PowerSwitch

Hi there,

I really wasn't sure whether to put finger to keyboard here and it took me a while to decide in favour, what swung it was the posting about Permaculture a while ago and I thought that maybe now I have something to contribute. Here goes:

Background: There are two humans and a cat in our household. The humans started out as stressed out and fully polluted citizens of the London Borough of Havering (it's a would be posh bit on the right hand side of the map - thinks it's Harrow, acts like an Essex girl!). We lived in a part of London that was hit hard during the last refinery blockade, walking around the supermarket we saw a vision of empty shelves. We also remember the strikes in the late 1970's, where in particular, my own mother couldn't cook an edible loaf of bread when the bakers went on strike. We never wanted to be subject to that type of thing again. After much planning and a bit of luck the humans ended up on Teesside where they met the cat. They bought a cheap 1930's 3 bedroom semi with 'potential' in a reasonable neighbourhood (the drug dealer is across the road, not next door). One human works part-time to earn money to pay for capital projects and house renovation materials. The other human stays at home to save an equivalent amount of money. During the course of our research into saving both energy and money we came across the Peak Oil issue, having heard the excuses for closing the coal mines back in the 1980's and seeing the devasting effects that had on local communities first hand, this particular human didn't need to be told twice. This is an attempt to explain how we are now trying to live:

Food
The plot of land our house is on comes with a huge garden. There are still many people who actively garden in our area, and some of them have been more than willing to chip in ideas and suggestions as we've gone along. Encouragingly, many of the allotment sites here are well used. We have planted fruit trees with dwarf root stock in our back garden and we are developing the front garden as a forest garden and house windbreak. We are hoping that this will reduce our energy needs inside and also reduce our need to put in so much gardening effort outside. We use hertiage seeds where possible and are starting to develop our seed saving. We eat a primarily vegetarian diet (apart from the cat), and we have largely dropped shopping in supermarkets, buying grain direct from a farm and shopping at our local market until our garden can support us. We use Permaculture techniques, and no chemicals. Our compost is far better than anything we have ever bought from a shop, the amount of worms in the compost bin is just amazing. To store food we pickle and preserve as well as freeze.

Water
Humanure was seriously considered but it was decided that given our house design it isn't practical yet. We have developed a grey water system that allows us to flush the toilet with water from the bath and washing machine. We have two 55 gallon water butts to supply us with rain water, we are hoping to add to this with a third 55 gallon and a 400 gallon butt shortly. We use rain water to wash our clothes in, the wonder washer mentioned elsewhere onsite is now a serious consideration. We'll be buying a rainwater to drinking water filter shortly.

Shelter
Our house was in serious need of renovation when we moved in, so to reduce bills from the beginning we have tried to make everything as energy efficient as possible. Whenever we have had to employ a professional to do a job the question hasn't been about cost but about how well it deals with energy transfer. We've received many puzzled looks, but it's paying off. Our main aim has been to grow a shelter belt for the house to reduce the initial impacts of any weather event, this takes longer than fencing but hedges will provide us with berries and sticks for firewood as well. Within the house we have swapped the use of rooms around, clearly a 3 bedroom semi is too large for 2 humans and a cat, so we live 'above the shop'. Upstairs the emphasis is on relaxing, bedroom, sitting room etc. Downstairs we have concentrated on storage, brewing and DIY areas. We both grew up in houses where the kitchen table was also the wood working bench, so we have allowed room for serious work can be undertaken, e.g. log splitting and it doesn't matter if we make a mess and the work can be done in the dry.

Energy
We have manged to seriously cut our bills by looking closely at this area. With the energy efficiency improvements - new windows, loft insulation, external doors and shelterbelt our bills have seriously gone down. We have got rid of our tvs and videos, we use DVDs from our local library to save on cost and manufacturing. We are developing a 12V system around the house for emergency use initially, although we have plans for the bike generator which we hope to develop. We bought a freezer to store our surplus produce in, when our fridge/freezer died on us last year we decided not to replace it. The fridge is now a larder, the freezer became a chill cabinet which we keep cool with cool box packs which are refrozen in our freezer overnight. The washing machine will almost certainly be replaced by the wonder washer in years to come. We do have a microwave and a bread machine which we use only for kneading the bread. Eventually these might go, but right now we're just too busy. In the course of our building works we have made friends with a local joiner who swaps us scrap blocks of wood for our fire in exchange for bottles of homemade wine.

Transport
Neither of us can drive, so bicycles are our primary transportation method - buses are too expensive. We have invested in some sturdy and waterproof Ortlieb panniers along with fully waterproof clothing. A bike trailer is on our Xmas list for collecting large items. The local council has been trying to score environmental points by creating cycle paths all over the place which has made things slightly more cycle friendly.

Money
We try to live as cheaply as possible, so we dropped a lot of things from the beginning such as the tv licence, mortgage, credit card etc. We use a credit union for savings, with such a low income we would never be considered for a loan at a bank if we needed it, and the credit union offers very low interest rates, they also encourage overpayments. When we need items we either try and make them ourselves or get them via our local Freecycle list, this has turned up some real gems lately and although I only started it in June, it's become very popular. One really great decision was to take down a fence in need of serious repair between our house and our next door neighbour when we moved in. Over the intervening years we have swapped items such as food, clothing and furniture. They even let me have a treadle sewing machine, so in return I do clothing repairs for them. Looks like I got me a PO job!

Tea
Like the nation this household runs on tea, I once calculated that we spent 90 pounds a year just on boiling water for tea and coffee and we have a gas cooker. Then I saw a review of the kelly kettle in a Permaculture magazine. We had wanted a real fire (woodburning, we live in a smokeless zone so most fossil fuels are out anyway) and we saw an opportunity to use the kettle in the fireplace. We have opened up the fireplace in our smallest bedroom and turned it into a sitting room. We can now cook water for tea for no cost by burning scrap paper (finally a use for junk mail!), cardboard and dried twigs cut from our hedges (a use for privet too!), our house heating bill has also shrunk because instead of heating our biggest room to keep warm, we heat the smallest.
I'm sure I've missed stuff, but I'm just writing to inspire and also if anyone has suggestions for things I didn't mention then please chip in.

Thanks for a very nice post. I sincerely belive you are on a winning streak considering our common future.

Great post. Thanks for the insight.

I am miles behind you, but concentrating on gaining the knowledge. I have started to build up some food stocks. I have bought the wonder-washer - awaiting delivery. I have my wind-up torch/radio and lots of rechargeable batteries. I am working on reducing energy needs - low energy bulbs throughout the house now. Still investigating domestic wind-turbines, I have also been buying seeds for the vegtable garden that I am determined to plant out this spring. Also still investigating stoves for heating. Have moved nearly all debts onto fixed rates. Now I just have to reduce them!

So much to do - but just getting through it.

Thanks for the positive comments folks. I wasn't sure how helpful it would be. I sure do hope we are successful. Snowhope wrote about gaining knowledge and I entirely agree, we spent much of the last few months before moving on buying and reading books. I still have most of them and I'll put a list up later of the most useful. I think the thing you need most though is the determination to succeed. Once you have the belief, the rest of it follows.

Good stuff... but makes me think how much up the creek I am. Only a couple of thousand, no house of me own and parents who aren't interested in sustainability, not a lot of income due to being a student and living in a student block of flats. I've got an allotment but that's it.

bigjim wrote: I've got an allotment but that's it.

That's it

Come on you're one step ahead of the person who doesn't have an allotment or won't consider growing their own food. I bet you have a compost heap too, so that's two steps, and didn't someone once say that the longest journey starts with the smallest step. So you're a step ahead of that too.

I have to admit to being very jealous though, universities always have great libraries and I love books. Right, time to compile that booklist.

My booklist:

The Tightwad Gazette - Amy Dacyczyn
Self Reliance - John Yeoman
Heritage Vegetables - Sue Strickland
Back Garden Seed Saving - Sue Strickland
The Vegetable & Herb Expert - Dr D G Hessayon
The Fruit Expert - Dr D G Hessayon
Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholomew
The Lazy Vegetable Grower - John Yeoman
How To Enjoy Your Weeds - Audrey Wynne Hatfield
Worms Eat My Garbage - Mary Appelhof
Plants For A Future - Ken Fern
Bushcraft - Ray Mears
Complete Book of Self Sufficiency - John Seymour
The Good Life - Helen and Scott Nearing
Fat Of The Land - John Seymour
Small is Beautiful - E F Schumacher
Cottage Economy - William Cobbett
The Organic Garden Book - Geoff Hamilton
The Self-Sufficient Gardener - John Seymour
The Self-Sufficient House - Brenda & Robert Vale
Food For Free - Richard Mabey

And to go with it a list of helpful websites for both supplies and information.

Water Butts The Tank Exchange
Grain Brow Farm
Plant Information PFAF
Permaculture Information Permaculture Magazine
Supplies Ascott Smallholding
Electricity Generation Econvergence
Inspiration Daycreek
Seeds Real Seeds
Saving Money Money Saving Expert
Books Eco-logic
Old books Project Gutenberg
More supplies Freecycle
Money Alternatives LETS

Thank you for both the information and inspiration.

Excellent post Alice! Thanks for sharing your experiences and providing much needed inspiration. Here goes with my bit...

Until July this year I was completely oblivious to the coming energy crisis and had only vague ideas about climate change being a problem on the distant horizon that I may need to worry about at some point in the distant future. I was about as unprepared for Peak Oil as it's possible to be.

Since discovering PO I have:

1. Bought a lot of books - including several of the ones on Aliwood's list.
2. Read a LOT of books, websites etc.
3. Got an allotment on a site run by a local organic growers co-op and got a group of friends interested so we're now working the plot and learning together.
4. Successfully applied for a place on CAT's MSc in Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies - YAY!
5. Learned how to make chutney.
6. Bought a solar torch.
7. Started replacing light bulbs with low energy ones.
8. Discoverd the "economy" button on the washing machine.
9. Begun the process of getting my city-centre flat ready to go on the market.
10. Joined the PowerSwitch forums - possibly the single biggest source of inspiration, ideas and support. I can't thank James & the guys enough for providing this wonderful resource, and all the subscribers for contributing fresh ideas, hints & tips.
11. Attended the PO conference in London this month, met up with and started networking with other people who are concerned about PO.
12. Perhaps most importantly, I've discussed PO at length with my partner who has been a constant source of inspiration & support - we're both starting from scratch and with such a big mountain to climb, I really can't overstate how lucky I feel to have someone who can offer a more intuitive and down to earth perspective, shared enthusiasm for learning traditional skills and seemingly limitless hugs. She's sold her flat, her car, bought a bike, given up work to start studying midwifery and is seemingly doing a better job of getting the peak oil message out to other people than I am.
13. And finally, I've just taken my first ever home made loaf of bread out of the oven. yum.

I guess the message for everyone else out there who's starting from scratch like me is this: you can't expect to do everything all at once, but with the support of family, friends and online communities like you guys, you can achieve a hell of a lot in a very short space of time.

Joe wrote:you can't expect to do everything all at once

Hey, you're ahead of me already. It took me five years to work that out! Eventually I settled for trying to achieve at least one thing per day.

Well done on the bread, supermarket bread is going to taste just like candyfloss from now on. I think one of the most satisfying things is cutting your own bread and spreading your own jam on it, even better if you grew the fruit too. Good for you, although I suspect you've now eaten the whole loaf and have to make more.

Thanks also to Revdode, I'm glad that people have found this useful. Sorting out the house is a long hard slog so it's inspiring to me to see other people heading in the same direction.

I've added in a couple more links above as well. Right off to make a cup of tea - did I mention tea? I think I'd better add that to the main section.

Joe wrote:12. Perhaps most importantly, I've discussed PO at length with my partner who has been a constant source of inspiration & support - we're both starting from scratch and with such a big mountain to climb, I really can't overstate how lucky I feel to have someone who can offer a more intuitive and down to earth perspective, shared enthusiasm for learning traditional skills and seemingly limitless hugs.

I too think this is the most important thing, and I speak as someone who doesn't have a partner to inspire, support or lead. I know people will suggest finding a local group or somesuch but it really isn't the same is it? It's not like having someone close by who's got your back and can take up the load when you need to rest, and give a "yes, let's do this!" before you can think of reasons why not. I'm not some lonely lovesick girl - I'm content in my own company - but it really makes it tough to get anything done. I swear, two people working in unity can do 16 times as much as 1 alone.

Tess wrote:I swear, two people working in unity can do 16 times as much as 1 alone.

Sounds about right! My partner is coming around now after a couple of years of not really wanting to know anything about peak oil. So much so that she's all for moving to the country and not completely put off a self-build... maybe even along the straw bale route! First step, we're moving to Monmouth, Wales next week!

Such fantastic posts . . . it isn't more than a few months since I discovered the Powerswitch fora, since I thought I was just some semi-wacko eccentric trying to live the 'good life' all on my own . . .

Your place sounds fantastic, Alice! Makes me want to pop 'round for a cuppa! You're not very local to Bury though, unfortunately . . .

Andy Hunt wrote: I thought I was just some semi-wacko eccentric trying to live the 'good life' all on my own . . .

Been there, done that. I think this is the first place where everyone's gone 'Yeah, that's the sort of thing'. I do agree that having someone around makes a lot of difference not just in the getting jobs done line, but also for morale and for making cups of tea when you're completely drenched and so on.

Andy Hunt wrote:Makes me want to pop 'round for a cuppa!

Help yourself, only please don't be surprised if you get asked to 'hold that end while I saw this down to size', or 'Would you mind whacking a nail in there please?', oh, and you might want to bring your own biscuits.

Further to my story above, courtesy of my local Freecycle list I was yesterday given - a knitting machine! It's a hand driven one too so now I can knit stuff as well as sew stuff. All I need now are some fixtures from an ex-cobblers and I can run my own outfitters emporium!