Two Years Off Grid

My very first rhubarb harvest, picked last week. These I swapped with someone for a clothes rail.

Two years ago today I arrived in Wales, fresh-faced and eager, with a caravan, a chainsaw and a spade, and began to live off-grid on my land. So much has happened to me since that day it's hard to believe it is just two sun-spins ago. The sheer range of new experiences is overwhelming. Living completely alone for the first time. Growing my own food. Gathering my own drinking water. Harnessing my own electrical energy from the sun. Going from knowing nobody to being friends with lots of locals, Welsh and non-Welsh. Starting my first business. Selling my first produce on a market stall. Delivering my first salad bags, door-to-door. Directing my own time, day to day. Having my first volunteer work on my land. Having my very own compost toilet. Submitting my first planning application. Killing my first warm-blooded being and eating it. The list goes on.

It's a scramble to get to my river from the high bank, but it's worth it

I have been able to get a little way towards the dream of living a sustainable off-grid existence. Establishing a decent-sized market garden that produces enough to sustain me, both for my own veg and for income, has been my main goal these last couple of years and that's within grasp now. The rest of the dream – building a low-impact house, keeping livestock, living and working with one or two other like-minded, interesting and funny people – will have to remain a dream for now. It isn't just the collision with bureaucratic planners and highway authorities, though that is looking as if it's going to cause the crunch. I also wanted to find out whether I wanted to live alone long-term, which I now think I probably don't. And I've been able to assess first-hand what the land I bought is and is not capable of, in terms of providing a home, energy, food and livelihood. The answer to that is, I reckon, possibly one person but maybe no more. 

The frogspawn are back this year in the same natural "pond"

I now know that the Trunk Road Agency have a real problem with the entrance to my site which comes directly off the A458. They will not allow me to build a home on my land. They are even, as mentioned last week, directing refusal to my planning application to keep the polytunnel and greenhouse. (I'm still waiting to see what the planning officer will do with this, I'll speak to her tomorrow.) Also, as loyal followers of this blog may be aware, Snowdonia National Park Authority will not let me live in my caravan so I am forced to sleep elsewhere and travel to the land each day.

Blackthorn blossom

Blackthorn blossom

All of which leads me to suspect that my days here may be numbered. I'm just not sure how big that number is. If the planning application is turned down, and a potential appeal fails, then it's difficult to see how I'll be able to complete this growing year without risking an enforcement notice (and if that's ignored, a court summons). If, on the other hand, it is approved then I will be able to carry on this year as I am, but then it's where I can live which is the killer. My current arrangement is temporary. I can't live in the caravan or build my own house. So my only option to remain would be to rent somewhere nearby, which is not affordable on the income of a veg grower. (I guess getting a mortgage would be out of the question for the same reason). I would have to get a regular part-time job on top of the growing, all a long way from the "dream". Or who knows, the planning authority may change its mind, or someone will give me a suitable house, or the apocalypse happens... As they say, a year is a long time in horticulture. 

Nearest beds from L to R: asparagus (beginning to show), rhubarb (coming up well), beetroot (a third of the bed has been seeded), kale (not planted out yet), mange tout pea (the visible half was started indoors and then planted out, the other half directly sown into the bed and just coming up), and spinach (completely direct-seeded, not yet germinated). The next 6 beds will have : cabbages, cabbages, cabbages, french beans + turnips + carrots interspersed, runner beans (the frame is now up), and spinach + fennel. Beyond that in the distant beds: lots of salad leaves, potatoes, onions, mooli radish, sweetcorn and gherkins(!)