Far Lands

We moved here two years ago today! In 4cm of snow and -3C. It is banal but seems true all the same that time speeds up as you get older. Perhaps a good time for a little year-end reflection. Looking back over the last year, we have made some progress - the extension housing our new heating and water systems. The gym, and a new kitchen. As for us, have we changed? Not sure. Do we know ourselves better? Maybe a little; I used to think I was a finisher, but I think I may be a starter. What is exciting me at the moment are new plans - a major new foraging hedge with over a 100 trees and a new writing project (more another time). Sarah on the other hand is a starter and a finisher and an inbetweener!

It has been a week of harsh weather here, and the cold weather and short daylight hours are beginning to frustrate me. Winter is meant to be a time when I can check and repair walls, fences, stiles etc. But I don't seem to be making much progress anywhere. Winter is also of course the season to rest and be jolly. I sometimes find that difficult, but here's trying...

KFC are a bit reluctant to come out of their house - the photo shows Charlotte helping Sarah persuade them to come out for a bit. The weather has been fairly awful - yesterday we got our first snow of the season. Huge great flakes for an hour or so, but by the afternoon it had all gone. The sign of things to come no doubt. The chickens are very well-behaved - all up on their roosting bar by 4pm, no madcap chases like I had with Osborne & Gove. And I have not killed them yet. Eva bought six bantams,keeping three when she gave me three. She now only has two after one of them hanged itself on a nail in her chicken house. At this stage an ex-police spokesperson said "We are still making enquiries, and are not ruling out fowl play. Any information would be welcome."

I seem to have it genetically programmed that November is the month to deal with rhubarb. And having dug our massive new rhubarb bed, I was keen to get some 'barb in it. So we dug up some of our rhubarb, and with a spade cut it into chunks, each with a bit of root and a bud. It is funny old stuff - like a very old rotten tree root. Then we planted each with yet more manure and a sprinkling of TLC. November also means strawberries, and fed up with the slugs and the grass this year, I am trying a new plan with raised beds surrounded by yet more inverted old carpet with chipping on top. Two of the three beds are now planted up. And its Movember, so I'm growing a facial hedge complete with twirly bits - v itchy. I was not sure which of the three November plantings you would most like a photo of. In the end I opted for the strawb beds!

Early Xmas present from Eva! They are bantams, and won't start laying to the Spring. They are settling themselves into the turkey house which has a little modification - it now has a microwave. Actually no microwave, but it does have a window. They are confined to barracks for 4 or 5 days, and then will go free-range. So, the head count at Farlands has increased to 20 005. Getting quite crowded.

   This seemed like a good idea at the time...if you need a translation, then give me a call and I'll make something up. There is a Part II, but I think Part I is enough...   

Like the trek itself, Kathmandu is going both backwards and forwards in terms of progress. The city stinks, and seems to have got far worse over my 20 years of visiting, The pollution, the smog is appalling - the locals are now wearing face-masks as well as the Japanese tourists (who strangely were still wearing them at ABC itself (Sarah refused to allow me to ask one of them why; and she had an important potential sanction, refusing to zip our sleeping bags together - crucial at 4000m in my experience). There is rubbish everywhere, piles of it, not to mention the heavily polluted rivers and streams in the city. But what did seem to be new was the chaos - everywhere seemed to being knocked down and re-built. Bricks, rubble, metal rods everywhere. It was my room 101 - immersion in one giant building project with everyone you met being a builder. In terms of progress, Nepal seems to have developed a middle class; whether this is a good or bad thing I will leave to your own politics...

Just back from Nepal... Our Annapurna Base Camp trek was a good one - 10 days of almost perfect weather, no rain. Great views, smiling faces everywhere and pizza and apple pie every night if you wanted it. And we did! I did this trek 20 years ago. Some things have not changed at all; the subsistence agriculture is still very evident and makes a very interesting if humiliating (the size of their cabbages!) trekking panorama. Nepali livestock are trained to be precise... But, a lot has changed. Mobile phones are ubiquitous - including ABC itself. Even the odd laptop. Like many developing countries, they have bypassed landlines. And electricity is almost everywhere; with all its associated hoorays (lights, microwaves, even a hoover in one lodge) and boos (TVs). A man with a hoover...

I have finally dug the new rhubarb bed. Not a casual undertaking as it is a new bed, and involved double-digging and wheelbarrowing copious amounts of manure from the local farm. For those not familiar with double-digging, here is my method:- 1. remove turfs from a section (I did about 0.5 m squared at a time) 2. dig out subsoil (about 30cms) and put to one side 3. remove about 5-10 cms of regolith (I looked this term up but it is very distinct - rocks and pebbles, no humus at all); dispose (using 'penguin' trousers as used in the film The Great Escape) 4. invert turfs and lay at bottom of hole 5. fill with 10-15cms of manure 6. back fill with subsoil (mixing in more manure) I have had a massive problem with slugs living in the ever-encroaching grass, so my latest plan is to use inverted carpet to surround my beds, and cover it with chipping. This can be seen in the photos. This is quite hard work, but regularly punctuated by almost getting stuck in the next-d...

No, we have not opened our doors to the great unwashed. But, we have got RHI! The greatest (financial) risk of the whole project has been whether we would get it. We have and that could be worth £50 000 over the 20 years of the scheme. A little detail? (Rhetorical I am afraid to anyone who knows me.) The Renewable Heat Incentive is the government's subsidy scheme similar to FIT (Feed in Tariffs; for electrical generation via solar energy). RHI concerns heat energy and can be generated in a number of (renewable) ways; including wind, solar, hydro, heat pumps and biomass (wood). We have a wood pellet boiler so we are eligible. The RHI scheme is not yet open for domestic customers (it soon will be), but we are considered a district installation (ie non-domestic) as our one boiler feeds two council tax properties (ie our House and our Cottage). So we are eligible now. Scores on the doors? The government will pay us 8.3p for every KW hour that we generate. Up to a yearly max...

...this blog is about the kitchen. I should perhaps add that popular on this blog means one person (I won't name you but good luck next week). I was not going to blog the kitchen because it's just a load of cupboards and no pull-up bars. Well, cupboards arranged around the cook's triangle (oven, fridge and sink for those of you who go to work). In fact the kitchen is now cunningly arranged as a galley to give views of South Head and no mad corner-cupboards. We have an extractor which uses the Beaufort Scale, we have an arch, and we have one cupboard (floor to ceiling) for tupperware. Another cupboard for bread making stuff, and one for cakes. One for camping stuff, one for bins (we are utilising a 4-bin system)... I love my kitchen, and I try to spend more time there...

Now, this is real progress! The gym is fab, fab, fab; and it is not even finished yet. A bit more equipment to dig out (my sit-up inversion boots), and a bit to buy (cycling machine). And some minor details like finishing the painting and installing the cupboards etc. And some progress toward my sanity too. I thought yesterday that no contractors would be here; but at 4pm a builder turned up. Not lost, not even thirsty... Normal service today:- chaos as the electricians undo the cleaner's morning efforts. In the garden, the bees got their own back for being fed tardily (in their opinion) (they could leave the hive occasionally); my 1st bee sting since looking after them. And I am enjoying the sun (at long last) by clearing up the veg garden. As I weed and dig I contemplate the harvesting of our orchard - a solitary pear.

...are still firmly encamped here at Farlands. As I write this I am having a conversation with an electrician who has just taken up a floorboard of my office. To distract me from him distracting me I can look out of my (1st floor) window directly at a NW electricity operative re-attaching the electricity cable across the gable end of our house. Through the (remaining) floorboards, I can hear the other electrician hammering (should electricians be hammering?) in our new (mostly) kitchen and the floor chap in the gym (don't call it a utility room or I'll dedicate a whole blog to its nomenclature). And that's not even a mention of the painter... We are making progress, but to quote our neighbour "why does everyone make a big job out of a small job?"!. Progress this week has included the kitchen reaching finishing stages...after 3 weeks of washing up in the bath and cooking with microwave and freezer, I am beginning to run out of inspiration. Last night I did no...

Try a William Boyd novel. They hook you from the start, have interesting and original plots and are not overly long. What's more there are lots of them, and relatively easy to find in second-hand bookshops. Perfect for a holiday read, if you are stuck on a difficult novel or just want something a bit different. His books sometimes feel like he has written them with the aid of a special book-kaleidoscope: twist it again, 10 bizarre plot-lines fall out and Boyd glues them together in 300 pages. Try one!

Our monster boiler (this metaphor does not include the hopper silo which is another order of magnitude, or to continue the same metaphor, it is a monster silo even for a monster) is awake. (some of) the control panels! Awake ie fully functioning. We have had hot water and heating in the cottage and heating downstairs in the house for 10 days now. But, for some reason the heat would not reach the upstairs radiators. Our plumber tried everything except swearing which I thought was unusual. The reason was that this house has zoned heating! There was an electric switch in the downstairs WC but now defunct due to the boiler removal. But, when I mentioned zoned heating to the plumber (on the verge of swearing, I felt) he suddenly rushed upstairs, took up a carpet and found under a (screwed-down) floorboard, a manual zoning switch. A flick. And we are now officially warm! If you are interested, I have 17 puffa jackets now for sale on ebay...

The project seems to have developed a mind of its own; it is reaching out for the downstairs WC, and the ensuite bathroom. A more rational explanation is that we had never previously considered the WC but with no boiler, and no airing cupboard and dust of probably 130 years old in there, it will need either its door bolted shut, or yet more builders to make good. Our ensuite bathroom has suffered from yet another leak - the cause this time is that our shower pipework (in a stud wall, so not replaced) could not cope with the increased water pressure. I'm thinking of leaving the project to get on with it, and going to live in the shed. Saturday was a chink in the chaos and rain that has engulfed Farlands - not only did I mow the lawn, but we picked a basket of OK veg.

...just to keep up with the Jones. Well, Max and Gail - apparently it was all the rage in Llangollen a few months back. So, this week it is the turn of the kitchen for mayhem and chaos. The old kitchen is now in the skip, and as a result we are eating our of the freezer and washing up in the bath. And for those of you who use ebay, I had some ebay magic this week - sold the oil barrel (39 watchers!) for £103 and the cottage oil boiler (21 watchers) for £185.

A few days in Devon which included daily swimming in the ice-cold Artic Ocean (well, it felt like it) has frozen off my project stresses and hopefully not too much else. It was great to spend time with Charlie and Jude (who had flown in from Guatemala) and Peter and Lesley in an action-packed body-boarding, BBQ and walking fest. Now it's back to the project! This week has seen visits from the builders, joiner, plumbers and decorator. We are getting there!   And if you have a few moments, this short video of our first pellet delivery is worth a look:- Coming soon!

 

Crazy week with more workmen here than at a Balfour Beatty Xmas party. Not that it has felt like a party - each day has finished with the need and not the accomplishment of alcohol-induced relaxation. But, we are getting there! This week has seen the complete and successful installation of our new water system - the water to the House (and the Cottage) is now stored (800 litres), ph corrected (ph6 to ph9), filtered (particular and uv) and then pumped. Turning a tap on is still surprising me. For those that know me it is not really alcohol that is taking me into oblivion each evening - it is in fact ice-cream, chocolate and books. I'm now into Jonathan Franzen's pre- Freedom novel, The Corrections . It's all very American so far, but has just endeared itself to me with the most fantastic simile - He ate arugula ("rocket", the old farmers called it) so strong it made his eyes water, like a paragraph of Thoreau . That has really made my week!

Chaos here this week - workmen in every nook and cranny. No hot water, so I am washing in the sink with the help of a kettle. Requires a strategy! By coincidence, Sarah has decided to go to the gym a lot this week. One surprise in the kitchen - Martin discovered an arch which we are now keeping. My theory is that the kitchen was once a garage of some sort, because this arch looks to be an external entrance as opposed to an internal feature. Farlands - a palimpsest of surprises! At least this one did not require a hefty sloe gin to revover from. Finished McEwan's Amsterdam - another of his short, sting-in-the-nail novels - very addictive!

The project is crescendo-ing to a finale! But, this week will be big. BIG. The boxes (ie boiler room and gym) are just about finished - concrete floors were poured on Friday. The porch as you can see below is also taking shape. Tomorrow morning will see the arrival of about 15 workmen from 4 different firms to start filling the boxes with our new boiler and water systems, and of course my new pull-up-bar!

...well, at least to the local second-hand bookshop. 12 books in about as many minutes! More of them in a mo. But first, the chaos. The builders have knocked through from the kit room into the hall - dust everywhere despite several walls of plastic. So many walls of plastic and sheets that going up and down the stairs has become a time-consuming adventure (perhaps similar to negotiating a Turkish massage-parlour boudoir). It has also necessitated me to make a packed lunch in my own house! I'm trying to keep the builders morale up - entertainment this week has included me taking down the washing from the whirlygig whilst wearing a pair of gloves. My explanation is that I was mowing the grass, it started to rain, and I did not want to get the white-wash grassy. All of this chaos and mayhem has driven me to ice-cream with everything, and a trip to the local bookshop - how about this for a fab book list:- Amsterdam (McEwan - just about completing my collection) The Bridge...

An AB day ( Absolutely Bonkers day in James and Sarah textspeak - please share yours!) yesterday. Full speed ahead on the extension - on site were 3 x builders, the plumber, electrician and joiner. The share price of both Tetleys and McVities jumped 10%. Lots of progress - they have now broken into the house in the kit room, plaster-boarded most of the two new rooms, and the doors and windows are being fitted. I love the new gym room door (I will be massaging it later with Danish Oil). I hope it's ok to love a door. After all, some people love their neighbours. (But they probably don't massage them.) Other House Manager action included cottage guests arriving, cutting and fitting inspection pipes for some of our communal water source taps (in the field above Eva), and the usual activities on the veg and fruit plot (harvesting potatoes, spinach, beans, tayberries and loganberries; planting out more chard and spinach and weeding) (and murdering slugs of course).

One of the more unusual ideas suggested by Seymour in his Self-Sufficiency bible is the bud grafting of pear scions to hawthorn hedges. The principle of grafting is to bind the cambium layer (between bark and the wood) of both scion and stock. Over the weekend I had a go! Step 1 - obtain pear scions - 30cm 'bud sticks' of this year's growth Step 2 - cut a T shaped slit in the hawthorn stock (ie shoots on the hawthorn hedge) Step 3 - cut small (2 cm or so) shield shape pieces of the scion to include a bud (no leaf) Step 4 - insert shield into T slit Step 5 - bind with grafting tape I did 20 over the weekend! If it works, we should get pears on our hawthorn hedge. Not only that, but Sarah will eat my hat (albeit with a little creme fraiche).

...on the extension:- the first Velux window is complete, and by the end of this week the roof should be fully slated. Wednesday is due to be the first fix (self-explanatory if you know about these things. If you don't, then basically, the builders are laying their first bet (with me) as to their date of completion.) ...and in the garden. My hard-working father has been to stay again and together we built another set of steps in the orchard - named by him The Olympic Steps (I think because of the amount of hard work he put into them).

The 1st reckoning for the PV panels has arrived - 1 year since installation. The predicted target was 2391 KWs for our 3.76 KW system (which suffers from 21% shading). With the unpredictable weather over the last few months, and in particular the South-lurking Gulf Stream, the target has looked totally out-of-reach. However, we almost hit it. Our 1st year total is 2327 KW (just over 97% of target). And if you like statistics:- the best week was 118 KWs (week beginning 23 May) the best day was 19 KWs (3x) (30 April, 21, 23 May)  average required was 6.55 KWs a day average reached was 6.4KWs a day And in terms of the investment:- our outlay should be repaid in about 12 years (depending on weather and solar panel degradation) of the 25 year government-guaranteed (we hope) FIT (Feed In Tariff) scheme. Graphs, pie-charts, venn diagrams and johari windows to follow!

It was our 13th wedding anniversary last week - unlucky for some maybe, but I spent it with my mother-in-law. (And Sarah!) To mark the occasion, I have improved the steps down from the drive to the garden - using a bucketful of cement from the builders, I fixed the wobbly ones. And a general weed and tidy up has made them double in size. They are now officially the Anniversary Steps . In their improvement, I actually found a bottom corner block that was totally under grass (bottom right of photo); and it made me wonder what other hidden treasures lie around Farlands...

Week 6 - the stone walls have now reached the pitched roof, and the corbel stone (the topmost quoin) has been cut and placed. The corbel was cut and chiselled from a rectangular block using a cardboard template pattern. And the roof slates have arrived. The corbel It has been a much better week in the garden - we are picking strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants as fast as we can process them. Some flash freezing, but plenty on cereal, with ice-cream or meringues and I did a Summer pudding this week. Quite tasty if I do say so myself! And now the sun is here, it's a big catch-up on the dry jobs - kindling collection, weeding the slug-infested veg garden and fruit cage.

Week 5 of the extension has seen the roof taking shape - we are having three velux windows in the pitched roof (23 degrees). Two of the windows are in the Utility Room / Gym. These windows seem huge, and should give plenty of light and, of course, room to skip! (Not skip around-the-room skip-around-the-room , but hardcore Rocky -type skipping.) Back in the garden, one of Eva's hens is laying at Farlands again - one of the bright moments on these dreary midge-infested days.

Visible progress has slowed, not because of the persistent rain (our builders do it in all weathers), but because they are now building the stone. The gable window is a beauty, and the quoins are also very attractive. I have watched the builders preparing the stone - this is not a Barratt extension! This is a short video of Mark chiseling the margin (the inch wide finish on the corner of the building). He called this margin a harris, but I cannot find this in a dictionary or on google (further research needed!).

'It all' being work, the rain, the builders. We only had a week, and we had to pop back in the middle to check on the builders, but we had a great week, and at least got away from work and the builders... But, not the rain. We spent the first few days wild camping in the Lakes, around Thirlmere. It was very wet - in fact, I can't remember a trip when I did not take my waterproof trousers from start to finish (apart from in bed). After a lightning visit home, we then went South to find more rain and the East of England show at Peterborough - we had a great day looking at giant tractors, huge animals and having interesting chats on bees, farriery, floppy-eared goats and dry-stone walling. Dry-stone walling was especially interesting (and nothing to do with them having cakes to tempt people to stop and chat.)  A former life? Who's imitating who?

Finally, I've managed to get another article published. Slight change in genre from mountaineering to gay porn. Actually, no. I've written a two-parter for Smallholder magazine ( http://www.smallholder.co.uk/ ):- Opening the Gate to a new life Part I:- Becoming smallholders - James Ellson explains why and how he bought a smallholding. I looked out of the upstairs bay window and could feel tears welling up. I saw paddocks, trees, a greenhouse, a fenced vegetable garden; and hills beyond. And I dreamed of bees, an orchard, chickens, pigs, and being self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables. Unable to speak, I nodded at my wife and the estate agent... If you want to read more you could:- 1) rush out and buy a copy 2) email me, and I will send you one!

We went away for a couple of days, and the builders built the extension!

Sorry about all the numbers in the title - I am 2! The builders have been v busy - soakaway is done (including pipe across the drive) - this is for 'top' water ie rainfall, and goes into a hole at the top of the bottom paddock. And the slabs are complete - the foundation layers for the walls and rooms to sit on. It's been interesting watching the progress - amazing number of layers; including MOT (aggregate), waterproof membrane, sand, insulation and metal grid and then cement. The building Inspector has been up at least 5x so far - reminds me of having my homework checked!

...went to mow a meadow... And that man was my Dad! And together we did a few other things too - continued building my 3rd set of (rustic) steps up into the orchard, covered the latest wood stacks, erected a fence to prevent those ******* sheep eating my young hazel trees, and chopped & stacked more firewood. In return (in what I like to think is ascending order) he got an England victory over the Ukraine, glorious sunshine and my cooking. If you want to mow the meadow, please get in touch!

The builders have started at speed! The drive is in chaos - skip, digger, small crane, portaloo, builders vans and builders! They have already removed 6 massive skipfuls of rock and dirt (including a half-car sized boulder), had the building Inspector visit 3x (he is happy) and laid some of the foundations (cement lorry has been up 2x). And it's only day 3.