If I Had A Hammer

I have less than three weeks left before my first off-grid season is up and I head back south to Pilsdon for the winter. When I arrived in April I set myself six months to determine whether this is the right step by answering three fundamental questions: is the land capable of supporting a small land-based community; do I actually want to live in this manner; and if so do I want to live in this particular area?

By the time I return to Dorset I will need to have all three points answered although in fact I’m fairly sure already. It is with an odd brew of emotions that I will be leaving Wales in October. I have made some good new friends here these last few months and look forward to building on those relationships next year. The openness and friendliness of people in the local villages of Mallwyd, Dinas Mawddwy and Aberangell have made me feel very welcomed, something that I absolutely do not take as a given as an Englishman arriving in the Welsh heartlands. The craggy beauty of the area has made a deep impression on me. And the work itself, although often laborious and completely unpaid, is nonetheless rewarding because it's not someone else's project I'm labouring for. Yet I do look forward to rejoining the Pilsdon community for the winter, to catch up with friends there, to participate again in their rhythms of life and crucially to warm my digits by their beautiful open-hearth log fire.

If I had decided not to return in the spring then I don’t think I would have erected a greenhouse and a firewood store last weekend. Yet this, with the invaluable help of Matt and Mary who came all the way from Dorset for two days and Grainne who came from Machynlleth on Saturday, is what I did. With the principles of reversibility (the ability to return the land easily to its original condition) and sustainability (using local and/or recycled materials) in mind, we managed to put up both buildings within the weekend and still had time to spare for an evening’s cosy campfire made from a huge fallen ash branch.

The greenhouse I had bought second-hand from someone in nearby Ruthin. For its base I decided to buy twenty interlocking “Ecobase” tiles made from recycled plastic instead of using cement, sand and slabs – more expensive but less damaging to the environment (cement production releases tonnes of CO2) and easier to remove cleanly. Below the tiles is just earth that I had removed bracken roots from, which we then packed firm and levelled off using wooden boards, a spirit level and some synchronised jumping. The glass panes will be put in next spring so there's no risk of them being blown out over winter. The end result looks great, and the pheasants love it too as a high perch.

I had designed the firewood store around the odds and ends I have accumulated for free from locals wanting to be rid of them – two large MDF boards, two pallets, two corrugated iron sheets – and four upright posts made from my own Christmas trees. Mary had studied architecture and Matt carpentry, and I’m pretty good at holding things still in the right place, so we had the perfect mix of skills. It just needs some side walls (a couple more pallets should do the trick) and then I’ll fill it with chopped firewood to see me through the ravages of winter 2014. Incredible what a few extra hands for two days can achieve!