be nice to contribute something here if it pans out. There would be a lot to share.
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    The structure of things like health insurance is obviously very different to the UK. There's a mix of public subsidy and private insurance. The better hospitals are in the bigger cities. The great thing about the location of this house is that it's close to a pretty big city, and while it's not...
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    Thanks! Maybe we could host visitors if we renovated the little cottage authentically. It's not a tourist area, but people who are not familiar with China could get a ride from Shanghai airport, spend a couple of days chopping down bamboo and stir frying stuff, then hop on a train to Nanjing and...
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    Hangzhou has a lot going for it. It's my day off and I'm back in that mountain village. The artist guy I met (his English name is Seven) has organised an event with a group of calligraphers and painters. No idea what's going on, but I got a motorcycle ride to the mountains and will check it out...
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    谢谢! I've seen a of small fields of rapeseed around the Hangzhou area, too. With the infrastructure there to get it cheaply pressed, it's probably very economical to grow your own. Chinese cooking uses quite a lot of oil and it isn't the cheapest ingredient. I wouldn't be surprised if the waste...
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    Well, they mostly stir fry and stew things in the big wok. My wife and I literally had a wedding dinner there two days ago. It's a tradition to make dumplings (jiaozi) the day after the wedding, so grandpa's sisters led that and I was the moron who made the ugly ones. They were steamed over the...
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    I'd love to visit Cairns.
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    There are small forested mountains near here and also some with bamboo. The bamboo ones seem so atmospheric. They make a nice sound in the wind, but just watching waves rippling through them is pretty special. I didn't even realise Australia had bamboo forests.
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    The basket is something else, isn't it? I've never really woven anything, but it looks like a real expert standard - my gut says that someone made one at one point and people there have been making copies of it ever since. Weaving that shape would be hard, and using different widths in different...
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    I just went on a day trip to the little mountains south of Hangzhou and had a fascinating day that I need to blab about. Firstly, I stopped in a village to take a photo of a mural and met the guy who painted it, which isn't really bushcraft, but then he and his friend took me to visit a little...
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    Waiting to flood

    Sorry you're being troubled by flooding. I'm from Hull and was there for the floods of 2007. It was a bit of a freak situation, but the local government built some lagoons afterwards and I don't think there have been any floods since.
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    Futurproofing your house

    City living for me involves being tempted into eating out and getting things delivered. Living in the countryside could cut costs just because there aren't so many temptations. Also, time spent taking care of plants and animals or a home is time when I'm not bored and spending money on...
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    Futurproofing your house

    Couldn't agree more! I like your Venn diagram/ Nexus terminology. I recently noticed this intersection between many of the good things in life; how having a low environmental footprint consistently overlaps with spending less money, being closer to nature, escaping the hollowness of every event...
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    Futurproofing your house

    I think there might to be a way of prepping for future crises that's also entirely beneficial in the present and not remotely mental. To me it might look like river cottage. Me and my fiance are looking at moving to her home village in the future. The house there has a little land and a well...
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    Interesting. The hills or mountains that they grow it on are only maybe 500-1000m tall. Perhaps the good drainage there is a big reason for using mountain sides.
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    <a href="https://ibb.co/JpFnK06"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/qgFBdXq/IMG-20210224-132152.jpg" alt="IMG-20210224-132152" border="0"></a> <a href="https://ibb.co/Q8S6qR1"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/f86CK5P/IMG-20210223-133348.jpg" alt="IMG-20210223-133348" border="0"></a> Stop me if this is...
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    Traditional skills in the Chinese countryside

    That sounds fun! This kind of stove doesn't warm the kitchen because the hearth is small and the building uninsulated. It probably wouldn't be hard to build one, but the chimney would be harder work.
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    Handling a socketed billhook?

    I was thinking more about it flying off into a group of family and friends lol.
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    Handling a socketed billhook?

    Seems like I'm not the only one that doesn't think a friction fit is enough.
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    Handling a socketed billhook?

    Thanks, Dave. I think the best bet is for me to do a good friction fit and then use some kind of pin or wedge. I'm pretty confident that locals always fit them with a wooden handle, but I haven't seen enough up close to be sure if they use anything else besides, like an adhesive or pin. I...