Weather forcast and Simons boat

Here's the forecast for a main section of the design course. Sounds like a bit of everything as per usual, but hopefully nowhere near as bad as previous years - which have been terrible, surely its our turn for a good one this year.

UK Outlook for Friday 9 May 2008 to Sunday 18 May 2008:

High pressure to the north of the United Kingdom dominates at first, with lower pressure away to the south and west. Through the period the high slowly drifts further away towards Greenland, allowing low pressure to move into southern areas, and the easterly flow to eventually turn northeasterly. Although dry weather dominates, with some decent spells of sunshine, there is always the risk of thundery showers developing. There will be some over the weekend, especially across southern areas, and this threat of thundery rain or showers may extend a little northeastwards into central areas during the week. The other change will be in temperatures, generally warm or very warm at first across southern and western Britain, but expected to slowly return towards nearer normal values later.

And here... ladies and gentlemen is a pic of Simon's boat... we have waited a very long time to be able to say this ha ha... anyway she looks like a beauty..

Simon sails away

Well he's finally done and gone and bought himself a Folkboat, which is mored down in Essex. Chickenshack will not be the same without Simon's involvement. He was there are the very beginning when it all started ad has lived here fo something like 8 years. Anyway life goes on and we are really looking forward to having Bill and Kath here when they complete their planned move.

Meanwhile its all go go here getting ready for the permaculture course... looking forward to seeing everyone in a week's time

Permaculture design course updates

I have updated the courses section on the Chickenshack website
and will add more over the next few days. We have had quite a lot of inquiries over the last few days, so people who have not confirmed need to get back in touch. I will email everyone who has contacted me in a few days with details anyway.

We are busy planting trial beds for the poly-veg practical, and are generally getting the site ready. Having been away in London contending with the Ideal Home exhibition and finishing off the last of the school gardens I was building, I am finally home again for the duration and can concentrate fully on getting ready for the course. It starts in just three weeks! but I am sure we will be ready in time.

permaculture design course 2008

I have updated the course pages on the website, i hope they are more informative. The course is booking quite well, there are 16 places available in all and we have 10 firm bookings and there are another 6 people indicating a strong interest and several more possibles currently. So if you are thinking of booking please get in touch and let us know you are interested - if you have not paid a deposit then please make sure awe are expecting you. Its looking like we will have a small bursary fund available to subsidise course fees especially for local residents, so again please get in touch if you are interested but are worrying if you can afford the fee.

The key tutor this year is Chris Evans, a hugely experienced permaculture teacher, with 20 experience on rural permaculture projects in Nepal. Chirs last taught on a course here in 1997, so we are very excited having him back again. (He and partner Looby have recently had a baby so we are waiting confirm how many days they are available for). As well as Chris and Looby we will be working with Chris Dixon, a permaculture teacher based in North Wales

the wall...

here it is the foundation layer of Louis' wall...

Wall building with Louis

Well its exciting for me anyway, but getting small dry stone wall built in the veg garden is something I have wanted for ages. Not least as we have so many granite rocks lying around the place we should do something with them. I have been collecting them in a pile for at least two years, adn after the course last year a couple of volunteers who had stayed behind shifted a whole lot more for us. So finally Louis, from Undergrowth housing co-op has spent the last three days building it for us. It is a real skill and the smallish and angular rocks here make it especially difficult. Its not quite finished yet but I love what he has done

Permaculture course 2008

We have jsut received the first deposit for a the course this spring! which is always very exciting for us, makes it real.. so well done Alys, and we have provisional bookings from Abi, Ross, Mandy, Pete and Mikey from Brighton as well, so its looking good.

We hope to be working with Sarah Pugh from Bristol permaculture, Chris Evans who of course was involved with Permaculture in Nepal for so long, plus lots of our old favourites.

The big difference this year i that we are working closely with the Workhouse at Llanfyllin, which has to be the most exciting new project around. Its a big old building with surrounding land, set in stunning rural Powys scenery.. and has become the home for one the best small festivals of the summer. We are very much hoping to involve several of the folk fro teh project itself and also to use the project as a sort of blank canvas on which to develop our own design ideas. The intention is to use it as a real life example whilst injecting some ideas , enthusiasm and encouragement into the project.

Channel4.com/Green

I have been writing a series of posts for Channel4's Green website, use the link to check it out. feedback welcome! It is an extension for the work I did on the 'Dumped', landfill site survival TV prog in the summer. which was a fun and interesting diversion back in June. I wrote a piece for CAT's Clean Slate magazine about it.

Pines Calyx and volunteers

the venue for the living roofs conference i attended last week. Beautiful green building made from rammed chalk walls with this amazing timbral domed roof. I was away attending a conference there whilst our lovely volunteers, Miki and Gil were working away on the garden here. We have had a sudden spell of people getting incontact, interested in either volunteering or wanting to know more about co-ops in general. its been really great to meet some people that way, it always re-energises the co-op when we do it.

So I am looking forward to Renie and Gaz coming next month, December volunteers. - it is making us all feel more confident about taking on more here. Like doing an amazing eco refurb of our outbuilding, i have been wanting to do that for years now.

Chickenshack recording studio!

with MC now in residence here at the housing co-op, he has finally got his recording studio and equipment set up. it was always part of the original dream, to have the farm, the view, the location , community, grow stuff, keep a few animals or whatever, use it as a base to explore and promote sustainable lifestyles, permaculture, and develop our own little business ideas and music and creativiey was always at the heart of that. so mike's is to use his considerable musical talents in helping other people put together quality recordings, especially for emerging artists without the access of experience to do this for themselves. he works closely with bands, sharing knowledge and teaching, so recording with him is a big learning experience. so its exciting for me to see these dreams come to fruition, and even more exciting for the artists concerned.. anyway here is a link
to 4 tracks by really exciting young Liverpool rock outfit... you would never guess it was recorded in our boiler house http://www.chickenshack.co.uk/studio/index.html

Workhouse latest

Well its very exciting folks, but I hear that the Llanfyllin workhouse is going ahead. the peopel behind the festival have won the backing of the trustees of the building and the Ecology building society.. and are going to buy the building and land as part of a community orientated project.

I am already seriously thinking about running a permaculture design course there in the Spring, i think it wold be a great way to get some creative energy into the place, work on a design, and draw in some new involvement into it.

No doubt there will be much discussion in the coming days, but if anyone is intereste d in being a part of a design course there, please get in touch.

another summer over

not to get down or anyting, but here we are entering september and it feels like another summer is slipping away. great party this year, our 12th, big thanks to everyone who helped make it so good. great atmosphere and people. it is a huge leap of faith for us, to open our gates and let in the hordes for the party each year, except we should know better by now, people were so great this year.. it was easy.... thanks to all for making a great weekend, especially the sailors, who did such a great job putting up the awnings and getting the place ship shape.. ahoy maties!!! ha ha..

seriously tho', its jsut great to be able to bring people together from the different corners of your life.. and see them all get on so well.. it was a big love in really, lots of mutual appreciation all round.

lots of old faces, well not so old, but you know what i mean, and actually quite a few new ones, esp. from the village up the road, which i really appreciated meeting people from close by, that i s what makes it all feel worthwhile, it can be difficult to meet your neighbours in a remote area like this, so its great when that happens.

another really great thing this weekend was when we had an unexpected visitor this afternoon. turns out to be the daughter of the family we bought the place off 12 years ago, .. place of all her childhood memories and all that... must have been an emotional experience to turn up like that, at a place you used to think of as home. it was great to meet her, she seemed really lovely, had traveled a lot and lived an interesting life, China and places like that.. but still dreaming of wales...

once again i am reminded how lucky we were to happen along here all those 12 years ago and find this place. i thin that is one of the reason why i want to do the party, the course and all that, is to share a little bit of that luck with other people, its a privilege to live in such a beautiful place and I do feel a kind of responsibility to share it around a bit.

Its all been so busy...

Since the design course finished in the beginning of June, i don't think my feet have touched the ground. I cant believe its that time in August when we thinking about our annual party and another year has slipped by. We are 12 years old this summer, as a co-op, community of friends and believers and still trying to make our way in this mad world of ours.

Me? well I have been working for the Ch4 TV show Dumped, which comes out in September, 3rd I think is the first episode. A chance for TV to take a serious look at what we as a society throw away, and the impact which that has. Since doing that I have been off sailing on Ed's boat. check out Mangosailing if you have not seen it yet, Ed's site, with some lovely pics of the boat.

I am pretty excited in that since doing the work fo Ch4 they have re employed me to write stuff for an up and coming Ch4/green website.. its early days so far so it might not work out .. but it should at least keep me in sweeties til the end of the year, so I am pretty pleased about that. Getting a chance to get paid for writing blogs ranting about the environment, pretty much what i do in my spare time for free... so if i go silent here, then you'll know where to look for me if you are missing me.. ha ha.

Sarah Pugh is fantastic

Big up for Sarah Pugh, from permaculture Bristol and Transition City Bristol and old mate of mine, who led the teaching on the course this year. It was the first time well certainly for me anyway, that I had worked on a full 2 week course without the priceless input of Mike Feingold. Mike's knowledge and experience is so vast that its easy to end thinking that its not really a proper course with out his particular brand of genius. But I think this year we have both begun to realise that we have actually a vast amount of experience ourselves, that we in turn need to value more.

Anyway suffice to say it was great, IMO SP is particularly good at the people side of it, valuing people, valuing their contributions and making everybody feel like they are part of the group. She is a particularly good group facilitator, which is such big part of the whole experience of being on a 2 week course. Anyway, blah blah, nice one Sarah.


We also had the pleasure of working with Mr Steve Pickup, the willow man who did a great presentation on working with willows and willows and permaculture, before running a series of practical workshops making basket work edging for some of our forest garden beds. This worked really well, and not only is the garden now looking great as a result, it was one of those workshops that at least a few people really engage with. There is something almost primeval about weaving, it must one of the old technologies of all. I am keen to more basketry next year and make a few more things, although we get a fantastic hazel and willow bean climber as well this year.

Harry's Yurt

So this was to be the teaching space for this year's permaculture course at Chickenshack. We were lucky enough to come across Harry, who had a lovely Yurt for hire, that he had actually started building at school, as a project, and had finished making it after with his Dad.

Its a lovely design for a temporary building and so it turned out a lovely space for teaching, or just thinking in. some thing magical about round spaces, and of course with a group you can all see each other equally, no one at the front or back. Further more as we were sat around the perimeter looking inwards, with no windows out, it is a very focussed thinking space. This one is a 18 foot diameter space, and can sit 16 people comfortably on chairs around the outside looking in

It made me think that perhaps we could with something more permanent like this for ourselves here. A good neutral and creative space for meetings and planning. Anyway, so the fist pic is of the wheel, which forms the hub of the roof of the structure, with ribs radiating outwards to form a sort domed roof. This is made from Ash poles mainly, which have been steam bent over a fire. The proposition is that we hold some yurt making workshops here in the autumn, then the coppice season is upon is again.

Plants for Reading schools

Thanks to Dawn who has been busy propagating plants for me to use in the schools garden project down in Reading. I have been going down there every month since last May to work at building forest gardens in schools down there and it is grat to be able to take a car full of plants from here each time i go down. One of the key things about permaculture is about building relationships between things, so it is particularly satisfying to have evolved a way that we can produce and excess here, that is beneficial to project work elsewhere. Although we have got land here, we have been largely preoccupied with sorting out the buildings, people money over the yeas, and while there has always been a plan for the land, we have not yet made full use of it. This year, after the progress we made last feels like it is really starting to come together after lots of hard work, we are also really hoping the input and energy of the design course is going to give us lots of opportunity to make a whole lot more progress. ... in my boxes to take with me I have got lots of marigolds, which would add some colour and insect life to the gardens, as well as of course being edible and medicinal. Some beans I got from the seed swap that come from the states, and are a traditional variety grown by the Cherokee nation. Loads of herbs like chamomile, sage, various onions... all good stuff just add to what we have already planted. I cant wait to see how the school gardens are looking after a whole month away... I will post some pics when I get back

Cath M 2

I couldn't resist adding this pic as well, as I love the looks on their faces!

Mukopadhyay visitation

For those who remember Cath M. who was a CAT volunteers in the days of yore, working on the reed beds with Sanna, etc... well she came to visit. Was lovely to see her, with partner and young'un in tow, and she's well on the way to having umber 2 as well. We had tea and chats in the garden, really not seen her for years, but she remembered chickenshack quite well from when we came here at the beginning in '95, so it was fun showing her around at all the changes and developments.

Lovely to see you Cath and good luck with the new baby, from all of us here

Spring in Wales

well its glorious weather, warmest srping ever etc... and its all looking marvellous in the garden. While of coruse many people are freaking out about how early everything is this year I thought I woudl add that my Star Magnolia has flowered on exactly the same day for the last three or 4 years. I know that because its on my birthday, neary 4 weeks ago, and it is still flowering away beautifully.

In fact, on eh 26th of Match, the day before said day, Dawn specifically remarked that it wasn't flowering yet... it jsut feels sort of perfect for me as it was a birthday present itself initially... so how perfect is that?

Cadair Idris with remains of snowfall

View of the mountain taken this afternoon. i can't get enough of this view, it looks different every day. Everyday I am reminded of what beautiful world we have and how lucky we are to be here now, it only strengthens my resolve to to want to try and make the world a less crazy and much more sustainable place. It would of course be boring if we all thought the same, so kind of totalitarian nightmare even, but total respect for the planet we all live really should be the one thing that unites everyone of us.

Comfrey cream

Slices of a big piece of comfrey root. that have been air dried for a couple of days. this is me having a go at making comfrey ointment, as previously demonstrated to us by herbalist, Amanda Dean

She will also be running a workshop on the permaculture course, where we'll get a chance to make stuff like this. but I have used up my stock from last year so I was keen to have myself. I am very pleased with the result. I simmered it in olive oil, and let it stand for a day or two, then simmered it again, sieved out the root and then grated in a block of beeswax. It has set beautifully.

Its the perfect thing for sores and cuts, and is also supposed to do wonders for broken bones, knit-bone being one of it common names.

Spring volunteers and willow weaving

Big thanks to Ruth and Louie who have been here all week, volunteering and helping get ready for the course in May. I have been doing a lot of web work recently for the willowbank and as it was going very well, Steve Pickup gave Chickenshack a willow arbour kit. partly as a present, but also partly as market research to see how we go on with it. Well apart from eh the fact that where as it takes Steve P 4 hours a build an arbour, it took the three of us a day and a half to get it right. It was cold and windy though, but very satisfying. It looks really great, they are very precise designs and if done correctly will grow and last for many years, but there is a bit of skill in getting the exact right proportions to a complex 3d shape. the lower pic s of the weave pattern, i will post some more of it growing soon.

Ket's new 'orse

couldn't resist this pic, of a good friend of mine with her new horse, whilst being bravely tested by her young niece!

Ritchie and Sue help fit out the studio

Big thanks to Sue and Ritchie for coming over to help build a kitchen in the Studio. Its a lovely room, which has been used as an office and flat at different times over the years here.

It was of course home to the Permaculture Association for three years, between '95 and '99. Anyway it great to see some energy going in to refurbishing it a bit and making more of the space.

The plan is use it as the tea room/ lounge and library for all the course students, so it will make a very nice space for that.

Not only that but they entertained us with violin and bazoukie, and added a track to the song Mike is recording for me at the moment. I have gotta say we are a bit spoiled having a sound engineer adn full on recoding studio wired into our kitchen. Mike is currently working on a few projects, one of them being the definitive Chickenshack blues album..

Inconvenient truth's and permaculture courses

here is an intro course being run by Graham Burnett in Epping
http://www.gb0063551.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/course/index.htm

Meanwhile, we have I think 11 of the 18 places on the chickenshack 2- week course booked or reserved allready... so do get in touch if you are interested... as we are expecting to sell out.

Just watched the Al Gore inconvenient truth video, ... very good... I have been studying climate change since i completed my degree in 1984, have read many books and studies on the subject, but i still have to applaud Al Gore for the comprehensive set of evidence he presents, and the corresponding sense of urgency into action. - i such a coherent and accessible format.. I really think every one has to watch it.. if you are not convinced about the urgency of the situation we are in.. then you really need too se this, and if you are already paralysed with fear .. then you also need to watch it.. as it is a call to action and an inspiration rather than doom and gloom. As the man himself points out in the presentation, people seem t0o move from a position of denial.. no its not happening.. etc.. to the well we're a;l screwed then position, and miss the middle ground of ... well I supposedly we need to do something then... Al's message s this, it really matters what we do now we have the power to make a big difference on the eventual outcome of all of this, but we really need to ALL OF US do something right now...

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