I think it is true to say that all bloggers like to receive comments. It helps to remind that there are people out there reading what we have to say and would like to add to the conversation. Likewise, leaving comments on other people's blogs is a good way of getting backlinks and forming relationships with other bloggers. However, within recent times there has been a rise in comment spam - by this I mean comments that are clearly automated or bear no relation to the post. As far as I am concerned this is pretty pointless - the comments on this blog (in common with most others) are moderated. So   read more

This weekend was The Heckington Show in Lincolnshire. As this is just a short drive from where we live we thought we would go as we have not been for a couple of years. The Heckington Show is, I'm told, the biggest village show in the UK and includes a range of rural based attractions - so lots of animals of various types, tractors, rural crafts as well as other events (such as a motorcycle display team) and fairground rides. A visit to the sheep tent reignited our discussion about whether we should get a couple of sheep for wool. We are thinking about getting Shetland sheep (I don   read more

While I have been having some frustrations on the veg plot, mostly due to my destructive chickens, the fruit bushes have proven to be particularlywell, fruitful. This is just what I picked today, and there is still more on the bushes. The question is, what to do with it all. Well some of the blackcurrants I have made into blackcurrant juice to drink which ends up tasting remarkably similar to a well known brand you find in the shops. It is quite high in sugar, but you do need to dilute it quite a lot to drink it, and it is also high in vitamin C. This is how I make it: Wash the blackcurrants   read more

Many home experience the problem of lingering cooking smells. One solution to this is the standard extractor hood that fits over your cooktop. However, this is not always possible in all kitchens due to space, layout or simply aesthetics. One solution is to use a downdraft gas cooktop. The principle behind these is that they have a powerful fan in the middle of the cooktop which draws the odors and smoke downwards from the cooking area and out of your home through a system of vents. As a result, your home is free of cooking odors without the need for an extractor hood. Posted via email from   read more

And so it seems that the 2010 search for a UK sporting champion continues. After the England team's dismal showing in the FIFA World Cup all hopes were pinned on Andy Murray at least progressing to the final at Wimbledon. After reaching the semi-finals with dropping just one set, he sadly went out to Nadal. At least he played well and kept our hopes alive. That is two years running that he has reached the semis, so there is hope yet. Maybe if Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton can win Formula 1 again that might be some consolation. Posted via email from marksblog's posterous   read more

Regular readers of A Smallholder's Diary will know by now that I am a sucker for books that are related in any way to self-sufficiency and living a more sustainable life. As I have said before, these books tend to fall into two categories; those that are glossy "coffee table" books with lots of sumptuous photography, but are somewhat lacking in useful content, and those books that are rather more basic in presentation, but have plenty of useful and practical information. The Essential Guide to Back Garden Self-Sufficiency falls firmly into the latter category. The first half of the book covers   read more

Another month past and time to review my internet earnings. Well let's start with the positives. Overall income is not too bad - not great, but not too bad. As well, income has been from a variety of sources. Income from Squidoo has continued its upward path with another record month - I don't tend to use the Amazon modules, instead preferring to use my own affiliate links, so I don't expect my direct Squidoo earnings to reach great heights. On the negative side, I have not made a single affiliate sale this month (affiliate income this month has been from sales that I made last month). This is   read more

With England's football team crashing out of the World Cup after losing 4 - 1 to Germany, there now follows the inevitable post mortem. There are the usual questions - why do players who perform at the top class for their clubs on a weekly basis play so poorly for their country? How can such individually gifted players fail to gel as a team? And then there are recriminations - on this occasion there is no individual player to blame, so the manager is in the firing line. It has to be said that this World Cup campaign was particularly poor. We will get to hear in a couple of weeks whether the   read more

The idea of a Black and Decker can opener may surprise you little, after this is a company better know for making power tools rather kitchen accessories. In fact they make a range of can openers including the small hand held "Gizmo", the under the counter "Spacemaker&quo t; and tall devices intended for specialising in large cans. You could make do with a hand held device of course, but for many people this is just unnecessary effort. Also for many older people and people who find using hand devices difficult this is simply not an option. If you are looking for a new can opener then   read more

One of the problems with Blogger has been that the default templates were looking rather tired and to customize them to your needs required a knowledge or HTML and CSS. However, those people at Google's Blogger team seem to have been listening to their users and have now brought out their new Template Designer. I have decided to give it a go with my experimental blog. So clicking on to the design feature this is what you find. To start with you find that you have six themes, each with a number of variations giving a total of 26 templates to start with. This does not feel like that many   read more