SURVIVALISM UPDATES

In my last solar article: 20 Solar Questions Answered PT 2 (when I asked 20 questions from Brett the QLD State Manager of Green and Gold Solar here in Australia), I concluded by stating not to be surprised if in 6 months to read about my own solar installation. Well, I’m pleased to announce that’s exactly what I’m writing about in this article – my very own photovoltaic (PV) system. Over the past two years, I have seen the price for a 5kW solar system plummet from 20k plus, down to around 13k in June/July this year (2012). Before that, but still not so long ago, I…

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So my previous solar article on "Why I finally got a solar system" answered why I finally did end up getting a solar system, and this article is dedicated to explain my whole solar install experience. Even though I was very happy with my final price and overall solar package, there’s no doubt that a solar investment is still a lot of money (offset against electricity savings or not) and it’s a big decision for most people. My 5kW PV System installed on shed roof (image above) This is why the hunt for solar took me so long, because I wanted to be convinced beyond doubt that not only was it the right decision…

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Cucumbers, the phallic melon which takes pride of place displayed proudly in the fresh food section in supermarkets around the world are without doubt a truly amazing fruit. Everyone has their own personal experiences and when I think of cucumbers I almost always associate them with Pekin duck. The match between the Pekin duck, crispy skin, hoisin sauce, shallot, and cucumber, wrapped in a Chinese pancake is outstanding! And, what about pickled cucumbers… The pickling of this fruit is what makes cucumbers universally famous. The fast-food chain McDonalds would not have been such a success if it wasn’t for sliced pickles – that’s what I reckon anyway. What would a McDonald’s restaurant be without sliced cucumber randomly flung and stuck to the…

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The famous pickle Cucumbers are the most famous of all pickles, so famous that if I asked, “would you like a pickle?” You would probably assume I was offering a pickled cucumber when in fact a pickle can mean many different foods – which have been pickled (like peppers). As I explained in our last article, How and why to grow cucumbers, pickled cucumbers are so important even massive food chains are made off the back of this simple ingredient. Ok, so it may be a little tongue-in-cheek to say sliced pickles are the backbone of McDonalds but still, this humble ingredient is integral to many of their burgers (even …

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I’m doing a talk!Ilfracombe library, Saturday 14th at 2.00pm. There will tea, coffee and homemade cake, and me talking about stumbling from London life into Devon self sufficiency, hooligan pigs and rogue chickens. It’ll be lively, spiky and full of fun.For tickets call 01271 862 388.Please come or it’ll just be me!

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How great is it to make a homemade Easter egg? And they’re so easy! Okay, you might get yourself and the kitchen covered in chocolate, but as Shep said today on their Shep and Jo show (if you haven’t heard the Shep and Jo show on BBC Radio Devon, where have you been…!?), when they very kindly allowed me on again this afternoon, you are just going to have to lick it all off!Right, eyes down for homemade Easter eggs…This is how to make an Easter egg using the shell of a real egg as the mold.So, first you need an egg. You can get eggs in all different colours…

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We’ve all been there: a friend phones you up and says, “come round, I’ll put the kettle on,” or “I’ll open a bottle of wine…” and we quite happily trundle round, BUT, if that same person said, “come round, I’ve just put a homemade loaf of bread in the oven,” we’d be on out toes and running round there faster than you can say, “I’ll bring the marmite!”Making bread is simple.This is the stripped down, self sufficient way to make a great tasting (and smelling) loaf of bread.Time:20 minutes work1 hour to prove20 minutes bakingIngredients:400mls warm water650g bread …

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This is day one (actually, hour one) of pigs having been moved into a new enclosure in the woods. Check out the New Girl – she’s the very pretty kune-kune (who doesn’t like a woman with tusks?).The enclosure is more than 3,000 square metres in size, and is utter luxury for pigs, bless ’em!I need to thank the Environment Agency for their help, advice, support and for supplying the fencing materials that made this new area possible – it’s the first of four new areas in the woods. If you have read bad things about the Environment Agency, rethink your ideas, and if you need advice and support, contact them. …

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Well, it’s certainly been an interesting week. I went to London, and not just any old part of London, but the offices of the publisher Simon & Schuster.My publisher, Watkins Publishing, invited me up to present my book to the Simon & Schuster sales team.The book, Pigs in Clover, is now written, accepted, edited, proofed and ready to go – though publication date is not until June 2012. I have been to the offices of Watkins publishing before, but that was way back when they very first took me on, and they didn’t really know me, so i was ushered from the street through the front door and shoved into the first empty office they could find, which happened to be the …

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… and, I’m back… Sorry for the absence, I know it’s been awhile. Sometimes building this mad lifestyle just takes everything I’ve got. It’s not even how busy it gets, which it does, it gets crazy busy, but it’s all the rest of it, the struggling to keep my profile high enough so things happen. That’s the key, if you were interested, in how to write for a living, keep your profile high enough so things happen. And while I’m doing that, I’ve become more self sufficient than I ever was before. That’s good. At least it feels good. I’ve found some really fun self sufficient things lately that I’ll share with you in the next few weeks. Fun things, and a lot of…

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The plan was to record a piece about keeping chickens when the Ear To The Ground crew arrived here in late summer. But this very quickly turned into a feature on living the Good Life when the programme director, Paula Williams took a stroll through the garden. ;Never mind chickens, eggs, pigs and bees, I think the thing that impressed Paula most was the size of our onions! ;I’ve great hopes that she will harvest a crop like this herself next year.After a night of relentless rain I feared that the only filming that would take place would be at the kitchen table. ;I was worrying unnecessarily – by 9am the skies had …

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Ellie celebrated her 15th birthday recently, and let me tell you that Ellie really likes her birthday cake. She’s a great little cake baker herself so no pressure for me then! Last year she was mightily impressed with the Avoca chocolate cake I made for her. It was truly the chocolate cake of all chocolate cakes. ;So how do you top that? I contemplated making Babaduck’s Rainbow Cake but time was against me so I came up with a genius plan..Recently my cousin Orla Henry launched A Cuppa Cake, a home bakery specializing in hand-crafted cupcakes. The timing was perfect – an ideal opportunity …

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“You have the life we aspire to”. Nowadays I hear that more and more from people who want to get back to basics, grow their own food and in some small way, get closer to nature. And they can. ;It won’t happen overnight, but taking one step at a time, there’s no reason why they can’t grow some of their own food in 2013.Now is actually a good time to think about growing some food next year. Over the Christmas holidays start thinking about what you might like to grow in 2013. How much space do you have? How much time have you got to spare? And most importantly, what do you like to eat? Herbs on your windowsill, potato bags, soft fruit bushes …

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The forecast was for cold winds and blustery showers, and that’s exactly what we got for our Irish Country Magazine photoshoot today. It’s December. It really is to be expected isn’t it? And it could have been worse – imagine trying to do a photoshoot for next Spring with four inches of snow on the ground! So we got a little wet, but we have some great shots to show for it.My three girls were up bright and early this morning to help me get my props ready and then we set off for Old McDonalds Farm & Feed Store in Carlow. The proprietor, Leo Connolly, very kindly allowed us …

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Twas the night before Christmas and I baked the ham. ;And glazed it with honey produced in the garden..It’s early Christmas morning and the smell of turkey roasting in the oven is beginning to fill the house. ;The sleepy children of Hunters Lodge are beginning to stir, so it’s time to see if Santa visited last night.Food and family – I couldn’t be happier.Happy Christmas xx

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“So much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to” ;2012 has been just lovely. We have enjoyed good health and a wealth of homegrown food which we happily shared with family and friends throughout the year. That in itself would have been more than enough for me. But thanks to my humble blog, 2012 also bestowed some great opportunities and accolades upon me. The year started with a visit from RTECountrywide’s Damien O’Reilly and when he aired his piece on Hunters Lodge on his Saturday morning show, I thought my website would dissolve such were the hits it received – and …

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