We have now entered the hibernation months again, with shorter days, windy wet weather (this week the yurt got lifted slightly by 65 mph gusty winds) or glorious, bright cold days and another winter in the yurt. However now we can return to a sense of planning and optimism. After 18 months of uncertainty we got planning permission to rebuild 30 ft2 of wall, which fell down. We have moved, in the last 18 months, from …you’ve lost your planning permission, all of it and you will never be able to build your home; rendering your land virtually worthless, you up to your eyeballs in debt and your life up the proverbial.. to …oh it’s only a small area of wall, there’s your planning…
If only it had been that easy or cheap.
Anyhow, not dwelling on the negative.. we have a project again and, it is with relief, we can return to the building. Plus, in the meantime, we have managed to: work on the land, plant our vegetable gardens and orchard, clear huge amounts of invasive Himalayan balsam (or as we call it – therapy), plant about 400 trees, bring a flower meadow back into good working order, dig a pond, rediscover the farm’s old gardens, build a polytunnel – now providing us with an endless supply of food, survive in a yurt (it’s actually lovely and mostly easy, until you come to winter), make our lives a little more easy in general, set up a business, continue working for the local Wildlife Trust, inherit another cat..actually – thank goodness we didn’t have to build, when would we have had the time?
Last year we largely slept through the winter, this one I think we will be wide awake till the wee hours talking about; solar water heating, how to keep a pantry as cold as possibly, whether to have a wind turbine or water power, whether to go for underfloor heating or whole house ventilation system with a big log burner, where is the kitchen sink going?