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.