Who Put The Pigs In Charge? - Tuesday 07/12/10

Jesus Christ! I literally have not stopped since Thursday. I have done so much, I can't clearly distinguish the days apart, much less relate events back in much detail. The best I can do is summarise what I do remember. Friday morning, I read a copy of the draft agenda for todays meeting. Was upset and dismayed to read two letters in it written by the business manager. These letters, in my opinion, were full of inaccuracies, misinformation and parts of a conversation I'd had with him taken out of context and misquoted. Discussing this swallowed up the entire morning, and before I knew it, it was time to take Ayres to the station for his foray to London.
Upon my return, Emma, myself and Kit made a resupply run to Crymych. When we were done, the day was gone.

Saturday - an extremely busy day. The temperatures rarely got above freezing which meant the nights rain had frozen turning the track way into an ice rink. It also made the ground look wet and muddy, yet completely solid. Really weird.
Being the 4th it was Emma's birthday. As my present to her, I moved our touring caravan up to its new spot beside the static, and did the bulk of everything else. Her birthday means all of our little family have now celebrated a birthday here.

Sunday - Clean up operation. After pissing about with electrics. Saturday night I rigged up a battery from the car in order for Fran to watch a movie. Unfortunately, because it was raining, I moved the inverter into the dry underneath the static caravan in the dark and inadvertently touched the casing against the positive terminal. POP! Lights out.

Kit was kind enough to cut some slabs that will be used as thermal mass and protection around the wood burner. After all that I spent an hour or so ensuring Ayres and Marianne's land was left exactly how we found it. Unfortunately my electrical nightmare was set to continue.
Just before the sun fully set, I managed to rig up the solar panels and create a far safer and more satisfactory electrical set up. Sadly the inverter we'd borrowed decided to pack in and display a fault light, as well as my charge regulator no longer displaying voltage and seemingly also go on strike. BOLLOCKS!

Monday - Road trip. Once again, it was off to Llanelli to replace the inverter and charge regulator for the second time. £20 of fuel gone. As Emma said, this life is supposed to be simpler and less reliant on money, but we can't afford it!
That said, I and most others can't afford conventional life. She's right, but wrong. Wrong, because the things we cannot afford such as diesel, insurance, mobile phone bill, and electrics are non essential for survival.
Luckily we got the items replaced without any problems and in fact came out better off. The next inverter up was on offer and cheaper than ours. So we were told we could swap for that and take other stuff to make up the difference. We were at a loss as to what else we needed. I wanted a remote control helicopter, but settled on a battery charger for Kit...

Emma needed to buy a bra, so she and Fran went touring the naughty sections of various shops whilst Kit and I checked out boots and clothes in T.K.Maxx.
The car died on the journey here most likely due to the cold and bio-diesel, so we put in some mineral diesel, but this made us late for Ayres who needed picking up after returning from his trip to London. Felt bad about that...

Tuesday -  Meeting. These meetings are obviously a black hole for productive time. Another 5 hour sitting.
This particular gathering was farcical. I couldn't help but draw analogies from George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and '1984'. It is quite apparent that here at Lammas there is a power struggle now the Farmer has been evicted, and its definitely the pigs who think they run the show.
The 1984 side came from letters written by the business manager, or should I say the 'Ministry of Information'.  These were written after I talked to him, a discussion in which I wanted to be absolutely clear and frank, especially when the matter was agenda'd for this meeting. So imagine my horror and disgust when these words were twisted and taken out of context in order to support his delusions. His letters read like WWII propaganda pamphlets. The inaccuracies so wild, it could have been interpreted as a joke. The irony is it also came to his attention that someone had written a damning article about Lammas in a local publication, and his response condemned it as "...falsehoods presented as fact". Well, Well! Its easy to spot when someone is pulling the same tricks you are!

The meeting started with the usual crap and it was obvious everyone wanted to get to the issue at hand, unfortunately, when it did, the meeting broke down into what can only be described as a slanging match. The sort of pathetic behaviour you witness on a primary school playground, etiquette was forgotten. At the one point I spoke, and tried to clarify the truth as opposed to the published nonsense, I was interrupted by Ms Anonymous, who was either lying, distracted by her child or just not paying attention. This completely threw me off and I watched as the meeting degenerated. A business/committee meeting. My God. Lord Sugar would have been speechless. Gross professional misconduct is being kind.
At the previous meeting, those present were informed Lammas had been represented at the Welsh Assembly and the message was "The world is watching". That's worrying! I don't think anyone here would want the world watching right now!
Lammas would definitely not be praised and lauded in the future.
One resident related his past experience in a "dysfunctional housing co-op". It is quite apparent to me that "Sorry mate, you're in one!"
Sickened, saddened and disillusioned is how I and others are feeling. Lammas is described as trying to emulate a traditional English village... well its not the idyllic one they were aiming for. Its one infected by all the crap that people bring, set in a beautiful part of the Welsh countryside.

Fear and Loathing in Lammas

M Jones

Don't Misidentify Your Balls - Saturday 25/09/10

Took a walk up the top past Simon D's. A beautiful spot apparently owned by a Belgian couple. Rather selfishly if you ask me. You could fit another Lammas again up there. Plus, it kind of goes against the eco principles being that they've bought 28 acres. The common notion is that roughly 5 acres is enough to support one family. Anything more than that cannot realistically be managed by one household without the employment of mechanical assistance.
Still. We wandered down through the woodland coming across a wonderful variety of wild flowers and wild produce. Mistook an Earthball for a Puffball! Well, only for a split second. After squeezing the top i revealed a chamber of spores and with the help of my new RSPB Wildlife Of Britain book, i learnt the differences and the fact the Earthball is in fact poisonous.
After showering at Ayres' I found myself reading a great little book called Keep Calm and Carry On: Good Advice for Hard Times. The inspiration for which, was the third of three wartime posters, the last of which was never issued. This final poster with this simple message, was to be plastered in tube stations should the Germans have invaded. I love its Britishness.
Tried to watch Yes Man but our charge controller put an end to that with a low battery warning. Had a hunch the shorter days were taking their toll on our solar panels. Had an idea to hook up a bicycle to a washing machine motor and a rectifier. Half to an hour a day on that should provide all of our electrical power...In theory.

M Jones

Wild Cherrys? I hope so as i ate one...

Mulching - Wednesday 28/07/10

Drove an hour to the nearest Maplin shop to replace the duff controller. Also took the opportunity to do a top up shop at the supermarket. Already pretty settled. Busied myself 'mulching' the willow beds. Basically this involves putting down recycled cardboard to keep the grass down then shovelling cow poo onto it. Good fun, with some music going...
Ayres, the guy we're helping, spent the day creating pathways and building bridges over drainage ditches.
Over the coming days alot of time will be spent preparing the site of the first build ensuring all materials are on hand.
Finally got round to shoring up our caravan door. The wood had come away from the hinge. A couple of nails, hammer, bit of flashing, tin snips and wayhey! Well, for the time being. May very well need to replace a large portion of the door with fresh wood, but time will tell.
Am eager to try out the solar shower, however... no sun... guess a boring old wash will have to do.
Tomorrow I have decided to construct a washing up table out of some pallets, and maybe a bench.
Anything we can do in the awning rather than in the caravan, will help keep people from having to dance around each other.

M Jones

MOVING DAY! - Tuesday 27/07/10

Alarm was set for 04:30. Optimistic I Know. Eventually stirred at 05:00. As predicted we overran my departure time of 06:00, instead leaving at 07:30. Inevitable when there are females in tow... and she still forgot the porridge :-(

I was so happy to see my excitement was shared by all with me...

The journey down was slow but passed quickly.  Punctuated by only one stop at the services for breakfast and a well deserved coffee. I hammered on and on to Emma about weight in the caravan when we moved in and the tyres told me how much she'd listened when I slackened of the struts and hitched the van up...women...
Arrived around 11:45 and pretty much hit the ground running. First off was the positioning of the van. Then i got it stable. But stable just is not good enough. IT MUST BE LEVEL!... on a f***ing wonky diagonal hill. Cheers.
Much strained jacking eventually led onto erecting the awning where i amused myself with innuendos aplenty. Poles, rods, shafts, holes, positions, tightness etc etc :-)
Next was the solar array. Built the frame and wrestled with fitting the panels. Bloody charge controller was shot. So much so the battery cable overheated and became squidgy, the fuse melted and the crocodile clip started smoking...

I'm knackered...

M Jones