Since deciding to leave our current home we’ve been under some pressure to find somewhere to live that is affordable, has land, possibly space for our neighbours (so we can share the load and not feel so isolated) and ideally a woodland nearby.

We’ve looked at a lot of properties, 100s online and then a fair bit of driving around Wales to physically view some which given our current location of Cornwall has meant some major miles. We’ve even got as far as nearly buying somewhere, spending money on surveys and lawyers but pulling out of the bidding – formal tender – process at the last minute.

Recently through a set of rather ’small world’ interlinked happenings we found out about a community near Lanidloes, one of our target towns, called Old Chapel Farm. Initially we were dismissive as we didn’t want to live in another community but after speaking with someone who had been there it sounded right up our street as they were simply looking to rent out a holding around a mile away from the main site with 6 acres space for two families.

I went up to see it this week and was really taken with it all. Infrastructure-wise the main site is well established but in terms of a community it is early days. They have lots of plans and it’s clear the energy is there to implement them. Currently there are only a couple of full-time residents other than the family that owns the farm but they also have a constant stream of WWOOFers; they had 100 last year apparently.

The place we’ll be living is a mile or so  away over mainly flat ground and is actually the house they first lived in before buying the bigger place. We’ll be left to our own devices with no pressure, other than self-inflicted, to get the land yielding. We will also be welcome to help out wherever we want such as the infrastructure jobs like helping to manage their brand new 20 acre woodland recently purchased off a neighbouring farmer.

The smallholding itself has the following features:

• Very rustic oak beamed house that is apparently the oldest house in the local area. it has a super-modern wood pellet boiler, a Rabyurn for cooking and a wood burner in the lounge.
• Large converted barn, currently open-plan
• Standard barn
• Workshop with two benches
• Large duck pond
• Half size polytunnel
• Loads of established growing beds
• A willow coppice
• Lots of small fields, one a hay meadow, another fox proofed and containing chicken houses

We’ve agreed in principle to move in March/April so now have the task of once again getting school places, packing and moving (both home and business).

We’re very excited especially as we feel we’ll be getting the best of both worlds with some aspects of community life still available to us but also having some distance and being left to our devices.

We had a huge disappointment over the weekend.

32 acres of woodland came up in Pembrokeshire on Thursday afternoon. Friday 8:30am straight after the kids were on the school bus we drove up there (after calling the agent to check it was still on) by 2:30pm I was stomping around it thinking where I could put a green woodworking shelter (like this one on the cover of Mike’s excellent book), was noting where drainage and access needed improving and thinking where we could put some ponds. It was all very exciting.

Like a fool I decided to sleep on it which was a mistake because the next morning when I called to put an offer in I found it had been taken at 4pm the previous day!

We drove home crestfallen with a feeling that we’d never get the wood of our dreams. However after a night’s sleep we felt better and decided that we simply needed to get more agressive in our search.

Enter stage left woodlandwanted.co.uk. We figure that the majority of woods swap hands via specialist (offline) agents or by word of mouth so we’re launching this in the hope that we can get locals to keep an eye out and let us know when something comes up.

Hopefully Google will index it nice and quickly. If you have a blog and feel so inclined then a link to Woodland Wanted would be appreciated to help us get some of that Google love.

In March we’re also going to put adverts in some local papers like we did last year in Herefordshire.

KBO, etc.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

This morning I read with some dismay yet another polarised argument about climate change between a ‘denier’ and a ’scaremonger’. Irrespective of my own view of the subject – which incidentally comes down firmly on the side of pragmatism. I don’t give a monkey’s if I’m proved wrong in 20 years time; let’s not take any risks with our kid’s future right now – I’m particularly disappointed to see this tribalism around the subject. I thought it was clear to anybody paying attention that there is not a single problem that we’re currently facing and there’s certainly not a single solution.

My sense of unease was conveniently and very eloquently summarised by Richard Heinburg on a video posted to Energy Bulletin yesterday and tweeted this morning by Rob Hopkins, embedded below:

Beyond Copenhagen – Now what?

In it he talks about the ‘foregone conclusion’ that the Copenhagen summit was going to fail because our global climate policies (or lack thereof) come about because the global economy is predicated by robust economic growth and no politician that wants to be re-elected dares to introduce policies that force us to reduce this consumption.

He goes on further to detail what he calls 5 game ending issues facing us at present, namely:

• Topsoil erosion
• Water scarcity
• Loss of biodiversity
• Potential death of the oceans
• Climate change

…plus of course the short-term issues that we face with dwindling fossil fuel reserves and a global financial economy (still) on the edge of collapse.

He suggests (hopes!) – like many others – that any solutions will come about at a local level through initiatives like the Transition movement & Community Supported Agriculture and that fossil fuel based energy needs to be treated as the precious commodity that it is and be priced accordingly.

Will it be enough?

Well, I’m of the opinion that what is very likely to occur if we don’t try and ‘be the change’ doesn’t bear thinking about. It’s simply not a viable option to do nothing or to continue to argue for business as usual whatever your opinions are on the minutiae of the science relating to any one of the many issues that we face.

Hello and Happy New Year.

Firstly an apology is due. We have been rather quiet of late mostly because we’ve been doing rather than thinking which has made a refreshing change but as I sit here with the kids gaffer taped up in the corner after a 4th day off school because of the light snow dusting (there’s a whole post on the UK’s lack of resilience going begging there, but I don’t have the motivation) and with nothing else better to do, I felt it high time to put together an update.

I’ll come straight out with it: we’ve decided to leave this little intentional community.

Why?

Well, there’s a long answer to that question and we’re not sure it’s appropriate to be airing everything publicly as it would be other people lives that we’d be commenting on. However saying nothing is probably worse.

The biggest reason is that when we moved here we were wanting to live in a tight-knit community but not a community, the differences are subtle but have stared to add up. We like the economies of scale with shared resources, neighbours that look out for each other (as they do here) and a coming together for community work days and the odd communal meal is really (really) nice. However for a community such as this to thrive the communal side of things is designed for a reason to be more integrated and now that we’ve had experience of it we’ve realised that it’s totally not right for us.

The – mostly self-inflicted – pressure to get involved with the community means that we’re damned either way: on the one hand there can be a feeling of ‘having’ to do something where at that moment it might not feel appropriate and on the other hand guilt for not getting involved and spending ’selfish’ time doing our own thing. Sure,as with most things there’s a balance to be had but whilst we can see that deeper community sharing is essential to long term survival of a community such as this, we feel sure that we’re not right to be a part of it.

Reading that back we sound like intensely private billy-no-mates lazy fecktards which is definitely not the case, but I can’t see how else to put it so it stays.

Another reason is our reliance on car travel. We’re 9 miles from the nearest town and whilst there’s an excellent shop 1/4 a mile away we still do need to head out relatively regularly. Ok there’s a (infrequent) bus and people do share car trips into town and yes there’s a library bus but even so we’re using the car far more than we expected and I really want to live somewhere that I can walk and cycle around.

That’s all I feel comfortable saying. There is nothing ‘wrong’ with this place, it’s just that we don’t feel we’re right for it. There are no large headline reasons, it is lots of small ones.

So, what next?

We’re falling back to plan B which is to get our own smallholding (here we go again). We had previously spent months (years!) looking at them so that market knowledge coupled with what we’ve learned during our extended stay here means that we’ve got a pretty good idea of what we want/need.

Our dream property would include:

• a 3 bed, 2 reception, well insulated house with wood fuelled cooking/heating that doesn’t need a jot of work doing to it
• 1-2 acres of good south facing agricultural land that is well fenced and drained
• an orchard
• 4+ acres of broad leaf woodland
• a natural water supply, ideally with a decent height differential for possible micro-hydro
• a workshop
• a poly-tunnel
• a barn
• being within a (relatively flat) 2 mile radius of a small market town that has a train station and an active Transition group
• being cheap enough that we can afford it without a mortgage

Ok, so back in the real world where we’re not millionaires we’re going to have to compromise. In our favour is that we are lucky enough that we can probably just about afford a tiny stone cottage in Wales without the land and occasionaly one can even get the land and buildings if you’re willing to roll your sleeves up, which we are.

I really want that woodland both for fuel resilience and it’s a place I could possibly work in the longer-term. One idea that might allow us to get one without a mortgage is to transfer our meagre pension funds  into – and things start getting hazy now – a self invested pension (SIPP) that owns the wood as an investment and then rents it back to us. The benefit of this approach is that – apparently – the pension can even borrow against itself up to 50% of its original captial. As I say whilst we know it’s technically possible, there are likely to be lots of caveats and a lot of hassle putting something like this together and that’s before we even find the perfect – with whatever compromises based on our budget – house with the perfect wood nearby.

Anyway, it is heartening to know that our aspirations are not totally off the radar.

In terms of location we’ve been looking at Llandeilo and Machynlleth (up where CAT is based) as they tick most of our boxes, most importantly they both have good rail links though places like Lampeter seem to be the best value for money (no rail, though).

It is sure to be an interesting year. We both really hope we can make this our last move as we’re desperate to settle now after approaching 4 years of roving around. If nothing else we have to think of the kids.

I just got back from the first of my Renewable Energy MSc modules at The Centre for Alternative Technology and I’m feeling pretty blown away but utterly inspired in equal measure.

7 days straight studying, eating, sleeping and drinking with 79 really smart people that have a wide range of backgrounds covering a broad age spread. One thing is common, though. They all totally get the issues and challenges that we face surrounding fossil fuel usage and climate change and are there to find out more about the main (energy replacement) options open to us.

The facilities at CAT were excellent as was the quality of the lecturing with most of the topics being introductions to the various renewable energy technologies and their respective social and political contexts.

It was a pretty tough regime and this was just the intro module! I now have 2000 word essay and presentation to prepare before my next visit in 4 weeks. I think I’ve got a good essay subject it just needs some research to see if it’s got legs.

Thanks to Casey Cole for recommending me to the course, attending this week has certainly felt like a life changing event.

Info on the REBE MSc

Aunite Beryl enjoying the warm September sun while Bealers does a spot of carpentry

We have a neighbour who is a lovely lady called Beryl. She is the elderly auntie of one of the people who first bought the farm we live at almost two and a half years ago. Beryl is in her late eighties and in a wheelchair but lives here instead of in a old people’s care home.

She joins us each night at the communal meal in the big farmhouse kitchen, she is always happy to receive visitors for a chat and is taken her lunchtime sandwich by anyone of us who are around during the day. Beryl ran her own hair salon for 72 years and so is fully qualified to chat pleasantly about anything and everything with anyone.

Having her here provides us with extra diversity in our group but also another dependent person who along with our small children needs looking after (she needs someone to get her up, washed and dressed in the morning and in the evening requires putting to bed like a toddler does).

(more…)

Since our move here two weeks ago we’ve been enjoying the communal cooking and eating aspect hugely. It was one of the things I was looking forward to but I was also nervous about cooking for so many.

It feels a bit cheeky to have arrived at a time when there is a huge abundance of food waiting to be picked and eaten in the huge vegetable garden and also in the polytunnel but it has meant that for a newbie to self-sufficiency I am enjoying the ease at which menus for dinner present themselves by a brief wander around the plot to see what is in plentiful supply.

There is not yet a whole-community effort in growing the food and the practice of eating what is available before any additional extras are required seems ad-hoc and there isn’t quite enough of a glut of anything to demand a big chutney making session although a lot of fresh vegetables have been chopped and stored in freezers ready for use in the winter instead of having them and their parent plants go to waste (beans mainly). Potatoes have been harvested and sorted for ones that are blemish and blight free and have been dug into a ‘clamp’ (a shallow trough lined with straw), squashes are being harvested and put to dry in a small barn.

There is no work schedule and despite the huge number of vegetables becoming ripe and ready for harvest it is a case of one picking what one can and using as much of it for the evening meal. On Saturday a load of us are planning to harvest and preserve what we can (beans, tomatoes, courgettes, apples, plums) by making pickles and chutneys, freezing and even cooking some ‘ready meals’ and putting in tubs in the freezer. We will be so glad of them in the winter.

I’ve just had to add up the amount I owe the communal kitchen for all the delicious meals my family and our friends have enjoyed since we moved here mid August most of which have involved an enormous range of vegetables from the garden here and some I’ve even cooked or helped to prepare (despite my worries).

There is a simple tariff which ranges from 50p for a small snack or breakfast to £1.50 for a large main meal with an additional 50p for a portion of desert or a second helping of dinner. One writes the appropriate amount on a chart by the back door of the kitchen and settles up at the end of the month. Any food supplies I have bought for the communal kitchen (butter, bread, milk, oil, seasonings etc) are subtracted from the amount owed and receipts provided so an overall amount is due. As all three children and I have had meals in the communal kitchen most evenings since our arrival here we owed £110 but the shopping I had done came to £40 so I wrote a cheque today for £70. This system works well as one member of the community is a diligent administrator and bookkeeper.

Here we are enjoying helping Steve harvest the potatoes he planted outside his log cabin – a big thumbs up from permaculturists as the plot was walked past each day Steve could easily tend to it without having to go out of his way.

Spuds for storing in a clamp.

I will try to make this a quick update as I’m hoping to get some more sleep before the night is over having been up since 3.30 with too much on my mind to sleep.

The children and I have been having a wonderful time here on the farm since we arrived 8 days ago. We’ve unexpectedly had back-to-back visitors staying with us or popping over for day trips from their holidays which has made a huge difference to us. Not only have we had the comfort and good company of people who know us well but an additional benefit was having to show people round making the new environment instantly feel like we definitely live here and our friends and family are the new visitors seeing it with new eyes.

Thankfully the weather has been kind to us so despite some very heavy rain showers on the whole the two eldest kids have been out playing with their friends (comprising of other children living here but also the children who are visiting and staying with other residents here), we’ve all been on the beach a fair few times and happily harvesting fresh vegetables for dinners. My littlest child loves being outside to watch the ducks waddle around the courtyard, throw the pigs some tasty pea pods and visit the pet rabbit living in a hutch not far from us.

I keep finding myself signing up to be the chef for the main communal meal which is odd as it was the one thing I was really worried about but I guess you can’t keep a food lover out of the kitchen for long even if it does mean cooking for up to 20 people with an eighteen month old cling to your leg or exploring the contents of the recycling bucket. Last night we cooked ‘rainbow risotto’ with loads of different veg, I made a quick simple tomato pasta for loads of kids one night too. A massive joy of living in such a close community is eating the wonderful food that others cook with great care. On the night we had a utility bonfire to burn hedges trimmings we had such a outdoor feast of really simple but such delicious things – sausages made from the meat of home-reared pigs, macaroni cheese, fresh fresh salad and lovely bright purple beetroot.

The one thing that is totally wrong with the intentional community we have moved to is that my dear husband is not with us (he is sadly chained to his computer in Worcestershire while one of his client’s projects nears completion until the latter part of this week). The children are missing their daddy and keep asking when he will come. Bealers still has the settling in period to go through where I feel my transition to learning how the farm is managed and how the community ticks is well underway. But hopefully he will enjoy a few more summery days when he does finally arrive and enjoy spending relaxed cups of tea on sunny steps having random chats with the people who live here as they pass by as I have done since we got here.

A quick post on the eve of my leaving our home in Worcs/Herefordshire to live with several other families in North Cornwall on a 30 acre smallholding with the long term aim of becoming as self-sufficient as possible.

We’re all very excited but also sad to be saying farewell to some of the most lovely people we have had in our lives since moving here just 9 months ago. In some ways our move here was necessary for us to realise that the rural life was something we wanted long-term. The people we have mixed with here are all people who have livestock and a deep love of country ways.

My poor eldest daughter has sobbed herself to sleep tonight so very sad about leaving the nextdoor neighbour’s cat behind so I have said to her that she may have a pet rabbit when we get the keys to the cottage we will be living in.

I am going down to the farm without Bealers but with the three children and will be staying in our caravan which is all rigged up and ready to be stayed in (washbags, toys, books, cot, pushchair etc all there and waiting for us). Next week the cottage which we are to live in will stop being rented out to holiday makers and so we will be able to walk across the courtyard and start sleeping in it. I have a little sketch on squared paper of where I think some of our furniture will fit when it eventually finds its way down to Cornwall but I suspect I have been over ambitious and will need to revise these plans a little.

I’m so excited about having so many interesting new projects to get involved in (permaculture design and the soon to be launched LAND initiative, seed saving and swapping, building projects, insulation projects, reed-bed water cleansing, rain water harvesting, The Soil Association’s Community Supported Agriculture program) and of course a ready made new community to enjoy.

One member of the community – Steve happened to be in our existing neighbourhood this week and came over for a brief cup of coffee. He is lovely and funny. It was great to see him but also for him to see where we currently are and see what kind of place we are moving from to be members of the farm community.

Very happy to be starting yet another adventure with my lovely husband and my three special littles and hope to keep people updated with interesting nuggets from time to time.