The Cottage Smallholder
stumbling self sufficiency in a small space
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11:53 pm
2nd Grader
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Sun 4-Sep-11
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Hi all, I'm Jono,
I'm 28 married, dad of 2.75 children (no 3 due in a couple of weeks)
and I'm absolutely self sufficient nuts!
I grow my own veg, rear chickens,hoping to move to bigger things next spring, I brew my own booze, just done 25 litres of cider today
cant wait till its ready
I also do blacksmithing things like knifes and bill-hooks all by hand in an open fire and big rock as an anvil, I can willow weave, hedge laying, fencing make tool handles etc. pretty much turn my hand to anything, and I have the ability to look at something I need and make it, for example I needed a table saw so one TV stand a sheet of aluminium an old chop saw and a few nuts and bolts and there I had it a perfectly good table saw that cost me £20 instead of the £399 one I was looking at.
I am always learning and trying new things, and I don't profess to know it all, but I know enough lol anyways that's me and who I am and I look forward to meeting you all.
Iechyd dda, ddyhea buchedd , a 'n ffrwythlon chynaeafa at pawb!
(Good health, Long life, and fruitful harvests to all!)
12:38 am
Supreme Being
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Tue 22-Sep-09
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Hi Jono
Nice to hear from you.sounds like you've got your hands ful, we've just has son and his wife and our 2 grandkids for tea (and 2 other friends) and I'm exhausted. The little 'uns definitely keep you on your toes
8:36 am
Supreme Being
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Mon 21-Sep-09
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Welcome Jono,
Sounds as if you will fit in beautifully here on the forum, just what we need to keep all the other guys company & help us women too. In return we will help you & certainly entertain you..........
Glad you decided to join.
Nadine / aka Hattie
"The beautiful is as useful as the useful...perhaps more so."
from Les Miserables
1:58 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
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Yay, more Welsh! Welcome Jono! The other chaps will love having you around. We women will too, but the chaps will want to talk 'man things'.
I'll try that again!
2:00 pm
Supreme Being
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Sun 30-Jan-11
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Hello and welcome, Jono 
learning to love veg…..except celery :-O
3:11 pm
Improver
New members
Sun 21-Aug-11
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Wow! A man for all seasons!!! This is a super place, you'll love it!
Sansho
3:14 pm
Supreme Being
Thu 24-Sep-09
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Welcome Jono. Everyone here is so helpful and supportive. And yes the guys will love having another one on their 'side'.
Old teachers never die, they just lose their class
7:27 pm
Expert
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Sun 19-Sep-10
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hello Jono.....might be a kindred spirit if it can be mended or adapted it stays in our house forever
9:22 pm
Councillor
New members
Thu 7-Jan-10
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Hello Jono, welcome. I look forward to hearing from you again, 2.75 permitting!
jono85 said:
Iechyd dda, ddyhea buchedd , a 'n ffrwythlon chynaeafa at pawb!
(Good health, Long life, and fruitful harvests to all!)
Where is RaeMond, she would welcome you in Welsh! (I know, she is in Holland, but haven't seen her for a bit.)
blog: Devon Garden
10:05 pm
Councillor
Wed 30-Dec-09
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Hi Jono,
greetings from another poultry-keeping veg-growing homebrew-maker, but I think I'm doing everything on a smaller scale (since we keep quail instead of chickens). The last booze I made was a sparkling elderflower cider at the start of the summer but I only made 1 gallon of the stuff.
Not sure about the 'man things' which TA referred to... I'm a bit useless at DIY and don't follow football, but there's always beer
Visit my blog for food, drink, photography and hamsters.
11:18 pm
Expert
New members
Sat 21-Aug-10
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devongarden said:
Hello Jono, welcome. I look forward to hearing from you again, 2.75 permitting!
jono85 said:
Iechyd dda, ddyhea buchedd , a 'n ffrwythlon chynaeafa at pawb!
(Good health, Long life, and fruitful harvests to all!)
Where is RaeMond, she would welcome you in Welsh! (I know, she is in Holland, but haven't seen her for a bit.)
How about some Cornish instead?
Ni a'th tynnergh Jono! Yeghes da, bywnans hir ha trevas feyth dhis ynwedh.
(We welcome you, Jono! Good health, a long life and fruitful harvest to you too.)
You sound like a very useful chap to have around. How's your cross stitch and crochet?
Ooops, had to edit my spelling!
Never assume anything - except an occasional air of intelligence.
2:01 am
2nd Grader
New members
Sun 4-Sep-11
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um cross stitch looks simple but crochet jus cant get my fingers around it lol or as my last attempt went my fingers became part of it
and I have never heard cornish before but it lokks like a mixture of wesl irish and scottich gaelic lol but then those pirates needed a secret language lol ATB Jono
11:07 am
Expert
New members
Sat 21-Aug-10
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Dydh da arta! Cornish is a sister language to Welsh and Breton, a cousin to the Manx, Irish and Scottish. See? It's educational here!
I'm sure you'll soon pick up the requisite skills of fine needlework, artisan baking, bottling and preserving, and championship flower arranging.
Good on you for making your own sawbench. 
Folks didn't used to buy everything ready made. You'd have liked my Dad. He made a machine for faceting gemstones from a washing up bowl, a washing machine motor, a record player turntable and arm, a school protractor and ruler and a few other bits and bobs he had lying around to put it all together. Like you he was always learning and trying new things, and told us as kids we could do anything we wanted - we only had to learn how.
Never assume anything - except an occasional air of intelligence.
12:42 pm
Supreme Being
Mon 21-Sep-09
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Hi Jono, welcome indeed
Would write some Latvian but my Latvian is not that good, despite having been here three years now.
One thing I would love to know is which willows are the ones for making baskets and that sort of thing from? I know there are many types of willows and we have a lot of different ones on the land we manage and still don't know which ones to keep and which ones to get rid of.
1:41 pm
2nd Grader
New members
Sun 4-Sep-11
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any willow is good but its the coppicing that counts
I will try to write a paper on it for every one, but basically take a good willow tree of about five years old, and cut it just above ground level. Even though this seems like your killing the tree, come springtime it will produce long straight shoots, this is called "Pollarding", and its these that you harvest for willow weaving. You need about 20 trees to produce a good constant supply though.
Historically the best willows to pollard have been:
- S. alba 'Vitellina'
- S. fragilis 'Belgium Red'
- S. triandra 'Black Maul'
- S. viminalis 'Superba'
but if you dont have the time to do it this way use cuttings from Salix Viminalis just stick them in the ground now, and by this time next year you will have about 2-3 meters growth.
Hope this helps for now ATB Jono
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