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Our smart meter electricity account tells us that we have reduced our usage by 15%. Will it save us any money? No, the price went up 15% from today! But there was a report on French TV which said that, excluding space heating, the average household uses 20% of their electricity for fridges and...

Reading about your bird species count Marigold made me curious as to how many we have here at the moment. My total is 17. Some of the more unusual ones are Kestrel, Nuthatch, Egret, Jay, Woodpecker (lesser spotted) and a Black Winged Kite. There will be several more later in the year including a...

It has to be some kind of sick joke. Why on earth would anyone want o kill hedgehogs?

BBC Scotland said at lunchtime a dozen extra repair teams had arrived by ferry at Lerwick, but were going to be hampered by the weather conditions.

Pot (ceramic) eggs work for us. They attack them and fail to break them so just stop doing it. Problem starts with a broken egg, so it can happen at any time especially if eggs accumulate in the nest boxes. Sooner or later one will drop her egg onto one that is lying there. Can't remember where...

I've just been watching a programme on French TV showing parts of England from the air. Some of it featured the steam locomotive 45110 which ran on the Severn Valley, Google tells me. I did catch a glimpse of a road sign pointing towards Worcester.

Ideally you would have a run that rats can't get into, but that may be a lot of work for you. You certainly can't use poison and they wouldn't eat it in preference to chicken feed anyway. First thing is to remove the feed at night and make sure they haven't access to water. They will eat the...

In the attempt to save as much fuel oil as possible we have reduced the boiler temperature to 45C. We had a sharp frost last night and the house maintained its temperature. We have the boiler outside in the garage and the main heating pipes are in the loft, all fully insulated now (there were...

That looks so much like villages in Northwest Derbyshire Hen-Gen.

My recipe book says "for perfect function of your septic tank add 200 mice". Believe me it worked wonders for our stinky pit. I was reminded of the fireplace in the rental. It had a wood burner with an insulated flue, but the hole in the plasterboard ceiling was too big so there was a gap...

We had cats that couldn't kill the mice, they just brought them into the house where they lived quite happily in the tumble dryer. When we moved to this infested house (and the previous rental was possibly far worse, despite the cat) we trapped 200 mice in the first year with 13 traps on the...

We've found that, for a given temperature, a dry room feels warmer than a damp one. We have several dehumidifiers which are used in Winter above 60 %. Whilst they do use electricity it's one of those cases when it gets used twice, so once to run the appliance and it then heats the room. In the...

Lovely to see her fight back to a normal life. A very special chicken.

We don't have bins here, so no rubbish collection. The communal bins are on the way to town so you take your rubbish to them when you go to town. Unlike England glass doesn't go into the recycling bin but into specific bins for that in town or the dechetterie (tip). There were so many Brits in...

As the clocks go back tonight the TV has featured 'The clocks go to Winter- an endless debate!' Whilst the whole of Europe agrees it is a real pain and would like to keep the same time all year and have also agreed that they must all use the same one (Summer time or Winter Time), they can't...

They have Ex-Bat rehoming here as well Shadrach. We bought broiler hens instead and gave them a full life. One of them is very different to the others- about half the size and lays really well. According to the official figures only 100,000 Brits have been issued with residency permits in...

Lovely photos Shadrach. Henry is a very hansom chap. Does he have girls? I notice your green feeders are falling apart as ours are. I think they are not made for clear skies and hot temperatures- poor UV resistance. We have scrapped most of ours and bought local which are not as well suited to...

You were there the same time we were Icemaiden- when we arrived they were re-lining 'the pond' and hadn't started on the buildings. The pub at the lock was renamed the Barton Turns, but everyone used the original name of The Vine. Used to be a very busy place from 1840 to 1960 with four pubs...

I've remembered- the cleaning agent was Caustic Soda (Sodium Hydroxide). It's used as a drain cleaner, so it may be possible to buy it?

People used to clean their motorbike engine parts in something, and I can't remember what. But if left too long the Aluminium just dissolved to nothing. I can't remember because I didn't ever use it.