What tools we use - Permaculture Principals - Earth Care

We will avoid the Permaculture definition of Earth Care/Care of Earth and define this in terms of what we are actually trying to achieve at La Fieffe. These aren’t prioritised in any particular order, as far as we are concerned each of these are as important as the next. I will take a look at each one and advise on what we are attempting to do.

Soil Improvement - healthy soils are a complex mix of worms, bacteria and beneficial fungi.  These soils promote good plant growth and typically have fewer problems with pests and diseases. Improving soil condition needn't be the reserve of master gardeners or horticultural specialists.  Your soil is hungry for organic matter which can include, paper/card, weeds, grass clippings, manure, hair and kitchen scraps.  As these break down the nutrients from them are made available to growing plants and the action of decomposition improves the soil structure allowing free movement of air and water.  This soil also becomes better at holding onto both nutrients and water acting like a sponge for both.

(These images above are typical of most of La Fieffe at the time of buying it, devoid of anything other then over-grazed grass.)

So, what is the simplest action you can take to improve your soil?  Compost.  Give your compost pile a name and treat it like a pet.  You feed it with a mixture of organic materials ensuring your mix of carbon and nitrogen are kept in balance.  Too much carbon and you will not create enough heat, too much nitrogen and you will create too much heat leading to a gaseous emission of ammonia!  Treat it like a science experiment and you should be able to achieve admirable results in no time.

(In this picture you can see a mixture of cover cropping and mulching taking place.)

Other soil improvement strategies can include the planting of legumes or green manures and plenty or mulching.  Plants like peas and beans belong to a family of vegetables that "fix" nitrogen with the assistance of a beneficial bacteria called rhizobium.  Nitrogen is taken from the air in the soil and "fixed" on nodules that the bacteria live within.  Couple this with the planting of a fast growing "cover" crop like mustard or clover and a good amount of winter mulching or your beds, you will improve the organic matter, beneficial organisms and earthworm activity in your soil; you improve the soils moisture retention and it's ability to prevent erosion; you provide habitat, nectar and pollen for beneficial insects which in turn will reduce your pests; with any luck this dual approach will lead to persistent weeds being smothered.

(Careful management leads to improvement in soil condition which leads to production of healthy organic produce.)

Organic Food - one of the key principals of growing organic food is health.  Organically grown produce has more antioxidants, fewer pesticides (if any) and less cadmium (a toxic heavy metal).  In fact a recent study by Newcastle University found that in terms of the antioxidants you’re getting, a total switch to organic crops could be equivalent to adding another portion or two of fruit and veg to your daily diet! (http://blog.journals.cambridge.org/2014/07/new-study-finds-significant-differences-between-organic-and-non-organic-food/)

 (This image above shows palm kale, an extremely nutrient rich brassica with a legume to help the soil condition and a fast growing and insect attracting nasturtium.)

(Apart from my gorgeous daughter, you can see raspberries and strawberries on the left foreground, corn, sunflowers, beans and squash left background and more palm kale on the right foreground.)

(It's important to attract the beneficial predators, in this example, the human child Freya has been attracted by lupinus.)

By striving to grow organic produce, your actions are improving the health of the soil, the health of the animals grazing it, the health of the humans eating from it and the health of the greater ecosystem too.

Sustainable woodmanship - We only have 1.5 acres of, mainly, beech woodland, but if we carefully identify already stooling plants we can sustainably manage our small woodland area indefinitely.  This identification process is not the biggest challenge we face...

(The biggest challenge is getting the processed timber out of the valley, just take a closer look at the image above and below.)

(Processing a stool in the winter has made us pretty hardy, Shands in this picture modelling the very fashionable red head cover and matching hoody!)

(This is the same stool as in the image previous, Freya adding 'scale' to the picture.)

(Danny, our first 'volunteer' ahem, using a four foot cross cut saw to process our wood, in unison with me of course.)

The majority of the wood we process will be used as a fuel source as our entire house is run on it.  Heating, cooking and hot water all get their energy from wood.  Some of it though, is selected due to it's straightness (if that's a word), for our impromptu building follys as evidenced in previous posts.

(The more time you spend in the woodland, the more little lads and lasses you come across.)

Hedgerows - Biodiversity has a natural tendency to increase; an accumulation of plants, insects, beetles, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and birds will quickly fill ecological niches and develop a food chain. More plants mean more food, which means more insects, more birds, more reptiles, more mammals, which means more balance. Hedgerows play a hugely important role in supporting this biodiversity growth.

(These two pictures, above and below,  illustrate the type of hedgerow we find on and around our land.  It is stunning and needs our help to protect it.)

Sadly, as is evidenced by this report, http://www.hedgelink.org.uk/files/Hedgelink%20-%20Report%20Visit%20to%20Normandy%20May%202010.pdf, hedgerows are taking a pasting in Normandie!  But, by now you must be getting a feel for the Palmers of La Fieffe and we are intending to "buck the trend" and do all we can to improve existing hedgerows and plant some new ones too.

(Freya preparing the 'nursery' for its first little 'uns)

(The willow growth after 12-months.)

(Hazel and hawthorn in this image.)

(Both these images, above and below, were taken last weekend after 18-months of growth in our nursery.)

 

We intend to take the plants growing in the previous picture and combine them with some shrub-like plants (raspberries, blackberries for example) and develop them into new hedgerows.

(Above and below show 'building up' where we think hedges would be best located to protect plants and create micro-climates.)

 

(Above and below show a mixture of plants that we are using, this is the most developed of our hedges.)

Provide a surplus - we recognise how lucky we are to live where we do and the choices we make each year on what we should grow always leaves us with surplus food.  It's not hard to give away such beautiful produce, we are very proud of what we produce and know that those that eat it will benefit from the nutrient dense foods.  If there is anything you struggle to find in the area and want us to grow it for you, please ask... we may say yes!

(In both these images there are a number of veg growing, see how many you can identify!)

(Onions curing in the sun.)

(Kale)

(Plump raspberries.)

(The three sisters.)

(Our first garlic crop.)

(Sharing the surplus with friends and neighbours, above and below.)

(And not forgetting organic free-range eggs... delicious.)

Next, what tools we use, Care of People.

Why we do what we do. A sustainable future?

Healthy ecosystems are necessary to the survival of humans and non-humans alike.  Keeping ecosystems in a state whereby they can provide for you now without compromising the ability of the system to provide for future generations is sustainability.

The possibility that human societies can achieve environmental sustainability has been, and continues to be, questioned, especially in light of environmental degradation, climate change, overconsumption, and societies' pursuit of indefinite economic growth in a closed system.

A sustainable future for La Fieffe can only be achieved through adopting sustainable living arrangements.  Don’t be disheartened that you can’t adopt all of these or that you feel trapped in your current living arrangement.   You should be able to identify from the following ideas even the smallest action that will help you live a more sustainable life.

ENERGY - Most of us don’t have the money to buy land and build an Earthship on it.  This shouldn’t discourage you though from identifying small incremental actions that will lessen your impact on the greater ecosystem.  There are easy retrofit ideas that can be carried out immediately.  Think of your house as a user and store of energy and it becomes easy to identify ideas; additional insulation in the loft, or (in our case) re-puttying the windows, fitting larger/thicker curtains all reduce your energy loss and thus reduce your energy use!

Consider the need to have things “on” constantly especially the scourge of “standby”; it doesn’t take long to learn new habits of turning it off when not using it.  Consider choosing only energy efficient goods for your house.  Yes the outlay is greater than say SPASDA’s own, but the savings in energy use over time will pay for itself.  Regardless of how much you THINK this saves, you ARE reducing your energy consumption.

FOOD – Consider where you get your food from; how much is produced under existing industrial agricultural technique?  This system is highly resource and energy intensive, requiring extensive irrigation, pesticide use, fertiliser application to produce a concentrated monoculture of low nutrient crap!  Long distance transport of food to enable all year round supply, which ignores seasonality, is estimated to cost 10 calories of oil to produce 1 calorie of food.

Adopting a more regional, seasonally based diet is more sustainable as it entails purchasing less energy and resource demanding produce that naturally grow within a local area and require no long-distance transport.  Local food production ensures food security if potential transportation disruptions and climatic, economical, and socio-political disasters were to occur.

Choosing organically produced food is a sustainable choice, as the primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.

The environmental impact of meat production is high with regards to soil erosion, land degradation, depletion of natural resources and the overuse of medicines like antibiotics.  By simply reducing your meat consumption, this alleviates the demand for environmentally damaging industrially produced meat.

Preserving and storing foods reduces reliance on long-distance transported food and the market industry. Home-grown foods can be preserved and stored outside of their growing season and continually consumed throughout the year, enhancing self-sufficiency and independence from the supermarket.

WATER – Your water usage is excessive.  Just the flushing of your toilet uses probably more than 20 litres of fresh, drinkable water.  Your obsession with being clean is using too much water, whether through bathing or washing your clothes... cut it out!  There are all manner of methods of reducing your impact on water, from inserts in your toilet cistern, to composting toilets and “tree-bogs”, low-flow showerheads, solar water heaters, increased pipe lagging (reducing the amount of time in the shower), collection and redistribution of grey water, rainwater harvesting, both for irrigation or refilling flush toilet cisterns!  Any of these can be applied in any setting, regardless of your type of accommodation and access to funding.

WASTE – Nature creates no waste, but oh my god, humans certainly do!  You should not ignore the impact your wastefulness has on sustainability.  Consider how you can reduce what you waste, what you reuse and what you recycle.  Composting is a very effective means of recycling a lot of your paper, card, kitchen and garden waste.  Don’t always recycle, try reusing some of your plastics and glasses as containers (for example we have cut the bottom off of plastic bottles and use them as ramekins).

This is just another reason why we do what we do, but by no means should it be considered an exhaustive list of actions.   What I am trying to tell you is that you can live more sustainably and reduce your ecological footprint, it’s your choice.

Building a Rocket Stove

For a number of years I have spied the design of a number of different rocket stoves. For the confused amongst you, it is a simple, highly efficient (if done correctly) way of burning wood to cook food. These were mainly devised to be used in refuge situations where the supply of an energy source would be scarce. The principal is simple. An inlet chamber where your fuel goes, has a slot underneath it to allow the flow of air under the fuel and into the flue/chimney. This allows for a more intense burn, less unburnt products of combustion (smoke) and more efficient use of small amounts of fuel.

That's the theory. The engineers amongst us could do a fantastic job of ensuring all the hot gases were properly used, just for the record, we were not going for that level of efficiency. We wanted a decent height, fairly efficient stove that we could top with a griddle tray providing an out door cooking area. You see we cook indoors on a wood burning Esse, like an Arga, but the thing consumes copious amounts of wood to not only cook our food, but also heat the hot water tank and run the houses heating system. In the middle of summer, we wanted to cook a little more"Al Fresco".

Firstly we scrounged some free cinder blocks from a neighbour (like a proper gift economy, we let her use our field for her horses, she bungs us a few unused cinder blocks) and chose a spot to position them.  In this photo above Danny is using a tool that neither me nor my brother utilise in our other projects, but Danny being the perfectionist wanted a flat bottom.

Two layers up, and still insisting on using that level (?!), we fill the blocks with earth and earth up around the sides for additional support.  We will over the coming months properly encase all of this in a nice cob jacket, but that requires locating a good supply of clay, which we think we MAY have.

Pile up your blocks to check the height and we placed the griddle on top to see what clearance we had.  The hot gases will come up right under the griddle and flow out either way heating the entire surface.

This picture above shows the combustion chamber in the centre, the two outside chambers were filled with perlite.

Looking down at the top of the stove we filled all the cells around and on top of the combustion chamber and flue with perlite.  This material is a light weight, low heat transfer material that means that the heat is not stripped from the chamber aiding the efficient burning of all the materials.

A small cap of rough cob to protect the perlite from the weather and we are getting closer now to firing up the stove for the first time.

I used the metal door on an old rabbit hutch and bent it over a chair to provide our fuel platform, remember it's critical to have the air gap underneath!

Added some thin twigs to start it off and eventually after 15-20 minutes added some slightly large pieces of wood.

You have this lovely little combustion chamber heating the griddle on top.  Meaning you can cook a lot flippin quicker then you could indoors!

Danny adding some fuel on this one and you can see on top a small frying pan with mini hotdogs for Freya and a large pot of Chilli for the rest of us.

This is the location of the stove and you can see the different "grades" of wood ready to be used in it.  I love it.  It works exactly as you could hope it would.  It was built with materials found or borrowed with the exception of the perlite which you can buy very cheaply online (about £30 for 100 kg, which would have insulated two our-size rocket stoves.  I will post again once we have given the stove a nice cob jacket.

Powerdown Immediately

"Climate change is advancing at an incredible speed. We know we should do something, but we lack the political will to do what it takes to hold it to 2°C. UN committees are now being counseled to prepare for 4°C of warming. To keep it survivable, there's got to be a powerdown -- starting today." - http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-12-09/powerdown-let-s-talk-about-it

Let this be a clarion call to make changes.  ANY changes you can.  If you don't voluntarily make these changes now when you have the luxury of time and money to support them, you may end up being forced to change, like so many other of the mass unprepared.

Technology fantasists, get over your overly-optimistic belief in the ability of human ingenuity to solve all ills.  Rare earth metals, those minerals that you need for your hi-tech solutions like solar panels are rapidly declining, think again!

Green-technology fantasists, swapping from gas-guzzling cars to electric cars reduces your CO2 emissions? Think again the majority of CO2 emissions come in the manufacturing process and how is the electricity generated to power your care? Probably by coal, gas or oil fired power stations!

Switch to hand held, durable and resilient tools.

Switch to growing your own food, 5% or 10% or 50%, NOW.

Switch to community resilience.  Get to know your neighbours.  Share your resources.  Share your journeys.

There is only one conversation we should be having and that is how to make our future livable for our kids, non-human species and the wider Earth-wide ecosystem.

Beauchene Winter Update

We've been busy! Really busy! Our first winter has exposed us to some of the realities of country-living. The key is to tune in to the rhythms around you as soon as you can. We've been doing an inventory of what surrounds us, what materials we can utilise sustainably:

  The challenge of moving materials from where they are to where they are needed:

 But we certainly don't lack an abundance of sustainable arbour!

We've been celebrating when we can... this was the burning of the clocks in December to celebrate the return of the Sun on the longest night in December.

Sometimes the selection process has been taken from us and Nature in her infinite wisdom has chosen the timber to be harvested next!

  

These two being a couple of our apple trees. On closer inspection, the root systems on the pair of these were not looking great so obviously Nature knew best!

 

 It has also been a VERY sobering experience keeping on top of the wood processing. Cutting, chopping, splitting, repeat!
 
 There's been a fair amount of snow in each of the Winter months and some in the first Spring month too!
 
We've tried to keep the local birds feed throughout and they have repaid us by staying around and providing entertainment on the cold winter days.
 
 Our experiments of storing food has turned out well! Our attempt to clamp some of our potatoes using what was abundant on the land, bracken, was a huge success.
Next year we will certainly do multiple clamps!
 
 The pond at the bottom of the land threw up some surprises for us!
Dozens and Dozens and Dozens of mating frogs...
 
 I'm sure this would be frowned upon in polite society!

 But the critical thing to do... the most important thing to remember...
NEVER
 
EVER
 
STOP
 
EXPLORING
This country living can be fun!