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Firewood poems
Beachwood fires are bright and clear If the logs are kept a year, Chestnut’s only good they say, If for logs ’tis laid away. Make a fire of Elder tree, Death within your house will be; But ash new or ash old, Is fit for a queen with crown of gold Birch and fir logs burn too fast Blaze up bright and do not last, it is by the Irish said Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread. Elm wood burns like churchyard mould, E’en the very flames are cold But ash green or ash brown Is fit for a queen with golden crown Poplar gives a bitter smoke, Fills…
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PRAYER OF THE WOODS
I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights, the friendly shade screening you from the summer sun, and my fruits are refreshing, quenching your thirst as you journey on. I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie, and the timber that builds your boat. I am the handle of your hoe, the door of your homestead, the wood of your cradle, and the shell of your coffin. I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty. Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer: HARM ME NOT. (author unknown)
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Success in tough times
2012 is our eighth year of small scale farming in France and has seen us move from income dependence to financial security and independence. Looking back over the last eight years at our mistakes and our successes in getting to this point demonstrates the value of an integrated approach. When we arrived in France we had a single idea to provide us with income; that of breading pigs and selling high quality organic free range pork and pork products. This worked well for three years but in our fourth year 2008 a poor global grain harvest sent the price of grain skyward almost doubling the price from our local…
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Pedal Power
For the last five months Fiona and I have been increasing our cycling activity, this is for many reasons and all of them sound and complimentary. Firstly its possibly the most sustainable of all the forms of transport we have available to us today, buses and trains offer us tried and tested way of travelling over longer distances but as we move closer to Peak Oil these are going to become luxuries. Day to day travel for food shopping, visiting family, friends and doctors etc will all become far less possible in a personally owned car and taxis will be prohibitively expensive. The only really viable alternative will be the…
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All that Jazz
We have been so devastated by the loss of our Border Collie Moss we went out and found ourselves a replacement, not that we expected to find anything like a real replacement just a substitute for all those holes left in our daily lives by Moss.So here he is Jazz in keeping with the tradition of giving border collies single syllable names his name is short and sweet, this helps with working them out in the field and generally communicating with them. Jazz is ten weeks old born on the 26thof January 2012 he is pictured here just seven days after we brought him home. Here you can see…
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Moss
Moss December 2003 to Friday 6th April 2012 I am writing this for two reasons one to celebrate the memory of Moss and two to warn anyone who does not already know the dangers ticks hold for our animal friends. Moss came to us as a reject from a neighbouring farm in mid Wales; he had been kept back as best of litter from a champion mother but developed fear for the sheep he was supposed to control and preferred to chase sticks rather than sheep. This made him perfect for us; we were surrounded by sheep and wanted a dog that would not bother them. Moss turned out to…
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Pigs Break Out
Shockingly good time had by all. I just want to share this post to let some dear friends know their hard work did not go to waste; Julie and Alun came to us in March 2011 for five days of volunteering and became instant friends. We just fitted each other like hands in gloves they came to work and we needed the help, but we also share many of life’s important values in common at the same time as being very different in many ways. Later in 2011 they came back for a longer visit and again worked for us as volunteers these exchanges have become so important to Fiona…
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Free Livestock
Free Livestock A double edged sword, this is a scenario we have been through before a few times now we have a well advertised web site a broad spectrum of friends so many people know where we are and what we do. On occasion people who for some reason or other need to get rid of live stock somehow end up in touch with us, this time round it was through a friend of a friend of a friend, the message was that someone had to leave their smallholding and wanted all her livestock re-homing free to anyone who can collect. Fiona and I responded interested in the sow with…
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Hedge Laying
We started this work back in February it was an attempt to regain control and productivity of some of the old and now completely overgrown hedges towards the back end of our property, below you can see what the hedges look like after we started work but before we actually got round to the hedge itself. You can see we have cleared our way in to the base of the hedge cutting down the brambles and digging up the suckers from the blackthorn. Suckering blackthorn is a problem which needs yearly attention, but as in all things permaculture the problem is the solution; for another problem. Laying our hedges and…
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Wooden Plates Commission
I can’t say turning wooden plates is something I love to do, but it is something I value, wooden plates are a part of our history once upon a time they were all we had to eat of. In times past when we truly understood the value of our labour pottery was expensive and for the rich but wood was readily available and relatively easy to work. Of course these old wooden plates were rough and with little design consideration invested in their making. The plates would have been made in green wood that is no seasoning would have taken place, the wood is easier to turn like that and…
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