PV panels get a bad press here in Britain and especially in Northern Ireland. There just isn’t a lot of sun – well not when you’d expect it anyway. Certainly I don’t think I’d like to rely on it, on a large scale. However, for our...
It may be mid summer, but now is the time to be thinking about where next winters fuel is going to come from, and so I’ve been busy in the woods, cutting and splitting a huge fallen ash tree. Ash is fantastic stuff, because it does burn green, unlike many woods,...
In the last year or so I’ve met many people on my travels, almost all of whom have been either working out how to change their lives to reduce their burden on the planet’s resources, or who have taken steps to do so. I am in awe of the challenges that many...
Today Joan, Tina, Ruth and I went along to the As Sustainably As Possible ‘Picnic on the Hill’ event on the front lawns of Parliament Buildings. The idea of the event, organised by Shirley Lewis, aka ‘Baglady’. I’m not entirely sure who...
At last! The solar panels have arrived. Admittedly on the darkest wettest day of the year, but we managed to get them fitted onto their frame (part of a scaffold tower, courtesy of Tina and Joan), and during a lull in the rain, hoisted the whole lot up onto the truck...
With the help of some great beech logs, we now have some steps up onto the lorry ramp, which is sitting on its newly installed legs. The result – a lovely patio area that catches the sun all afternoon and evening. Just hoping that the sun stays out for a couple...
Although Solar PV would seem to many to be the ideal ‘free’ source of energy, one of the main arguments against it has been that the manufacture of the panels comes at significant environmental cost, in terms of extracting and processing the minerals and...
Finally, some blue sky! Even if it doesn’t last it is very welcome. As the moment when we get our solar panels hooked up comes closer, we’re taking an ever greater interest in just how much sunlight we’re actually seeing. It’ll be a few weeks...
Had a good trek round the farm this evening after dinner, finishing up in the woods. The light as the sun sets is always amazing, and I was there just in time to get some great pictures. It is certainly a relief to be living back in the country, without neighbours,...
One of the hardest things to get used to is that the truck has a very finite supply of electricity, currently one fairly knackered old battery. I’m so used to being able to simply switch on whatever I like, and the power will flow. Despite having pretty much...
Well, at last here I am – if not entirely off-grid then pretty substantially off grid. Today has been a mixture of the good bits – looking after the animals, gathering eggs, salad leaves, coriander, and some strawberries for dinner, sitting in the warm, in...
