25th September - 1st October

As autumn makes its presence felt, we buy some more wood burning stoves from a local forester and install the largest into the longhouse. It makes a huge difference, and all becomes toasty. Dan takes one up to his new bender - the first he has built. The tipi, his old dwelling, has been dismantled and taken away by its new owner. The rain has taken its toll on the agricultural shed and we are forced to renovate it. We hold a stall at the very busy Moor Trees Jumble Sale, giving out our newsletters and leaflets and coming home with armfuls of second hand books. Our missing members returned exhausted and in need of another holiday to get over their last. Jim made huge quantities of home made ketchup, using up our tomato mountain, which was great but we managed to consume both pans in just two days. We continue work preparing for the visit by the planning committee next week.

18th September - 24th September

We wrote our second article for the local parish newsletter 'The News In Moreton'. It was an update on what has been happening here in the last few months but they didn't have enough room in newsletter for the whole article because of the controversy raised by the planning permission given to a 148 house development. We had a large delivery of wholefood and that meant lots of carrying up the hill and we bought additional metal cabinets for storage. With the summer clearly over, people have started to prioritise getting their own dwellings completed. Clares platform is finished and the floor put on. We learnt that the planning committee is visiting on the 3rd October. Unfortunately four of the group had made plans for a holiday which left the group rather short of numbers to work on the presentation.

11th September - 17th September

There has been a lot of work done on personal dwellings this week with both Jim and Clare putting in a lot of time preparing their spaces for winter. We did a stall again at the Country Flea market in Moretonhampstead and started distributing our first newsletter. On Thursday a couple of us braved the fuel starved roads of Dartmoor to attend an 'Wild Awareness' event organised by Moor Trees. Quite a bit of work has been done on the website this week including the addition of a 'what's new' page and a frame based navigation system (the menu on the left if you have frames). Numbers on site have been low this week with several of us 'trapped' elsewhere as this petroleum dependent country ground to a virtual halt after a couple of days of fuel blockades. We have added to the web site information about biodiesel and how to make it from vegetable oil but of course the answer is to be less dependent on transport in the first place.

4th September - 10th September

Some of us had been looking forward to this week, imagining a break after the stress and challenges of previous weeks planning stuff, but it is all far from over yet. The planning decision is now not expected till November. The papers had a few things to say and the Mid Devon Advertiser sent round a photographer. On Tuesday at the Moretonhampstead Flea Market, we showed some of the crafts we have been producing. This month's Parish Council meeting was packed, with both our project and the big new housing development in Moretonhampstead being the hot topics. We finished our first newsletter, and now we just need to find somewhere to print it (it will be available on the website soon). We finished our third cycle generator and showed it off for the first time at the Tavistock 'Alternatives' event where we did a stall and craft demonstrations on Saturday. Pete went to Totnes for the South Hams Wood Fair, making new contacts and finding out about local crafts people. On Sunday we built a shelter for our bicycles and in the afternoon we gave some of our neighbours a guided tour of the woodland and the project.

28th August - 3rd September

Yet another really busy week but fortunately we had a lot of visitors staying most of the time who helped out a lot. On Tuesday we gave a tour to about twenty people interested in permaculture and organic growing, who were attending a gathering in Exmouth. We did a couple of radio interviews and spent time tweeking our latest cycle generator which is now being used to power the computer as I type. On Thursday some of us attended a public meeting about setting up a Sustainable Living Center in Ottery St' Mary. The DNPA met on Friday to decide whether to grant us planning permission. There was a significant amount of support from the members but they deferred the decision until after they have visited the site. Most of us were in Exeter on Saturday providing cycle powered music and craft demonstrations for a fair organised by Oxfam. On Sunday Pete worked on completing our first newsletter 'Word From The Wood' while others went to a boot sale looking for old woodworking tools.

21st August - 27th August

The camp fire music evening, organised as part of Moretonhampstead Carnival week, was a great success. However a combination of poor health, injuries and over-exertion the previous week meant we didn't complete our entry into the carnival parade. Despite everything, we greatly enjoyed carnival day ; the bands, the street theatre and even the parade. Ben started to build a new cycle generator that we hope will be more suitable for children to use. Kat and Dan did some overdue work in the growing area and harvested the bulk of the potatoes. On the planning front we were saddened but not surprised by the news that the planning officers are not going to support our proposal. The week ended with an all day meeting to review our progress during the last four months and make plans for winter.

14th August - 20th August

We started the week by building another set of bookshelves fo

r our ever expanding library in the longhouse. Most of the week was spent preparing for events during Moretonhampstead Carnival Week. Ben built a portable pole lathe and our first shaving horse with which to demonstrate green woodworking at the Summer Fair. Hours were spent shredding loads of old clothes for rag rug making. Clare made a banner for the stall and Dan prepared a photo display board. Although already very busy, we made time on Thursday for Carlton TV to film for a news item that is expected to be shown the 31st. We erected a marquee on Friday to provide a dry venue in case of rain during our camp fire event. Friday evening we let our hair down at the 'Picture This' (Blondie tribute band) gig at the Parish Hall. The Summer Fair was great, rain had been forecast but it turned out fine and sunny. We received a lot of interest with our demonstrations of greenwood working, rag rug making and our cycle powered website.

8th August - 13th August

More individual dwelling spaces are being cleared and set up within our settlement area.  The library continues to grow, and we now need to build more shelves.  We received a high level visit from  DNPA's Development Control on Wednesday, and showed them around the woodland.  The deadline for comments regarding our application has now passed. Initial reports suggest there have been about 70 letters of support and 5 to 10 objections.  Thank you to all who have expressed an interest in our application.  We have also been negotiating conditions to accompany planning permission - these will ensure that the woodland is protected from high impact unsustainable development in the future.  They include restrictions on number of residents and vehicles and the location of dwellings. The conditions should also incorporate The Land Is Ours '15 Criteria for Sustainable Land Use'. Work has started work on our first newsletter, hopefully it will be out in time for the Moreton Summer Fair. We have also been planning and preparing for our carnival week 'campfire jam'  (21st August).  

1st August - 7th August

A lot of time was spent recovering from the stresses and strains of our time away last week. Despite our lethargy, the long house was given a 'spring' clean and a new set of shelves were put in for our expanding library. Inspired by a workshop at the Big Green Gathering, Clare made a peg loom and has since created several rag rugs (details coming some). The growing area is now providing quite a range of food; lettuce, broccoli, spinach, courgettes, french beans, potatoes, sorrel, and various other herbs. We had a visit from James Aven, our planning officer, to discuss our planning situation. More work was done on improving the efficiency of our cycle powered generator but a lack of suitable parts has left us currently unable to complete our work. We had a meeting to discuss our plans for the Moretonhampstead carnival week.

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