Monday 30 January 2012

See how they grow!

Once upon a time there were two little puppies.
They ate and they ate and they ate, until...




Sunday 22 January 2012

Firewood


Here on our Turkish hillside,  we are surrounded by deciduous woodland.   The local forestry work is carried out by the people who live in the village,  using horses for getting the timber out.   Our firewood for the house generally gets delivered by horse,  although we also get a trailer-load at the beginning of the season in the autumn.   We use two wood stoves,  one heating the living room of the shack,  the other being a range in the kitchen,  used for cooking (and warmth),  all year round.   We’re burning about 6 tons of firewood in a year,  and getting it,  chopping & stacking it,  collecting kindling,  and moving it around,  is a constant occupation.    Mike Abbott, author of “Living Wood” www.living-wood.co.uk  makes some useful remarks and suggestions about processing firewood,  most of which we have either discovered or applied:
  1.  You’ll be lucky not to handle the same piece of wood at least nine times before it gets burned – our target is always to get this number down!
  2.  Store the wood with an open side of the structure facing South: the drying effect of the sun more than compensates for any wetting from wind and rain.
  3. Cut the wood in February when the worst of the winter is over,  but before the sap rises.
  4. Split the logs a.s.a.p. to get maximum drying
  5.  Have a good log storage around the wood burner for final drying.
  6.  Combine your system with solar heating for hot water in summer.

Because we only moved here 3 years ago,  and that was just before a winter set in,  we’ve been on the back foot with firewood,  constantly trying to get enough to be able to store and dry it for the following year.    Burning dry wood is the target – but so far we’ve never had sufficient to be able not to use the fresh supplies  –  touch wood (!) this year we’ll have enough to keep some ready for next year.
The objective is actually to grow our own firewood, so I’ll be planting some saplings in 2012: 100 trees this year in a mixture of species.

Ponies going home, loaded with firewood

The wood shed
CT
PS: Found this exciting innovative heating system: http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

Friday 20 January 2012

Oh Dear!



Re think needed.       (Oh dear!  is the censored for publication version of what was actually said).

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Fur and Feathers


The other day I was standing at a table sorting seeds, vaguely aware of the cat playing around my feet, when she suddenly grabs me by the ankle, I shake her off and put my foot down again – on a dead bird.  Oh joy. There are feathers floating everywhere!
The bird population around here has a difficult time maintaining numbers, so it’s VERY annoying when the cats catch birds (their job is actually to catch the mice & voles, which eat my seeds before they can germinate, and to control snakes).  There are plenty of natural predators, and a good number of hunters who kill birds for sport, so it’s always sad to be disposing of another feathered corpse.
This issue raises a dilemma: should one put seed and food out for the birds when it’s winter?  Bird-food would attract the birds to a known location, the cats would lie in wait, and it would simply act as a trap for cats to catch more birds.  Bird-seed scattered about would also attract more mice.  And chasing the mice come the snakes...  To feed? or not to feed?
The two cats, Mica & Silica, work hard most of the day, hunting and fishing - except for when it rains, when they lounge about waiting for it to stop.  We bring them in at dusk for their own protection from the night-predators in the forest who kill cats (we’ve already lost two to the wilderness).  Thus we strive to maintain natural equilibrium..
CT
and sometimes they find something quite unexpected - toad vs cats: toad wins.

Monday 16 January 2012

Water


It’s all very well choosing to live in a forest, but you do need a little house for protection against the elements, and there are certainly plenty of elements around here.  The shack, originally built as a fish restaurant, has provided us with a place to live while we get ourselves organised.  This is the first item on the list to make living the dream a possibility.

The second need is water.  The availability of clean fresh water is not only a critical factor for our ecological sustainability goals, but also in itself truly wonderful and amazing.  High up on the mountain water is collected from natural springs and fed into a header tank, from where it’s distributed to all the village houses  by gravity feed (no electricity, no pumps).  Apart from a few weeks at the height of summer (when they empty the tank for cleaning) we can rely on drinking water coming out of the tap.  In addition, we’re also the proud owners of a well, completely overgrown, but full of murky black water, which we plan to clean up and use for irrigation.

There’s also a little stream running past the house, separating us from the forest, but creating the sound of running water at all times.  It helps to create the calm, peaceful and tranquil ambience of the place.  It also undermines our foundations and stops us hearing the telephone ringing or the bell at the gate – so if you come by, surrounded by all the silence and quiet, you must shout loudly to be heard...

CT

Saturday 14 January 2012

Then the snow

I said yesterday that the season that surprises people is winter, today it surprised me.
After yesterdays blue sky and sun, today dawned with rain, which by mid morning had turned to snow.
By this afternoon I needed the snow chains on the car to get home.



So far we have 5"-6"  (12-15cm), and still falling.

AG

Sun - In January?

If you tell anyone in England that you live in Turkey it is almost always assumed that you must be some where on the south or east coast.   The most common comment is usually along the lines of   "Oo! lovely weather, must be warmer than it is here."

For what we are doing,  that is growing things,  it is lovely weather,  but probably not quite what they mean.

We are actually in North West Turkey.   Here we get four very distinct seasons.   Spring and Autumn are very similar to England.   Summer is dry, and can be very hot in July and August.   The season that surprises people is Winter,  it rains a lot,  we get very cold winds,  directly across the Black Sea from the steppes of Russia,  and we frequently get snow as well.  We are only an hours drive from one of Turkeys main ski resorts.

The thing is, it is green around here,  the forest surrounding us is only here because of the amount of rain. The hills soak up the water like a sponge and the vegetation and trees look surprisingly green even at the end of the summer.
Bearing that in mind it would be churlish to complain about the weather..... but it was lovely to see the sun today.
Because of our location  "Up the Hill and Round the Bend",  we are actually in a hanging valley.  Rain clouds are blown up into the valley and then can't get out.
We have had one such "pet cloud" with us for over a week, sitting there above us and raining.   However the wind must have got up in the night because this morning it was gone, replaced by sun and blue sky,  and very welcome they were.

Please note I will not vouch for the accuracy of my meteorological comments, but they convey the impression you get from here.

AG

Saturday 7 January 2012

Do not get distracted

I should know better by now.   You start one job,  get distracted by something else and the first one turns round and bites you.

When covering a polytunnel,  whenever possible start with a nice even set of frames carefully erected and level with each other.  You then stand a good chance of getting a nicely tight cover that easily sheds the rain and snow.

If you like more of a challenge,  or as in our case you are using what is available,  you put up a distinctly secondhand set of rather distorted and mismatched metal frames,  which had already done their duty on at least two other sites.
The new cover went on well,  the carefully fitted nylon reinforcing lines strung at 20cm spacings down the length of the structure,  to stop the snow loading bursting the polythene,  looked good.    Because of the rather uneven profile, the new polythene cover did seem to flap in the breeze more than other peoples,  but it would be fine,  wouldn't it?

The first snow of the winter melted,  leaving a series of pools of water between the reinforcing lines,  the slack in the plastic was transformed into a series of distended pockets of water,  particularly on what might be called the "upper slopes" of the tunnel,  where the gradient naturally flattens out and even more so where some of the frames have become rather more semi-ovoid than semi-circular.

A solution was needed,  the problem was that parts of the tunnel were too low and flat,  it needed its ridge line raising in a couple of places,  this would also improve the look of it and might cure its resemblance to a broken backed sea monster.   A couple of posts under strategic frames should sort it out.

This is not a small polytunnel.  The frames span about 10 metres and are substantial 60mm diameter tube,  gravity and the natural spring tension in the frame were both resisting any effort to lift it.  All the convenient posts I had were rather too short.   So the plan was, locate the post under the frame,  put a hydraulic jack under the bottom of the post and pump;  up goes the post lifting the frame,   then replace the jack with a permanent support.   All went well, rather too well,  which was where the distraction came in.
Fascinated by the success of the plan I climbed a stepladder to assist the emptying of the pockets of water.    Sadly I had neglected the final step of the plan, replacing the jack with a more secure support.    Over went the jack,  down came the post,  down came the frame,  and down went I,  struck a glancing blow by the descending frame.

As I sat on the floor and felt the egg shaped lump growing on my head, I looked up.    It occurred to me that I had not only unintentionally created the worlds biggest mousetrap,   I had then tested it as the 'mouse'.     The lesson is "Do not get distracted"

AG

Thursday 5 January 2012

The Shack

We got here quite by accident - two people with over 100 years of life under our belts, find ourselves living together halfway up the "Straw Mountains" on the Pear peninsula in Turkey. Literally "Up the Hill".. then just keep going round the bend (bearing to the left) and you'll find us!

Living on the fringes of one of the world's "model forests" we are gradually upgrading our simple wooden house from "shack" to "cabin" (as assessed by the fond daughters). In keeping with the strategic plan for the Yalova Forest, our target is to set up a sustainable way of life. We hope you will share in our progress as we inch our way towards that goal.
CT