Category Archives: Smallholding

Clearer Boards

Posted on September 14, 2011 by james

Back in the Spring when I wanted to take the OSR honey off some hives I had a real problem getting the bees to vacate the supers. Up until now I’ve always used a crown board fitted with Porter bee … Continue reading →

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Honey Harvest 2011

Posted on September 12, 2011 by james

This year I took on four hives belonging to a local farmer in addition to the hives in my home apiary. There have been beehives on his farm as long as anyone can remember and he was keen to keep … Continue reading →

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Spawny Frogs

Posted on March 4, 2011 by james

Once upon a many years ago, a cart track ran from a nearby road and turned at our yard to run down to the local corn mill. The track has long since fallen out of use, but a dip in … Continue reading →

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Cider Press Construction (Part 1)

Posted on March 4, 2011 by james

For pressing my cider apples I decided I couldn’t justify the price of even the smaller commercially-produced presses and after a fair bit of research I felt I could build one myself that should do an acceptable job. As it … Continue reading →

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DIY Small-Scale Anaerobic Digestion (part one)

Posted on February 28, 2011 by james

Fans of the 1970’s BBC comedy series “The Good Life” will remember that Tom and Barbara had an electricity generator in the cellar that was powered using pig manure. What may be surprising is that it’s based on a fundamentally … Continue reading →

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Solar wax melter

Posted on February 28, 2011 by james

Solar wax melters are available commercially and there are a fair few designs about on the web. Here’s one I made a couple of years ago. I started with the tray that the frames would sit in. I had some … Continue reading →

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Cider Apple Pressing 2010

Posted on February 15, 2011 by james

Behind our house are a small number of cider apple trees around twenty-five years old. Three of these I have identified as Yarlington Mill, two are Dabinett, four are, I’m fairly sure, Somerset, and the remaining three I have not … Continue reading →

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Chainsaw chain-changing cheer

Posted on February 10, 2011 by james

When we moved here I “inherited” a heft Stihl 08S chainsaw. It was a bit of an animal when it came to cutting up logs, having a 21″ bar, but really too heavy to use comfortably for a long time … Continue reading →

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