After a frenetic June, and the success of our crowdfunding campaign, we took a couple of weeks to travel and visit family and friends, and begin to plan the next couple of months in earnest. The thrill of meeting our funding target came with the knowledge that we needed to spend the money wisely, and so the last couple of weeks have been spent hunting around for materials that meet our criteria of being where possible – local, natural, recycled or reused. As we’ve discovered, this can be a real challenge, and in some cases we’ve agonised over the choice between say, spending more on a wooden window, or saving a convincingly woody PVC one from landfill. In the end, we have a mixture of the two, and this is just one example.
Now we have collected together almost all the materials that we think we’ll need, and are concentrating on preparing the site, finalising design and structural details and the like, before taking the plunge and commencing work.
Just before the campaign we finally got a decent camera, which Steve promply dropped, breaking the screen, which has remained broken, until this week, when a new one should arrive, and we’ll be able to start posting pictures once again.
We’ve also arranged lots of wwoof volunteers for August, so alongside the building work, the growing spaces should also be tamed somewhat, and we have been gathering in hay and straw for the year ahead – it really is all go.
Another side effect of the crowdfunding campaign is that we met many, many new people, and this is leading to all sorts of interesting opportunities to share our experiences and help others to do the same. We are lucky to be able to work with Cloughmills Community Action team, as well as talking about crowdfunding to a number of other groups, and have a bit in the next Permaculture magazine. Its all very exciting, that’s for sure.
