We're taking a beating here, at the moment. 80mph gusts for the past 18 hours have opened up my polytunnel. The tear is at one end so when the wind dies down I will go out and see if I can just lose the end 2 metres of tunnel, rather than having to buy a new 16 metre sheet.
The rain is falling near horizontally at the moment and my land is being thoroughly Titchmarshed. There have been intermittent power cuts for the past 24 hours. I have everything charged up to last me a few days and oil lamps filled. Can't wait for the solstice party and the thought that Sol is coming home.
James's red hot curry
I love eating curry and often make a simple curry I developed whilst experimenting.
1) In oil fry a chopped onion until browned along with a few crushed coriander seeds and chopped green chile.
2) Add a few chopped up chicken fillets.
3) When the chicken has cooked on the outside turn down the heat.
4) Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of garam masala powder to coat the chicken.
5) Then sprinkle half a teaspoon hot chile powder.
6) Add a tin of chopped plum tomatoes or 8 or so tomatoes from the garden (you will need to add water if you use fresh tomatoes).
7) Leave to simmer long enough to cook the chicken on the inside. The chicken wants to melt in the mouth and not be tough.
If it isn't hotter coming out than going in then add more chile the next time you cook it!
1) In oil fry a chopped onion until browned along with a few crushed coriander seeds and chopped green chile.
2) Add a few chopped up chicken fillets.
3) When the chicken has cooked on the outside turn down the heat.
4) Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of garam masala powder to coat the chicken.
5) Then sprinkle half a teaspoon hot chile powder.
6) Add a tin of chopped plum tomatoes or 8 or so tomatoes from the garden (you will need to add water if you use fresh tomatoes).
7) Leave to simmer long enough to cook the chicken on the inside. The chicken wants to melt in the mouth and not be tough.
If it isn't hotter coming out than going in then add more chile the next time you cook it!
Another job done thanks to the internet
In my last post I mentioned a "career". I was an artificial intelligence researcher in the financial markets. I used to be quite bullish about AI but now I'm quite bearish, in that I don't think much will come of it. However, there is one form of AI out there that actually works and is a Godsend to the self-reliant. It's called the World Wide Web.
Last night I finished repairing the central heating system. The circulation pump failed last week so I bought another one. That's when the headache started. I've never replaced a circulation pump before.
I managed to dismantle the rusty mass that was a pump and the ball valves either side. I replaced those easily enough but all the water had drained out of the system the moment the ball valves were replaced. During the deluge I heard water gurgling out of the expansion vessel.
On refilling I didn't hear water gurgling back into the expansion vessel. After a few hours research on the Internet I discovered that the expansion vessel has a bladder in it that needed pumping up. A few minutes with the car foot pump, bleeding all air release valves and the central heating is working better than it ever has before.
I recommend using the WWW as a first call for any problem that needs solving. The "Oh, just call an engineer" solution is for lazy people in the push-button world of the cities. Most jobs are easily done if you have the right instruction. Save yourself a lot of money by being self-reliant.
Last night I finished repairing the central heating system. The circulation pump failed last week so I bought another one. That's when the headache started. I've never replaced a circulation pump before.
I managed to dismantle the rusty mass that was a pump and the ball valves either side. I replaced those easily enough but all the water had drained out of the system the moment the ball valves were replaced. During the deluge I heard water gurgling out of the expansion vessel.
On refilling I didn't hear water gurgling back into the expansion vessel. After a few hours research on the Internet I discovered that the expansion vessel has a bladder in it that needed pumping up. A few minutes with the car foot pump, bleeding all air release valves and the central heating is working better than it ever has before.
I recommend using the WWW as a first call for any problem that needs solving. The "Oh, just call an engineer" solution is for lazy people in the push-button world of the cities. Most jobs are easily done if you have the right instruction. Save yourself a lot of money by being self-reliant.
Self-reliance is hard work
When I moved "back home to Ireland" I was determined to get away from the rat race. I had worked in a large multi-national company and my "hobbies" consisted of gambling, expensive dining and guzzling champagne.
My "career" made me realise that wage and salary earners never receive the true value of their work. No matter how much you should get paid, a significant proportion goes to managers (and whoever saw a manager doing an honest day's work?), their managers, business owners, share holders, office leasing companies and office furniture leasing companies. That's a lot of people making money off your labour.
Gambling at least taught me the concept of bid/ask spreads, rakes and commissions. All designed to cream off a slice of your money. City life is all about moving money around whilst those with power take a piece of it for themselves without having to lift a finger. If you are not in a position of power then you are a slave.
I had become disillusioned with my "career" two years before leaving London. My behaviour became increasingly more odd to those who worked around me. The realisation that I was a slave and deserved better was at odds with my day to day life. I was offered voluntary redundancy. The documents were signed and I was running out the door in seconds.
In 2003 I arrived in County Kerry. I could have gone to County Kilkenny where all my family live. Ireland is very tribal. I would have fit into North West Kilkenny very easily. Too easily. However, I wanted a fresh start. I went to Kerry to be surrounded by Celtic tribes suspicious of someone from a Norman Irish tribe like me. I needed a fresh start with no family support. I needed to be totally self-reliant.
Self-reliance is not easy. I have had to learn how to plumb and to do carpentry. I installed a wood stove and adapted the flue into a difficult chimney. I cured a fault with the septic system, dug out a new soak away and rebuilt it in stone, by hand.
There is now a vegetable garden where there was once a rocky outcrop. Roof windows let light and warmth into the loft conversion. I built a boat with which to fish and collect driftwood. I have installed new radiators and am in the process of installing a new circulation pump.
I could have employed people to do the work. It would have costs thousands of euros, that I don't have, in labour costs. In the end I would have a functioning house but I would not know how it functioned. I am responsible solely for my needs.
The journey is not over. There is still a reliance on oil, which although it reduces day by day would be better off close to zero. We grow our own vegetables but need more deep beds dug to increase our yield. There are no animals yet but we will have chickens and maybe a pig next year.
Self-reliance isn't easy but for every hour of the day I work I get the true value of my labour. Nobody takes a slice. Unless, that is, I give them some vegetables but that is okay because I know I will get paid in return with something that they created too.
My "career" made me realise that wage and salary earners never receive the true value of their work. No matter how much you should get paid, a significant proportion goes to managers (and whoever saw a manager doing an honest day's work?), their managers, business owners, share holders, office leasing companies and office furniture leasing companies. That's a lot of people making money off your labour.
Gambling at least taught me the concept of bid/ask spreads, rakes and commissions. All designed to cream off a slice of your money. City life is all about moving money around whilst those with power take a piece of it for themselves without having to lift a finger. If you are not in a position of power then you are a slave.
I had become disillusioned with my "career" two years before leaving London. My behaviour became increasingly more odd to those who worked around me. The realisation that I was a slave and deserved better was at odds with my day to day life. I was offered voluntary redundancy. The documents were signed and I was running out the door in seconds.
In 2003 I arrived in County Kerry. I could have gone to County Kilkenny where all my family live. Ireland is very tribal. I would have fit into North West Kilkenny very easily. Too easily. However, I wanted a fresh start. I went to Kerry to be surrounded by Celtic tribes suspicious of someone from a Norman Irish tribe like me. I needed a fresh start with no family support. I needed to be totally self-reliant.
Self-reliance is not easy. I have had to learn how to plumb and to do carpentry. I installed a wood stove and adapted the flue into a difficult chimney. I cured a fault with the septic system, dug out a new soak away and rebuilt it in stone, by hand.
There is now a vegetable garden where there was once a rocky outcrop. Roof windows let light and warmth into the loft conversion. I built a boat with which to fish and collect driftwood. I have installed new radiators and am in the process of installing a new circulation pump.
I could have employed people to do the work. It would have costs thousands of euros, that I don't have, in labour costs. In the end I would have a functioning house but I would not know how it functioned. I am responsible solely for my needs.
The journey is not over. There is still a reliance on oil, which although it reduces day by day would be better off close to zero. We grow our own vegetables but need more deep beds dug to increase our yield. There are no animals yet but we will have chickens and maybe a pig next year.
Self-reliance isn't easy but for every hour of the day I work I get the true value of my labour. Nobody takes a slice. Unless, that is, I give them some vegetables but that is okay because I know I will get paid in return with something that they created too.
Consume and be merry!
Here are two articles from the Guardian which are at either end of the spectrum of consumption.
The first article, 'Smart' homes to eat their rubbish, shows how massive savings in waste, energy and money can be made.
The second article, We all pay a high price for the houses of the super-rich, makes you wonder why we should bother saving.
What is the point of making savings when those with money, power and influence eat up our savings (and more) with their conspicuous consumption?
Even our leaders, who espouse green (vote winning) policies, are consumers of the worst kind. The average politician has more suits and shoes than I have worn in a lifetime. Members of the European parliament bus to and from the two parliaments in Brussels (in Belgium) and Strasbourg (in France) to keep the French happy.
Then there are the hypocrite actors and musicians with their Toyota Priuses AND private jets. The brain dead sports stars on television as much to peddle rubbish we don't want as they do playing their energy guzzling games.
The rich have no regard for saving energy and waste. They make more money than they can spend. There are also millions of "wannabe rich" glued to their televisions believing that they are nobodies unless they consume.
It would appear that we are doomed to failure with regard to our level of consumption. We may as well leave things as they are and let nature select those of us who are willing to make the change. Survival of the fittest for those with big brains rather than deep pockets.
The first article, 'Smart' homes to eat their rubbish, shows how massive savings in waste, energy and money can be made.
The second article, We all pay a high price for the houses of the super-rich, makes you wonder why we should bother saving.
What is the point of making savings when those with money, power and influence eat up our savings (and more) with their conspicuous consumption?
Even our leaders, who espouse green (vote winning) policies, are consumers of the worst kind. The average politician has more suits and shoes than I have worn in a lifetime. Members of the European parliament bus to and from the two parliaments in Brussels (in Belgium) and Strasbourg (in France) to keep the French happy.
Then there are the hypocrite actors and musicians with their Toyota Priuses AND private jets. The brain dead sports stars on television as much to peddle rubbish we don't want as they do playing their energy guzzling games.
The rich have no regard for saving energy and waste. They make more money than they can spend. There are also millions of "wannabe rich" glued to their televisions believing that they are nobodies unless they consume.
It would appear that we are doomed to failure with regard to our level of consumption. We may as well leave things as they are and let nature select those of us who are willing to make the change. Survival of the fittest for those with big brains rather than deep pockets.
Petition the PM for the future you want
A new website has been created by 10 Downing Street for you to petition the Prime Minister. The website can be found at http://petitions.pm.gov.ukThere is currently a petition for a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs. I urge you to sign it.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lightbulbs
Say "no" to waste
Even though we deposit plastic, glass and metals in the local recycling bins, and burn cardboard and paper in our stove, we are still left with a football sized bundle of plastic wrappers and unrecyclable plastic trays. These are wrapped into a very tight ball and deposited in a town bin at the weekend.I remember as a child eating Mars and other chocolate bars from waxed paper wrappers. The 1980s saw the rise of the plastic wrapper until now everything comes in it. Waxed paper can be burnt, plastic wrappers usually find themselves rustling around streets and country lanes.
On the odd occasion that I find myself in a supermarket I see nothing but waste. Recently I read an article about the amount of energy used to light and heat a supermarket. An equivalent sized industrial warehouse would use much less. An idea was espoused to convert all supermarkets into dark warehouses and a fraction of the energy saved used to deliver produce to customers in their homes. I had that idea when I was a teenager but I thought that customers would prefer to handle the goods before buying them. Necessity may make my idea come true.
Even now simple things like reducing the amount of wrappers can be done. I'm always surprised to see packaged chicken fillets selling for cheaper than a pile of loose fillets at the fresh meat counter. Surely a tax on wrappers (paid for by the supermarkets) can get rid of the wrappers and see whatever quantity of fillets you require wrapped in some paper just like in a butcher's shop. Anyway, we are buying live chickens next year. That's an even better solution.
The Guardian - Too much packaging? Dump it at checkout, urges minister
Homestead update
I finished putting in a third Velux roof window last weekend. We can now see across the bay. A value adding operation with which to use as leverage when buying more land.
It's back to insulation work now that the sub-zero temperatures are here. Not only that but the central heating pump died so we are reliant solely on wood heat at the moment. I shall go into town at the weekend to get the fittings to install a new but slightly narrower pump. The death of the pump is probably a message telling me to switch the house to 100% wood heat. I need to finish the rebuilding of the house and will get round to 100% wood heat.
Because the weather is still quite mild, with cold snaps rather than constantly cold weather, the wood shed is still providing heat. We've bought two 20 kilo sacks of coal so far this winter to supplement the wood. I fire up the stove with wood and after two hours there are enough red hot pieces of charcoal to allow me to put in two shovels of coal. The coal burns longer so I can go away and work rather than sit next to the fire feeding it all the time.
Plans for the next few weeks up to the solstice are to insulate the house, scythe grass and collect seaweed to cover kitchen waste on the compost heap and to make a start on reconfiguring the polytunnel.
We probably only used about 50% of the space inside the tunnel for growing. In future it should be closer to 90%. I will also add a new deep bed outside the tunnel for potato growing. In years past we grew half our potatoes in the tunnel. From now on all potatoes will grow outdoors thus providing more space in the tunnel for crops of peppers, tomatoes, chiles and brassica.
The willow trees that are growing in the tunnel will all be removed. We have enough willow outdoors from which to take cuttings. With the hundred or so trees planted this year plus the many willow, birch and oak seedlings that sprouted up by themselves we have quite a wood growing.
During the year I processed many narrow sticks of willow, birch and rhododendron into pellet sized pieces. For now they were cut using pruning shears but I will work on a machine to do the work. Being coppiced sticks they are quite straight and would lend themselves to being fed into an automated guillotine. I have about 20 kilos of pellets and want to experiment with wood gasification after I get my winter work out of the way.
It's back to insulation work now that the sub-zero temperatures are here. Not only that but the central heating pump died so we are reliant solely on wood heat at the moment. I shall go into town at the weekend to get the fittings to install a new but slightly narrower pump. The death of the pump is probably a message telling me to switch the house to 100% wood heat. I need to finish the rebuilding of the house and will get round to 100% wood heat.
Because the weather is still quite mild, with cold snaps rather than constantly cold weather, the wood shed is still providing heat. We've bought two 20 kilo sacks of coal so far this winter to supplement the wood. I fire up the stove with wood and after two hours there are enough red hot pieces of charcoal to allow me to put in two shovels of coal. The coal burns longer so I can go away and work rather than sit next to the fire feeding it all the time.
Plans for the next few weeks up to the solstice are to insulate the house, scythe grass and collect seaweed to cover kitchen waste on the compost heap and to make a start on reconfiguring the polytunnel.
We probably only used about 50% of the space inside the tunnel for growing. In future it should be closer to 90%. I will also add a new deep bed outside the tunnel for potato growing. In years past we grew half our potatoes in the tunnel. From now on all potatoes will grow outdoors thus providing more space in the tunnel for crops of peppers, tomatoes, chiles and brassica.
The willow trees that are growing in the tunnel will all be removed. We have enough willow outdoors from which to take cuttings. With the hundred or so trees planted this year plus the many willow, birch and oak seedlings that sprouted up by themselves we have quite a wood growing.
During the year I processed many narrow sticks of willow, birch and rhododendron into pellet sized pieces. For now they were cut using pruning shears but I will work on a machine to do the work. Being coppiced sticks they are quite straight and would lend themselves to being fed into an automated guillotine. I have about 20 kilos of pellets and want to experiment with wood gasification after I get my winter work out of the way.
Dig for victory!
The Labour party's Michael Meacher is calling on the UK to fight a "war" against global warming much the way it mobilized for World War II. Posters like the one below were common during the war. They urged people to be self-reliant as the U-boat blockade hampered imports.
A global economy results in global warming. We can all dig for victory over global warming by producing as much of our own food as we can. Count how many miles your food travelled before it entered your mouth.
A global economy results in global warming. We can all dig for victory over global warming by producing as much of our own food as we can. Count how many miles your food travelled before it entered your mouth.
Forty years from now
An excellent story, set in the future, looking back on our mistakes.
It's hard to explain, Tom, why we did so little to stop global warming
...Fear in the end was the only mechanism that was able to cut through the complacency and force the cultural change, the political pressure and the global cooperation necessary. We are all haunted by the fact that human beings were unable to use the benefits of our own intelligence - we had the knowledge - to avert disaster; that fact has generated a terrible self-loathing. In the end it was catastrophes, the great floods and eventually the loss of London and the depression, that prompted change. But, as you would point out, by then it was too late for the millions who died in Africa's drought years and in their terrible great exodus in the 2020s. No one can think back to those years of barricaded Mediterranean ports and boats sinking under their starving freight without an awful shudder of shame...
It's hard to explain, Tom, why we did so little to stop global warming
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