A few good sources of information

 Here are a few useful links. Many are quite vast libraries.


http://soilandhealth.org/  
This contains a large library of downloadable books that I've found of use from soil management to herbal medicine.
 
http://www.swsbm.com/homepage/
Large materia medica library has a lot of late 19th century herbal medicine books.
 
http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/


A good source of agroforestry plants. I use them a lot.

 
http://www.motherearthnews.com/
Very good library of practical solutions to things.

http://journeytoforever.org/
Good self sufficiency library

http://www.pfaf.org/index.php
Online encyclopaedia of useful plants with cultivation details and uses. Over 7000 species listed.
 
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/calendar/
Essential reading for new gardeners and useful for old hands.
 
http://permaculture.org.uk/
Good for networking
 
http://carolynbaker.net/site/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
I subscribed to this woman's mailing list she talks about the state of the world and transition.
 
http://sharonastyk.com/
I like this woman's writing she talks a lot about self sufficiency.

A frosty hiatus

We had a hard frost last night and rain yesterday delayed the compost delivery. We have a Wwoofer all next week (Volunteers on organic farms http://www.wwoof.org.uk/) so they'll work with Matt for the first part of the week and I should get some help from Thursday onwards because I'm visiting a friend in Wales on Tues/Wed next week. The mini digger should also be here by then and we'll finally get on with it. The first beds should be ready for the broad beans and the parsnips in mid February.

I wanted to make clear that we have no budget here. There is only what comes out of our pockets and what time and equipment people donate. Danny isn't being paid for the use of his machinery and wood but he'll get a share of what we produce as will all who work on it but for the next few months there will be no income of any sort from this project.

I've been debating with my self how to start talking about why we're doing what we are and about the importance of systems. I'm not going to go into the details of what's wrong in the world today in this blog. That current systems are unsustainable and at the end of their useful life should be taken as read. The question becomes how do we respond? How do we create a resilient system that will allow us to live in reasonable comfort indefinitely? The most resilient system I know of is Gaea. Life itself. It is a vast interconnected network that passes energy and materials around in a vast array of forms that are all utterly dependant on each other. We cannot exist independently of that web and the more it gets simplified the more it risks collapse into a state that could not support us. Therefore everything we do must prioritise life. 


In an ecosystem complexity produces resilience and productivity. What I am aiming to produce here in the long run is a food producing ecosystem that requires no external inputs once established. A synergy where the system itself becomes self perpetuating. Whatever I produce must do no damage to the life around us and we should aim to increase the diversity of wild life around us. 

That process has been going on here at Brickhurst for many years now. Ponds have been dug in many places around the farm. Many more niches and edges have been created. Edges are where the greatest diversity and productivity is. The more edges we can create the more we can produce. I've seen the diversity of life here at the farm explode since I first started coming here nearly 20 years ago. 

The only thing that I can see will feed the people of the world after the end of industrial civilisation is to permaculture everywhere we live. We have to live in a way that is compatible with life or we will cease to exist. 

One of the most important functions of this project for me is to create a plant bank so we can copy it and pass it on to other people.  I'm planning on growing about a third of each thing I plant for seed. 

There won't be much to report for the next few days but I'll try and get a post or two up. I'm thinking of putting together a list of sources of good information. I'll have a dig into my links and post a few in the next post.

I'll be chatting with Anne tomorrow, Anne is working on a project of her own here and we'll be doing some seed swapping.

Plans and musings

Here are some of Matt's piglets. Last year, they and their relatives were living in the area we're going to be creating most of the raised beds. They've cleared all the vegetation and compacted it somewhat but we're expecting a delivery of a large quantity of compost this week and this will be dug into the beds.

Some will be manured and others will just get a green manure in them with some wood ash.

The ph of the soil here is around 6.8 to 7.0 slightly more acidic in places and it is pure clay. No stones at all.

This is the little pond dug into the corner but I'll look into solar irrigation if the resources to get it become available. 

 

We'll also be working in the polytunnel. I have a third of the bed shown plus the area at the end shown to work in. We'll be creating cold frames and hot beds as well to extend out season as much as possible. Another planned project is a polytunnel bender.

 

 
I was given a brace of pheasant yesterday so I made a warming stew.

1 brace of pheasant
1 onion
3 medium sized carrots
3 cloves of garlic
a bottle of dry white wine 
a bunch of fresh tarragon
100g mushrooms

3 bayleaves
stock from the pheasant carcasses and giblets
seasoned plain flour
olive oil and a little butter for frying

pluck draw and portion the pheasants and dust in a little seasoned flour. Fry the pheasant pieces until lightly brown and sealed. Throw in the chopped onion and garlic. Fry until transparent. chop and put in half the tarragon and the bay leaves. 

Pour in about 50cl of dry white wine and about an equal amount of part reduced stock. Cut each mushroom into 3 or 4 pieces and throw in. Simmer for about 45 minutes and add the carrots. Adjust the seasoning. Simmer for another 40 minutes and then add a dash of wine, the remainder of the chopped tarragon and the cream. Bring back just to the simmer and remove from the heat.

Solving the conundrum

Well the conundrum is resolved. Mick Gould turned up with a great big machine and pulled the trailer and tractor out. Here's a gallery of what happened.

Dogs playing. Star, Lumpy and Pip.

A 20 ton conundrum

We had a bit of a drama yesterday (Still ongoing until we can find a way of getting it out)

Danny's tractor lost power at exactly the wrong moment on the steep bit after the bridge and the tractor and trailer loaded with tree trunks ended up in the stream blocking the bridge (Which means my car is stuck away from the road until it gets moved)

That pin is all that's holding the whole thing together.

Danny unloaded the trailer and Jim and Bam Bam made to secure the tractor from falling on its side into the stream.

That's Danny. It's his equipment and wood we're using to make the planks for our beds today. I thought I'd put up a bit of a gallery and some video of the first planks being made.


Danny runs the City Wood Company http://citywoodservices.com/

Planks for beds

Today Danny and Bam Bam will be cutting the planks for our beds. At the moment they are effectively tree trunks that have been sitting around seasoning for a few years. I'll photograph the process later. Better get some more of those acorns planted. Today I'm planting some more things going through the seeds at the moment. I'll probably also plant my tobacco. (I'm addicted to the demon nicotine) I have Havana and Virginia varieties of nicotiana tabacum http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Nicotiana+tabacum and I also have nicotiana rustica http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Nicotiana+rustica which is the shamanic tobacco and his an extremely high nicotine content. They all should go in around now. Last years crop is still curing in the kitchen bender we used to call the mead hall. It'll be left there till the autumn the whole plants hanging upside down. I'll shred it just before use.

The weather today is overcast and it's about 6C with a low of 3C later.

The bird feeding station is getting busy with coal tits, blue tits and the robin who lives here who picks up what the others drop on the ground. He spent most of the coldest bits of the winter so far in here with us of his own volition eating Star's dog food.

Back later today with some photos of the planking.

Next years wood

No more gardening got done yesterday or today. Matt and Julia were out coppicing and asked me to help pull out the wood I'll be burning next year so I tagged along to give a hand.

I only managed to keep it up for a few hours before I couldn't do any more Matt and Julia are still out there. We managed to fill up Matt's truck though.

The wood will get seasoned for a year at least before we burn it. It's piled up in pieces left as large as possible but still be handleable by one person. Those pieces will be chopped to the correct size for whatever burner they end up in just before use. A lot of the land around here has been coppiced for hundreds of years so we're lucky to have a free and sustainable source of heating fuel. (Well not free, takes a lot of effort to extract and prepare it)

As you can see in the photo the tits found my feeder yesterday. I bought a bunch of fat balls from the pet shop but I'll have a go at making my own next year. Means I have to clean my window so I can get better pictures of the birds. The one I put up today looked so washed out I had to doctor it a bit in Gimp before using it.

The weather is drizzly and occasionally rainy but the temperatures are up around 6C As soon as I can afford it I intend to buy several Min/Max thermometers. I need to track the temperatures in the bender, outside, in the polytunnel and in all the hotbeds. As this blog is meant as a record of the gardens I'll be recording those here once we get going. I'm hoping to be able to get started on making the new beds in the next few days.