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From the Front Line

In praise of self-sufficiency

Posted by Jason Orme on 11th January 2010

Amid the nightmare we've all had over the past week getting to and from work, keeping the house warm, working out how to walk on icy pavements without looking a complete idiot, and so on, I have been listening to our local radio which has come up with an interesting story.

Poor souls in rural areas, it appears, have been having a bit of bother getting their regular oil supply. I heard the boss of a local oil firm here in Worcs saying that he was getting calls from homeowners who were effectively cut off - and the oil trucks had no chance of getting up there.

 God, it must be awful to be relying on heating fuel supplies that never come, and it got me thinking that this only adds to the attractiveness of self-sufficiency particularly on rural plots. I know what I'd be looking into.

Jason Orme

Jason Orme

Jason Orme has been the Editor of Homebuilding & Renovating for many years and has written on property and self-build matters for, amongst others, The Independent and The Telegraph. He self-built in 2004 and is looking for another plot.

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