Skeleton Houses - Wednesday 28/09/11

Emma joked that a Pole Shift must have occurred due to the unseasonably good weather. High temperatures of over 27 degrees Celsius are forecast to last until Sunday.
I made use of this sunshine and the morning dew to finish off some scything I started for Jude. She was most grateful for my help. Allegedly, she is now being denied the help of volunteers due to her honest reply to questions asked by participants of the 'Low Impact Experience' week. For many reasons, she is not a happy hippy. Well, for starters, she's not a hippy...nor is anyone else here for that matter...
Just before lunch, I  switched to polytunnel tasks and bolted braces along the top of the frame to the cross members. It was after doing this and gazing at the frame that I was struck by how much like a giant rib cage the structure looked. A whale skeleton. Hit by its natural form, I then pondered if, by planting trees instead of poles, it could be grown. Then a better idea hit me. How cool would it be to not build a house, but grow it! A truly natural living house! In my minds eye, it's possible and somehow, someway, I resolve to do it. When I mentioned it to Jude, she said she'd heard of such and idea being done in Ireland.
The mind can be most entertaining when not torturing.

The Trauma Of Change - Sunday 29/05/11

Now life is boring. Worse than that, harrowing. Four days ago, I had over 1076 acres of land to roam on. Now I have barely a quarter of one. Not even the park can sooth the sadness in my heart.
We saw more police cars on the short walk back than I have seen over the past year living where we do in Wales.
Frances is miserable. The few children playing outside appear difficult for her to connect with. In all honesty, I don't want her playing with such drones. Filled with McDonalds and Nickolodean they are junior consumers in the making. Or are they? The innocence that remains in them may be the most precious nugget of beauty left in this urban jungle.
At the park I wandered away from the manicured zone of half inch grass to the wild and tangled border of the hedgerow. Here I sought familiar beings but even the hawthorn is not the same. Already carrying berries, they are ahead of their welsh cousins and alien to me. Amongst them, species I don't recognise nor wish to familiarise myself with. I should. I may given time.
I found a lone ash tree, and my heart tore as I saw the scars and disfigured trunk. Half its height stripped of bark. Wood naked, cracked and stained. I failed to hold back the tear that rolled from my eye and down my cheek. It was I that became wounded. I who cried in pain. That tree sought no pity. Instead shoots were emerging, life's unstoppable force leaking through its cuts.

My muse has left me. I can write no more today.

Pooky Coming To Terms With Her New Environment.

M Jones

Dry Roots - Friday 25/03/11

Helped out Jude yesterday. The idea was to construct a bender to use as duck housing. For me, a bender is no where near secure enough and when it turned out she had trees that needed planting (some bare root) there was no contest. This late in the year, them trees need planting! It didn't even matter where, as long as those roots were in the soil. when you live next to a tree surgeon-come-gardener, you learn about these things.
I have been very lethargic indeed. A combination of illness and the hot weather. Managed to watch Nick finish off a polybender, and partly aid spreading a canvas over his homemade geo-dome. In my experience and through researching these structures, the only ones that 'work' are those of the Bedouin style. Examples where people try to board them up and seal them seem to suffer many issues and problems.

She used to be so pretty...

After a few dry days and two of hot sun, the ground is already cracking.

M Jones

That Autumnal Feel - Wednesday 22/09/10

This week being a volunteer week at Lammas, we have 2 extra pairs of hands. Ayres has been making use of them with a variety of tasks being set. Alot is needing doing. Bales need moving, trees need staking, beds need resurrecting, as well as poles needing stripping (by hand!). With today being the first day of autumn, there was certainly an autumnal feel i.e the weather was shit. Whilst i agree with the saying "There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing" I still prefer to keep dry. Water proofs are ok, but with hot work they soon lose their benefit as you overheat and become drenched in sweat. Am becoming concerned about our battery. The controller is now reading between 12 and 11.3 volts. Not sure how to gauge the state of the battery from that, but i guess its low as up until now its rarely dipped below 12 volts. I now have a choice. Spend my earning on a service on the car, ensuring mobility, or purchase an auxiliary form of electricity generation in the form of a 50w wind turbine.

Being that i could just charge the battery in the barn off mains, i guess logic would dictate i opt for a service. But a service is so boring...

M Jones