Trees, Bees and Permission Please!

Well its been some time but here we go again. This blog will now concentrate on what we have been up to on our land and I will endeavour to update it roughly once a month. It is inevitable that the politics of sustainablity will crop up as everything has a context!
Its been a long winter but we still attend everyday to look after the animals. It was fun walking through virgin snow when we were unable to drive and Susan had another opportunity to have a 'retreat' in the barn for a few days. Another memorable evening was New Years Eve, when Gary and Fi popped over for music and sloe vodka earlier and we were treated to Bovey Castle's firework display at midnight. We had gone to bed and and as it was so hot in the barn, what with the Thermafleece Sheepswool insulation, thanks to Christine and the woodburner, thanks to David Brampton-Greene, we we ended up standing outside watching the fireworks, virtually naked!
One of the jobs we have done, is to fell some ash trees in our hedgerow near the caravan. Farmers traditionally would plant ash in the hedge for firewood, which I expect you know, burns green. They are usually cut when they are a managble size but these were now full size trees. So armed with a bow saw, over a few days, we managed to cut them down but not without a few scares and near misses with ourselves and the caravan. We wanted to cut them down ourselves because of a a sense of self-responsiblity and satisfaction. However, we shall not be doing that again mainly because we will harvest them sooner. My midriff still aches two weeks on but that could also be something to do with the naturopathic gym we attend on a Friday.
The other picture you can see is Elle with the cuttings from our shelter belt for the vegetables/biomass for firewood, of willow which we have begun to pollard. Much easier to cut with loppers which hopefully we can manage into old age! We havent been too tidy with the willow as the cuttings of the pussy willow is one of the first pollen crops, for our other new addition, the bees. The rabbits which are multiplying at the stereotypical rate have begun to eat the young willow. We noticed that they were also eating the cuttings from the pruned fruit trees before I picked them up so we have sprinkled bits of willow between the hedge and the new willow shoots and they are working successfully as a decoy. The apple tree cuttings are really appreciated by the sheep when there is not much else. We have never seen the grass so bereft and white. The cold winds have now gone so I expect within weeks we will have more grass than we need and the sheep will return to their over fed selves.
I mentioned the bees. Its been a difficult few years for beekeeping but with Eric's advice Susan has succesfully installed a hive which has, unlike many, survived the winter. We are hoping that this will make a real difference to the pollination of the fruit trees this year. We had a situation this year where one of our previously prolific apples, Sunset, fruited well with lots of small apples then they all fell off! Growing fruit at our land is marginal so as the shelter belts grow and the climate warms plus the addition of bees, we may just get away with it. We have planted a Bramley apple and a gage, as well as four cherries in memory of my mother and we have included her ashes so the lime loving plants should appreciate her input. Whilst we had to be away for the funeral etc, Rachael and Helen looked after our animals for us, so thank you and if anyone else would like to help, please let us know.
The ducks have been in the vegetable area for the last few weeks where they will find every slug and snail as well as their eggs so we can ensure that the only barrier to successful growing will be temperature and soil quality. After the addition of a herbicide a few years back, that remains in the plants after they are composted, we have been less inclined to import compost/manure. Our neigbours at Batworthy Mill had problems with their vegetables after importing an unknown source of affected hay or straw. This means we have to make all our own so we are now using grass and bracken as well as the animal wastes. We also use the bracken as a mulch and for chicken hut bedding. We miss the abundance of pony manure, as our ponies are now living across the valley looked after by our other neigbours. Our two year old humanure has been applied to the comfrey outside the growing area, and we will harvest that this year for more compost.
Last year we sold our surplus vegetables and fruit, to our regular customers, as well as in the window box outside our house and to The Courtyard. We have had some positive comments from older customers some of which told us that years ago vegetables were sold from outside houses in New Street so unbeknowingly we are are carrying on a tradition.
We are still hoping to build on our land. We understand that sustainablity is now a criteria in achieving permission. When we applied a few years back we were assessed as an agricultural business even though we asked to be assessed as a sustainablity project so we continue to champion policy change. In the 8 years of driving to the land with a round trip of 9 miles we have driven over 26,000 miles, the circumference of the earth. If we lived there, of course, we would make much fewer journeys. We would also love to get a 2.5KW PV array, as now supported by the government from April, to power perhaps the whole hamlet and an electric car. You do, of course, need a house to put it on!
It may be time for us to try for permission again!
Thanks to all those who have donated trees for our ongoing expansion of Wormhill Ley woodland.

Culture Crunch?

Looking at the news recently, I noticed a common theme in the news that they choose to report. This is obvious when it comes to the Olympics but not so obvious when they talk about the credit crunch and environmental issues.
The common theme is of course competition, which then led me to think about how ‘natural’ it is to be competitive. I tried one of my local surveys asking “do you think we are born competitive?” Most men said yes, but interestingly most women said no. (Stockholm Syndrome? See below.)
One answer that I liked is that we are born ‘neutral’. This, as another commented, may be wishful thinking. I actually think that competitiveness is a mutation of our self-preservation or survival instinct, which is why it is held so tightly. The distinction is that competition involves power over. Survival can be win-win. Maybe the next question to ask is do you believe people are born bad? We need all these laws if they are, but do not if there not. It’s that old nature/nurture thing.
Capitalism has been predicted to fail by many but it still seems to survive so maybe our culturally infused competitiveness is the fuel that perpetuates it. The activities of the banking world, as far as I know, are not illegal (wishful thinking again) and yet we are now questioning their greed. (Don’t get me started about PPP’s).
Here lies the dilemma. We laud ‘winners’ (back to the news) and yet now say some are winning too much. Ask a businessman what he feels about these bankers and he will say they are ‘too greedy’ and yet this same man may own a chain of shops, say 20. Another businessman may say that is too many and greedy. So where do we draw the line? It seems that we are constantly looking for ways to deal with this contradiction, which to my mind has no solution, within capitalism. Also new laws have to keep being passed to prevent people exploiting and abusing by finding loopholes in systems, in whichever area of life they are involved in. This moves us further and further away from being spontaneously human, and of course is driven by the need to win. This generates a massive burden to the legal system and it’s getting more and more complex just to keep civilisation going under the weight of all this legislation, as nuances are found and slowly blocked, always after the horse has bolted.
I listen to Radio 4 and hear programs daily that are all manifestations of disaffection from society, from increased teenage pregnancies, child unhappiness and drug consumption, both pharmaceutical and recreational. Virtually all the programs have a potential solution in understanding, by noting where the hidden competitiveness comes in and the subsequent consequences, from children lacking their loving needs because of the needs of parents working long hours, for example. ‘Sustainable economic growth’ has always been a similar contradiction. When you have your “observing subtle competition” head on, you see it everywhere from couples bickering to siblings squabbling and the loud, loud silence.
Now that in nearly every respect we are nationalising our banks maybe the word socialism will creep back into our language, not that I am advocating a return to the past. At least the word socialism, and for that matter communism include references to human qualities, whereas capitalism is derived from a big pile of money. I have also heard recently that for every ‘successful’ person there are many in the world, that suffer as a result, and there will be no peace anywhere until we become more equitable.
I also have realized in my questioning that many believe that capitalism is access to the market where like a street market you have a free choice to buy or sell. This of course is not the case and many are defending capitalism with a misunderstanding of what it actually is. I even heard one guy on the radio say that if we didn’t have capitalism we would all have to drive around in Trabants.(old unreliable Russian cars, incidentally made with paper mache bodywork.)
So if there are going to be changes ahead and major ones at that, I feel that it is at first essential to know what we are dealing with and get real, as the banks are now, having to do. This will also help those that are holding on to old thinking to make a new choice. Hopefully we will also begin to see the reality of the damage we are doing to the environment, which is undoubtably connected to the financial system. Depleted resources will soon begin to become apparent.
A criticism of all the above is that this is just an ideal, where humans cooperate, recognise each other for their qualities and feel more secure wherever they are. I think this is the essence of what it is to be human and more than ever now are the characteristics of survival. On a global scale competition is now futile as resources are either used up or destroyed in its wake. George Monbiots article in the Guardian on the 14th October 2008, stated that this was the end of the Easter Island and the Mayan civilisations as they chopped down the last trees in order to satisfy the competing leaders desire for larger memorials to their name.
I think we are all been hood winked into our current existence with coercive
half-truths that we hold up with some kind of integrity. Like “The Stockholm Syndrome” we have learnt to get on with our captors in order to honour our primary need for survival. I have yet to meet a mechanic who believes in man made global warming. One defends what one does!
Even if I am wrong and over millions of years that we have evolved to be naturally competitive then we need to learn fast, how to become cooperative. Ethically this is the only choice. As Amory Lovins of The Rocky Mountain Institute says ‘we don’t need environmentalists but cultural repair people.’ Change the culture the environment will follow!
So, how about a new ism that puts all people first, taking the best bits of social, communal and the marketplace and working together cooperatively? Humanism? Peopleism? Freedomism? Lifeism? Culturism? Answers on a postcard?

Forgotten Embodied Energy?

I recently saw a feature on a television morning news program declaring that dishwashers were more environmentally friendly than using a bowl to wash up in because over a week they used less hot water. This 'rough' science did not include the manufacture of the machine, the transport from China and the disposal/ recycling of it, nor take into account the production and environmental impact of those, clean all surface, dishwasher tablets. The humble washing up bowl and a squirt of Ecover came a poor second.

This week the government announced in the budget, that there was to be a new car tax banding, based on the emissions of your car. This is designed to be an incentive to buy a less emitting car. On the surface, this seems laudable but after some thought it occurred to me that if you are in a position to buy a £40,000 4 wheel drive etc would an extra £200 a year in road tax make you choose a smaller/ more efficient model. I doubt it. If you did, your old emitting car would be passed along to someone else thats probably not in a position to buy a new car. This in turn means that his car is also passed along. This of course happens all the time but are we in danger of creating cars that are old before their time, and do not fulfill their potential lifespan. We actually end up with more cars. I know of someone who recently bought a 9 year Rover with 50,000 miles on the clock with MOT for £50.

Now thinking about the embodied energy of making a car and disposing/recycling of it, as in the dishwasher example above, are we actually creating more emissions by producing new cars rather than keeping the existing ones going. We have a 19 year old Peugeot 205 which is still one of the most fuel efficient cars around (including newer models) so we keep that going! We are being penalized for this. We are also providing business for our local mechanics. This, I admit is mainly because we are not in a position to buy a new low emission BMW.

This then led me think about 'generating' income, generating being the key word as we would use in the context of heat or electricity. Money has in itself embodied energy. Stuff has to be done and produced in order to generate it. If you trace the source of all income and follow it back far enough,(even, money on money, trading) you probably arrive at someone digging a hole in the ground and then using vast quantities of energy to produce metal and then something like a BMW or dishwasher, plus the inherent pollution at every collection of resource and manufacturing process. Even the service industry is just another layer away from supporting more product. Of course, this is all by degree and if you take the example of Susan teaching Yoga locally where most walk, the footprint is very light. Mind you she is not going to be able to buy the BMW!

So if you buy a new BMW there is a lot more history and future going on than reducing its current emissions. I would suggest that that its emissions would only be 1 of a factor of 3, the others being the embodied energy of the car and the other the money to buy it. These remain a constant. Wouldn't it be far easier for government to legislate to make all new cars to be of a new low emission level in the same way as the new 6* rating for the thermal efficiency of housing. Mind you that still hasn't been implemented and new houses are still being built to less than a 1* rating. As an aside, the garage at Morertonhampstead, that does MOT's, is not happy because he has to pay £5000 for new equipment to measure the minimal output from the new BMW's. His current machine dosen't even register that there is a car there!

Cuba would be good place to compare Britain with as its probably the only place in the world where the number of cars in existence has gone down and I expect their emissions too. I suspect our overall emissions are actually going up.

Maybe money has a double whammy, with a footprint when you earn it and a footprint when you spend it. I suspect I'm counting the same energy twice.
Still money makes the world go round and that takes some doing!


P.S. If you are fed up with Radio 1,2,3 and 4 and would like a real alternative there is now Resonance FM 104.4 available via the internet. Its is run by London Musicians Collective. I'm especially pleased that the Radio 3 'Mixing It' guys are back at 9pm on a Wednesday with the brilliantly renamed 'Where's the Skill in that'. An eclectic mix of new music.

End of this road!

If you haven't heard by now our planning permission refusal appeal was dismissed. As the title suggests we have reached the end of this particular journey. Thanks for all your support and kind words. We are very disappointed particularly after the Planning Inspector engaged with us in such a positive way. He even ate some of our salad crops, as featured in the previous blog, and suggested that 'we put corrugated iron on our roof and paint it black because the National Park like that'. We felt that we had a real chance of getting permission after his visit and we both said that we can't remember an instance where we have read someone so wrong. After all his positive comments I looked him in the eye and said 'who makes the decision'. He smiled and said 'I do'. After he left, we said that we thought that it could not have gone any better. It was more like taking two enthusiastic Permaculture students on a tour, which makes it all the more difficult to come to terms with the outcome. (A trainee planner from DNP was also present to ensure fair play.) Why was he talking details of the building when he was not going to permit it? It feels like he may have been over ridden.
In our Appeal Decision he doesn't mention global warming or carbon footprints and again treats us as subsistence farmers, as the National Park did. He also said that we wanted to be there because of our 'personal convictions'. It just so happens that our 'personal convictions' just happen to be government rhetoric! Maybe the PM needs to send a memo to the planners.
So what have we learnt?
Firstly, that plans,(the Dartmoor National Park Local Plan is riddled full of talk of sustainability, global significance and environmental concerns) mean absolutely nothing if it is not in policy. The DNP planners enforce policy. They do not create it. Likewise the Planning Inspectorate at appeal. Ultimately this policy has to come from the top. We are trying to identify the top down process and ,in fact, whether they talk to each other.
So what next. We have had a difficult week and have 'heavy hearts'. I have now recovered somewhat realizing that I was taking it too personally. We are apparently the most regulated country in Europe and no new world democracies have chosen our model for many years. This from the home of democracy! I have written to Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn but i am not optimistic. I am going to also find out if there is a Planning Inspectorate hierarchy so that I can speak to whoever pulls the strings. We have arranged a meeting with our local MP Geoffrey Cox(Conservative).
Its cold, so being in the field has lost its attraction at the moment although we still go every day to look after the animals. Funnily enough the DNP are coming to help plant trees in a couple of weeks with a party from Moretonhampstead Primary school.Good that they have somewhere to go.
Caught the Dysons marching onward at the Exeter tip. Notice the red one slightly to the fore. They used to do as our decision does! Notice also they are still full of shit!
I would like to thank everyone again for their letter writing, words of support and general humanness.
A final thought. Dealing with all this bureaucracy has made me realize that perhaps our democracy is now an over-complex, weighty, cumbersome, mechanical behomath. Like a supertanker(oh the irony) that has gained momentum, its going to be very difficult to slow it down or change directon, especially when bogus science seeded by invented American Foundations(funded by multi-nationals), have created doubt about global warming. Also we have no precident in history of what we now have to do to in order to combat the carbon emissions. The hard won advantage gained by most, achieved through the mechanising of humanity, has brought us to this place, and will be given up very reluctantly even though the potential future could herald the new dawn of civilisation. Wow!

Planning Appeal

Well this is my first journey into blogging. Maybe I can do photos too soon.
We are in the final 3 weeks of of our planning appeal. What this means is that as of today, I can respond to any of the comments that "interested parties' have made. This includes Dartmoor National Park, neigbours and North Bovey Parish council. I have 3 weeks and then the decision will be made.
A strong point I will be making is that we have not taken direct action, by moving onto the land, but instead have tried a more cooperative, non adversarial approach. This could work against us as we dont have to be evicted and its much easier to say no to something that dosent exist, dwelling wise. However we have spent more time on producing and less time on quite rightly building structures and systems of living which must take precedent if you actualy live there. We are also just a family and unlike Stewards Wood and Earth Matters, they are groups, and have security in numbers. By the way Earth Matters at Allerleigh(spelling) near Dartmouth, have temporary permission for 3 years. The planning inspector said many positive things about Permaculture and the way they live. Maybe we will get the same inspector!!!
Would like to talk more about the self seeded Red Mustard that has germinated amoungst our leeks and include a photo. One step at a time. This week I will mostly be weeding!