by Steve Byrne | Oct 13, 2012 | the farm
We may have had the wettest winter for 100 years but days like this are worth waiting for. Perfectly frosty and clear, no noise except for the hens helping me to muck out the stables, and the smell of woodsmoke. It doesn’t get a lot better than that. Suddenly...
by Steve Byrne | Oct 12, 2012 | volunteering
If you fancy rolling up your sleeves and coming to be part of a new smallholding, then we want to hear from you. We’re going to register as Wwoof hosts, but if anyone wants to come and spend time under the usual Wwoof agreement, ie – we house and feed you...
by Steve Byrne | Oct 8, 2012 | smallholding
by Steve Byrne | Oct 8, 2012 | renewable energy
I feel like a smoker who is trying to give up and who has fallen off the wagon. Although our range isn’t really suited to wood, and is 50+ years old, a few alterations and it has burned pretty well, with one slight snag – the quantities that it consumes....
by Steve Byrne | Oct 6, 2012 | smallholding
by Steve Byrne | Oct 2, 2012 | smallholding
It is on this day every year that I remember Poll, my most excellent horse friend of many years. I’ll tell Lyra about him.
by Steve Byrne | Oct 1, 2012 | self sufficiency
All you need to enjoy a break from the connected world is here. The house truck features a unique upcycled pallet wood interior, well equipped kitchen, wood powered shower, and of course, an outside compost loo with a view. Harriet even has her own decking area where you can sit and admire the view, and is powered by solar electricity.
by Steve Byrne | Sep 29, 2012 | self sufficiency
For those readers who are also smallholders or have small farms, this is an incredibly useful read.Small is Successful – a report put together by the Ecological Land CoOperative – examines eight smallholdings with land-based businesses on 10 acres or less....
by Steve Byrne | Sep 27, 2012 | woodlands
I had an interesting dilemma this week as I did my regular trawl of the woods for dry kindling and fallen trees. We own half of a block of woodland that has been largely untouched for many years – being old bog it is seen as being of little value, and not worth...
by Steve Byrne | Sep 21, 2012 | woodlands
Since autumn appears to have arrived (and because it’ll take me weeks), I’ve made a start on coppicing over in the woods. Although it is mainly birch, I’ve started with an area that has some ash in it, to give the ash a fighting chance, and because...
by Steve Byrne | Sep 20, 2012 | buildings
Having just stumbled outside at 4am in the cold and sheeting rain to rummage around in the log pile, so that I can get the range re-lit and make a cup of tea, I can reflect not only on the joys of early parenthood, but on how handy modern conveniences such as electric...
by Steve Byrne | Sep 17, 2012 | smallholding
I worked with Charlie briefly on the community hub building at Lammas, and not only is he a top bloke, but a fantastic example of how someone with relatively little experience can create the most amazing building. It really is the nicest reciprocal frame roundhouse...
