24th July - 31st July

Most of the group left the woods this week to attend the Big Green Gathering in Wiltshire. We had a marvellous and highly productive time doing workshops and meeting people. We bought books and tools and traded some of our sycamore mallets. We gained new insights and experience using pole lathes and shaving horses. We tried our hands at crafts including rag rug making using a peg loom and wood carving. A great deal of valuable information came out of workshops on subject such as composting, grey water treatment, eco buildings, woodland management, interpersonal community dynamics, DIY electric power and growing mushrooms. There was so much to do and so little time. The gathering was very well attended and we bumped into people from both Moreton and Chagford. Despite being so busy we still found time to help with the catering, enjoy the music, and meet lots of interesting and inspiring people, before returning to the woods completely exhausted.

17th July - 23rd July

The long house was finally completed - the canvas is up, carpets down, beds and sofa installed. The work was completed just in time as we had five visitors staying over. Our planning officer came for a look round and put up the planning notice. People now have until the 11th August to comment on the proposal. We also visited our neighbors to chat about the planning application and found most to be supportive. The results from our water tests arrived and indicated that the contamination is worse than before, perhaps because of the warmer weather. We will start work on a sand filter and consider installing a ceramic filter also. The two individual spaces being constructed last week have been completed. A cycle powered generator was built using an old exercise bike and allowed us to use the computer even when we had completely flattened the battery.

10th July - 16th July

The tarp goes up over the long house extension but it needs a lot of work still, as we have yet to put in posts to support it. It has become known as the loft, being drafty and dark at the moment. We attended a lecture about a permaculture village in Austrialia at Schumacker College in Dartington. A great deal of time has been spent on individual spaces. Two platforms and floors have been built while three others have been clearing brambles and bracken in preparation to begin building. We have been speaking to a lot of people about our planning application and appealing for letters of support from those who think our plans warrant planning permission. We experienced some mystery illness with a number of people feeling quite unwell for a few days.

3rd July - 9th July

Our first crops provide a fine salad. Work is started on extending the long(currently short)house floor. A great deal of time is spent finishing off the planning application, which is submitted Friday 7th. We attend the Parish Council meeting. Our water supply is re-tested after the work done last week to the spring and plumbing. A television company loans us a camera for some kind of video diary, although we have yet to make a decision on whether we want to participate in such publicity. We consult with Devon Community Composting Network and the Environment Agency on risk assesment for our proposed community compost scheme. We help prepare the railway track on order to accomodate visitors for a 'Devon's Secret Gardens' event in neighbouring Steward Mill.

26th June - 2nd July

Work continues on individual spaces. Now that the communal spaces are up in a basic way we are happier for time to be spent on individual dwellings. We start work on our water systems now that we have large quantities of pipe. The kitchen is further improved, a double sink is installed and plumbed in (hurray - no more bucket carrying). Our water is sourced nearer to the spring which will hopefully end the coliform contamination. Book shelves are made with recycled pallet wood in the communal space so we can begin to build up our library and move our filing system from its temporary home on the railway track. Research and drafting of our planning application is continues.

19th June - 25th June

A temporary sauna is built to help us relax and feel pampered, it gets a few nights of use before it is taken down. More photos are taken for the virtual woodland walk and website photo gallery. We make some delicious cake in a biscuit tin on a fire, and make plans to build a mud/brick oven soon. A canvas tool shed is built for our growing collection and the field kitchen is rebuilt/rearranged to create better storage space. We also build an open air bath, heated by a fire directly underneath the tub. One visitor comments that it was the best bath with the best view he had ever had.

11th June - 18th June

The results of our water test come back to let us know that our water contains coliform bacteria, so we source the stream back to its origin and will pipe the water from there and re-test it. We receive a reply from our letter to the planning authority informing us that we need to put in our planning application by the 7th of July, so we step up the priority of preparing this. Work starts on our virtual woodland walk with our new digital camera... the virtual woodland walk will help us in the planning and design process for the actual woodland walk. Research is made into felling licenses to enable us to selectively remove trees where appropriate, and work continues on restoring the agricultural shed.
We have more problems with communication... our telephone land line has developed a fault, and the engineer cannot come out till next week!

3rd June - 10th June

The first stage of the longhouse is completed (half its length). We now have a large canvas covered space with a dry, carpeted flat floor. We christen the 'long' house by watching a movie on our solar powered laptop computer! There is more planting in the growing area. We continue work on restoring the agricultural shed.

diary index