Orphiel

Thought I'd add a little bit of an update on the boat garden. Here's a good picture of my first attempts, planted around last September. http://www.flickr.com/photos/74619946@N00/1396583647/ The spring onions worked amazingly well and grew huge, tasted lovely. The spinach beet also came up well, and we ate that for ages. Planted a lot of beetroot, but misjudged the amount of depth required, so whilst they grew, they were only really tiny. I ended up digging them all out, including roots, and passing them on to a mate of mine who has an allotment, so they can be planted out with enough space to grow. Failed on the lettuce and pak choi, as I tried to thin them out but then the rest of them just died! All a learning curve though, and this was pretty much my first attempt at growing anything. I bought a big green trough to plant things out in earlier this year, and have some carrots and broccoli in there. Carrots are doing really well, and I get excited every time I take a peek under the soil. Sad, innit? Broccoli maybe doesn't have enough space as it's looking a bid bodged in, and the leaves are going a bit brown. Any ideas? Lettuce failed again, probably because I didn't water it enough. Also tried one of those 'living salads' from Sainsbury's, but it grew amazingly well for a little while, then bolted into flowers and died real quick. I am now actually reading some gardening books, as suspect it may be more difficult than first thought! Spinach and parsley also bolted, but will try again soon with something else in the space. Anyone who's really interested in gardening might like to check out the Myfolia site, which my mum really likes. I can't be arsed to fill it all in myself, but I can see it would be useful. http://myfolia.com/ Meg

Both peat-free and organic I done me hippy research.

I love my proper hippy garden. I am growing a bunch of veg in growbags, which is pretty simple and also keeps the height down. I filled them up with new soil to reuse them after the winter crop. As someone pointed out, some of the drainage does go ont he boat roof, but I just wash it off every once in a while.

Relatedly, do the extinguishers have to be the right brand? Also looming BSC worries...

Yeah, I must say I do feel quite virtuous, and I even eat less because instead of looking at a plate of leftovers and going 'arg I'd better eat that otherwise it's waste' I just go 'worms will like this, nomnom'.

Mine get through that amount no problem, but they get through a bit less when they start up and less when it is colder. I just plan to either give the compost to people or use it on flowers etc. The real bonus is that months and months of kitchen waste makes a pretty small amount of compost, as all the water is drained off. There's a tap at the bottom that gives you liquid worm juice, which is non-smelly and like super-good plant feed, so I use that quite a lot. The bin itself doesn't smell at all when not open, and I had it indoors all winter. The rotting stuff inside whiffs a bit, but this stops when it composts down, I understand. I've only had it for a few months, so not collected the compost out yet. Meg

Hi Gary, link does not seem to be working for me. I am in the market for a new cooker and wisely looking at domestic style also.

As an alternative to throwing stuff in, why not get a small wormery? I feed my worms and they eat all the food waste I can produce to the extent that I'm going to have to start collecting it off neighbours soon. You can get a tiny one that fits on the boat, and it gives you good compost and plant feed as well. Also is p1ss easy to use, but we did have to add extra sealing tape round the inside when we got it first. Something like this is good, second one down, the junior wormery. http://www.originalorganics.co.uk/wormeries.htm Meg

Tell us where you are Mav, I'll gladly pay £250 for a job lot of blacking and hauling I have no leet boat skills.

Hammers as in they are full of lovely charge when I plug it in, then about a day or two later everything is flashing red and stopping working, even with the couple of hours running the engine. I don't really have longer than that to run it as am at work all day. I also keep meaning to get some kind of idiot's guide to batteries and electric, as I do find your handy calculations really difficult to understand, appreciated though they are. Hmm. I will check what kind of fridge it is, I do suspect it's an older one, which might be the problem. You say it should only be on 50% of the time, well mine is definitely on all the time, to the point of freezing things inside to the back and making ice, so I suspect it stays on all the time as well. Might that be the problem? I must confess I am not as rigorous with my charging regime as I could be, but then I just stopped using the fridge and have barely noticed all winter, as I don't use many foods that need fridging. Would be handy in the summer though. Cheers everyone for ideas on how much gas they use also, I might look into that. Meg

I've been thinking about a 3-way also, as my 12v fridge hammers the batteries. Do they use a lot of gas, any idea how quickly, etc? Meg

Cheers all, will have a search for the inlet filter tonight to see if that's what it is. Have not cleaned it since arriving on the boat last year, so that may well be it...

Hi all, thanks for queries and advice. To answer some questions: the cold water pressure is as fine as ever. Have spotted no puddles, and the paloma does go on and stay on. Have not fiddled with the temp. knob, which is turned right up to the top as for winter. I doubt it is the water pump, as this was replaced only a couple of months ago for a brand new one, and does not sound or look odd. Not sure how I would check for frost damage on the Paloma, any suggestions? Also, I am not sure where the cold water enters the unit to have a look here, is this in a standard place for all of them? Similar with the diaphragm. Sorry, am a bit clueless as nothing gone wrong with it before so left well alone! Meg

I used to get hot water no problem out of my Paloma, which is a pretty nifty thing, but lately all I can get is lukewarm. Occasionally if I turn the pilot on and leave it for a couple of hours first I get hot water for a few seconds, then cold water again. This has been happening for a couple of months now so I am all smelly*. Ideas? The hot water is really low pressure as well, I do not know if this is the same thing or separate. Meg *Actually mainly wash elsewhere** due to the above but it is a bugger for washing up. ** Honest.

When I next see some canoe-ers round here I'll ask them, as it's up my way, and I have been thinking about doing some myself

Plenty of those who either gave advice or offered no comment on the benefits issue did sound numerous words of caution about whether it's a good option with physical disabilities. Just saying. And personally I think giving up on a dream because other people are really judgemental is not a nice situation, and certainly shouldn't be cheered. Not aiming that at you, CG, as obviously are loads of reasons and things to think about. BTW, if you are thinking about park and static homes, have you looked at any static houseboats? I haven't, so have no idea how expensive they are, or problems involved, etc, but could be an idea. Meg

It's not specifically boat related, but I do know a good resource for home educating in general is Education Otherwise. http://www.education-otherwise.org/

Arg yes, I practically done my back in last night hauling coal in the bucket from the cratch to the fire. Ouch. The toilet generally hurts also. I would reckon your best bet (with regard to testing the life rather than the benefits) is to do some visiting. Come round to someone's boat and look after it for a few days, do lots of hauling, coaling and toileting See if you can manage. You could also hire, but this tends to be pretty different, and madly expensive, so may not be an option anyway.

One here but it is not cheap http://futoncompany.co.uk/oke-single-sofa-bed-319.html You might be better off searching for futons rather than armchairs, as there are loads of single ones out there, some of which have got to have arms...

You should be able to continue claiming incapacity benefit and income support, and in fact most benefits except housing/council tax benefit. You will have to give a contact address and make yourself available for any kind of medical exams, etc, that you might have had to go to anyway. You should also be aware that they may well look at you cruising a boat as a more strenuous activity than you do, and ask you questions about your entitlement to IB. It could be possible to claim a disabled facilities grant to get improvements or necessary adaptations made to the boat, but only if you have a main mooring within a specific local authority area. You could try looking at these sites or organisations, as although not boat specific, they will have lots of advice about what you do to get medical treatment, benefits, voting rights, etc. for people of no fixed abode. Society of Travelling People 7 Upper Wortley Road Leeds LS12 4LB Tel: 0113 263 8035 The Society of Travelling People gives legal advice to all Travellers on, for example, education, sites and evictions. It should be contacted, in the first instance, by telephone. Friends, Families and Travellers Community Base 113 Queens Road Brighton BN1 3XG Tel: 01273 234777 E-mail: fft@gypsy-traveller.org Website: www.gypsy-traveller.org Friends, Families and Travellers provides support to all Travellers, particularly New Travellers. It can advise on access to sites, social welfare matters, planning applications and civil rights. It produces a monthly newsletter and information packs, as well as a database of organisations working with Gypsies and Travellers throughout the UK.

I've had good success in growbags with spring onions, spinach beet and lettuce. Going to try some potatoes (in deep containers) and courgettes, more greens etc. this summer. Keep us informed with what works, and we'll soon come up with boat perfect gardening plans.

I am glad that someone shares my pet hate about those awful chairs. Whenever I browse pictures of boats for design ideas (and some if I won the lottery dreaming) they mar the view something rotten. PS actually on topic, if you get a freestanding futon sofa with a dropleaf table, you can get ones that have storage underneath, like this: http://www.funkyfuton.co.uk/#4229X0 My sofa at the minute doesn't have any kind of attached storage, but I can fit huge amounts of stuff under there in those really low boxes that you can slide out from underneath. I do find dinette sofas really uncomfortable to sit on, they're generally too narrow for sitting on in a normal position, and too upright for my back. Having said that, I've just noticed you're going to have a separate lounge, so I guess it won't be your main sofa. In this case, I'd go for the Pullman so as to use a dinette for the only purpose I can see it being suitable for, sitting up and eating, or writing on a table. Meg

Give me time. I have been looking at a load of Steampunk props, and soon enough will be able to invent a narrowboat with some kind of balloon or wings attached. Which belches out steam rather than jet-fuel, oh yes. PS. When is the coal man coming back? Moving onto canal this weekend so I can get loads.

I'd be interested but probably still too far north for you, as I'm based on the river Trent. It would also involve adopting 2 cats for the week... Can offer 50ft though, with multi-fuel stove, one fixed double and soon to be a sofa bed in the front room. Also would have to find a way to get to Spain without flying. Meg

Good idea on the writing. If he is a member of any trade organisations you can contact them as well, as some of them do help with complaints against members and arbitration. Cannot think off-hand of trade orgs for boatyards, but I am sure someone here will know if there are any.