Cae Non

Who remembers the long-running T.V. series “A Little House on the Prairie”? It was actually based on a series of nine children’s books by Laura Ingalls Wilder which documented her childhood living out in the newly settled wilds of America in the 1870’s and 1880’s. I am currently just nearing the end of the sixth book, “The Long Winter”. In it, Laura and her family have recently settled out on the prairie in North Dakota in a tiny community which is less than a year old.

Before they can properly establish themselves there, they have to endure a very severe winter which lasts from October until may of the following year, during which time they are constantly assailed by ferocious blizzards and bitter temperatures of –40 degrees and lower. They come perilously close to both freezing and starving to death. Unlike  their old way of life back in the forests of the east, the new settlers, (enticed by government grants and promises) cannot now survive without outside intervention. Basic supplies such as coal, kerosine and basic foods stuffs have to be brought in regularly by railroad to make existence in the open wilderness possible.

Until the growth of the industrial revolution and the colonising of far-flung and totally disparate parts of the globe, communities were largely self-sufficient and independent. Life was often hard and infinitely precarious but the trials and tribulations of the small, regular day to day activities helped to keep one sharply focused on survival. Today a high percentage of people in the west have everything supplied to them.

If we are to thrive and grow, physically and spiritually, we definitely need to move away from a life that is totally devoted to little more than basic survival. We must have the time and space to make decisions from choice, not just necessity, to reflect, meditate, develop.

Conversely whilst needing the leisure to learn and grow, we mustn’t loose the focus and connection which working and living in tandem with the basics of life automatically gives us. In 2012 we are incredibly lucky! We can still connect with the bedrock of our existence yet have the safety-net of modern convenience to allow us our physical, emotional and spiritual freedom. Like the mystical “travellers between the worlds” we can all walk with one foot on each level of existence: the primitive world of basic survival and the advanced, refined society which can provide – and guarantee – a good degree of space, freedom and security. From here we can much more easily learn and grow on many diverse levels.

As I stand looking up the rain sodden field towards the Hafod, looking for all the world like a very little house on the Welsh prairie, I am engulfed with excitement! Here in this untamed corner of north west Wales, we are all being automatically given the unique opportunity to sample this duality of experience and achievement. Whoever comes here, no matter how long or short their stay, cannot avoid it. Would you be brave enough to accept the challenge? ….. and what would you make of it if you did?

As we see the year turning towards Winter, with autumn in full flow around us, one might think that this time of year would be an opportunity to relax and take things easy ’till the spring. As far as physically strenuous labour goes, that might be right… but this is by no means a quiet time.

If you follow the wheel of the year, you will note that from Samhain to the Winter Solstice is marked as a ‘liminal’ time – a sort of time out of time. This is true to an extent, but it is by no means quiet or dead. I see this time as the part of the year where new ideas and projects start shining forth into manifestation. The so-called dead time is actually when next-year’s projects and labours are born.

It is also the time when we do a lot of background work – making things, preparing stuff, ordering and buying things in.

Check back over the next few weeks – we have some intersting announcements to make, and some good stuff on the way!

My makeshift Stephenson screen

At last, at the end of October I got my improved weather station established. I always knew my Stephenson screen would not easily fall over in that dense soil at Cae Non but I did not expect it to be such hard work ramming the stand deep enough down.

It took two attempts, two broken off struts and one broken louvre panel and yet it is still about 6 inches higher as I would have wished for. Anyway, there it is and the clay will hold it firmly in place.

The instruments inside

The instruments inside are the minimum/maximum thermometer which I transferred from under the now obsolete plant pots and a Mason hygrometer. The latter has a dry and wet bulb thermometer and from the difference between the two the relative humidity can be established by means of a slide rule.

Finally, attached to one of the bottom struts is another minimum/maximum thermometer, dangling just 5 cm (2 inches) above ground level so that I now also capture the grass minimum temperature and the first grass frost has already been recorded.

Further improvements and additions are already taking shape in my head and will gradually be implemented over the course of the next few months.

First potatoes

Well, the last day of August saw Holger lift his first crop of ‘Cae Non potatoes’! With the distinct lack of good top soil anywhere in the field they were actually planted back in March in old car tyres in soil that needed to be ferried in bag by bag from our garden at home. Being rather thirsty plants, Cae Non with its abundance of water close to the surface promised to be the ideal place for them and they did indeed start off very well but with experiencing the wettest summer for a hundred years I became somewhat apprehensive that they might not do half as well below the surface as they did above. When after a faint attempt at flowering the leaves died off in the middle of August I didn’t think there was much chance of a harvest at all but emptying the tyres eventually yielded 32 lb of ‘Druid’ potatoes in their  beautiful looking reddish skin – not bad after all for a first crop! Now I need to separate them into the smaller ones to keep for next year’s seed potatoes and the bigger ones for our tummies. And of course, I then remembered that for once I actually planted them on time and not, like in previous years at home, as late as May and with 20 weeks assumed time from planting to harvest they where spot  on time with no need to worry.

After this encouraging result I now very much want to increase production next year and have already got an idea how i might be able to raise productivity within the individual tyres so stay tuned!

Needless to say, after the glorious weather that we have been enjoying this last couple of weeks or so, everything on the land is surging ahead! The ground is finally beginning to dry out; the herbage to sprout rapidly; the established trees to break out in velvety pussy willow and the first tender pale green leaves. The picture here was taken before

the leaves had begun to emerge and only the little blobs of soft down are visible. We have seen the first bumble bees haphazardly navigating their way around the field… last summer we noticed that there are a lot of little wild colonies buried in the long grasses. And last Saturday, as we were sitting enjoying our very first barbeque in celebration of Dafydd’s birthday, we watched, spellbound, as a hare slowly lollopped across the neighbouring field and then sat watching us for a few moments before continuing on its unhurried way. I suspect that it had been down to the stream to drink. We have a couple of ducks who are quite taken with our island and its surrounding channel, although they do not enjoy the dogs wild cavorting and tend to take off over the hedge in a flurry of feathers and noisy quacking whenever golden fur is even vaguely scented! All this firmly draws my attention to the fact that this land is already the home of so many wild animals, birds and insects and that we must really do our best to cause the least disruption… not easy when out of necessity one has to dig things up and chop things down to establish a viable environment for us all to enjoy. It never ceases to amaze me how accommodating and forgiving nature is when it comes to coping with the selfish thoughtless actions and blundering crass behaviour of humankind. Even in my joy at creating something new with the earth, it grieves me to realise just what a traumatic occurrence our coming must have been. This applies to all of us, wherever we go and whatever we do. We tread upon tiny lives, breaking and bruising plants – even the grass generously accepts our thoughtless abuse. I also realise that we are what we are and cannot help a lot of it… we have to walk, sit, lie, eat… but perhaps if we become more aware, and teach our children to be more aware too, then we can mitigate some of the damage we cause with loving attention, care and above all gratitude.