EcoDIY www.ecodiy.org

Flying Saucers land again

2012-01-27T09:11:00.002Z

Oh no!! another reminder of times gone by (when I had more hair and less beard!)
see the BBC One Show clip on youtube; http://youtu.be/GkA-CG_xxhU or the 20th Jan 'One Show' on BBC Iplayer

Sowing begins

2012-01-11T07:33:00.001Z

Jerome our wwoofer learning to split

Sowing nuts (in January not May!)

Now the shortest day is past and the chickens are beginning to lay again my thoughts turn towards the spring!
Sowing seeds this week - Pak Choi, lettuce and cut and come again salad in the polytunnel. Tomatoes and peppers in the propagator to plant out later in the green house (we are still picking tomatoes from the greenhouse so I haven't made the difficult decision to clear out the old plants yet!
Coppicing is going ahead in earnest in the wood with the help of our wwoofer Jerome and Shawn and Barry (trading labour for logs) We are starting with the Hazels this year and going on to sweet chestnuts later. The last storm brought down a dead birch and large dead oak so there is lots of wood to use this winter.
The new solar PV is working well - happy days!

Western Capitalism - what next?

2011-12-22T08:48:00.000Z

The capitalism we have today is at root an immoral system as it depends on exploiting (over the recent century’s and in preset day) the powerless, using their resources (natural resources from other countries) and labour (from our own underpaid workers and those in the third world) to add to our capital to give us a better lifestyle. Add to this the use of cheap energy which in effect exploits the future generations by creating climate change and wasting that fossil fuel capital.

Any system based on immoral ground will become corrupt as ours has.

Somehow we must come up with a new vision of what green sustainable capitalism would look like. If we are to win the argument it must be based on sound moral and ethical ground.

Some ideas:

A great principle - From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.
A ratio between earnings in a firm of the highest wage not more than 10 times that of the lowest wage.
Local banks, credit unions, crowd funding to reform the credit system.
A return to 'sound' money where the money supply is connected to real GDP not created out of thin air.
A figure of GDP and therefore growth that measures the positive healthy, activity that adds to well-being of the country and doesn't count other destructive activities as being 'growth'!
Community based self reliance - supporting local producers and businesses.
Re-skilling formal and informal being supported in every way through apprenticeships, adult education, evening classes, cheap venues in local halls etc

More ideas please.

Chainsaw Mill

2011-12-03T10:08:00.000Z

Yes we have bitten the bullet (after looking at all the Wood-Mizer etc options) and bought an Alaskan Mill. With my MS 280 Stihl saw we can cut about 15 inches of width. The saw is working hard and its slow progress. I have decided to buy a bigger saw (from Ebay) and won a Stihl 046 which is older but much more powerful. I will be able to leave this in the mill which will save me time. Hope we will soon have some nice oak and chestnut gateposts and planks to sell!

Try these out

2011-11-29T18:17:00.000Z

Great video on the story of fossil fuels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-J91SwP8w&feature=colike
And
Look at this crowd funding site, one answer to the credit/ capital / banks crisis
http://www.peoplefund.it/

Buddleia garden sticks

2011-11-27T09:39:00.000Z

Now is a good time to prune buddleia bushes and as a bonus the prunings make great garden canes for next year.

On another topic; We have had a very nice feature about EcoDIY in the Essex Gazette see http://www.ecodiy.org/gazette%20article.pdf (its a Pdf download)

Holey apples batman

2011-11-20T08:21:00.000Z

Here is our wwoofer Charlotte making apple rings for drying. The rings are dried on canes and racks by the wood stove or in the solar drier
The rings make great snacks and additions to cakes etc.

A new solar PV system for the workshop

2011-11-17T09:42:00.000Z

The roofers fitting the PV rails to our oak stringers

The completed 16 PV panels

Yesterday was an epic day here as the new 4kw solar PV panels arrived. We had already spent a week digging a half meter deep trench to take 45meters of heavy armoured mains cable and a network cable from the workshop to the house - the dry clay we had to dig out was like concrete!

Steve and Fraser digging the trench

Then we fitted the stringers to the galvanised workshop roof which we had cut from one of the oak trees cut in our woodland.
.

Chris and Steve fitting the oak stringers
We are hoping to log the performance of the system by PC using the network cable. Watch this space for reports.

Insulating our floor - a tough job completed

2011-11-09T20:10:00.000Z

Yippee!! we have just finished insulating our floor with recycled insulation (with Steve's help)
This was probably the hardest job I have ever had to do! it involved crawling under our house fitting the insulation offcuts which we had cut to fit between the rafters under the floor. Dark, dirty and cramped, in the course of the work we had to slide over , under and round the sewer pipes, plumbing and gas pipes (without damaging them). The pay-off is that as well as a warmer house I now have a garage and workshop which can be used for more productive things than storing the insulation - celebration time!!

Cutting the insulation to the spacing of the rafters.

Disappearing under the floor

We cut a hole in our office floor!

Urgent information about FIT (feed in tariff)

2011-10-30T17:19:00.001Z

Information from an accidently published document from the Energy Saving Trust;

If you are thinking of installing Solar PV in the near future be aware that the government is proposing to drop the FIT on systems installed after 12^th December 2011 to 21p per unit!!

Second crop of figs

2011-10-28T08:11:00.000+01:00

Our largest fig tree is ripening a second crop of fruit this year, I have picked five ripe figs so far. This is the first year I have ever seen this happen! has anyone else experienced the same thing?

Late courgettes and beans

2011-10-13T06:56:00.000+01:00

The courgettes we planted in pots in august and then put into the poly tunnel when some tomatoes plants came out are now cropping well, producing a courgette each per day. I planted the late crop of purple climbing french beans in ever corner I could find in and out doors including some places in the poly tunnel where the cucumbers had finished. The indoor beans are now cropping and the outdoor beans just starting, as long as the frost holds off we will have tender autumn beans this year.

Cutting the super willows

2011-10-12T09:04:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we harvested the superwillows planted three years ago. They would have shaded out the solar PV we are putting on the roof of the workshop and it was time to harvest anyway. We cut a good load of wood for burning, some cuttings for planting and the rest was chipped by our WWOOFer Ales and put round the raspberries as a mulch.

This blog sums up a lot of what I have been thinking about our economic future

2011-10-10T07:26:00.000+01:00

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-10-09/destroying-dreams-peak-oil-way

Start of the timber harvest.

2011-10-07T07:50:00.000+01:00

It was an important day in the life of our wood yesterday. We took a half ton (green) oak log to a friend with a large saw and he cut it into 75mm planks. Sounds easy when you say it like that doesn't it! The reality was two hours of experimenting using an engine hoist to get the log into our (newly bought) trailer, pulling the trailer onto the road using our old tractor and a nervous trip in the van to the boatyard where the saw was.

Anyway, now we have all this lovely wood!!! Steve helped by cutting the planks into rails to go onto the workshop roof to take the solar PV panels we are planning to install there and the rest of the wood should re-appear out of Steve's workshop as beautiful furniture sometime in the future.
This should be the start of many more trips to the saw as we convert our oak and chestnut buts into saleable posts and planks. Yippee!!!

Permaculture Association LAND learning centre success

2011-10-01T08:24:00.000+01:00

Rosie and I are celebrating this week passing our assessment to be a Permaculture Association LAND learning centre.This means that groups can obtain funding from the Permaculture Association to come and visit us here and see what we are up to. We are looking forward to having (and learning from) lots of interesting visitors.

Dealing with powdery mildew.

2011-09-26T07:48:00.000+01:00

We get problems with powdery mildew on peas, courgettes, cucumbers etc this seems to happen (particularly with peas later in the season. I have discovered a simple cure - a dilute solution of baking soda (about a teaspoon to a pint of water) sprayed on the leaves kills it off and seems to act as a deterrent. We have courgette plants starting to flower in the poly tunnel (a late sowing experiment!) and they were coming down with mildew. This treatment has stopped it in its tracks.
We had great fun harvesting our walnuts this weekend (no squirrel this year?) and had a bumper crop of 9 kilos.

Harvesting our beans, seeds amd fruit

2011-09-18T10:04:00.000+01:00

Harvest time is here again; This time its dry beans (4 different kinds as part of this years experiment) sun flower seeds (for the birds in the winter and us) and bottling and jamming fruit. The beans shown are Canadian, purple climbing french and Canaletto. We are bottling our fruit this year to save space in the freezers as well as drying fruit and making fruit leather.

New friends at the EcoDIY open weekend

2011-09-13T07:30:00.000+01:00

I am happy to report that the weather was kind to us for our open weekend. We had over 80 visitors and spent many hours talking to lots of interesting people. As a result there were 14 people at the Tendring Eco Group meeting here last night and we are starting a wormery (to add to our list of livestock!)
Exhausted but happy - Chris

Support the Dale Farm travelers

2011-09-12T12:59:00.000+01:00

Support the Dale Farm travelers donate to their fund at
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=9G9BTVTPK7GXA&lc=GB&item_name=Dale%20Farm%20Housing%20Association&currency_code=GBP&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted

Puffball fungus

2011-09-06T08:22:00.001+01:00

I spotted this puffball across a field while walking the dog yesterday, we had it sliced and fried in (wicked!) butter - delicious!

Eco house open weekend

2011-08-31T07:35:00.000+01:00

Yes its that time again! We are opening our house and small holding from 10AM to 5PM on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September. No booking is necessary and directions can be found at http://www.ecodiy.org/ecodiy%20directions.htm
We are focusing this year on food growing and how to extend the season and the range of crops. We can also talk about keeping chickens and keeping bees in a more bee-friendly way. Have a look at the website www.ecodiy.org for more information on the house and small holding

Usefull report on energy and growth

2011-08-29T08:10:00.000+01:00

Check this useful DFID sponsored report on the link between energy and growth and the possibilities for growth in developing countries.
http://www.iier.ch/pub/files/Thu%2C%2008/25/2011%20-%2007%3A00/Green%20Growth%20DFID%20summary.pdf

Wasp attack

2011-08-26T09:20:00.000+01:00

Hi,
We are under unprecedented attack from wasps this year, especially on our grapes! The bees are also under attack but defending their hives successfully now I have made the entrances smaller.
We were looking forward to a great harvest from the vine on our veranda until about 10 days ago. The grapes are nearly ripe - quite sweet and edible.
We have tried, imitation wasp nests and traps without any great success (they keep on coming!) and in desperation I have started protecting the bunches in plastic bags, will see if that works.

If you have any other suggestions do let me know.

Processing tomatoes

2011-08-18T07:07:00.000+01:00

Yes its that time again! Many kilos of tomatoes are ready to process and we are trying different ways of preserving them for the winter. Our favorite is to cut out the hard core and roast in the oven with onion or garlic until reduced by about half. We then 'whiz' them and freeze or bottle the 'pasata'
We also have tried drying them and bottling them whole in brine - both work but don't seem to be so useful. Home grown tomatoes are a different animal to those bought in the shops, much sweeter and with a thinner skin so this process works even though we don't skin them first.
We are also drying our surplus figs before freezing them to make an ingredient for cakes etc. We cut off the stalk end of really ripe figs and slice them into quarters before drying them on a mesh near our stove, works well. We store these in the freezer,

Dome moan

2011-08-04T07:20:00.000+01:00

We are about to set off for camp! I have stored our (homemade! ) Geodesic dome in the trailer over winter. What an error that was!! Half of the 75 poles were destroyed by woodworm. So it was off to the wood for hazle replacements and 2 days hard work to make them into poles. The shave horse came in useful as Rosie is demonstrating.

panoramic pictures

2011-07-29T07:28:00.000+01:00

I have been playing with my photo software and made a panoramic view of our garden. You will need to click on the picture to get the full benefit!

Feeding our crops

2011-07-21T08:36:00.000+01:00

We are now harvesting (and eating!) 22 different vegetables and 8 different fruits (as they come into readiness).

This makes me think of how we feed the plants and keep the cycle going with local organic plant feeding.

Good compost; We make compost from chicken bedding, vegetable waste (including peelings from neighbours and friends who don’t have a compost heap), grass cuttings (from 2 professional gardeners to save them other disposal costs), cardboard (egg trays and boxes are ideal), our own pee, non-seeding weeds, spent pots and grow bags (out of skips) and wood ash sprinkled on as an occasional layer..
Well rotted horse manure, treat this with great caution and do a test sowing in it of beans or peas to check it is not contaminated with herbicide, (we collect and stack this for a year before use.)
Liquid feed made from any deep rooted weeds, nettles and comfrey leaves left to rot in water in a dustbin. Makes a good breeding place for hover flies which eat aphid in our garden.
Our pee diluted 5 to 1 as a liquid feed
Grass cuttings as a surface mulch to feed and keep the moisture in.
Top dressing with wood ash to provide potash (round fruit trees for example)
If I can scrounge fish heads and guts from the local fish monger these are buried where the runner beans or sweet corn are to be planted. Any feathers and remains from the chickens we eat are used the same way planted under fruit trees, bushes or vines.
Occasional use of fish, blood and bone where the soil needs a boost i.e., planting greens straight after another crop. I also sometimes (but rarely) use rock dust, calcined sea weed, and SM3 seaweed liquid feed to provide specific elements I feel might be lacking.

Liquid feed, hoverflies and carrot protection

2011-07-06T13:39:00.000+01:00

Liquid feed and home for hover fly larve

Liquid feed tub where we put all the nettles, comfrey, and serious weed roots to rot also makes a good home for hover fly larvae (rat tailed larvae). It’s very smelly so we cover it and leave a small gap for the hoverflies.
The peacock eggs (I know - peahen eggs!) came from our wood where an escaped peahen has set up home and is laying eggs out in the open (inexperienced i guess?)
I have used some secondary double glazing we were given to make carrot fly barriers - hope it will work, I will keep you posted.

Hat full of peacock (hen!) eggs

Anti carrot fly barrier

Belated Happy Solstice!

2011-06-22T08:07:00.000+01:00

What I forget to post yesterday! Happy Solstice everyone. The garden is a powerhouse of green and producing more that we can eat! a bumper year for raspberries so freezing, bottling and jamming. A great contact for kilner jars at better than supermarket prices for bottling fruit http://www.jamjarshop.com/buy/kilnerpreservingjars/?catid=46 . Yesterday we went to the estuary by Brightlingsea for a (very windy ) solstice celebration - very elemental.

New cleaving brake in wood

2011-06-21T09:12:00.001+01:00

I have now (nearly) finished a tripod cleaving brake in our wood. Now I just have to practice using it!

Saving seed

2011-06-20T09:10:00.000+01:00

yes it is that time of year again and I am collecting and drying plants with seeds - currently; Rocket, pak choi, lettuce, spinach.

Blooming June

2011-06-19T09:25:00.000+01:00

Just a couple of pictures of the vegetable garden in full production. Lots of flowers visible, I like to mix all sorts of plants together so calendulas all over, borage and phacelia (full of bees) various things going to seed for saving for next year - rocket, lettuce, parsnip, radish (and for eating the pods)

Lots of borage

Squashes centre stage

We are still suffering the effects of Clopyralid (Persistent herbicide)

2011-06-18T08:37:00.000+01:00

We are still suffering the effects of Clopyralid (Persistent herbicide) in our compost. The latest problem is in our main crop peas (see picture) I have also had trouble with my sunflower seedlings and bean seedlings in pots and in the ground. The pot problem is particularly frustrating as I was planting in pots to avoid low germination problems and inadvertently managed to use contaminated horse manure in the compost. The Internet seems to offer only time as a healer for this problem! see this useful article; http://www.jgpress.com/BCArticles/2001/070125.html

Distorted peas

Damaged sunflower head

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

2011-06-13T08:03:00.001+01:00

I thoroughly recommend downloading the three episodes of this BBC series from i player (you can download on to your pc and have a month to watch them) and on utube. Helps to understand the process that led up to our current world economic situation and the role that the states played in the whole mess.

Gardening top tip!

2011-06-09T21:43:00.000+01:00

Instead of sowing herbs like basil and parsley buy a tray of plants from your supermarket (intended to cook with). My tray of basil plants contained 25 plants and cost me 50p - bargain! These trays are often reduced in price as they reach their sell by date to be even cheaper!!

Rain at last

2011-06-07T07:51:00.001+01:00

Strawberry tart - yum yum

Yes 21 millimeters of rain yesterday! All the tanks are full and I can plant out the winter brassicas today with no worries. In the wood the new tarp collected 35 gallons - result!

Everything is early

2011-06-05T08:40:00.000+01:00

Yes this is a spectacularly early year!
We are picking; Raspberries, strawberries, courgettes, cucumbers, peas and sugar snap peas and would you believe our first ripe tomatoes! According to my gardening diary of last year two to three weeks earlier for most things!

On the rain front; we have had 10mm of rain in the last month. They are promising rain tonight so we are working hard to make the most of it. Here is a construction we have made in the wood to funnel rain into a depression and capture it.

Phacelia in bloom

2011-05-25T18:03:00.000+01:00

Bumble bees working on phacelia flowers. We grew phacelia as a green manure over the winter. I left a few plants to go to seed so as to save the seed for another sowing. I didn't expect such a striking flower - would be at home in the flower border as well as the veg patch

Poor hatch from our broody hens

2011-05-25T07:44:00.000+01:00

We are getting very poor results from our broodys this year. Some of the failures are infertile eggs and I guess our cockerel may be struggling to cover our twenty four hens. We have also had lots of eggs developed but not hatched and I am wondering if this is to do with the dry weather. I have built the nests with soil as usual but the soil is dryer this year. Anyone else had similar experiences? The last hen to hatch was distressing for me as she hatched some chicks but killed them all herself -young inexperienced mother I guess freaking out when the chicks appeared underneath her!!

Now the wind!

2011-05-24T07:24:00.000+01:00

Yes, on top of the drought (three months and counting since significant rain!) we have strong winds this week battering and damaging the plants - especially the courgettes and squashes. I have had to cover them with cloches to protect them. The Bees swarmed yesterday in spite of the 40mph winds, they hung very tightly together on a tree and were easy to shake into a basket and run into a hive. The good news is that the solar water heating panel and the solar PV (electricity producing panels) have done very well over the last two months averaging more electricity than ever before.

WWOOF helpers are great!

2011-05-19T07:29:00.000+01:00

We have just had a family from WWOOF http://www.wwoof.org.uk staying with us to help in the wood and smallholding - a great week with very nice (highly skilled ) people. WWOOF is a great idea, people stay with us (usually for a week ) living as part of our family and trade their help 5 hours a day 5 days a week for board and lodging. No money changes hands and we have made several good friends in the process.


Nessa, Christoph, Gabe and Alma removing bracken in the wood

Swarms in unusual places

2011-05-16T09:20:00.000+01:00

We had a call about bees just entering the space above a porch

The bees had already moved in but the owners allowed me to remove the side of the porch roof
We constructed a device from a snow shovel a piece of carpet and a sheet. I slid it under the bees and used another construction of a telescopic paint pad with cardboard taped to it to dislodge the bees.

Gingerly pulling the snow shovel covered in bees out.

About one third of the bees were on the sheet

The bees climbed up into the basket.and the basket was propped on a ladder near where the bees were entering the roof. The queen must have been in the basket as the bees flowed out of the roof down into the basket.
After an hour most of the bees were in the basket and were covered in a sheet and transported to their new site. They were introduced to a hive the next morning as it was late by the time I got them home.
They are doing well and will be passed to a new beekeeper just beginning in beekeeping.

Broody hens everywhere

2011-05-15T18:10:00.000+01:00

Yes our hens are going broody left right and centre (must be the hot weather). Two of the sitting hens have hatched so far but with disappointing results so far with four chicks each (out of 8 and 11 eggs ) don't know if our cockerel is a bit past it or its the weather (again!) here is a picture of the coup ready for the next hopeful mother. The coup is filled with earth to make a nest which will keep the eggs in the right humidity.

Desert Gardening

2011-05-09T08:04:00.000+01:00

We are now entering our third month with no significant rain! The garden is looking amazingly good considering but given our resolve not to use mains water to water the garden with we are very dependant on the well we dug out.
The techniques we use for dealing with this climate are evolving:

Planting in the autumn and early spring under protection - plastic cloches, polythene and fleece is essential and not expensive if you use recycled materials.
Mulching everywhere makes a huge difference - we use grass cuttings supplied by a few professional gardeners who are keen to have an alternative to the recycling centre for them. Because they cut the grass regularly we get little problem with seed in the cuttings.
Learning which plants can cope and need little watering is also essential - for instance leeks are able to survive on very little but squashes need the water.
Every drop of water from the house is used either by pouring it from the bowls onto the plants or via the reed bed and of course we harvest all the rainwater we can if it does rain.
We use deep beds and add lots (and I mean lots) of compost and rotted horse manure to the beds.
We pray for rain!!!

Recycled polycarbonate sheeting is great!!

2011-04-27T08:45:00.001+01:00

We have just eaten our first courgette and peas of the season thanks to recycled polycarbonate cloches and old glass doors;

Peas in a glass door cloche (overwintered with a row of carrots)

Polycarbonate cloche

First courgette from a plant in a polycarbonate cloche

Queen Rearing update

2011-04-23T07:32:00.001+01:00

The first weeks efforts was a failure due to the queen from the breeding stock hive managing to end up in the (supposedly!) queen-less hive with the grafted queen cups (don't ask how!!) Have now made a second attempt to do the same process. Else where the drought is worrying me, I am using the well we opened up last year to water where needed and we still have stocks of rainwater from the winter. We watered the (over 200!) new trees in the wood yesterday with rainwater from home (the soil there was still remarkably moist under the mulch of leaves. We have our first tomato flowers in the solar greenhouse and baby courgettes on the outdoor (under cloches) courgettes. Loving it!!

Queen rearing

2011-04-11T07:53:00.001+01:00

Today (on the last warm day of this week!) I am starting my queen rearing process. I confined the queen in the hive I want to breed from in a part of her hive (with a frame made from queen excluder plastic) and today I hope to take the comb of hatching eggs (she should have laid!!!) and make strips of comb with eggs in to put into a queen-less hive, I will rub out two cells out of every three in a row to make more room for the bees to make the (larger) queen cells . I am hoping the bees will make these remaining cells into queen cells. If all goes well I will put the sealed queen cells into some mini hives (stocked with a cup full of bees each!!) and hope to have a supply of mated queens in about a month to use when needed. Lots of things could go wrong so wish me luck!!

I love spring

2011-04-08T07:53:00.000+01:00

Twenty One degrees yesterday! My first beekeeping day of 2011 - I went through the 13 hives that went into the winter and the results were better than I had hoped for. Eleven hives with a brood laying queen, one hive with bees but no queen or brood (I put a comb of eggs into the hive to give them a chance of making a queen cell) one hive dead - lots of food cause of death unknown.
Also the first broody hen - our bantam (a good reliable mother) now sitting on eight eggs. And (would you believe it!!) our first courgette flower; on a plant under a large cloche made from recycled polycarbonate. The tomato plants in the greenhouse and polytunnel are up to a foot tall and there is blossom everywhere, I love spring.

In praise of tomato ring culture

2011-03-30T11:58:00.000+01:00

I have started using rings (often made of plywood !) to grow my indoor tomatoes. The advantages are that I can put fresh 'good' soil mixture in the rings each year without changing the whole of the soil in the poly tunnel/greenhouse. The plants use the lower soil for a water source and the upper roots feed from the manure etc in the ring mixture (my mixture is about equal parts leaf mold, well rotted compost, good soil, and a little wood ash) I grow other things in the bed around the rings (salad, climbing beans etc)

Transition Town Wivenhoe (TTW): Home-brew Seed Compost

2011-03-28T07:41:00.001+01:00

Useful receipe and description for making your own compost.
Transition Town Wivenhoe (TTW): Home-brew Seed Compost

Happy Equinox

2011-03-21T18:23:00.000Z

Spring is springing out all over!! We had a nice meal round the fire yesterday in the wood to celebrate equinox and the coming of spring. My favorite time of the year - i was watching dozens of frogs having an orgy in our pond today making a tropical din with their croaking! Sweet almond and apricot blossom is out (I am always a bit nervous about frost when its blossom time but this week looks OK

Bed of nails or what!!

2011-03-14T21:20:00.001Z

I spotted this dove on Clacton station. She had braved the (anti pigeon!) spikes to create a nest warmed by the monitor and protected by the spikes (re-incarnated from a fakir I reckon!)

The past comes back to haunt us (again)

2011-03-07T07:46:00.001Z

Daily Mail headline :
Attack of the flying saucers! How six 'UFOs' sparked a nationwide panic when they landed in Britain in 1967
see
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363151/UFO-fever-gripped-Great-Britain-late-Sixties--handful-students-perptrated-big-hoax.html

Planting Sweet Chestnut Trees with Jim and Zero (the dog!)

2011-03-02T15:51:00.000Z

Digging out the bracken (bad for the tree roots) and planting bargain (£1 each) chestnut trees from Beechwood Nurseries in N. Ireland

Compost from the sky!!

2011-02-22T09:48:00.000Z

A miracle!! The people next door are having their roof pressure washed!!! The process has produced many wheelbarrow loads of moss and soil (as well as using huge quantities of water!!). Of course I wasted no time in asking for the spoil. Must be as good as peat as a garden ingredient? The guy asked us to allow him to use our water supply as the flow from next door wasn't fast enough - I reluctantly agreed (all our water saving habits wiped out for a month or two!) They are going to spray the roof with something to inhibit the growth if new moss - something I am also uneasy about and will keep our fungus growing logs covered for the day in case of over spray.

Busy day at the coppice

2011-02-03T16:01:00.005Z

Just back from a few hours working in our woodland with my friend Steve. What a great day; sunny and clear - almost warm!! We are making good progress felling and logging the old (40 year old) chestnut coppice. Felling a few oak standards too mostly dead or damaged ones. Yesterday 100 chestnut trees arrived so I heeled them in ready to plant when we have logged this years trees. The chestnuts only cost me 81p each from Beechwood nurseries in Ireland - bargain! We are also planting ash trees (mostly sown ourselves or given to us) and a smattering of more interesting trees such as quince, field maple, black mulberry etc. Pictures are of the work in progress and last years coppice now planted up.

A good website for all things to reduce your carbon footprint

2011-01-26T17:24:00.000Z

Check out this website for all things to calculate and reduce your carbon footprintCarbon Balanced by the World Land Trust. Offset your carbon dioxide emissions: "-

Battling a Russian Vine

2011-01-25T16:48:00.000Z

We are lucky enough to have wwoofers staying with us at the moment - Kaz and her 8 year old daughter Tru. Great workers both of them! Today we tackled a Russian vine that had swamped a corner of the garden. What a job!! The vine had covered about 25 square meters and completely submerged a small shed I keep my bee equipment in. I used a chain saw to demolish the vine but that was just a start! The vine had strong roots over all of the area it covered and as I plan to plant gooseberries and tayberry there the roots had to come out.
We are both knackered but the ground is clear and with lots of compost dug ready for the new plants to arrive.

Spring is coming!

2011-01-11T07:45:00.000Z

Now the winter solstice is past and the days are gradually getting longer I have started to think about spring. I had a busy Christmas break but manged to fit in sorting our seed stock. As we save our own seeds we always have lots (even one plat produces loads more seeds than we use in a year!) And now is the beginning of the time to sow them. Have sown in the poly tunnel - lettuce, rocket, radish, carrot, peas, spinach, red and white beetroot, pak choi and mizuna. Next week I will sow (in a propagator) tomato, pepper and indoor courgette. In the poly tunnel will go spring brascicas and a few leeks. Meanwhile in the wood the coppicing goes on and we are planting trees in the spaces opened up. I am starting to think the winter wont be long enough for all the jobs I have planned for it! (only joking)
Happy gardening (between snow)

Nice pics for the new year (and charts!)

2011-01-01T17:32:00.000Z

Try this for interesting 2010 charts

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-01-01/2010-chart-year

Pictures in our wood at summer solstice thanks to Steve

Wishing you a Happy Solstice and a warm end to 2010

2010-12-21T07:46:00.000Z

Solstice, full moon and a lunar eclipse. WOW!

Twisted silver oak in Glebe Wood

We have a tractor for our woods (Yeaaa)

2010-12-01T16:51:00.000Z

We have found a nice little tractor for our wood, an ancient Leyland 154 dinky little thing but it seems to do the job (of towing tree trunks out of our wood) Still work is suspended now while it is snowy. We are appreciating our good supply of logs in this frosty weather. We have decided to start selling bags of logs with a sign on our gate we wait with interest for our first customer.
Rosie is pictured trying out her tractor driving skills.

Good use for old doors!

2010-11-05T07:38:00.002Z

Here is a picture of the small greenhouse just finished from 2 doubleglazed doors someon gave me. Planted up with Feltham First peas and carrots.

A sunflower makes a useful tool rack!

Green woodworking Day

2010-10-25T12:18:00.000+01:00

Sun, sun, sun all the way on our Green Woodworking day yesterday. All 5 participants worked nonstop on the shavehorses and pole laiths to produce dibbers, stools, mallets, and shave horses etc. See the pictures for the happy crew. Many thanks to Robin and Vanessa for a great day!

First frost

2010-10-22T09:00:00.000+01:00

This years first frost on Wednesday night - .5 degrees . I had harvested the squashes and out door tomatoes (those that hadn't been blighted!) and fleeced the outdoor peppers and (partly) fleeced the runner beans. The beans seem to have survived well, half the nasturtiums survived (i cant see why some caught the frost and some didn't! ) I planted onions and garlic and prepared the soil for planting broad beans next week. last year I planted the broad beans too early (early October) and many didn't survive the hard winter. I hope to have better results this year. Working today in the woodland preparing for the Green Woodworking workshop on Sunday. Starting to coppice 40 year old chestnuts which gives us a chance to harvest the nuts before the squirrels get them!

Fun with fungas!

2010-10-18T08:02:00.000+01:00

A great couple of days fungus hunting; Two bags full on both days and consumed deliciously with the surplus put to dry in the solar dryer. On the walk on Saturday we saw a pair of Marsh Harriers, a sparrowhawk, three hares, voles and a weasel. We also picked a large bag of blackberries (late but still good!)

With Rebecca & Steffen our WOOFers

Processing chestnuts?

2010-10-15T07:22:00.000+01:00

We have had a good harvest of nuts this year, almonds, walnuts and chestnuts. Has anyone any good techniques for processing chestnuts - removing their inner skins etc? The warmer weather in October has given us a boost in the vegetable garden with runner beans particularly having a new lease of life. The bees to have been very active, working on ivy flowers for nectar and Hawkweed for pollen (I guess).

Autumn Sowing

2010-10-10T09:29:00.002+01:00

I am well into my autumn sowing now. Have sowed 8 different salads in the polytunnel, carrots and Feltham First pea, outside have sowed onion seed. At the end of the month I will put in broad beans, onion and garlic sets. I have just bought two great books, The Winter Harvest handbook by Eliot Coleman and Small Scale grain raising by Gene Logsdon both American books I am afraid but still full of good relevant information. last night we went to a Food Day at old hall community, we traded some seeds for apples watched some interesting films from the transition group at Wivenhoe which were powered by two bicycles (I took my turn peddling!) and had a delicious meal provided by the community from the food grown on site.

Green Woodworking workshop in Essex 24th October

2010-10-02T09:49:00.000+01:00

Last few places left on our workshop in our 8 acre wood in October, contact me for details see http://www.ecodiy.org/green%20woodworking.htm

Taking my life in my hands!

2010-10-02T09:46:00.000+01:00

yes, I have lived through the night! After going on a Fungal Foray last week (42 species found only one edible!) I have started eating the autumn fungus the total so far: Field Parasols, ink-caps, horse mushrooms (by the side of the road!) All after a ridiculous amount of time looking at books and pictures on the Internet - perhaps not an economic success but very satisfying (and delicious) anyway.

Horse mushrooms

Harvest time in full swing

2010-09-25T08:45:00.000+01:00

We are busy harvesting and processing to have food to eat in the winter months. This year there are amazing blackberries and we are cooking them with (traded) windfall apples to make jam and crumble fillings to freeze. yesterday we harvested the Almond and walnuts (yes we beat the squirrels this year!) see photo for harvesting with a rake tied to a long pole! We gathered about one and a half three gallon buckets of walnuts (a good harvest) in their green overcoats. Also busy processing seeds; Spinach and spinach beet, rocket, lettuce, melon, leek and onion,celeriac and celery, beetroot (red and white). Busy, busy, busy!

Summer Roundup

2010-09-18T15:29:00.000+01:00

Here at last is a (rather guilty) post. Somehow the summer has gone by in a flash without my making the time to catch up, sorry.
This has been a good productive year in the garden and with the bees. Three months of drought in the main part of the summer led to my spending an hour a day watering the vegetable plot from the reed bed and well (managed to avoid the use of mains water) The forestry commission came through with their permission to carry on coppicing the wood and plant more trees to fill the gaps (all winter work) I gave/sold 9 lots of bees to beginner beekeepers and go into the winter with 13colonies (I will have to sell some of them in the spring). We had over 60 peaches on our 3 year old tree in spite of having peach leaf curl in the spring.
The chickens have reared 17 chicks at least 9 of them cockerels (a few not big enough to tell yet!). One high point was our open weekend last weekend with 152 visitors. This followed a major interview with BBC Essex radio (now on our website) which brought a lot of people in. The harvesting and processing goes on apace. bottling fruit, freezing beans and tomatoes etc. A good treatment for powdery mildew from the Internet was spraying the leaves with (dilute) baking soda mixture.
Anyhow I will try and make time to post now as the days grow longer
happy equinox (nearly!)
Chris

Dry and cold but still food to eat.

2010-05-29T07:46:00.000+01:00

yes its been a difficult spring this year for the garden and the bees! Very little rain in the last 2 months making it difficult in the garden with the late frosts and cold have kept us on our toes protecting potatoes and runner/french beans. I found cut down plastic milk bottles much better than fleece as crop protection. I spite of the cold we have had plenty of salad, early peas, strawberries and beetroot in the poly tunnel and lots of purple sprouting. The purple sprouting is an interesting case as it was stripped to a skeleton last year by cabbage white caterpillars and yet recovered to give us a great crop! The tomato plants in the green house now have small fruit and over wintered broad beans will soon be pick-able. On the negative side the overwintered carrots (under polythene) which we would be eating now have nearly all gone to seed - maybe I sowed them too early in the autumn? On the bees; I had the same (new) problem as last year with two of the hives with queens that weren't laying? I am re-queening them with queens from an early swarming hive.

Ok, so I didnt quite get elected!!

2010-05-10T20:06:00.000+01:00

I got 1.2% in the election but I am not downhearted (in spite of loosing my deposit). It was a positive experience for me with lots of positive feedback and good networking/ connections. Now its back to local campaigning - the Essex shoreline management plan is up for consultation - sounds innocuous enough doesn't it? It proposes abandoning Jaywick and Seawick to the sea (anytime) in the next 30 years. I suggested to the environment agency representative that they might make an effort to talk to the people at threat about it. Their answer was that they had consulted with the 'stakeholders'!! Not good enough!!, lots of work to do here.

The first Swarm of the season

2010-05-06T19:36:00.000+01:00

The first Swarm of the season today - not great weather with a cold north east wind making it cold when the clouds covered the sun. The went for a raspberry bush which meant they ended up on the ground but were persuaded to clime into my bee basket when it was placed over the pool of bees. I hived them from a sloping board at about 5.00 and they went in OK but with a large lump hanging on the front of the hive. Hope they will have taken up residence properly by morning. I am up late for the count tonight, three o'clock they say which is very late for me the I will see if I have lost my deposit (I am expecting to!)

A lesson in survival of the fittest

2010-05-01T07:48:00.000+01:00

I had a lesson reinforced yesterday as our next hen hatched her chicks. There was one late chick having trouble getting our of the egg. Against my better judgement I helped it out. It stayed next to our stove under a hot water bottle for the day and went back under the chicken for the night. The next day I was optimistic as it was weak but mobile. But as time went on it was clear it couldn't look after its self - not brooding under its mum often when it needed to and getting stepped on! So it came as no surprise to find it dead in the evening.
Nature is hard but efficient in ensuring that the strongest survive, we can interfere but it is rarely successful. The human race should remember that nature will deal with us in the same way if we destroy the systems that support us!

Our first chicks for 2010

2010-04-26T21:17:00.000+01:00

Our little black bantam has 5 chicks today including one that is a pretty jet black. Pictures later.

Open Afternoon in Glebe Wood

2010-04-22T07:57:00.000+01:00

We are having an open afternoon in Glebe Wood in Tendring Essex on Sunday 2nd May. We will offer tea and scones and conversation about such topics as CSA schemes (link) for selling logs from our wood. If you are interested in coming on Sunday email me on chris@ecodiy.org

Beautiful Survivor!

2010-04-21T08:34:00.000+01:00

A Romanesque cauliflower with a beautiful fractal design has somehow survived the cold frosty weather (it is usually a summer plant) to produce a head and give us a surprise meal. (tasty too!)
My posts are sparse at the moment due to the pressure of election work but soon it will all be over and life can get back to its usual kind of business.

Ben Laws magic wood!

2010-04-13T07:57:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I was lucky enough to do a one day workshop with Ben law (of the Grand Designs woodland house fame) It was a great day. Along with 10 others who had woodlands or hoped to own woods in the future we walked around Prickly Nut wood with Ben and saw what coppicing should look like. We deluged him with questions on all topics from; planning problems for living in your working wood, dealing with pests like rabbits and squirrels (tasty apparently!) how large an area to coppice at once and lots more. We sat in his open fronted shelter (where he lived before building his house and drank tea. The shelter was magical enough being made from a living tree with a round brick hearth and clay walls. A wonderful day and I returned bursting with plans and ideas. The forestry commission officer has now sent us forms for our felling licence and I am exploring the grants available to help us re-vitalise Glebe wood.

Tories block Childrens rights

2010-04-09T07:03:00.000+01:00

By blocking the Educational Reform Act the Tories put the desires of parents before the rights of children to a complete unbiased education - shame! This makes for a more divided society and damages the potential for children to develop into balanced intelligent adults. There will be more unwanted pregnancies, more sexual disease and more religion intolerance as a result. It makes me angry!!

Happy Estra

2010-04-02T07:59:00.000+01:00

Picture is Druids Well, thanks to Megalithix

EASTER is a time when we used to remember the goddess Estra, The Anglo Saxon Goddess of Spring and rebirth (fertility). ‘Christianized’ in the eight century.
The symbol of the egg, which was already being used in Easter festivities at this time, had been a pagan symbol representing fertility and re-birth in pagan times. This was always a time (and still is for some like me) when we can move our thoughts from the harshness of winter to the soft abundance of spring (just a little late arriving this year!)
Enjoy the spring flowers (my bees are!)
Chris

Green woodworking

2010-03-29T08:17:00.000+01:00

I spent Thursday learning how to use a pole lathe and to cleave logs using a froe! I thought it might be slow and frustrating after having been used to a power lathe but it was satisfying and even relaxing!! My leg did all the work and I imagined having muscles twice the size on my left leg after a few months of work! I produced a dibber (for planting bulbs) not bad for a days work (as long as I didn't look at the price of dibbers in the gardening catalogues. Next to build a lathe and shave horse in our wood ready to the green woodworking workshop that is happening in our wood in April - happy days!

Sunny sunny Sunday

2010-03-22T07:46:00.000Z

Great day yesterday with a load of friends in the wood - warm and sunny (at least most of the day) Pictures later.
Good climate change piece with some humour, check it out: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-lara-bingle-of-climate-change-20100319-qlzz.html

spring is sprunging!

2010-03-20T07:57:00.000Z

Yes, at last, the first real evidence of spring -- Our first frog spawn! our first daffodils!! and seed sowing begins in earnest. Yea!!!

On Trees and Bureaucracy

2010-03-19T07:43:00.000Z

I am learning more about the bureaucracy of woods. Our wood was listed by the county council. This made ma a little nervous as I am planning to manage the wood (coppicing etc) and didn't want to have to wait and fill lots of forms every time I picked up the saw! However, a little research shows that the County Council are giving up their tree preservation orders this year so our wood will be delisted. Good for us but i am not sure about the effects on other trees threatened by developers!! So I am also meeting someone from the Forestry Commission next month to discus felling licences and management plans,(so I am not quite out of the wood yet - so to speak!!). I hope this is going to go smoothly and we can get on with our plans to coppice some hazel and over-stood (old coppice) sweet chestnut. Some of the trees are quite old now and need rejuvenating (don't we all!) I will keep you posted. On another note we are waiting with baited breath for the daffodils to bloom, they are so close now. Maybe this weekend?

Sun Sun Sun here we come

2010-03-16T08:43:00.000Z

At last some decent weather! I am getting to grips with the bureaucracy of owning a wood, Public liability insurance - 'ching' paying for a felling licence 'ching' . Not the mention the problem of the time it takes to deal with the Forestry Commission and get their permission to work in the wood. In the mean time planting acid loving plants like raspberries, blueberries and experimental potatoes (any other suggestions?). Building a loo for visitors and copiceing some hazels (yes we are allowed to do that)..Working outside without freezing to death is just wonderful.

More servants for the wealthy!

2010-03-15T07:46:00.000Z

Announced today - tories plan more training for the service industries including a service industry acadamy!! What we need is more training in real skills for real jobs such as building low carbon housing and transforming the housing stock we have. We were told at the Ecobuild lectures by heads of the building industry that the skilled workfoce is not yet there to meet government's targets for energy efficient housting and renewables!

Ecobuild

2010-03-07T11:16:00.000Z

Hi,
I went to Ecobuild at Earls Court on Wednesday. I was impressed with the size of it! It is cleas that many large companies are seeing the potential for making money in energy saving and renewable energy products.
I was pleased to see a CAT stall and a demonstration of straw bale building (with a large croud around it) I went to a couple of pannels and the consus seemed to be that the best way of selling Green products was to focus on the improved quality of life and money saving potential rather than the climate change and peak oil issues. I heard some speakers from Germany, south Africa, canada, USA and of course UK speaking about thesystems in their countries for assessing a homes energy efficiency and wether there should be a unified world wide system (the concesus seemed to be not to). I came back with lots of information on things like heat pumps, insulation from tyres and paper, and the Bath university project on embedded cacbo footprints Lots of scope for more learning I am afraid - if only there was 48 hours in a day!!

Green Party Conference

2010-02-21T14:20:00.000Z

Just back from conference. A buisiness like conference this year with everyone's mind on the election. The highlight for me was the panel chaired by Caroline Lucas about Equalities with Kate Pickett - author of 'The Spirite Level' (check it out) and the amazing Johann Hari who writes in the Independant - had me in tears and in tears of laughter as well; read him at http://www.johannhari.com/ he is so on the nail with what he says!

Green Wood Working Course

2010-02-17T11:49:00.000Z

Green Wood Working Course

We are planning a course to take place in our 8 acre ancient woodland here in Tendring (Essex) working with green wood with pole lathe, cleaving, bodging etc. The tutor would be an experienced wood Wright & course leader with assistants and the course would be limited to 5 trainees. Cost would be about £85 including lunch and drinks. Let me know if you are interested (probably later in April).
We have installed a gate now at the wood. The gate is a weathered old gate which we were lucky enough to be offered to fix and use (so it doesnt look out of place!) We will trade honey and egs for it.
I'm off to the Green Party Conference tomorow for 4 days look out on the news for reports (we hope)

On 'Any Questions' (well almost!!)

2010-02-13T09:35:00.000Z

On Thursday I went to Harwich Sixth Form College to be an their 'Any Questions' panel with the sitting MP (Douglas Carswell) and hopefuls from the other main parties. I must tell you I was very nervous but prepared with large flash cards and swotting. It actually went off really well (at least I think so!) The questions were very sensible -
Why cant I get a job at 16 when they say they would employ me at 18?
Why must I pay adult fare on public transport when I am not allowed to vote etc till 18?
& etc
Gave me a chance to sound off about - fund public transport not more roads, proportional representation and more training and apprenticeships to meet the skills needed to 'green' the economy. I often cross swards with Douglas Carswell over hid denial of climate change but the subject didn't come up this time so mostly peace and light with a surprising level of agreement amongst the candidates over the kinds of questions that were asked.
I also went to the Anglia Uni recently to talk about EcoDIY and the roots of self reliance. Not a big audience there but interesting never the less. Still what came out of that was a desire to write about the roots (in the 60s and 70s ) of the self sufficiency movement and how it links to the Arts and crafts movement and The craft ethic of people like Bernard Leach and Hamada. Unfortunately writing seems to get pushed to the bottom of the pile of the 'to do' lists!

Glebe Wood

2010-02-10T08:27:00.001Z

We are starting to enjoy the wood we have just acquired. One of its strikeing features is a massive oak blasted recently by lightning! Its branches have been thrown twenty to thirty meters by the blast. Must have sounded like a bomb going off - very dangerous to be near when it happened (I wont be sheltering under any trees in the future I can tell you) Also some pics of the garden under the snow for contrast with the summer pictures

Loads of Money! (govenment renewable energy payments)

2010-02-02T09:29:00.000Z

Yes the government has announced the details of the domestic and business payments they are giving for the installation and running of things like solar panels, wind turbines biomass stoves and lots more,
Details here

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn10_010/pn10_010.aspx

http://www.bettergeneration.com/green-energy-factsheets/feed-in-tariffs.html

More analysis and comment later when I have time but on the face of it you will make more money by installing these technologies than you will earn by having your savings in the bank.

'We sow the seed, nature grows the seed' (apologies to 'The Young Ones'!)

2010-01-29T08:15:00.000Z

Sowed the first seed of 2010 yesterday.. Now spring really is just around the corner. I sowed seeds of the plants i intend to grow in the green house and poly tunnel. Tomatoes - Gardeners delight and Moneymaker, four different kings of sweet pepper and (mild!) chili pepper and aubergine all in the propagator. Alpine strawberries and greyhound cabbage in the green house (not in the propagator). I will sow leeks and calabrese in the green house soon and some more salads. I have lettuce in the poly tunnel ready to plant out under cover.

Whehaay!!! (if that is how you spell it?)

2010-01-26T08:03:00.000Z

Yesterday we completed our purchase of 8 acres of ancient woodland!!! We have been looking hard for over a year for some woodland close to Clacton to buy and believe me woodland in Essex is as rare as hens teeth!
Then by chance (on colchester station when our train to the climate change march was cancelled!) we were chatting to someone who knew someone else who had left the country and had some woodland to sell. 6 nerve wracking weeks later we are the proud owners of a piece of old woodland consisting of ancient oak trees (with preservation orders on them) some overgrown sweet chestnut coppice, hazel, hornbeam and other species. This will be our fuel supply in the years to come, a place for great parties, and a retreat for quiet and regeneration. Roll on Spring. We do feel very lucky and a little greedy but we will share- honest.

A useful report about Copenhagen

2010-01-23T14:51:00.000Z

A handy post Cop15 De-briefing with summery of different countries positions and offers.
http://www.climaticoanalysis.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/climatico-cop15-analysis1.pdf

Sun and fun

2010-01-17T16:51:00.000Z

what a relief it is to have a sunny day!! Couldnt get enough of it - pruning apples, chipping sticks to put down in the muddy chicken run, walking in the woods, wow! - hope your day was as good as mine! Yesterday we went to a transition town event at Manningtree, it was an 'unwanted present and toy swap'. A great idea to get rid of all your unwanted connsumer items! only problem is you have to take something home in exchange - damn, just when I thought I was reducing our mounds of stuff!!!

Not starving in the snow!

2010-01-12T08:28:00.000Z

Just to reassure anyone who thinks self reliance means starving in the winter cold here is a list of the produce we have available to eat in January (we do buy stuff as well of course)

10^th January 2010 vegetables to eat;

Spinach – outdoors and in the polytunnel

Carrot - outdoors and in the polytunnel

Beetroot (red and white) outdoors and in the polytunnel good tops to eat on indoor plants

Round seeded peas outdoors and in the polytunnel

Cabbage

Purple sprouting broccoli

Leeks

Celery

Celeriac

Pak choi – polytunnel

Rocket

Pot chrysanthemums

Parsley

Herbs

Tomatoes – greenhouse

Basil – greenhouse

Garlic

Squash

Pumpkin seeds

Dry beans (for emergencies!)

Quinoa

Apples

In the freezer:

Tomatoes roasted – lots

Green beans

Strawberries

Raspberries

Blackberries

Bottled

Peaches

Plums

Damsons

We still have good stocks of honey and we are getting at least 6 eggs a day and the (very) occasional cockerel to eat.

Potatoes and onions walnuts and almonds were finished by Christmas and we have just picked our last pepper from the greenhouse.

Next year we plan - more sweetcorn (for freezing) more onions and leeks, and potatoes - Iam sure we will think of other new crops as well in the long dark evenings poring over the seed catalogues!