The
GARDINER HYPOTHESIS
Mutated Circovirus in pigs, the
consequences treated with heavy use of antibiotics, is followed by
MRSA in pigs and then MRSA and C.Diff epidemics in humans.
Other antibiotic resistant diseases common
to pigs and man may be created and spread.
Humans may be infected and disease may mutate further in infected herds.
oooOOOooo
A circovirus mutation in Canada in the 1990s was covered up. The
resulting epidemics spread first to the UK, and from Canada more recently,
to the United States.
(Thesis formulated over ten years, first
published in this form 2007 and amended since in the light of new
information.
The latest developments on this extraordinary story may be found in the writer's bog:
http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/
Indeed as of May 2011, alas, it looks as if our worst fears are being realised, with MRSA and other new livestock related superbugs stalking the world.
September confirmed Hepatitis E in pigs, pig handlers, and pork
The last day of September found that the British government admitting that it had kept secret an E.Coli 0157 epidemic with 250 victims, with many hospitalised and one dead. The immediate source has been traced to leeks and potatoes. Details on my blog.
In October, the USA gets worried about MRSA st398 in pigs
MRSA st398 - Start of a New Epidemic?
In November, we learn that the EU is poised to act on dangerous human illnesses originating on intensive pig and poultry farms.
Christmas and New Year sees a Norovirus epidemic closing wards in many hospitals worldwide. This is a disease shared with animals. Why, suddenly, over the past few years has it become a problem on this scale? What has changed?
The bizarre origins of the writer's involvement may be found here on
In Season
Unusual weather gives a very unusual harvest.
Mid January is hardly the time for picking juicy, sweet fruit in the northern hemisphere, but this year the strange weather made the impossible happen.
The leaves all went from the Kiwis with the first frost before Chistmas, but we did not get round to removing the fruit. It was hard and sour last Autumn and we expected nothing edible.
We ere not surprised, Kiwis in England outdoors are a triumph of hope over experience most years
Not this year, we picked bucketfuls of flawless sweet fruit on the morning of the 11th of January 2012
For dinner, we have them with frozen blueberries and no added sugar, for desert.
SELF-SUFFICIENCY NEED NOT BE ALL CRANKINESS AND MUD, MANURE, MUCK AND MYSTERY
It may be a return to a frontier spirit for an American, or a yearning for a lost rural idyll for an Englishman.
Whatever the motivation, it has a long and honourable place in many cultures, and need not be associated with extreme or weird political views, poverty or deprivation.
A love of personal freedom is always present.
Is that such a terrible thing?
There are over 160 pages of advice, help and relevant stories here.
Self-Sufficiency & Refuting Libel
Because of writer's involvement in tracing some of the origins of the current hospital superbug crisis to the pig industry, he has attracted an organised campaign of libel and abuse for almost a decade.
He hits back in style, as you would expect.
MRSA, C.Diff and other livestock related diseases have cost tens of thousands of lives worldwide.
By chance, not ability, he was there at the beginning and some farming organisations want him silenced or discredited and are not too fussy about the methods or people they employ.
- you can't!,
A quite extraordinary true story that spans the world.
Smallholding took us into a quite bizarre world of fraud, corruption and criminal activities.
The names are world-famous and the background deadly.
An unbelievable labyrinth of mysterious army officers, Cabinet Ministers, cover-ups, evidence and complaints to Parliament.
Meetings with the European Union Fraud Squad and finally a campaign to put bad things right.
It is an amazing story - true and continuing to this very day.
NEW
I always reply to all incoming emails, except spam. Some have not reached me.
If you have emailed, and received no reply, please resend to this email address
Google Ban Lifted
26th January 2010
The ban by Google, mentioned below, has now been lifted accompanied by a generous apology.
No amendments were requested and none made to the blog: http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/ or anywhere else, come to that.
Google Groups remains the ideal tool to investigate the origins of the
current, animal related, human health disasters. The origins of the FMD
(Foot and Mouth) epidemics, plus Circovirus (PMWS) and MRSA st398 are
documented.
Much incriminating material, regarding animal health, deliberately removed
from the WWW has been preserved.
This is accessible by using Google Groups to search the Usenet newsgroup:
uk.business.agrciulture.
--------
Banned By Google
The ultimate accolade:
The writer has been banned from using Google Groups by Google.
Censorship by Google is not confined to China.
They also censor Britons publishing material that the British government does not want propagated.
It does show just how desperate the British government is to silence the writer.
You can read what they don't want you to see here on the website or on the newsgroup.
The writer, a rather conventional businessman, was forced to retire early.
He miserably roamed the highways and byways of Europe in a beat-up pick-up truck half-heartedly searching for a new life.
Eventually, he owned up to an lifetime's ambition to grow his own food.
With his wife, he resurrected a dream, bought a smallholding and made a new happier life.
They now live in a lovely cottage, in a beautiful setting, eating well and enjoying life to the full.
This is how they did it.
Truly
Some of the ideas will surprise and challenge your preconceptions.
Hangman's Cottage may be going up for Sale.
Brochures will be prepared in due time. If you would like one, even just to dream over, please email with your full address and one day, a copy will drop through your letterbox
The house, the land (5 acres), the walled gardens, orchards, tunnels and greenhouses, barns and cowsheds, together with all the necessary equipment for full self-sufficiency will be included.
Hangman's Cottage - the home acre
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Nine "pig" paddocks complete with farrowing ark, and two plastic arks, water troughs and electric wire for attachment to the fences.
Two greenhouses, two tunnels, three barns/cowsheds. Chicken hut, Three implement sheds, garage, wood storage and 22 raised beds in the walled garden, plus orchards and wall trained fruit trees.
You can get a better picture here (slow loading)
See also Pastures New? below for update on situation!
The
Wood Burner - Part One
The fuel
and the chimney
The
Wood Burner - Part Two
The
snags
In between writing parts one and two, BBC TV News opened with the story that there was a shortage of wood burners.
We can confidently predict a run on trees.
All wood burners are merely modifications and enhancements to the open fire.
It seems so simple - a wood burner, the elegant answer to rising fuel bills and insecurity of supply.
Choosing a wood burner, what it will burn, what it is expected to do, and what happens in an emergency is one of those decision trees that would drive a normally patient and rational man to dither and drink.
We will, however, attempt to make the complicated a little less complicated.
NEW
Are we selling up or not?
It's happened yet again, the writer is getting back on his feet after a winter struggling in an antibiotic less world and is half way through a second severe winter, getting stronger by the day.
He keeps getting illnesses that are supposed to be terminal - and surviving them - and wants to stay in his home.
But, ominously, Mrs Pat has other ideas...
One way or the other, stiff and silent or arm waving and arguing, he will have to leave in the end...
...it's just a question of how long.
Meantime, despite a long hard winter, the walled garden was a glory of blossom, the walled beds planted, the greenhouses and tunnels full from the commonplace to the exotic.
It was a sign of hope, before we moved into the worst early winter in living memory, when true self sufficiency again proved itself a realistic way of life.
On the 2nd January 2011 - the snow began again.
February and the pruning of fruit tress and bushes is in full swing, plus potting up cuttings of soft fruit, and starting many of the seeds in the greenhouse.
Self-Sufficiency & the Credit Crunch
A look at coping with the hard realities.
Pipe dream or possibility?
A look at modern Britain, a country that has imported much of its food for many generations.
Indeed in wartime, when the sea lanes were under attack, the country nearly starved.
Could Britain feed itself today?
What are the implications of attempting to do so?
Does the smallholder have a role to play?
Some of the conclusions might surprise you.
Going self-sufficient is an opportunity to make a fresh start in other areas of life.
Don't miss the chance to make it a good experience
Even on a small scale, self-sufficiency offers a way of reducing your family's exposure to food additives.
The latest article in the Animal Farm series outlining, in detail, a system of animal husbandry suitable for self-sufficiency.
The unexpected contribution that the self-sufficient can make to tackling the problem.
Variety fights back
No need. Self-sufficiency is greener than the Greens - and more organic than the Organics.
Keeping a house cow is a big responsibility and a lot of work, but it is the gateway to your own milk, cream, butter, cheese and much much more.
Even if we bake our daily loaf, we hardly ever think of the mill that made the flour
Self-sufficiency is difficult to combine with running a business.
Hi! Small fry.
Coastal Living.
Self -sufficiency is not just about providing oneself with the material things of life; it is also about enjoying life and living somewhere attractive.
NEW SERIES
The first article in a major new series outlining, in detail, a system of animal husbandry suitable for self-sufficiency.
This is the introduction, explaining why it has been so long coming, followed by the second article expanding the theme of minimising production
before outlining the application of the system to
CHICKENS (for eggs)
CHICKENS (for meat)
CATTLE (for meat)
CATTLE (for dairy produce)
GOATS
coming soon...
GEESE
DUCKS
SHEEP (for meat)
SHEEP (for wool)
PIGS
Women self-sufficiency dreamers outnumber men by four to one.
They are mostly in their thirties, usually with children and in a stable relationship.
How can they persuade a reluctant sensible partner to take the plunge into a self-sufficient life?
The new UK "Lincolnshire Self-sufficiency and Smallholding Club" is now well under way.
Details of meetings and activities can be found on the club's website.
The basics of how to produce your own chicken meat. Very definitely for beginners.
If you keep chickens for eggs, meat production is a natural extension.
Prices and
Places
a look at smallholdings in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and
France.
We spent 5 years and travelled thousands of miles looking for a home, we viewed hundreds of houses with land...these are the conclusions.
Transport in the country.
A light-hearted look at spotless Texans and Brits with straw in their car.
(or Auctioneers, Realtors etc)
They go under many names, but the rules are much the same throughout the English Speaking world (except in Scotland which is historically closer to Continental Europe.)
and a new series on
Buying your Smallholding
learning why it is not wise to
Complicate
Things,
by trying to handle extra transactions simultaneously, how not to
Wear Yourself Out
searching for that ideal smallholding
Making the map
do the work
and exploring the locality
Visiting the area
what to look for when
Viewing the land
efficiently
Inspecting the outbuildings
and
Collecting some tools
before
Examining
the House
and eventually
Making an
Offer
how
much fact ?
how
much fiction?
placing it on the map.
Are Self-Sufficiency and Survivalism different things?
A look at two different philosophies
The bird flu panic or pandemic, take your pick, gives smallholders both special problems - and unexpected advantages.
An aerial photograph of the
often requested, and finally here.
Just the stuff for dreams
There is one very important difference between smallholding and self-sufficiency.
A difference that is far from obvious.
Some very blunt observations, and a secret revealed.
is written with the
stubborn thirty (and forty) somethings in mind.
Hard reality, but helpful too.
Husband, wife and three kids, mortgage and job.
Is it possible?
Could we bridge the financial gap?
Yes. It can be done, but not by selling eggs from the end of the drive.
... with an autobiographical story from the 1960s
The latest in the "Moving Away" series.
Part One of a suitably leisurely look at smallholding possibilities in France.
followed by
Part Two which completes a series of cautionary notes for the would-be settler.
and
Part Three which tries to carve up France to save thousands of miles of motoring.
now the final instalment
Part Four which compares four attractive possibilities.
In a hundred years from today, will anyone know that you ever existed apart from a name, perhaps a date and place?
A very different slant on inheritance.
It isn't as difficult as it seems.
You can start a Self-sufficient life today.
You don't need to buy a small-holding or move to the country.
We have been almost 5 years striving for full self-sufficiency,
how are we doing?
We first came to Hangman's Cottage in the winter of 1997/8.
What are our conclusions?
(Please note this article is now five years old)
20 January 2005
ATTENTION!
AMERICAN
CORRESPONDENTS AND FRIENDS?
An unusual request
Haymaking, storms, rain and a self-sufficiency disaster.
(This was written in August 2004 and is the last in a long series of monthly diaries.)
The 6th of June was the Commemoration of D - Day in 1944. A chance encounter brought an article written in 1999 to mind.
Can't Wait?
Getting quick results from animals, fruit and vegetables.
A cheaper way to self-sufficiency
- and without eating your own animals
We won't be leaving Hangman's Cottage
It is always a pleasure to change your mind for the right reasons.
The writer has been pretty ill, but after six months, the unexpected happened.
Some things we just don't want to think about, do we?
We try to keep as far away as we can from the uncomfortable business of producing animals for food.
But it is perfectly possible for smallholders to produce all their own
meat with sensitivity and kindness
and to eat it without qualms.
When you move to a new area or country, it is reassuring to look for an area with an existing expatriate community.
But is it such a good idea?
You are probably about to become an outlaw.
Fight or flee?
Homesteaders are far more likely to be badly affected by crises than city dwellers, they are also better able to prepare.
It's not a question of being able to construct a wigwam, trap rabbits and make fire by rubbing sticks together.
Fashionable Savings
These come from a
sense of fun and of the ridiculous.
Go on - kick over the traces!
Could you make it all on your own?
a running log of things we got wrong.
Learn from our mistakes.
Self-sufficient living might suggest unremitting toil with no intellectual content.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is also hard work on the brain - an unrelenting listing of jobs, dates, times, and research with plenty of necessary reading.
But there are also unexpected insights into History, Geography, Religion, Literature and much else.
The seasons look entirely different from a self-sufficient life.
Each has its particular pleasures and characteristics.
The work is different, the life is different.
You are on your own. Make a mistake and the insurance company won't be there to help.
A quick resume of some of the things to look out for when inspecting properties.
Become a dusty miller
For making cream, skimmed milk, butter
and most cheeses.
The real Italian job.
Cold Comforts.
From the series of articles
Gadgets and Gizmos
To
inherit a house and land is the stuff
of a thousand dreams and novels.
Even when there is no hope of ever being mentioned in any will, there are ways of making an inheritance finance a new life.
The opportunity for self - sufficiency often happens by chance.
Redundancy or down sizing, loss of paid employment often drives people to become self-sufficient
Alarmingly, the individuals concerned are often ill at the time and with money troubles too.
... with an autobiographical story from the 1990s
