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
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