Raindrops Keep Falling On My Tarp

There are several objections that can be brought against wind farms but one you are quite unlikely to hear is that they spoil the view of the moon. Nevertheless last Saturday night as a huge red full moon lifted itself gently above the ridge to the east, a turbine formed a clear silhouette on its face. To me this unexpected juxtaposition only enhanced the moment rather than spoiled it but wind farms never fail to divide opinion so I can only assume someone thought the opposite.

It was my last night at the Lammas eco-village, a cloudless warm evening, and coincidentally also the 40th birthday of one of the residents, Ayres, who invited everyone to sit round a bonfire on his plot as the stars came out and to eat brownies. The moon grew white and swung off to the right as the hours passed. A Swiss girl next to me, another volunteer, told me that this summer she was going to drive her camper van right across the breadth of Europe to Lithuania so she could help some friends build a greenhouse. She was not concerned. It's just Germany then Poland, and you're there. Maybe a bit of Belgium first. 

I stayed till the early hours which turned out to be fortunate as a last-minute conversation with another resident, Kit, revealed that he was taking his family up to Machynlleth in a couple of weeks to meet up with a friend of his, someone who used to work at the Centre for Alternative Technology. As he knew I was new to the area up there he offered to invite me along too to introduce me to her. It's fantastic when chance encounters like these turn into opportunities to be more linked up with the local community.

Back on my land again. Everything is greener. After two weeks in a tent the caravan seems palatial. The potatoes have started to push up shoots and leaves. I installed my new rain measuring equipment (basically a test tube) just in time for two very wet days that I can state with a degree of confidence dumped 11mm and 12mm of rain consecutively. Taking advantage of the conditions I pinned my large tarpaulin to the slope next to the caravan and below it placed a five litre bucket where the water collected. Within minutes it had filled, which I then left to settle overnight and then decanted into a British Berkefeld gravity filter with two ceramic and activated-carbon "candles" inside that slowly, drip drip, purified it. Free drinking water (if you forget the cost of the candles) without the downside of potential sheep-dip poisoning that prevented me from trying the stream.

All week I have had a niggling and growing suspicion that my solar panel wasn't working, upon which I depend for lighting, phone charging, laptop charging, water heater ignition and the water pump itself. The battery meter seemed to be slowly dropping although still in the green third. Leisure batteries such as this should never be discharged more than half-empty or they lose total capacity. The charge controller unit that the panel plugs into has an indicator marked "Sun" which remained off, but I didn't know if this should light only when it is sunny (which it never seemed to be) or when it's getting anything from the panel - even on cloudy days it should provide charge. I kept checking the leads were properly connected to the charge controller. Yesterday I remembered I had a multimeter so I waited till there was full sun and tested the voltage on the leads - not a micro-volt. Behind the panel I unscrewed the other ends of the leads, one at a time, and re-inserted them. At last the multimeter flickered into life! It must have been a loose connection in the solar panel that was jolted when I moved it outside again on my return. 

Now I can rest easy in the knowledge that I won't run out of juice. These blogs are gonna keep on coming, don't you worry. Or maybe that's what you're worried about? You were hoping for a bit of peace and quiet on the internet but Swanny keeps on posting his interminable monologues every week. Tough luck!


P.S. My local pub, The Brigand's Inn, has now closed so I can only update this blog whenever I get into Machynlleth hence why this is appearing on Saturday not Friday...