My Brothers Porch

A few weekends ago I finally got round to putting the porch up that I've made for my brothers new house. 

I'd made the truss up a few months ago so it was great to get it up and into place.

Trying To Get A Years Worth Of Snacks

Snacks are much under rated in some self sufficiency books. 

But for us they are a high priority, my kids are proper grazers and have lots of snacks during the day. 

And it's my aim to try to produce more of our own. 

New Shelves For The Pantry

I've started to kit out my dream pantry.

First job is to make up some shelves. These need to be heavy duty and look nice. I decided against buying adjustable shelves as I've never been that impressed and they don't have the right look for what I'm going for.

I made these from 3x2 cls which is about the cheapest timber you can buy but still looks okay when you rub the sander over it a few times. The base of the shelves is 18mm ply which sits in a rebate. Hopefully this should never move or flex no matter how much I store on it!

The video above shows what I made and how I did it. If you watch it please let me know what you think. I've made a few more bits since then and I'm pleased with how the room is shaping up!

Another Birthday - Children Are Now 3, 6 & 7!

I honestly can't believe that our children are now three, six and seven! It's gone so fast but it's been amazing!

A bridesmaid dress she got form the jumble sale that she wore the whole day. 

This one turned six this week. She an incredible young lady, full of fun, , humour, intelligence, mischief and fiestiness, and she certainly knows how to keep us on our toes!

Small Scale Grain - Amaranth

As a bit of an experiment this year I've tried to keep the two beds in my front garden looking nice but still be productive. 

A crop I chose for this duel purpose was Amaranth.

Forage And Feast Course - Harts Barn

This year for Christmas one of my presents from my mum was a days course at Harts Barn Cookery School. 

Amazing cooking facilities!

The course mum had booked was called "forage and feast" and she had booked it for this month because autumn is an abundant time of year, but mainly because she hates wild garlic and thought if we did it in the spring that would feature heavily.

Day Old Chicks In October

Each year (or the last few anyway) we grow a small batch of 25-30 chicks to provide chicken meat through the rest of the year.

We chose to do this in the later part of the year for a few reasons. If we get them now and start processing birds in 8- 12 weeks then generally our work load will be lower. Also the much lower temperatures will mean that the birds can "rest" once prepared for a few days making the meat much more tender. We don't have the fridge space to do this in the summer.

Currently we're still buying in day old Ross Cobb chicks and this is something I'd liek to eventually move away from as they're not the easiest breed to work with. We've never had much problem with them going off their legs and things (common problems) but it's not something I want my stock to experience either.

In the future it would be great to have a breeding group of hens with a cockerel so that they could produce a much smaller, regular supply of birds through the year, without having to buy in any chicks. This is something I've talked about for years now and really need to get and do it!

Let me know what you think. Would 25 chickens provide your chicken meat for the year for your family? These birds do get big and one breast will generally provide our family of five with enough meat for a meal.

Little Seed Saver

The children are generally pretty tired when they get home from school.

Now this doesn't mean that I let them sit and watch TV all night (although they do watch some). Their evening are filled with many different activities and clubs.