Author Archives: james

I’ll get the wheelbarrow

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

Or perhaps even a forklift might be required for this second early (Charlotte) potato 😀

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged | Leave a comment

Will the real Newcastle Brown please stand up?

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

My son asked if we could brew a Newcastle Brown clone and I managed to find a recipe online so decided to give it a go. This is one pint of the clone and one of genuine Newcastle Brown. Looks … Continue reading →

Posted in Beer-making, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment

I have a ream

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

Quite a few, actually. All imperial, again. Perhaps I should find some old imperial plans for making steam engines or something?

Posted in Workshop | Tagged | Leave a comment

A matter of mere days

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

after the slimeball Robert Jenrick raised the level of competence at Reform 2025 Limited by, well, absolutely nothing whatsoever, the Tory MP for Romford follows suit claiming that the views of his constituents are being ignored. Then bangs on about … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | Tagged | Leave a comment

A new chicken house design

Posted on January 18, 2026 by james

We’ve had our current chicken houses for at least fifteen years and they’re really starting to look tired now. I’d been mulling over designing my own for a while because the style I’d used previously turned out to have a … Continue reading →

Posted in Chickens, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment

More confused plants

Posted on January 18, 2026 by james

These photos were taken at the start of October. Ripe, ready-to-pick beans on the plants and, err, flowers?

Posted in Environment, Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged | Leave a comment

This tyre probably needs replacing

Posted on January 18, 2026 by james

Fortunately (ish) it was only on a trailer and I spotted it before there was a problem.

Posted in Random | Leave a comment

I think these might be a bit past eating

Posted on January 18, 2026 by james

Not much chance of recovering the potatoes with the shoots intact either. One for the compost heap… I suspect they may need to be kept somewhere colder.

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged | Leave a comment

Lord of the files?

Posted on January 18, 2026 by james

Honestly, I just don’t know where all of these came from. I suspect they’ve been inherited more than once. I need to sort through them and work out what’s worth keeping, but at least they’re all in the same place … Continue reading →

Posted in Workshop | Tagged | Leave a comment

Thursday’s disaster

Posted on January 18, 2026 by james

As I’ve already posted, I made a 350 mile round trip to collect an electric honey extractor last Thursday. It was a pretty horrible trip of about 110 miles up the M5 with poor visibility and things hadn’t improved much … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | Tagged | Leave a comment