11 April 2012

A new beginning

Prompted by Ootz, I've decided I need to resuscitate the near-dead orphan blog.

Since I last posted, the tractor's been fixed (it was the battery, and the first replacement was fucked as well), and the paddock has been slashed. The trees have grown, some of them are now 3 or 4 m tall. Not bad for seeds direct-drilled in 2007! Even better, on a recent visit, I disturbed a couple of euros who'd decided my 5 acres of short forest beat the shit out of the surrounding several million acres of wheat'n'sheep as a place to live. (The fox I saw on the same visit wasn't such a thrill: I've bought a shotgun to deal with it.)

Plans for the Hovel are with the local council for building approval (although I still need to produce and send the design for the reed-bed system to deal with grey water), so I may be able to get the first stages of the build underway later this year.

I'll take some photos next time I go up there, and post any that may be of interest - hopefully in the next few weeks.

6 comments:

  1. Hey DI(NR)!

    I am genuinely interested (in both senses of the word, I think) in your progress here, and glad to see it's... um... progressing.

    Kill them foxes dead, and make yourself a cloak. As I understand it, foxes aren't much chop for eating.

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  2. Yeah, I've heard that, FDB - Hunter S. Thompson mentioned their lack of gastronomic appeal in his book about the Hell's Angels, IIRC. Only one fox, but it'll make an excellent stole (with holes) if I can line the fucker up. Or maybe a Davy Crockett hat. I bet the bastard's eating my quail, too.

    The other thing I saw was two hares (or maybe the same hare twice) - there's a lot of good eating on those things.

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  3. Yo DI (nr),
    great to see you back on here. Now that they boarded up LP, this is the only way to find out how your doomstead will evolve and how you doing. From faint memory it was your mentioning of your venture on LP that brought me out from lurching thereon and post my first comment. A year later or so I actually embarked on my own doomstead venture. Although I am living on it now, the project is far from over. Like you I enjoy to see the changes in the landscape with 'nature' doing it's thing and the wildlife moving in. Have you got any photos previous to the seeding to compare with present tree growth? When do you expect to start work on the dwelling? What made you choose reed bed for grey water treatment?

    Anyhoo, good luck and yeah, great if you could manage to get some photos up. Cheers Ootz

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  4. Hi, Ootz. I don't think I have any pre-tree photos (although I have some pretty early ones). I was going to suggest looking at the link in my very first post for an aerial view, but I note that Google Maps has put up some newer photography that shows the shed and the start of the trees.

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  5. Just came across this and thought you might be interested in having a look:

    http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/courses/godel-escher-bach/

    Its just a high school course but it still looks interesting.

    Cheers

    jules

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, jules. I first encountered GEB at uni. I did mathematical logic, and the lecturer recommended it to us.

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