New Beginnings

The chronicles
of a self-sufficient household
Hilary Parslow
The Plot Thickens

It all seemed such a good idea last summer, before it rained, cheerless and persistent. Before the ground became claggy and enclosed each welly in a sticky plaster cast. Before my hands started chapping and my lips frayed. Before we made a start...

We moved into our new home last June and decided to become self-sufficient, or do our very best in as many ways as we could to adopt the Good Life. And here we are six interesting months later, still waiting for the hens to lay, still seeming to take down more than we put up, still faced with an awful lot to do, but determined to greet the spring with spades and seed packets ready.

One of my favourite changes has been the present Father Christmas left in the fireplace. Actually, not only did he leave the new little wood burner, he installed it as well, so significantly reducing our reliance on the noisy oil-fired central heating system. The temperamental boiler growls to life whenever it feels like it even when supposedly switched off. I want to convert it to Bio-fuel and rather fancy having a corner of the garden growing alfalfa or sunflowers to both feed and sweeten it. I am going to have to wait for technology to catch up with the idea but in the meantime we keep looking for alternatives to oil and bask in the warmth of the wood burner.

Talking of sweetening and taming the boiler reminds me of Mr Fixit, my irascible other half. This is the chap who is never happier than when armed with something designed to maim or at least cause serious bodily harm. The pre-text for wielding limb and skin removers is usually to cut down trees, cut back leylandii or erect a shed/ fence/new chicken run. But I’ve seen the slightly manic expression that can’t be disguised when each new tool is put to work. I like what he does with his gadgets and I especially love listening to the accompanying happy whistles; the sort that starts as ‘I Feel Pretty’ and ends effortlessly with ‘and a Happy New Year’. I do now have a very useful lean-to outside the back door to hang my washing on wet days, to store logs and those caked wellies. He has built a shed-with-a-view (his) and started to mend the old greenhouse (mine). The non-laying poultry have nearly got a new safe run, and we nearly have the floor of the new front porch in place. I do have new cupboards to house the growing collection of jam jars ready for all the homemade jams and chutneys planned to sustain us next winter and trust the handles will be on by then.

Through all this, what else have we been doing? Our plain lawned field is already changing appearance. I have been planting and transplanting trees since the onset of winter. I am proud to say that I have already broken one spade in the process, developed calluses on my hands and have a constantly red nose. Very fetching it all is too. My best bit was planting fruit trees, Bramleys, Coxes, plums and pears. I agonised over varieties and decided to go for English proven high producers. Roll on the autumn. Actually, you are supposed to limit fruit production in the first year to encourage good early growth, so roll on autumn 2007. I have also tackled pruning some established fruit trees that gave us very little fruit last year. I wouldn’t let Mr F and his purring chain saw anywhere near; this is a job requiring skill and precision. And anyway, I like doing it.

One ongoing project has been the research into solar panels and water conservation devices. We have considered all possibilities from the homemade recycled material sort, satisfying and cheap, to the sophisticated and smart ‘investment’ scheme. An easy start was putting water butts on several downpipes seeing us through our first summer in the garden. A much more efficient and capacious rainwater storage reservoir can be installed and there are several companies offering kits, some powered by solar energy. Mr F has sketched a system out that would take saved rainwater and pump it into the header tank for flushing the loo. Whether the design would translate from the fag packet to the house remains one of life’s mysteries.

We have been looking at ways to reduce our water consumption and to reuse grey water – we shower with the plug in the bath and bucket the saved water into the lavatory cistern. A more sophisticated system is in the planning stages (back of an envelope), but until it’s built we have adopted the philosophy, ‘If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down!’ I haven’t ruled out the composting loo either but still have a way to go before convincing some members of the family that this is a good idea. The switch on the power shower stays resolutely off despite grumbles from the teenagers who like the sensation of being shredded by thousands of tiny needles. Mind you, I am toying with adopting youngest son’s contribution to water conservation: only wash once a fortnight whether you need to or not, and never change your underwear.

The solar heating possibilities are really exciting and we have spent many a happy hour trying to decide on the right system for us. We are spoiled for choice with locally available systems, and our biggest dilemma is, do we do-it-ourselves, or do we bring in the experts? Here Mr F and I differ, but in the meantime I am still looking at brochures and Building Regulation requirements and wondering why we hadn’t done it before. It is hard to look beyond the gloomy winter drizzle and imagine the sun as an energy source, but soon sunny days will be here again, and this time I mean to take full advantage of them.